Aether Arcer - embodied transceiving

RADIO WAS HEARD BEFORE IT WAS INVENTED (Kahn, 2013)

Aether Arcer is part of a larger artistic research into electromagnetic sensibility (inspired by Salomé Voegelin’s sonic sensibility and an interview I had with her during the making of Radical Murmur). This specific project explores practices of embodied transceiving within the electromagnetic realm. It simultaneously celebrates the joyful potentiality of the buzzing signals that envelop us and aims to foreground the darker side of electromagnetism - specifically the mass surveillance that it enables. As part of this research I have been working on two prototypes: the SDR field recorder - a device capable of recording both the immediate environment and electromagnetic landscape simultaneously and a new wearable musical instrument, named Aether Arcer.

Aether Arcer is a wearable sculptural instrument with a physical and expressive approach towards the invisible and inaudible electromagnetic signals around us. The instrument sonifies these signals and uses them as the source material for a sound performance. The current prototype consists of flexible arcs that enable the performer to trigger and control sounds on-the-fly by touching the arcs with one’s fingers. The source sounds for the performances have been recorded from the aether on the spot just beforehand using a software defined radio (SDR).

"Earth Sound, Earth Signal", p.39