Usually sound artists or musicians within a concert environment are bound by the performance template of having a PA with all the leads and wires that are necessary to support this. The PA produces sound from a single direction/two way split, which could be considered a limitation on the audio experience of the audience i.e. a two-dimensional stationary sound. The Golden Age of Static was a performance that stretched the audience’s experience as well as the performers. Instead of the audience experience being non-interactive and docile, facing in a single direction for the whole event, audience members are invited to participate by bringing there own portable radios, engaging with the sound, moving around the venue. Hearing a wide variety of radio transmissions will alter the whole listening experience, the sound will evolve and mutate as you meander through the unfolding dynamic sonic adventure.
As well as the aesthetic impact of a hundred radios, the sound performance was enhanced by an installation of projections, old TVs, cameras and monitors.
Visuals were created by Colour Burst, and a film programme was curated by Flatpack Festival.
” You know how I adjusted to that problem of the radio in the environment? Very much the same as primitive people adjusted to the animals that frightened them. They drew pictures of them on their caves. And so I simply made a piece using radios.” John Cage