Lab 1.2 - Fast Rewind
The artwork I chose for this Fast Rewind is Solar Audio Window Transmission (1969-70) by Theodosius Victoria [1].
For this work, Theodosius installed ten radio units powered by solar batteries on the roof of the Jewish Museum. In turn, ten glass window panes of the building were used to amplify and make audible the sound coming from the radios by means of transducer speakers. Each radio was tuned to a specific frequency, playing for example broadcasts from local weather and news reports and police and public service radio bands.
What I think is interesting about this work, is that it connects and plays with different spaces and notions of space and time. Firstly, the work is site-specific: it is made specifically for the exhibition and it engages with the exhibition space very directly, making use of the architecture to play and distribute sounds in the space.
Secondly it connects the inside and outside space. By making use of solar energy the amount of light and therefore energy will be different for each battery and therefore each radio station. This will depend on their physical location, the time of day and the weather conditions.
Thirdly, it connects both these inside and outside spaces to all ten spaces that are being broadcasted from. They are connected by being brought together in the same space and by the fact that they are all happening in the present moment. Local broadcasts are also directly related to the physical location of the exhibition. What is ironic in this work is the fact that it plays a lot of (local) weather forecasts, because of the works' dependence on good weather conditions.
Considering the topic of space for this course, this work is interesting for me in the way it makes relations between different physical spaces, the notion time and the present moment, all through sound.
References