Project #2 - Relevant Radio

Some time back I purchased a new amplifier for my ambisonics work. It included an AM/FM tuner which I had not yet setup. On a lonely night after I presented my first Uncanny project, I was scanning the FM band when I realized that a project might be possible by recording short segments of each time the scanner stopped, whether for a station near or far. I recorded 4 sessions, from 60-80 minutes each, over the weeks between projects; the first was the best. From this recording, I hoped to find segments which I could edit into a mosaic conversation while integrating a few cuts from the musical selections.

I had originally thought of only editing in a stereo format, but decided that using the 5 surround speakers would give more life to the "conversation."

The most contrasting segments came from the classical music station, KMFA in Austin, an extreme contrast to the usually over-compressed music and vocal babble from the other stations. I chose to position the classical music in the center front speaker after its introductory segment to somewhat signal transitions in "thought."

This project was one of the oddball projects amongst what I have been presenting over the semesters, yet it still was audio related. Now and then, I find it helpful to step back from the mainstream and just go for something uncanny.