Human Radio

About // Photographs // Research // Readings An ongoing work investigating the importance of humans in the audio broadcasting chain in 2013/14.

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Practice jams at home

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The final phase of the Human Radio work culminates at this event tomorrow evening. Free entry.

Poster by Laurence Chan.

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I gave a presentation of my work on the Human Radio project at the start of this semester. "Slides" above.

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HUMAN RADIO - LIVE STREAM

(27.11.2013 - 4.12.2013 only)

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Visit Original Link

More research audio for my sound work Human Radio - this time a recording of a live performance from the broadcast location itself. Entitled ‘in time’, the piece explores the time delay which is always present in online broadcasting.

I am using one of the studio microphones, which is broadcast over FM and then broadcast over the internet as part of a larger mix. The audio from the transmission is then live-streamed and played through the green room speakers. By moving both myself and the microphone towards and away from the door to the green room, a time delayed feedback loop can be created.

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Human Radio - Winter 2013

Streaming technology in 2013 means it is now easier than ever for listeners to engage with audio. With the increased popularity of commercial music streaming software (and the technological advances that have led to these commercial products to offer impressive, automated "radio stations") the listener is given the freedom to curate and be especially curated for at his or her request. In an age when all of this is possible, is creation and curation of content under the banner of "independent broadcasting" still something that is worthwhile?

Human Radio is an investigative art project which seeks to explore the importance of humans in the audio broadcast chain. Creating and utilising both FM and online broadcast systems, the system is extremely reliant upon handmade and DIY technology. This means the output audio content is extremely unpredictable and susceptible to any number of factors, including radio wave interference, short term dropouts, unpredictable changes in broadcast frequencies, clipping at early stages of the broadcast chain and many others. These irregularities are expected and to some extent intended - the human "failures" in creating a clean, listenable audio output are equally as important as the human involvement itself.

At this stage (November 2013), I am presenting the live broadcast segment of Human Radio online as a prototype for a larger installation work. The stream is available for a limited time at humanradio.tumblr.com. After the live stream is complete, "highlights" will be made available.

Independent broadcasting is an interest area very close to my heart, due to the amount of time and energy I have invested at the freeform community and student radio station Subcity Radio over the past few years. It is at the Subcity studio I've chosen to broadcast this stage of the project from. I see similarities between the unpredictable nature of Human Radio and Subcity's content output.

Very few contributors at Subcity are aware of Human Radio. I believe this will give a truer output of the actual day to day human interaction with the broadcast chain than if I made it known to the whole station. The downside of this is that it leaves the project susceptible to accidental sabotage, uninteresting results and almost certainly some extremely distorted audio.

Documentation, research work and more is available at humanradio.tumblr.com.

I am firmly against commercial audio streaming services as a primary medium to consume audio.

Niall Morris

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FM Receiver hidden away in the studio.

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METHOD

An audio feed is taken from the microphone channels in the studio. A micro FM transmitter with an audio input and variable broadcast frequency is created based upon circuitry designed by Tetsuo Kowaga. The output frequency is determined and the transmitter is placed in the studio. The audio feed from the microphone channels is connected to the audio input of the transmitter. An FM receiver is placed in or around the studio space and tuned to receive the broadcast from the home made transmitter. The audio output of the FM receiver is connected to a mixing desk in or around the studio. A microphone is placed within the studio space so as to pick up the sounds that humans will create in that space. The microphone is connected to the mixing desk. This may be repeated for multiple microphones. A suitable balance is found between all audio sources and the audio output of the mixing desk is connected to an internet enabled device. The internet enabled device transmits this signal and the audio is made available at a known streaming source. The stream is picked up at the installation location and the resulting audio is analysed.

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INTENTIONS

The Human Radio process intends to create an alternative live audio broadcast from a radio studio for the purpose of analysis. The Human Radio broadcast stream focuses predominantly upon sounds created by the persons within the studio whilst in the studio. These sounds are broadcast both across a hand made FM network and the internet to an installation location. This stream is then available for analysis and may be used for the purpose of determining the audio qualities that humans bring to the broadcasting process, both in terms of the audio we can generate and the technology we can create as individuals.

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Microphone placed inside the broadcast desk at a location where it will pick up mostly sounds of the individuals in the studio interacting with the broadcast equipment.

...if the microphone holds with 'leccy tape alone, this experiment will all be worth it.

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One of the new things is that the action of transmission itself can be considered as a collective performance art. Also, Mini FM let me find that in radio the point is not the type of contents but the size of transmission. And then I became interested in how far minimized the size is. Finally I have arrived at a notion that a hand size of radio transmission could be possible. I insist "hands" because hands are the minimal unit of our body as long as they have the dual functions: touching and being touched. Also, the concept of art derives from techne in old Greek and meant 'hand-work'. Therefore I can say that a minimal Mini FM could be a modest model of radio art.

Tetsuo Kogawa: "A Radioart Manifesto"

(available online at Translocal: Polymorphous Space)

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Completed Micro FM Transmitter with minijack and microphone inputs.

Based on circuit designs by Tetsuo Kogawa.

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...the point the organizers of the popular Free Radio stations particularly emphasize is that the totality of technical and human means must permit the establishment of a veritable feedback system between the listeners and the broadcast team: whether through direct intervention by phone, through opening studio doors, through interviews or making programs on cassettes by listeners, etc.

Felix Guattari: "Popular Free Radio"

(available online at Xchange - net audio network)

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Visit Original Link

A quick, rough and ready interpretation of the big homie Alvin Lucier’s ‘I Am Sitting in a Room’, using online broadcasting and playback.

Part of the research process for ‘Human Radio’, an installation piece in which I am investigating the importance of humans in the audio broadcasting chain in 2013.