Liminal Transmission is a theoretical and experiential research-based project concerned with testing the limits of FM radio's frequency response (30Hz - 15kHz). Using tone generators and sound art works that employ frequencies situated along the upper and lower ranges of human auditory perception, this broadcast will probe the poles of the FM frequency response spectrum through a live experiment conducted on WGXC.

Writes Cornell, "The hypothesis for the experiment is as follows:

If FM radio operates within a set frequency response range, then frequencies that are situated outside of that range are transmitted as "silence". If not silence, then what sounds will fluctuate the carrier wave?

WGXC is licensed to frequency modulate 90.7KHz with 3, 300 watts of power. If this station is transmitting sounds that fall outside of the FM frequency response range: 20-29Hz and 16-20KHz, what will be audible through the radio receivers tuned to WCGX's Frequency? Does the 2,300 watt 90.7 carrier wave contain noise? Would the result be still silence? Would a low 20 Hertz rumbling tone generate overtones that would be fed into the signal? Would harmonics or beat frequencies emerge through the ether when several sine waves between the ranges of 20-29Hz and 16-20KHz are sounding simultaneously?

It is highly possible that radio programmers with a penchant for experimental sounds may inadvertently be broadcasting "silence", because of the disconnect between radio as heard through terrestrial transmission-reception and radio as heard from within the studio, whose monitoring equipment generally has a greater frequency response than the FM spectrum. A radio tuned to WGXC's frequency in the studio during the broadcast, will facilitate the comparison between sounds heard in the studio with those received through the terrestrial transmission."

In conjunction with a staggering array of events celebrating the John Cage Centennial in 2012, Wave Farm (aka free103point9) and the John Cage Trust present a special program celebrating Cage's compositions with, for, and about radio. Selected from an open call, featured works (originating from twelve countries) comprise a broadcast on Wave Farm's FM radio station (WGXC 90.7-FM in upstate New York) and streamed online throughout a month-long program September 2012.

Join Wave Farm artist-in-residence Andrea-Jane Cornell for this afternoon workshop focused on the interpretation of graphic scores, indeterminancy, chance operations, improvisation and use of the broadcast studio as an instrument for creation.

Participants will be invited to act as "players" collaborating in Cornell's live broadcast InonoutonInoutonin on WGXC 90.7-FM, which is presented on the occasion of the month-long program 120 Hours for John Cage (co-presented by free103point9 and the John Cage Trust).

Writes Cornell, InonoutonInoutonin is a performed "comprovisation" inspired by Cage's early work in the radio studio when he worked as a dance accompanist for Bonnie Bird in Seattle. The school had a radio studio in a small outhouse building. Cage would broadcast to the dance theatre, it was during this time that Cage discovered the radio's potential as a tool for composition. He used the broadcast studio equipment (microphones and variable speed turntables) to make recordings that he used in compositions such as Imaginary Landscape No.1. InonoutonInoutonin also takes inspiration from Cage's use of radio signals as compositional material that provide an indeterminate sonic result that is a mix between recorded music, spoken word and static. My intention is to use the broadcast studio as a compositional tool and employ broadcast technology as an extended instrument that expands both time and space of the sonic materials.

12 p.m. Light lunch
1 p.m. - 3 p.m. Workshop
3 p.m. Break
4 p.m. Live Broadcast

This workshop is open to the public free of charge.
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED
(This workshop is limited to 8 participants.)
REGISTRATION IS NOW FULL.

Wave Farm artist-in-residence Andrea-Jane Cornell (Montreal) hosts live from Wave Farm in Acra. The program will feature her contribution to 120 Hours for John Cage: InonoutonInoutonin, which will include a collaboration with participants from the workshop Score Workshop: indeterminacy, chance, improvisation taking place earlier that day.

Writes Cornell, InonoutonInoutonin is a performed "comprovisation" inspired by Cage's early work in the radio studio when he worked as a dance accompanist for Bonnie Bird in Seattle. The school had a radio studio in a small outhouse building. Cage would broadcast to the dance theatre, it was during this time that Cage discovered the radio's potential as a tool for composition. He used the broadcast studio equipment (microphones and variable speed turntables) to make recordings that he used in compositions such as Imaginary Landscape No.1. InonoutonInoutonin also takes inspiration from Cage's use of radio signals as compositional material that provide an indeterminate sonic result that is a mix between recorded music, spoken word and static. My intention is to use the broadcast studio as a compositional tool and employ broadcast technology as an extended instrument that expands both time and space of the sonic materials.

Writes Galbraith, "John Cage Reflections is a broadcast work that combines spoken word with a live performance of Cage’s Cartridge Music. An actor inspired by Cage's speaking voice will read text adapted from a 1972 interview with Cage later published as “Reflections of a Progressive Composer on a Damaged Society.” David Galbraith and James Galbraith will perform the Duet for Cymbal version of Cartridge Music. Since both the voice and electroacoustic parts will be composed using the Cartridge Music chance procedures involving graphical shapes and transparencies with dots, circles, lines and a circle marked like a stop-watch, the parts will at times overlap and compete volume-wise. Cartridge Music was included in the David Tudor 39th birthday concert in 1965, and on the program for a John Cage 75th birthday public performance in New York. “Cage was the first composer (with his Cartridge Music of 1960) to realize the potential of an electronic music made live in the concert hall,” wrote Michael Nyman in his book Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond."

