Classical Radio is a sound installation that explores the relationships between performance and audition in contemporary culture. Before the advent of mechanical and electrical sound reproduction technologies, it was customary to gather in the home and listen to music played by a family member or friend for the purpose of entertainment. The tradition of live music in the home was usurped by the invention of the phonograph and the radio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where it became more customary to gather around a machine rather than a person. The social function of these gatherings remained the same, but the medium had changed. Technology continues to reshape our relationship to music, and today's proliferation of portable media devices, file sharing networks and music organization software is no less radical than the first phonograph or radio. Classical radio takes a look backwards to a period of time when electronic media began to radically change our relationship to music. Instead of MP3 players and headphones, traditional instruments and electronic devices conspire to produce, rather than reproduce a unique and ever-changing sonic composition. Formally, the installation consists of a transistor radio, an audio amplifier and a prepared violin. The preparation of the violin consists of replacing the strings with wires made of a shape memory alloy, nitinol. This alloy is electrically conductive and contracts when heated by the current passing through it. These strings are connected in a continuous electrical path by clip leads, and are then connected to the terminals of the audio amplifier which, in turn, takes its input from the radio. An armature suspends rare-earth magnets under the violin strings beneath where the bow would normally traverse. The electrified strings, under the influence of the field created by the magnets, vibrate in sympathy with the radio broadcast. However, the strings vibrate most readily at their resonant frequencies, effectively filtering the broadcast. As the volume of the received radio broadcast varies, so does the tension on the violin strings, resulting in small pitch changes. Since the tension of the strings is ultimately a function of temperature, ambient conditions such as room temperature, humidity and air currents also cause changes in pitch. These factors, along with acoustic interactions within the body of the violin, itself, constitute an unpredictable system that is capable of a wide variety of sonic behaviors. Listen: (all files 128kbps, 1.8MB)
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