Tell Me A Story

Exhibitions

Shadowtrash Astral Sleepover Party
Invited broadcast, regional, 30:00
KVCU 1190AM Radio
Boulder, Colorado
22-24 March 2016

A forty-eight hour continuous radio broadcast of unconventional sonic expression curated by Nicholas Hranilovich and Ryan Ruehlen, founders of Shadowtrash Tape Group, an audio-art cassette label based in Boulder, Colorado. The intent was to turn the radio station into, simultaneously, an instrument and an event. Programming included collage, hip hop, noise, ambient, language works, radio plays, and vanguard electronic music. Tell Me A Story was invited for inclusion in the program.

Timeline and Content

30:00 version (Shadowtrash, RadiaLx 2012)

00:00-30:00
Low denssfer, very low frequency (VLF) sounds radio telescope recording.

00:00-00:18
"Ronzatore," a sample from a recreated intonarumori originally designed by Luigi Russolo and used in performances by him prior to World War II.

00:00-00:21
Sampling mashup from "Audio Circus" radio show hosted by Eric Rosenheck and "Tell Me A Story" radio show hosted by Jim Weiss, Kid's Public Radio.

00:16-00:42
A sampling from the 1913 poem "House Painter" by David Burliuk from Disc 2, Track 18 of the collection Baku: Symphony of Sirens. Sound Experiments in the Russian Avant Garde.

00:41-2:05
"Paul's a dummy," a sample from a tape cassette found sound artifact; the couple, living in a trailer, trying to learn to use a portable tape cassette recorder, unknowingly record themselves.

2:05-2:28
"Barking," a field recording of antique gas-powered farm machinery recorded at a county fair.

2:28-3:03
How to C.B., a sample from this record album (1976; Pickwick Records; CBLP-001; narrator Leif Jensen) designed to teach listeners how to communicate via Citizen Band (CB) radios. Source: <http://recordoobscura.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-cb.html>

3:03-3:33
"Crepitatore," a sample from a recreated intonarumori orginally designed by Luigi Russolo and used in performances by him prior to World War II.

3:29-4:10
"I'll have me a little snort," a sample from a tape cassette found sound artifact; the couple, living in a trailer, trying to learn to use a portable tape cassette recorder, unknowingly record themselves.

4:10-4:32
"Clockwork," a field recording of antique gas-powered farm machinery recorded at a county fair.

4:32-5:08
How to C.B., a sample from this record album (1976; Pickwick Records; CBLP-001; narrator Leif Jensen) designed to teach listeners how to communicate via Citizen Band (CB) radios. Source: <http://recordoobscura.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-cb.html>

5:08-5:24
"Puffer 1," a field recording of antique gas-powered farm machinery recorded at a county fair.

5:24-5:49
"Artichokes: you can't take 'em with ya," a sample from a tape cassette found sound artifact; the couple, living in a trailer, trying to learn to use a portable tape cassette recorder, unknowingly record themselves.

5:48-6:14
How to C.B., a sample from this record album (1976; Pickwick Records; CBLP-001; narrator Leif Jensen) designed to teach listeners how to communicate via Citizen Band (CB) radios. Source: <http://recordoobscura.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-cb.html>

6:13-6:27
"Thumper 1," a field recording of antique gas-powered farm machinery recorded at a county fair.

6:27-7:15
How to C.B., a sample from this record album (1076; Pickwick Records; CBLP-001; narrator Leif Jensen) designed to teach listeners how to communicate via Citizen Band (CB) radios. Source: <http://recordoobscura.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-cb.html>

7:14-7:30
"Puffer 2," a field recording of antique gas-powered farm machinery recorded at a county fair.

7:30-7:42
"Happy Birthday to me," a sample from a tape cassette found sound artifact; the couple, living in a trailer, trying to learn to use a portable tape cassette recorder, unknowingly record themselves.

