Wave Farm's Art Park is now open. Drop-in unannounced for guided tours on Saturdays, or book a tour in advance on other days.

Wave Farm's 29-acre campus in Acra, NY is home to our public Art Park featuring 13 installations, the Study Center including a Research Library, the WGXC 90.7-FM Acra broadcast studio, and accommodations for Wave Farm's international artist Residency Program. Visitors to Wave Farm receive a guided tour of our campus. Admission is free, and tours typically last 60-90 minutes.

The Wave Farm campus is open June 1 – October 31
Monday-Thursday: Open by appointment. Email info@wavefarm.org to schedule your visit
Friday: Open by appointment from noon to 6 p.m. Book your guided visit here
Saturday: Open for drop-in visits anytime noon to 6 p.m.
Sunday: Open by appointment from noon to 6 p.m. Book your guided visit here
To schedule a research visit to our Study Center Library, email info@wavefarm.org.

Quiet, and Sometimes Silent is a participatory experience that explores proximity, intimacy, and subtle communication. Consisting of two soft head pieces equipped with flapping and buzzing mechanisms and a fabric speaker, the experience asks one participant at a time to put on the device, as does the He, from a certain distance away. The wearable pieces talk to each other through LoRa, a wireless protocol that enables small data-packet transmissions using a free, hobbyist radio frequency. As the participants approach each other, lightly touch their own head piece in different ways, the other person's piece will morph into different shapes – flapping, shrinking, producing buzzing sensations and movements. Together, two people create a unique soundscape for each other to experience while turning themselves into mutating sculptures, assisting them to communicate with nonverbal subtlety. This project draws correlation between protocols outside of heavily surveilled mass superstructures and the state of acquainted human relationships, exploring the idea that small movements and sporadic data exchange can resemble our loose social connections with the people around us.

Viola He is a Shanghai-born, Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural organizer. Their creative practices engage with DIY electronics, programming, dance/movements, and various time-based media, exploring pathways towards alternative systems, interfaces, and infrastructures. They create immersive experiences, installations, and improvisational performances using algorithmic approaches to enhance, alternate, and obfuscate audio-visual assets, investigating the contradictions of analog aesthetics and digital tools. He often dreams about computational humor, collective learning, and infiltrating digital spaces with physical bodies as tools for intervention.

Wave Farm is delighted to announce that Lia Kohl will serve as Wave Farm's Radio Art Fellow September - November 2023. During her engagement, Kohl will make additions to the Wave Farm Broadcast Radio Art Archive online resource and to the syndicated weekly radio show "The Radio Art Hour." Kohl will also conduct workshops and listening sessions with WGXC programmers and interested members of the public, and create original radio artworks for broadcast.

Lia Kohl is a composer, cellist, and sound artist based in Chicago. Her wide-ranging practice includes solo composition and performance, installation, improvisation, and collaboration. Kohl tours nationally and internationally, working in theater, jazz, rock, and experimental contexts. Her work centers curiosity and patience, an exploration of the mundane and profound possibilities of sound.

The radio-frequency spectrum for human cellular phone communication has increased in frequency as we have increased the speed and capacity of information between communication points. There has been little discussion about the impact this increased frequency–and the much smaller wavelengths it travels in–might have on beyond-human species who live alongside us and along transmission pathways. Refuge System for Ants contemplates the effects wavelengths above 5 Ghz might have on ants, whose small body size makes them more susceptible to impacts of absorption of these frequencies. Many species of ants communicate acoustically, and can sense vibration through specialized organs on their legs. Humans are largely unaware of these cryptic sounds that are beyond the limits of human hearing. How does our ease of communication interact with their own communication and quality of life? Schonberg will install prototypes for “EMF refuge systems” that attempt to block cellular radio frequencies in the vicinity of ant nests at Wave Farm, giving the ants refuge from its effects at their sites of congregation, reproduction and shelter. At these sites, humans will be prompted to listen to the sounds of ants amplified through speakers, bringing our attention to insect agency and needs.

Lisa Schonberg is a composer and percussionist creating sound works based on ecological research. Informed by her background in entomology, Schonberg is interested in how listening to cryptic sound can reveal and challenge assumptions about insects and other overlooked soundmakers. She has been collaborating with Brazilian entomologists on ATTA (Amplifying the Tropical Ants), a project investigating ant bioacoustics in the Amazon. Her other recent work includes investigations of old-growth forests in Oregon, endangered Hawaiian Hylaeus bees, mushrooms, and plastics. Schonberg's compositions are performed by percussion ensembles Secret Drum Band, Antenna, & UAU, and presented as solo performance and installation. She is the author of Text Scores for Getting to Know the Invertebrates, The Hylaeus Project, and the The DIY Guide to Drums, and has presented work or performed at FILE Festival (BR), the Pompidou, the Brooklyn Museum, Bosque da Ciencia (BR), the American Museum of Natural History, and Museo Reina Sofia (SP). Schonberg has developed her work through residencies at Labverde, the Banff Centre, Pioneerworks, HJ Andrews Experimental Station, and Signal Fire.

