2006-05-01

Public Art Proposal

Proposal for our Zigbee Radio Waves transmiting project

see this link to see our proposal
http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=24631906

Impetus- what’s the drive to produce the work?

I am interested in creating an object that is accessible to anyone that causes questions to viewers. In this project, our audience is going to be indeterminate even though it is installed for an event, and the signage of the information about radio and its restrictions made by FCC, and by giving them the opportunity to “break the law” will cause fundamental, but often transparent questions about what is right and what is wrong. When can it be right/wrong, why can it be right/wrong, under what circumstances can it be right/wrong, who tells us what is right/wrong, and why do “they” want to do that to “us”? I am hoping that this project will question the power structure to the audience.

Research- investigation, sources, methodologies
Research on how the technology works :
We have read a lot about how a radio works, but I got to learn about transmitter by being in charge of assembling our transmitter. We will need a conductive substance in the trim cap for it to work the best. Otherwise the sound quality and transmitting range remarkably drops down. Armature radio people use a lot of powerful (and very expensive) equipments in order to find the unlisted frequencies and have very strong transmitters/radio receivers to get their station heard by the masses.


Investigation on FCC restrictions:
I found this pdf file that a lawyer created explaining the commity's reglations so it is easy to understand.
www.lns.com/papers/part15/Regulations_Affecting_802_11.pdf

Last years' Sound Walk info to get some sense of what it will be like this year:
SoundWalk is an annual art event produced by the Long Beach artist group, FLOOD.
In SoundWalk2005, there were 60 artists (from Southern California, Germany, Italy, UK, and New Zealand ), and about 1,000 viewers to particpate the event. "Many of the visitors had no prior encounter with sound art as sound installations and their responses to the event were overwhelmingly excited. The installations include a wide variety of combinations with visual and audible components. There are sculptures, environments, installations, and performances.The outdoor sound installations add a layer to and perform in concert with the sounds of the city, thus altering and intermingling with the ambience of their locations. Unlikely combinations of the ordinary and the extraordinary become chance encounters for the attending public. Galleries and stores within the Arts District will accommodate a variety of indoor installations in uncommon intersections of art and commerce."

http://www.villagesavant.com/mt/archives/2005/05/soundwalk_2005c.html
http://www.soundwalk.org/05about/aboutsw.html


Audience:
According to Michele Jaquis, who participated in last years' event, there will be a miture of art/non art audience.

Locus- geographic and metaphoric site, location, place; characteristics of the space;
Our site will be Long Beach Sound Walk 2006. Because Sound Walk still has not responded to my email regarding to their potential location for this years event, we do not have specific locations for our “Pedestrian Broadcasting Units”. But since I am concerned about our project’s site-specificity, we should have the list of the other radio stations as a part of the information provided at each unit.
According to Kate, for last year their site was about a couple of blocks in Long Beach, between Long Beach Blvd and Alamitos, 3rd St and 1st St.
The site is expected to be somewhat crowded due to the event, which will give our project better chance to be discovered and actually interacted.

Transactions- forms of engagement, collaboration, inquiry. Meaning development, planning
I have been collaborating with Aaron, Brooke, and Kate to put this proposal together. Through this project we had to learn how to communicate with each other better, and keep our ideas together.
I think that our project will cause some confusion and questions about the ideas of power and autonomy in turms of media producers and consumers, and also the idea of privacy and public, on the audience who happen to find our units.