7:42-8:07
"Thumper 2," a field recording of antique gas-powered farm machinery recorded at a county fair.

8:06-9:00
"You get better results," a sample from a tape cassette found sound artifact; the couple, living in a trailer, trying to learn to use a portable tape cassette recorder, unknowingly record themselves.

8:57-12:44
"Soundscape 2," soundscape utilizing environmental, open source, and radio advertisement sounds.

12:41-14:02
"Voice of the Fair," a field recording from a county fair public address system.

13:55-15:18
"Radio Station WWVH 2000: Broadcast from Timecode Generator," a sample from At the Tone by Mike Weiskopf.

14:20-15:50
"I Am Sitting in a Room," a sample from this 1969 work by composer Alvin Lucier who recorded his own voice speaking a room, then played that recording in the same room, recording it again. He repeated this process until all characteristics of his human voice were replaced by the resident frequencies and harmonics of the room. Source file: (www.ubu.com/sound/lucier.html). LEARN more.

15:50-16:09
"Saturn Radio Emissions," a sampling from a recording produced and shared by NASA.

16:06-17:40
"Groves Nose Drops," a 1930s radio advertisement for patent medicine produced as a narrative and aimed specifically at children.

17:28-19:06
"Psycho soundscape," a sampling from an open source sound file from the Freesounds.org website.

19:05-19:24
"Endless Toast in Honor of Sofia Georgievna (sound poem from the book To Sofia Georgievna Melnikova—The Fantastic Tavern, 1919)," a sampling from from Disc 1, Track 33 of the collection Baku: Symphony of Sirens. Sound Experiments in the Russian Avant Garde.

19:22-20:49
"Charlie the ghost," a sampling from a found sound artifact.

20:48-22:14
"Deviled Eggs," a sample from an answering machine tape cassette found sound artifact.

22:08-24:25
"Self-Hypnosis," a sample from a tape cassette found sound artifact. Note the two different messages, each on a different side of the sound panorama.

24:19-30:00
"Flight Controllers," a narrative made from simultaneous recordings of approach flight control radio activities at the Athens, Brussels, Chicago, Kuwait City, Moscow, Sao Paulo, and Singapore airports, and a sample from the historic Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the surface of the Moon, 20 July 1969.

Framework:afield #389
Juried broadcast, international, 55:00
Framework Radio
Põlgaste, Estonia
23-30 September 2012

Combined with Meditation, 23:00, and retitled as Tell Me a Story about Meditation. Curated by international sound, performance, and radio artist Patrick McGinley (aka murmer). I created several episodes for Framework Radio, an international showcase of field recording, phonography, and sound hunting, curated by international sound, performance, and radio artist Patrick McGinley (aka murmer).

RadiaLx 2012 Radio Art Festival
Juried broadcast, international, 30:00
Lisbon, Portugal
27-30 June 2012
Actual broadcast: 28 June 2012, 9:30 AM
RadiaLx provided a forum for international artists and producers to explore and share "new and forgotten ways of making radio." Highlighted radio not just as a broadcast medium, but as an active social enhancer focusing on participative and social awareness of the radio art form and technology. Information about my work on the Program page of event website. Broadcast by Rádio Zero at the Lisbon Institute of Technology. Radia network

Background

I created and submitted Tell Me A Story in response to an open international call for the RadiaLx 2012 Radio Art Festival, Lisbon, Portugal, 27-30 June 2022. My work was accepted, and broadcast by by Radio Zero at the Lisbon Institute of Technology, and by other radio stations in the Radia international network. Tell Me A Story was later exhibited in other venues as noted in the "Exhibitions" section.

Artist Statement

Tell Me A Story uses sampling, found and/or environmental sound artifacts, field recordings, phonography, soundscapes, and acousmatic compositions to create an experimental, non-linear narrative. Less a work of a traditional radio narrative and more a work of transmission arts, Tell Me A Story samples various sound media streams to create a remixed narrative of the moment.