Radius Sketchpad is an ongoing monthly program on WGXC 90.7-FM presented by the Chicago-based platform, Radius. This month features Damon Loren Baker's Distant, originally produced for Radius, and is followed by a playlist of works selected by the artist.

Wave Farm artist-in-residence David Galbraith (New York) hosts live from Wave Farm in Acra. The program will feature his contribution to 120 Hours for John Cage: John Cage Reflections.

Writes Galbraith, "John Cage Reflections is a broadcast work that combines spoken word with a live performance of Cage’s Cartridge Music. An actor inspired by Cage's speaking voice will read text adapted from a 1972 interview with Cage later published as “Reflections of a Progressive Composer on a Damaged Society.” David Galbraith and James Galbraith will perform the Duet for Cymbal version of Cartridge Music. Since both the voice and electroacoustic parts will be composed using the Cartridge Music chance procedures involving graphical shapes and transparencies with dots, circles, lines and a circle marked like a stop-watch, the parts will at times overlap and compete volume-wise. Cartridge Music was included in the David Tudor 39th birthday concert in 1965, and on the program for a John Cage 75th birthday public performance in New York. “Cage was the first composer (with his Cartridge Music of 1960) to realize the potential of an electronic music made live in the concert hall,” wrote Michael Nyman in his book Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond."

The Spotty Dog 440 Warren St Hudson Rinus Van Alebeek is one of the premier artists in the field of cassette based performances in contemporary music. In his own words: “Initially I worked with magnetic tape, because my Sony Walkman was too beautiful. When I had to decide to buy a multi tracker, my friends advised me to go on with analogue, because of the warmth of it. Over the years I found, bought and was given dictaphones, cassette players, walkmen and multi trackers. By now I know how to use them. Half way through the nineties, when still a writer 24 hours a day I changed my approach. Until then inspired by facts as you can find them in footnotes, I realised that every fact of life was the result of accident or an initial idea. This meant that I could make up persons and stories up to a degree that it became difficult to believe whether these persons and facts were for real or not. Call it para-realism. Years later, it is exactly this para-realistic quality that you can find at the heart of my works. Sounds from different parts of the world, pieces of conversations are brought together. Our mind wants to understand the things we see or hear in a cognitive way. One of the main attractions of the use and sound of magnetic tape is what I call ‘The Tarkovskian Notion.’ Tarkovsky’s movies all have the same mesmerizing flow. By some experienced as unbearable slow, it is this camera movement that links the narration and the images to a general sense of time passing. If I remember well, it is in “The Mirror” that a longer shot of a flowing river is shown. The pace of the river is the same as the pace of Tarkovsky’s camera movement, but, in my ears also the same speed at which a cassette runs. And those cassettes play moments from a life that is passing by, or has passed by. A life that is full of stories.” -- ZEROMOON LABEL FOR INTELLIGENT NOISE MUSIC OF THE NON ENTERTAINMENT GENRE http://www.zeromoon.com http://0moon.tumblr.com http://twitter.com/zeromoon Violet - deconstructed musique concrete http://zeromoon.com/violet /////// DOUG VAN NORT: http://www.dvntsea.com/ Doug Van Nort is an experimental musician that explores the radical sculpting of recorded sound materials and electroacoustic improvisation. He loves noise, tone, texture, gesture, deep listening, immersion, machines that improvise, density, sparsity, loudness, softness. Van Nort regularly performs solo, in the trio Triple Point with Pauline Oliveros and Jonas Braasch, in a duo with Al Margolis (If, Bwana) and has collaborated recently with the Composers Inside Electronics, Francisco López and Judy Dunaway among many others. His music appears on several labels including Deep Listening, Pogus and Zeromoon.

Wave Farm visiting artist Damian Catera (Jersey City) hosts live from Wave Farm in Acra. The program will feature his contribution to 120 Hours for John Cage: DeComposition For Radios v.2012.

Jonathan Wright is an artist and founding member of the Folkestone Fringe, an UK-based network of contemporary artists, established in 2008 during Folkestone's first International Arts Triennial. The group works to showcase, champion, and encourage the interplay of free-thinking contemporary art and public space. Their Boat Radio project is a new commissioning platform for transmission-based sound works on digital radio heard by listeners in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Essex.

