WGXC-90.7 FM

The Radio Art Hour: Alejandra Pérez Núnez

Dec 16, 2022: 2pm - 3pm
WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears

90.7-FM in NY's Upper Hudson Valley and wgxc.org/listen everywhere
http://www.wgxc.org/

Standing Wave Radio

wavefarm.org/listen and 1620-AM at Wave Farm
https://audio.wavefarm.org/transmissionarts.mp3

Produced by Bianca Biberaj, in collaboration with Wave Farm Radio Art Fellows and Artists-in-residence.

"Un elemento en común alfa (A common element alpha)" by Alejandra Pérez Núnez (elpueblodechina) (2014) is featured on this episode, introduced by José Alejandro Rivera. "Un elemento en común alfa (A common element alpha)" is a radio piece created as a commission for Museo Reina Sofía Radio in 2014. The work presents a fiction that tells a story of a journey from Arica (Chile) to Tengri Noor, a salt lake in Tibet; from there to the ionosphere along the lines of magneto-ionic flow. The journey is narrated with Spanish voices; both computer generated and human. In addition, listeners will hear the static and drones of VLF (Very Low Frequency) waves that fill the electromagnetic space, and sounds of seals under frozen lake in Antartica; made audible with specific recording techniques such as a VLF receiver and a hydrophone. Using this mixture of materials, which at times is affected with computer programing, the artist “analyzes this electromagnetic space, which is inaudible to the naked ear but occupies a layer of our geography in which our culture, economy, science and art develop." The recordings were made between Arica and Antarctica, passing through Robinson Crusoe Island of the Juan Fernández Archipelago and the Drake Passage. There are recordings of the ionosphere and also of Weddell seals under a frozen lake in Antarctica. Un elemento en común alfa (A common element alpha) “critically analyzes these artistic and scientific discourses and the capacity of both to turn all technological and creative research into commercial profitability.” - Introduced by Wave Farm Radio Art Fellow 2022, José Alejandro Rivera.

Welcome to "The Radio Art Hour," a show where art is not just on the radio, but is the radio. "The Radio Art Hour" draws from the Wave Farm Broadcast Radio Art Archive, an online resource that aims to identify, coalesce, and celebrate historical and contemporary international radio artworks made by artists around the world, created specifically for terrestrial AM/FM broadcast, whether it be via commercial, public, community, or independent transmission. Come on a journey with us as radio artists explore broadcast radio space through poetic resuscitations and playful celebrations/subversions of the complex relationship between senders and receivers in this hour of radio about radio as an art form. "The Radio Art Hour" features introductions from Philip Grant and Tom Roe, and from Wave Farm Radio Art Fellows Karen Werner, Jess Speer, and Andy Stuhl. The Conet Project's recordings of numbers radio stations serve as interstitial sounds. Go to wavefarm.org for more information about "The Radio Art Hour" and Wave Farm's Radio Art Archive.