Susie Ibarra’s Floating Gardens are sonic sculptures and sonic habitats inspired by biodiversity on earth. The work is a reflection on the extraordinary statistic that approximately 2.5 percent of the earth’s land has intact biodiverse habitats that support more than half the world’s plant species and just under half of the bird, mammal, and reptiles species as endemics, not found anywhere else. Inspired by this, Floating Gardens are sounding sculptures that are light, have movement, and resonate gently, offering an entry into a sensory experience that connects with the habitats. The project is also inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s recent writing about Deep Ecology in which he states “True Love Heals.” Floating Gardens are reflections of nature’s beauty in visual sculpture and sonic transmission, and also serve with functions to support natural environments. In-residence at Wave Farm, Ibarra will research and develop the first edition of her Floating Gardens: a Tamayuk Philippine conch shell made of gong metals. Beneath the flowing sound sculpture, sensors will measure plant behavior and emissions in Wave Farm’s second pond, which will be transmitted to the percussive elements of the sculpture. Above the water's surface, using SDR (software-defined radio), the sculpture will receive signals live from the Philippines further activating the Tamayuk sonically.

Susie Ibarra is a Filipinx composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Her interdisciplinary practice spans formats, including performance, mobile sound-mapping applications, installations, recording, and documentary. She is the founder of Susie Ibarra Studio and Sound,Health Habitat, a cultural studio and journal that focuses on sharing and supporting listening health practices, global soundwalks, acoustic ecology focused on climate and eco-friendly and sustainable global music practices. She created Drum Labs: Rhythm in Nature, a course and book through her studio that demonstrates her six part analysis of rhythms in nature. Ibarra is passionate about supporting fresh water sources, and cultural and environmental preservation for next generations.

WGXC's Fall 2023 Pledge Drive will take place from Wed., Oct. 4, through Fri., Oct. 13, 2023. Join us as we continue to build a base of monthly sustaining donors. Growing a community of sustaining supporters is vital to the station’s longevity. Check back for details on special events to take place during the drive.

To make a recurring donation, or to make a one-time gift, visit: wgxc.org/donate or call 518-697-7400 and pledge your support of Creative Community Radio for Open Ears.

Tree Tapping for VLF is an audio installation and performance system featuring Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio signals, collected via the use of trees as antennas. A selection of trees located at Wave Farm will be “tapped” as sources of VLF signals for sonification and audio mixing instead of sap for syrup production. Signals will be transduced into audio as well as control voltage inputs used to shape sounds generated by radiophonic synthesizers including the Theremin. This will allow for the alteration of audio effects or textures as well as the performance of improvised duets or concertos with the VLF flows being received by the more-than-human participants. Chapman anticipates that the strongest signals will be sources of "hum" from the local power and telecommunications grid but will also strive to tune into “spherics,” or VLF activity caused by lightning in distant parts of the world. Such encounters underscore the profound yet inaudible forms of noise that humans generate. Trees manifest this reality in their sap, in their veins. Selected audio outputs from the installation will be cut to polycarbonate disc in real-time using a portable lathe-cutting recorder–resulting in unique forms of sonic documentation that mimic the visual facets of rings in a tree stump.

Owen Chapman is a composer, DJ and professor in the department of Communication Studies at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). He writes about and produces sonic media, especially in musical contexts. His audio work involves live performance and electronic composition and has been featured internationally in video soundtracks, media workshops, site-specific installations as well as solo and group performances. Chapman’s scholarly research-creation projects have been funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQ-SC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canada Council of the Arts. He is a turntablist and beat-maker, producing music that integrates samples from used records, field recordings, radio signals and other sources.

Our Non-Understanding of Everything is a multi-channel video installation by eteam (Franziska Lamprecht and Hajoe Moderegger). The exhibition, co-organized by CREATE Council on the Arts and Wave Farm, features an immersive video installation in which eteam invites us to consider the emotional and rational relationships we have with our personal tech devices.

