Making Waves

This episode features pieces by Martin Rodriguez, Kat Estacio, Dale Bazar, and AJ Cornell that convey emotions and meaning through the ethereal world of electronic sound and electromagnetic energy. Together we will listen and talk about their pieces -responding to what resonates and stirs the imagination. And we will learn about the context in which the pieces were made.

This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s show we listen to three radio art pieces: Neurotransmits by Cláudio De Pina, String Pulse by Bekah Simms, and London Punch by Keith de Mendonca. All three artists join host Darren Copeland to talk about their pieces and offer comments about each other’s work. Thematically the pieces explore sounds associated with radio and electromagnetic waves and reflect approaches to evoking images and associations without necessarily using words.

This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

This episode features a conversation with Dan Tapper about his interest in VLF. VLF is Very low Frequency Radio or what is often referred to as Natural radio because it makes audible to human ears the electromagnetic waves that encircle the earth. Dan Tapper is a British sound artist based in Toronto and in the second half of the show we will play his radio piece about VLF called "Some Call it Noise". In the interview Dan referenced a documentary about VLF called "Sun Song" that was made by Patrick Sykes. Click Here to listen to "Sun Song."

This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s episode of "Making Waves," Montreal acousmatic composer Robert Normandeau talks about his late mentor Francis Dhomont. Dhomont came to Montreal from France in the late 1970’s where he composed the radiophonic piece “Sous le regard d’un soleil noir,” a piece so important to Dhomont that he counted this as his first-ever work even though he was already in his fifties.

Acousmatic art has had a special relationship with radio, not only because state radio stations supported the first acousmatic studios, such as GRM at Radio France, but because radio provided a creative medium through which artists could bring together musical ideas and the written word. The show will be book-ended by movements from "Sous le regard d’un soleil noir." In between, Robert Normandeau will relate his first and last meetings with Dhomont, noting the influence and significance Dhomont had on the Montréal acousmatic scene and where acousmatic music is headed today.

This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On the 17th of January one million and 61 years ago someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water and Art was born. Making Waves starts off the New Year of 2024 looking back at the history of celebrating the birthday of Art. We will begin with the artist Hank Bull who has participated in many Art's Birthday celebrations since its origins in Fluxus and Mail Art. After that, we will listen to Elisabeth Zimmermann from Kunstradio at the ORF radio in Austria followed by Ward Weiss (also known as Planktone), a former radio engineer and independent radio artist. They will tell us about the unique ways in which Art’s Birthday has been celebrated on the radio in Europe since 1999. For the celebration this year in 2024, Planktone produced a piece of sound art drawing reference to the 50th anniversary of John Cage’s piano work Etudes Australes. We will listen to different parts of the piece in between the conversations. To listen to that piece in its entirety go to the Planktone website.

On this edition of Making Waves, host Darren Copeland has a conversation with Christof Migone about his unique series of curated broadcasts organized around a 12 word sentence - "You and I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death." They discuss how the event started, what motivated him and how his approach to curation is different for this event than for exhibitions and performances that he has curated previously. You and I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death will be aired on Wave Farm's Standing Wave Radio channel on December 12 from noon to midnight and is hosted by Avatar in Quebec City.

Today’s show features Kelly Ruth from Edmonton who has adapted her skills as a weaver, visual artist and musician to make live sound art performances on the digital multimedia platform of Second Life. The loom is used both as a visual centrepiece in her performances and is used as a musical instrument amplified with contact mics and modified with live electronics. In her conversation with Host Darren Copeland she talks about bringing her interests together, particularly during the pandemic, and creating a hybrid performance practice that can be experienced both in-person and in the 3-D virtual environment of Second Life. In the latter part of the show we will listen to a Second Life performance recorded by Kelly Ruth in March 2022 that can also be viewed on Kelly Ruth’s YouTube page. Kelly Ruth will also be performing in the upcoming December 12 broadcast on WGXC of You And I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death.

Host Darren Copeland talks with Canadian interactive media artist Don Ritter for this episode of Making Waves, which is also available as a video podcast on the NAISATube YouTube channel. Don Ritter's sound installation "O telephone" is currently being shown at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River Canada. Ritter and Copeland discuss the use of sound in Ritter's interactive media works since the 1990's and how "O telephone" is a much different piece than his other works. The installation was originally made in 2007 for six telephones and eight speakers. The version at NAISA uses just one telephone along with the 8 speakers.

This episode of Making Waves features an interview with Kristine Diekman and Ben Pagac about the sound making and sound reception of insects along with recordings of their installation Secret Reception. Later in the show we play Creatures of the Ice by Eldad Tsabary from the Deep Wireless 5 double CD produced in 2008. The show ends with a short interview with Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters on their installation Sensation of Distribution, which uses resonant plumbing tubes to create confusion between what is building infrastructure and what is artistic creation.