Premiere episode. Micah Moses's Cinema Terrorisme is an audio sigil using cut up methods and collage in order to distill the horror of modern existential malaise into substantiate energy mass. There is no moral value expressed in Cinema Terrorisme. Everything you hear has been alchemically remapped into a new order of relational aesthetics. More information is available on the Cinema Terrorisme blog at http://cinematerrorisme.blogspot.com/

A broadcast of selected sessions from the Free Radio Conference at Sarah Lawrence College organized by Ann Heppermann. Tune in to hear presentations including:

During the weekend of October 12-14 2012, corresponding with the Hudson Valley’s peak fall foliage weekend, free103point9 will host a first Transmission Arts Colloquium. This gathering includes an exciting international roster of participants with expertise regarding the issues informing the transmission arts genre. Attendees were selected so to comprise an intimate group, whose discussions during the colloquium will be shared with public audiences through broadcast and publication. Participants include:

John Anderson (DIYMedia.net/Brooklyn College, Brooklyn)
Manuel Cirauqui (Dia Art Foundation, New York)
Christoph Cox (Bard College/Hampshire College, NH)
Anna Friz (Artist, Chicago/Montreal)
Magz Hall (Canterbury Christ Church University/University of the Arts London)
Galen Joseph-Hunter (free103point9, Acra)
Jeff Kolar (Radius, Chicago)
Bonnie Marranca (PAJ Publications, New York)
Valerie Tevere (CUNY Staten Island, New York)
Tom Roe (free103point9, Acra)
Gregory Whitehead (Artist, Lenox, MA)
Jonathan Wright (Folkestone Fringe, Folkestone, UK)
Elisabeth Zimmerman (Kunstradio, Vienna)

Participants were each given one of three statements and questions to which they will respond during the Colloquium panels:

1) Transmission Arts and Contemporary Art Forms
Transmission Arts is a true form of Intermedia, developing an interface or dialogue between multiple media. If we define transmissions arts broadly as encompassing broadcast, installation, communication networks, composition and performance—in public spaces or on airwaves—what is your understanding of the potential of this mode of work for the future? What is your definition of "the contemporary" in transmission arts? Where is it pointing for the future?

2) Rethinking Transmission Media
From the early days of experimentation, electronic communication has inspired utopian aspirations among artists as a means to bring together diverse groups of people in an immersive human community. These ideals remained fervent in the digital age, where possibilities for instantaneous networks and intricate feedback circuitries offer the promise of interrelationships among unlimited numbers of participants. At the same time electronic communication may be equally described by imperfect conditions of dispersed feedback, partial and broken signal, and entropic decay.

Transmission art engages with these complex socio-technical conditions and circumstances of transmission, often as direct critique of state and/or corporate communication infrastructure and systems. How do they rethink transmission media in order to engage with the issues of power, ownership, and access to the electromagnetic spectrum? How do transmission artists approach the deep and unavoidable philosophical tension between utopian dreams of union and the status of interference and noise?

3) Ecology and Sustainability
If we think of artworks as part of an elaborate ecosystem—a community, incorporating artists and the public in cultural, economic, and political interconnectedness—how can we work toward sustainability? What tools do the different species of transmission arts have to develop creatively in this wider network of understanding? How can they evolve in the context of contemporary social and economic systems and the intermingling of art forms?

Jonathan Wright is a UK-based artist, and free103point9 Wave Farm's current artists-in-residence. This program was produced during Wright's residency.

Writes Wright, "The content of the next hour's broadcast comes form various sources. The broadcast represents an extension of a gallery show I curated in 2011 entitled The quiet and the still. All the work in the exhibition was sound based but none of the work made any sound, everything was mute. The show was inspired by a quote made by Gosta Kraken that had provoked Russell Hoban to write the remarkable book Fremder:

'Being is not a steady state but an occulting one: we are all of us a succession of stillness blurring into motion on the wheel of action, and it is in those spaces of black between the pictures that we find the heart of mystery in which we are never allowed to rest.'

These spaces of black can be transcended by sound; sound can reach beyond the visual.

I have extended the scope of the work presented in consideration of Marcel Duchamp's Infra Thin and his assertion that the notion is impossible to define, 'one can only give examples of it.' I have also borne in mind the surreal book, Impressions of Africa of which Duchamp was so fond.

Sounds that are intuitively indulged and savoured can become more profound when attached to further layers of meaning. We hear more deeply on listening again, especially if we are offered more information to unravel these layers.

Being able to transfer this curation into a transmission is a remarkable opportunity. The running order is as follows:

Litany a work made by me as an immediate reaction to arriving at the Wave Farm using a text from Jonathan Sterne's The Audible Past.

Breath, is Sian Gledhill's piece made using news footage broadcast in the build up to the Iraq War.

Bundeena Rock pool, Honey bee hive c-series and an excerpt from Sonata for clarinet & nodar are field recording works by Jez Riley French. These are very subtle recordings.

Joseph Hatch made me in 1608 by Diane Dever and Gerry Kelly is an excerpt from a work made in response to the interior of a Mediaeval clock tower.

Fierce Temper, Harm Tempts Us and All Things Are Changing were made by the Artist at Wave Farm using Tinnitus recordings.

Walk is a piece by the Artist directly inspired by the environment of the Wave Farm and the its atmosphere.

Finally, Sirensong is a work carried over from the Quiet and the still, re-presented as a transmission, based on a fresh translation by the Artist of Kafka's Silence of the Sirens Performed by Zigi Ellison.