TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE

Radio 4x4

free103point9 special Transmission Projects, such as "Tune(In)))," "Radio: 4x4," and "Microradio Sound Walk" reexamine conventional ideas about sound performance and the audience experience. These projects harness, occupy and/or respond to the airwaves that surround us. Audience members are newly engaged, becoming participants rather than passive viewers and listeners.

Radio 4x4 is a collaborative radio transmission performance. Four simultaneous audio performances are separately sent through FM transmitters tuned to different frequencies and are picked up by radios positioned throughout a performance space and tuned to those four frequencies. The audience becomes an active collaborator in the performance, "mixing" the audio feeds by moving about the space among the four signals. Radio 4x4 was conceived of by free103point9 staff members in 2003. Since then, dozens of Radio 4x4s have taken place in the United States and abroad.