About Wave Farm
Wave Farm Artist-in-Residence: Clara Lou
5662 Route 23 | Acra, NY 12405 | 518-622-2598
http://wavefarm.org/
"Soft Broadcast Spectre Sound" is a radio play, mixed live where multiple transmission frequencies serve as both instrumentation and performers. The live mix is performed by moving the radio dial in a structured improvisation. For example, one character's lines may be transmitted on 87.9-FM and another character's lines on 87.7-FM. Lou moves the dial back and forth between the two frequencies in order to "perform" the dialogue. The imperfections of transmission technology are also considered, as signal bleed is embraced and intentional. Commercial radio is integrated the performance, allowing Top 40, Bible radio, and so on to intersperse with the artist's original recordings. Lou’s fractured narrative incorporates Foley, derived from tools and toys in the Wave Farm broadcast studio and augmented by household items, but here the artist employs a craft usually oriented towards making scene more easily graspable, to complicate the narrative space.
Clara Lou is an artist who works with text, sound, and performance, producing radio drama using non-linear narrative, layered voices, and a combination of found and homemade music and sound effects. Lou's work is frequently presented as installation, broadcast live on old radios using FM transmitters.