For Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 (Amsterdam), Soundcamp collective and radio artist Kate Donovan host an open radio space and workshop-hub at the Homebase in Het HEM, with microphone and transistor building, dusk listening and field excursions, tuning to live sounds of the site, October 7, 2022 6:00 a.m. - October 9, 2022 4:00 p.m. ET (UTC-4)

l a g
An Experiment in Ecological Radio

l a g occurs as an unpredictable ghost in the live archive of streams, as sounds move and appear out of place. It brings stutters, drops or echoes which can put us into close contact with whatever just happened or is about to. Streamed online at sonicacts.com and wavefarm.org/listen with selected FM broadcasts on WGXC 90.7-FM via Wave Farm in Acra, New York from the Homebase situated in the central hall of Het HEM, the Huiskamer or at various movable listening points dispersed around the site.

Collective listening / sounding

At dusk on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 October, l a g gathers all connections and devices in the central hall Huiskamer, in an attempt to make audible the entire spectrum of the acoustic ecologies transmitted at the site.

Free Drop in Workshops

Every day from 12:00 Soundcamp and radio artist Kate Donovan will make sensors and live transmitters tuned into the microecologies of Het HEM. Join in with artists! Create and test a set of digital and analogue tools to listen to the sounds of the air, water and soil in and around Het HEM.

Streamboxes

Within the open radio space and hub, participants will make streamboxes – affordable field devices based on the Raspberry Pi computer, for transmitting live environmental sounds. Soundcamp will share open source software and recipes for making air microphones, hydrophones and electromagnetic transducers, which can be used for field projects. Learn how to solder microphones and hydrophones, make windscreens and housings, assemble and configure devices! They will be placed around the outdoor spaces of Het HEM to be tested, tuned into and heard in the Homebase.

FM Transmitters

Together with Kate Donovan, visitors can make low-power FM transmitters, based on new circuits developed with Berlin-based collective: Radio Otherwise. While the streamboxes rely on a remote network of machines and service providers, the FM part of the spectrum will act locally, setting up overlapping zones of transmission across the site, which listeners can intercept with portable radios. Learn how to make battery powered transmitters and where to place them or navigate with them across the site, broadcasting sounds of wind, water, vegetation, (non)human activities, ... via overlapping pools of signals. You can borrow a radio in order to interact with the FM signals we will be receiving. Headphones and laptops are useful, but not required.

Field excursions

Responding to the site’s overlapping histories of drainage, manufacturing, and occupation by different animal and plant communities, each day the audience can take part in field excursions together with artists John Grzinich and pantea.

Full Program at https://www.sonicacts.com/biennial/biennial-2022/programme/soundcamp