SL2-AM by Thomas Krajna

Instructions:
1. Get in car
2. Turn on radio
3. Go to AM
4. Scroll through variable frequency ranges to find a station
5. Then go either forwards or backwards towards where the signal turns to noise
6. Performance starts- listen
7. Experiment with knobs and/or drive around

Statement:

“This society eliminates geographical distance only to produce a new internal separation.” ― Guy Debord

This Fluxus experimentation is entwined in the Situationist view of using art to make situations. An EP for the UX of body awareness. Tune in, turn on, and experience. Music, unlike other forms of entertainment, can be used to feel one’s body in space. Dance comes from music as this expression. But can one dance to noise? Can one dance to a mantra or a drone? One could, but it might not feel the same. This relationship is highlighted within the mimetic instructions. This EP is meant to be an archive of the situation when one does not turn to the next radio station. Instead they bask in the noise with faint specters or impressions coming off from the signal.

The technological momentum of entertainment started with amplitude modulation (AM) to frequency modulation (FM) to the proliferation into offshoots of digital streaming. Have we lost the artifacts? Are the new artifacts participants hearing just 5 seconds of an advertisement before skipping them? A 5 second hook instead of vinyl crackling or radio disturbance?

Maybe next time instead of putting in a CD, a tape, using Bluetooth, a DAP; turn the radio to AM. You can have unlimited noise possibilities. While recording and experiencing this EP, I noticed that certain environmental objects interacted with the SL2’s radio. Intersections buzzed. Other cars like garbage dump trucks fed into the signal. More investigation will be needed to tell but something else was out there.

My hair has been electrical wire for the big man, it hands from pale lucid grey ceilings.

sonic sculptor

thomaskrajna.com
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