Radio Rocks

1999/2008                                                                                                                Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The inclusion of noises in [music]… is an admission of the liveliness of sound whether it originates inside or outside the boundaries of art.
                                                                                                                     John Cage

Dove Bradshaw’s latest time-sculpture, Radio Rocks with its randomly received live sound, heralds a new element of Indeterminacy in her work. Beginning in 1969 she embraced Indeterminacy with the unpredictability of birds and materials particularly susceptible to weather and atmospheric conditions, the chance positioning of elements, the gradual erosion of salt and stone by water, and the introduction of inherently unstable substances such as acetone, mercury, and sulfur. In 1994 Bradshaw first exploited pyrite’s instability in order to weather sculptures outdoors; in 1998, upon learning that it was used in crystal radios she conceived of this, her first sound-sculpture. Designs for these radios were developed in consultation with inventor Robert Bishop who built them according to her plans.

For this exhibition three cone-shaped sculptures were each composed of different stone–Wissahickon schist, Pocono sandstone and a basalt mixture. Their shapes were chosen to evoke ancient cairns used as Neolithic astronomical markers and function here also as multidirectional antennas. Within each sculpture there were three radios each designed to receive frequencies from a different zone–local, world band short wave, and outer space. Galena, fluorite, pyrite, and tourmaline acted as non-linear mixers and were computer programmed to attract random local and world-band frequencies. Hematite acted as a mixer continuously channeling Weather Radio. Live radio emissions from Jupiter were transmitted on a dedicated line from a radio telescope at Lanihuli Radio Observatory in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Random radio storms including S-Bursts–bursts of less than a hundredth of a second occurring during storms lasting for two or three hours–and Bow Shocks–the sound of solar windflow hitting Jupiter's magnetic field were captured live. Each sculpture incorporated a third receiver, using technology developed by the satellite industry, which continuously picked up microwave sounds identified as echoes of the Big Bang. Levels were set at a murmur–the outer space sounds invoked celestial harmonies that from the quieter time of Pythagoras have been referred to as the “Music of the Spheres.”