Radiosands

Photographs © Jonas Blume

Radiosands explores the emotional and aesthetic impacts created by an incisive manipulation of mediastreams. The installation is based on an old acquaintance, the radio, that stands as archetype for various kinds of information streams.

An array of custom made radio receivers are positioned in the room. Via a specifically designed software each radio can remotely be turned on and off and its audio dynamics can be controlled. Thus a choreography of sonic cutouts permeates the space, applying chunks and bits of audio that are drawn in real-time from the various public radio streams.

Particles of spoken language build up sonic cascades that spread throughout the space. Snippets of pop and classical music become rhythmically arranged amongst the diverse radio sets. Granular pieces of broadcasts cross the exhibition site like an acoustic swarm… Visitors can move freely through the room experiencing the sonic architecture that is stretched by the multiple radio objects.

Radio Objects: Black MDF, acrylic, raspberry pi, wifi controller, rotary encoder | Further Materials: Computer/semantic network, audio interface, wifi router | Dimensions: Variable; minimum extension: 50qm | Year: 2017-2019

Credits

The project is a collaboration between Thom Kubli and scientists from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW, Institute for Applied Simulation. Mechatronics: Florian Guist, Marek Olkusz, David Jaschik, Michael Barocca | Assistant: Christian Maximilian Blasius | Scientific Director ZHAW: Prof. Dr. Sven Hirsch | Computational Linguistics ZHAW: Dr. Manuel Gil, Dr. Martin Schüle | Audio Analysis ZHAW: Prof. Dr. med. Thilo Stadelmann, Daniel Wassmer, Tobias Schlatter | Programming: Lydia Ickler, Norman Juchler

Special thanks to Speechmatics, Cambridge for providing the Speech Recognition Engine. Realized with kind support of Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, ZHAW Zürich, Göhner Stiftung, Hasler Stiftung, Migros Kulturprozent, HeK Basel.