Hidden Life Radio is an ongoing public art project from sound artist Skooby Laposky that aims to increase the general awareness of trees and their importance to the future of humanity through long-form biodata sonification and deep listening practices. The idea for Hidden Life Radio came about after having conversations with residents in various cities who were concerned about the disappearance of old-growth trees, the lack of proper tree canopies and the need for better tree stewardship overall. Hidden Life Radio’s “broadcast” is a musical composition unfolding in real-time and running twenty-four hours a day from leaf out in early summer until leaf drop in late autumn. Weather, climate and other environmental conditions directly affect how the composition is shaped. These generative musical compositions function as a constant for contemplative practice, allowing listeners to tune in at any moment and hear the trees’ “hidden life” over an extended period of time.

The first broadcast location of Hidden Life Radio was Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2021. The project was awarded NYFA’s Tomorrowlands Project Award in 2022 and broadcast in 2023 from New York’s Hudson Valley. An ash tree at Wave Farm in Acra, a sugar maple tree at the Interlude Artist Residency in Livingston, and a red oak tree at the Claverack Free Library in Claverack were the varieties sonified during the 2023 leaf cycle.

More information at https://hiddenliferadio.com

Tune in for selections from Wave Farm's Transmission Art Archive, a specialized online resource of artists' experiments with the electromagnetic spectrum in form or concept. The resource contains primary materials from early microradio broadcast collaborations among Brooklyn-based artists in the mid-nineties, transmission works created by the hundreds of artists who have participated in Wave Farm projects, broadcasts, and residencies, as well as historical and contemporary projects that comprise the canon of the genre.

Visit the Transmission Art Archive here.