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Description
Frequency and Volume enables
participants to tune into and listen to different
radio frequencies
by using their own bodies. A computerised tracking
system detects participants' shadows, which are
projected on a wall of the exhibition space. The
shadows scan the radio waves with their presence
and position, while their size controls the volume
of the signal. The piece can tune into any frequency
between 150 kHz and 1.5 GHz, including air traffic
control, FM, AM, short wave, cellular, CB, satellite,
wireless telecommunication systems and radio navigation.
Up to 48 frequencies can be tuned simultaneously
and the resulting sound environment forms a composition
controlled by people's movements. This piece visualizes
the radioelectric spectrum and turns the human
body into an antenna. All the receiver equipment
used and antennae are exhibited in an adjacent
room.
The
project was developed at a time when the Mexican
Government was very active in shutting down
informal
or "pirate" radio stations in indigenous
communities in the states of Chiapas and Guerrero.
The question "who has access to the public space
that is the radioelectric spectrum" is one that
deserves attention and visualization tools not just
in Mexico but also here in the developed world, where
there is a remarkable assymmetry in the assignation
of frequencies only to government or corporate interests
to the detriment of community-building, experimental
or artistic uses of the spectrum. This project was
inspired by the "Manifesto for Antenna-Man" and
the radio poetry experiments by the Mexican estridentista
artists in the 1920s.
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Year of creation
2003
Technique
Projectors, cameras, computers, radioelectric scanners, antennae, radios and
48 channel sound system
Dimensions
Variable dimensions.
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Exhibitions
• "The World is Yours" (curator: Anders Kold), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen 2009
• "Open Space" (curator: Yukiko Shikata), ICC, Tokyo 2009
• The Curve (commissioned by Kate Bush, curators
Francesco Manacorda and Ariella Yedgar), Barbican
Centre, London, UK, 2008.
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"Some Things Happen More Often Than All Of
The Time" (curated by Príamo Lozada
and Bárbara Perea), Mexican Pavilion – 52
Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2007.
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Musée d'Art Contemporain, Elektra Festival
(curator: Alain Thibault). Montréal, Québec,
May 2005.
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ICC, Art Meets Media (curator: Fumihiko Sumitomo),
Tokyo, Japan, January-March 2005.
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Navigator exhibition, National Taiwan Museum of
Fine Arts (curator: Jun-Jieh Wang), Taichung, Taiwan,
July-September 2004.
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Laboratorio Arte Alameda (curator: Priamo Lozada).
Mexico City, May-June 2003.
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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, "Frequency and Volume" (2005). Montréal, Québec.
05:00 minutes (33.4 MB) |
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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, "Frequency and Volume" (2003). Mexico City, Mexico.
05:02 minutes (16 MB) |
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Photos
Click on an image to load a high resolution version
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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, "Frequency and Volume" (2007). Biennale di Venezia, Italy. Photos by Antimodular Research.
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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, "Frequency and Volume" (2005). Elektra Festival, Montréal, Québec. Photos by Antimodular Research.
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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, "Frequency and Volume" (2003). Laboratorio Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico. Photos by Antimodular Research.
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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer - Direction
Conroy Badger - Programming
Andrew Welburn, Matthew Biederman, Natalie Bouchard, Emily Bates, David Lemieux, Stephan Schulz - Production assistance
Helmut Riexinger, Winradio - Frequency scanning support
Originally commissioned in 2003 by Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Priamo Lozada, curator) in Mexico City.
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