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Works from 2005

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The 13m Band
The 11m Band
The 41m Band
The 75m Band
The 60m Band
The 120m Band
The 19m Band
The 49m Band
The 90m Band

Funkenspiel is a noise/music assemblage recording of shortwave radio, spacecraft transmissions, and atmospheric phenomena. In performance, this is remixed dub-style with live shortwave broadcasts. Both ethereal and unsettling, Funkenspiel includes repetitive rhythms, bursts of noise, and undulating radio signals. A prominent feature in the source material is the use of “number stations”– repetitious coded vocal messages of unidentified origin, transmitted via shortwave bands (see the Conet Project at http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm). These broadcasts are supposed covert transmissions by various state intelligence agencies to field operatives.

These enigmatic transmissions are an overlapping territoriality of social influence between the social, machinistic, and political realms. Natural and man-made radio waves envelope us constantly, generating variable definitions and meaning of what is signal and what is noise. Funkenspiel thematically considers the politics of control in information transmission, the interplay and significance of noise in a sonic environment, and the metaphorical implications of the body/voice being awash in a constant flow of encoded information in radio signals.

The title of the work is a variation on “funkspiel” (radio-play), a technique used in WWII by both German and Russian forces in which foreign agents and transmitters were manipulated into treasonous activities; “funkenspiel” can be translated literally as transmitter-play or spark-play. Funkenspiel debuted at Control Acoustics, the Zeppelin 2005 Sound Projects Festival, Barcelona, Spain.

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Dollar$ For Driver$

2005, action/performance

On the second anniversary of the Iraq War, dollar bills were handed out to passing motorists by the group Dollar$ For Driver$ (an ad hoc collaboration with artist Lauren Adams). Printed on the reverse was the text "Thank you for driving your car today. Please accept this contribution to your gas money, to help continue our American lifestyle during these inconvenient times. A public service by Dollars for Drivers." Most were accepted no questions asked, some were refused, and one was returned after the bearers discovered the message on the reverse.

(click on image)

Homily for Swelling Kennels

2005, 13' x 6' x 6'. Garbage, wall text, single channel video loop.

A pile of debris rises up like a monument- plastics, a shopping cart, timbers- the detritus of our modern society. In the midst of the waste pile is a disassembled television. Oddly still functioning, it shows a manipulated video loop of the 1936 Pittsburgh flood. Ambient sounds emanate from the piece, reminiscent of being underwater. Demarcated on the wall behind is an unidentified numerical index suggesting flood water height? Police lineups? Overpopulation? Nearly every culture has in the world has a flood myth, indicating it's profound affect on the human psyche. The title is in part from Description of a City Shower by Jonathon Swift, a satirical verse using the flood as a social equalizer. Homily for Swelling Kennels engages the intertwined dynamics and relationships of the natural environment to social structures.

play excerpt (2:25, 3.5 MB) - Quicktime format
play excerpt (2:25, 4.6 MB) - Windows Media format

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