Radio Rocks
2006
Bolognano, Italy. It consists of three radios which are embedded in a heap of local stones brought from the Appenine mountain top and valley stream bed. Acting as non-linear mixers, galena (L) and pyrite crystals (T) are computer programmed to randomly and continuously draw in local and distant short wave radio signals. Using technology borrowed from the satellite industry a third receiver (R) detects live micro-wave background sounds which scientists have indentified as echoes from the Big Bang.

In June 2006 for the Second International Free Forum Bolognano, Italy, the Baronessa Lucrezia Durini commissioned a permanent installation, Bradshaw’s Radio Rocks. Bolognano, a medieval town in the Appenine mountains, is not far from Pescara on the Adriatic. Durini, a patron of the arts and important Beuys supporter, created an environment that might readily be compared with Donald Judd’s Marfa, Texas. Her habit is to acquire various buildings, installing in their ground floors vitrines devoted to single artist installations. Each is illuminated from evening until dawn. Radio Rocks occupies an enclosed vitrine in the central piazza.