Multi-Band Excitation: A New Piece For Radio with Agnes Cameron and Robida Collective in Topolò, Italy (2025)
Multi-Band Excitation is explored in three forms. an electronics workshop and ‘hang out’ to discuss theory, and an installation. The piece pulls from Tetsuo Kogawa’s writing and designs for an FM Transmitter, Fred Moten and Sefano Harney’s Undercommons, Frantz Fanon’s writings on the Voice of Fighting Algeria and Radio Alice’s philosophy towards pirate radio.
For a full reference library see our are.na project channel. The first stage of the piece is the workshop and ‘hangout’, described here.
The installation took place at “the cinema” in Topolò, an outdoor area in the centre of the village, with a large white wall painted. Just the night before it had been used for karaoke and after the installation, was again transformed for its namesake.
4 micro transmitters were set up around the space, each playing back a different rhythm and frequency:
Broadcast 1 - F / Bb / G / A - Changing Every 2m 30sec
Broadcast 2 - C / G / D / Bb - Changing Every 4m
Broadcast 3 - Bb / F / A / D - Changing Every 5m
Broadcast 4 - Bb / C / F / G - Changing Every 1m and 7m
The audience were provided with second hand radio receiver units and invited to tune into the different broadcasts and move around the space, exploring how radio waves inhabit the space and distort the broadcast.
Some audience members decided to try ‘collect’ all the different broadcasts, while others gathered to find affective ways to distort the signal of the different broadcasts, turning the radio into an instrument.
Photos by Antônio Frederico Lasalvia