This new installation to debut at CREATE’s gallery in Catskill was conceived in early 2021 during a pandemic lockdown in Taipei, when eteam began to explore a set of urgent questions: “Should we/could we consider/worship our smart devices like deities in order to honor the spiritual connections we have with them and their connected technologies? How can we entertain and relax our smart devices? What would happen if they would be given a chance to directly interact with our natural environments? Would they start to develop a form of care that would in turn teach us to care in new and unexpected ways?”

Over the course of two years, eteam turned these questions into a daily practice, observing and documenting encounters between their smart devices, the natural environments in which they live, and their proximity to massive architectural grids such as New York City. The exhibit represents the culmination of eteam’s findings. The work consists of 16 single-channel videos shot in Greene County, NY; Taipei, Taiwan, New York City; and Mannheim, Germany. The exhibition features two 50-inch monitors installed in the gallery’s storefront windows, and three video projections. The central projection will be rotated on a weekly basis –inviting audiences to make multiple visits to the space to watch the iterations of the show’s theme unfold. Our Non- Understanding of Everything is a recipient of a 2023 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) grant and fiscally sponsored by Wave Farm.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, October 13, 2023 from 6 - 8 p.m.. This exhibit will be open to the public and on view from Friday, October 13 to Sunday, November 12. Gallery@CREATE is located at 398 Main Street in Catskill and is open Fridays, 4pm-7pm, and on Saturdays and Sundays, 11am-6pm. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, visit: www.CREATEcouncil.org.

eteam is a two person collaboration who uses video, performance, installation, and writing to instigate and articulate encounters at the edges of diverging cultural, technical and aesthetical universes. eteam’s narratives have screened internationally in video- and film festivals, they have lectured in universities, presented in art galleries and museums, and performed in the desert, on fields, in caves and on mountaintops, in ships, black box theaters, and horse-drawn wagons. https://www.meineigenheim.org/portfolio/

Wave Farm is an international transmission arts organization driven by experimentation with the electromagnetic spectrum. We cultivate creative practices in radio and support artists and nonprofits in their cultural endeavors. Based in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley, Wave Farm is a media arts center, media platform, and arts service organization. Wave Farm offers interdisciplinary outdoor installations, residencies and fellowships, and a research library. We operate FM radio station WGXC and host many online radio channels. Wave Farm provides fiscal sponsorship, consultation, and grants to artists and organizations. https://wavefarm.org

CREATE Council On The Arts is a non-profit, arts service organization whose purpose is to support and advance the arts and cultural community by broadening and enriching creative resources and economic growth in the region. CREATE serves as the Statewide Community Re-grant arts organization for Greene, Columbia and Schoharie Counties. Since 1975, CREATE has provided information and essential services to artists, arts organizations, cultural and educational institutions, civic groups, community agencies and the general public. CREATE is supported in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the governor and the New York State Legislature. Questions? Email info@createcouncil.org

Border_Radio is a conceptual inquiry about ownership of the airwaves. Originally commissioned as a video and ‘radio play’ script for Donner forme à l’éther (curated by Pali Meursault at Espace Multimedia Gantner, France), the project is a research project that has manifested in performance lectures, the evolving radio play script, a series of sound works that expand and contract on the original script, as well as public and individual consultation. The project is an unfolding conceptual space, exploring questions about sovereignty, ownership, transmission law, international treaties, history, and potentialities. The aim of this on-going, long form process is to unravel the edges of transmission legitimacy and to try to understand how we can better engage and collaborate with electromagnetic forces beyond the colonial paradigm. At Wave Farm, Sisters Akousmatica will experiment with different modes of transmission, including Earth-Moon-Earth propagation, IRLP, and amateur radio to explore and blur the limits of broadcast territories and borders.

Sisters Akousmatica is the collaborative, expanded radio project of Julia Drouhin and Phillipa (Pip) Stafford – exploring the radical possibilities of transmission since 2016. Sisters Akousmatica weave projects in, around, with and for radio. Their work is concerned with collective, feminist radio practices and auditory-spatial exploration. As a vehicle for on-going research and discrete projects, Sisters Akousmatica is deeply collaborative and they have worked with artists and communities in lutruwita/Tasmania, mainland Australia and worldwide. They are on-going artists in residence and members of the Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania (REAST) and hold their Foundation Amateur Radio Licenses, operating as VK7SEA (Stafford) VK7HAG (Drouhin). Together they have been the recipients of multiple grants and prizes, including: the CBAA Excellence in Music Programming award at the 2017 Community Broadcasting Association of Australia Conference (with 3CR community radio), Arts Tasmania, the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Women in Sound, Women on Sound award for Goldsmiths, University of London.

Sisters Akousmatica is the inaugural recipient of the Rising Tide Award.