Radius

BEACON

beacon

Radius is realizing itself as a beacon. A fire, a light, a sound — a beacon is an event that is designed to be intentionally conspicuous. As it relays aural and visual signals, it reflexively attracts attention to the transmissions’ source and thus reaffirms its own position in space and time. Radio is inherently a beacon.

BEACON is Radius’s latest demonstration, which will be presented by the Museum of Arts and Design from September 14, 2017 until February 25, 2018, within the exhibition Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space with Sound. For this event Radius will present audiovisual installations of the Radius Episode Archive, as well as Episodes 81 and 82 — new commissions by Anna Friz and Deborah Stratman. 

Since 2010, Radius has broadcasted 80 episodes, which have featured 197 artists from over 20 countries. In the museum gallery, printed ephemera from the Radius Episode Archive will surround Radius’s own beacon, the Audio Relay Unit. Simultaneously, each of these episodes will be transmitted throughout the run of the exhibition, within a comprehensive live-broadcast schedule that can be heard on 88.8-FM within the range of the museum property. Radio receivers will be installed in the museum gallery, and will also be available for check-out at visitor services.

Episodes 81 and 82 are new installations commissioned specifically for the Museum of Arts and Design’s presentation of BEACON. Episode 81 features Anna Friz’s Echophone, a sonic installation that responds to how radio incites relationships between distance and time. To experience this soundscape, Friz will encourage visitors to explore the museum with portable radios and headphones, and discover the various messages that will be broadcast from multiple beacons positioned throughout the Museum of Arts and Design’s interior. Deborah Stratman’s Hearsay/Siege will be featured as Episode 82. This site-responsive installation, involving multiple sonic and video transmissions, will be installed under the Museum of Arts and Design, in the Turnstyle Underground Market at the Columbus Circle subway — one of the busiest MTA stations in the city. Inspired by the audiovisual chaos of this teeming public site, Stratman will encourage visitors to contemplate human struggles for power and control within their physical environments.  

By utilizing the unique advantage of the multiplicities of place that are possible with radio, Radius BEACON will demonstrate the complexities of radio and its entangled and estranged network of senders and receivers. As a beacon, Radius re-imagine radio as a mobile medium, that can be both site-specific and mobile, private and social, ominous and celebratory.

Artists:

Radius presents two new installations commissioned specifically for the Museum of Arts and Design’s presentation of BEACON.

Episode 81: Anna Friz

Responding to the idea that radio measures and allows for relationships over distance and time, Echophone is a radio based installation that reveals itself to visitors as they explore the Museum, searching for and tuning into messages being broadcast from beacons placed throughout its interior. Radios and headphones can be checked out from Visitor Services to experience this piece.

Episode 82: Deborah Stratman

Deborah Stratman’s work Hearsay/Siege was created as a site-responsive artwork located in the Turnstyle Underground Market at the Columbus Circle subway. Inspired by the visual and sonic chaos of this teeming public site – home to one of the busiest MTA stations in the city – Stratman created two works that overlap, to hack to the perceived surface of an environment.

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