Station Breaks (2014)

Station Breaks is a series of three live, 13-minute broadcasts airing on ACRE-TV that draws attention to the continued presence of the analog broadcast TV channels despite the move away from analog television as a communications medium in 2009 and the proliferation of internet-based media. This project is not an attempt to memorialize or wax nostalgic about the days of analog TV, but to remind the public that these communication channels still do exist, whether or not they are actually being used. Each broadcast will be a live feed from a black-and-white analog TV receiver inside the artist’s studio. No content will be produced for or transmitted to this receiver, but rather the noise of the empty channels will serve as signal. Without the presence of a constructed signal, naturally-occurring and artificially-produced electromagnetic phenomena come to play in these clear channels, inviting variations in the visual and sonic fields of the receiver. The sum of the durations of each broadcast equal the average duration of program content present in an hour of prime-time programming.