Eric Cho // Erik Conrad // Sky Frostenson // Adrian Herbez // Garnet Hertz // Jeff Ridenour // Margaret Watson // So Yamaoka

Ryan Schoelerman   //  #8  //  #9  
Autonomous Radiobodies: radiophonic graffiti disruptions of localized receivers

As the technology of traditional radio hangs on the edge of artistic obsolescence and state-financed broadcasters use the medium to construct and enforce a national voice, newer mobile technologies are springing up and grabbing the public attention for commercial communication and artistic expression. This technological hype for the new presents an opportunity to exploit and reinvestigate the older wireless medium of radio and it’s renewed use as an art-space.

Autonomous Radiobodies is a public art performance/installation that involves people wearing or carrying units equipped with a Radio Graffiti Device for creating localized radiophonic art/graffiti spaces. The intent of this project is to create an immediate radio art/public voice space for listeners by using the mainstream FM broadcast as a background and disrupting it on a localized level with spontaneous short radio burst interruptions.

Radio graffiti is the use of a mobile pirate radio unit to ‘tag’ a localized radio frequency with your voice for the unheard mass. The Radiophonic Graffiti Device (RGD) is a compact combination of PLL-tuned FM transmitter and vocal sampling unit. The RGD user listens to selected commercial radio station via a portable FM radio and then ‘tags’ the broadcast of that selected station with their opinion, art-noise, words, etc. via the transmitter and subsequently interrupt the broadcast reception of any receivers within a range of a couple hundred meters. The RGD differs from traditional pirate radio broadcast because the device does not require continuous input from the person wearing it. The RGD has a 1-minute sampling chip incorporated into its design. The user can record and re-record up to 1 minute of whatever they wish and have that sample transmit as a continuous loop, thereby allowing the user to move about and continuously shift the localized disruption and collage their voice amongst the corporate broadcast to create a freestyle radio art space. The mobile body as 'autonomous radiobody' becomes an integral part of the artistic process of transmission and reception. The use of a sampling system verses a continuous vocal input reflects the impact the sample and the “30-second” spot on popular culture.

As well as artistic performance the Autonomous Radiobodies project envisions the use of bodily mass to create large-scale radio stations by spatially coordinating multiple body transmitters around urban neighborhoods with similar message content for an active public media voice.

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