INTRODUCTION

Together we will map a genealogy of artists, works, questions, and definitions in support of the genre. Artists are encouraged to self-identify their work within the context of Transmission Art practices. The resulting resources online and at the Wave Farm Study Center will provide extensive reference materials to artists, curators, students, and academics researching contemporary and historical practices in Media Art and Experimental Sound with respects to the topic of transmission.

» Artists
» Works (Descriptions, Schematics, Samples)
» Exhibitions, Festivals, Conferences
» Questions
» Definitions
» Timelines
» Inventors & Activists

free103point9 defines Transmission Arts as a genre that encompass a diversity of practices and media working with the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. Work in this genre is informed by an intentional use of space—often the airwaves. Transmission Art manifests in participatory live art or time-based art including radio, video, light, installation, and performance.

These projects harness, occupy and/or respond to the airwaves that surround us. Audience members are newly engaged, becoming participants rather than passive viewers and listeners. Installation or sculptural transmission works are often live, reacting to the frequencies specific to the works' location; or changing that information by adding new signals to the spectral environment.

HISTORICAL MOVEMENTS INFORMING TRANSMISSION ART PRACTICES

» The Futurists (1900s - 1930s)
» Electronic Music Post-WWII: (1940s - 1950s)
» Kinetic Art (1950s - 1960s)
» Fluxus happenings (1960s - 1970s)
» Early Video Art Collectives (1960s - 1970s)
» Experiments in Art & Technology (1960s & 1970s)
» Telecommunication Arts (1980s)
» The U.S. Microradio Movement (1990s)
» Radio Art Composition and Performance (1895 - present)

TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS

» Common Radio (AM/FM)
» Specialized Radio (CB/walkie-talkie/Shortwave)
» Archaic Radio (Morse code)
» Cell Phones / Telephones / Telecommunications
» Satellite / GPS
» Video Transmission
» Light
» Sensors/Motion Detectors
» Remote/Radio Controlled Devices
» Streaming Technologies
» Antenna Sculpture
» Others?

MANIFESTING IN

» Performances
» Compositions
» Artist Multiples / Distributable Objects
» Installation
» Sculpture
» Theatrical Exercises
» Media Interventions
» Community Networks
» Public Interactive Works
» Activist Art
» Mobile Art

TIMELINE IN-PROGRESS

PDF of in-progress Transmission Art Timeline

RESOURCE LIBRARY INVENTORY

Housed at Wave Farm, this growing collection of reference materials includes books, journals, articles, manuals, and DVD-ROMs specific to transmission arts, radio, video, performance, sound, media theory, and contemporary art practice.

View Library Inventory

SUBMISSION FORM

Alice Planas and Tianna Kennedy created this email-friendly PDF form, which will form a foundation for an online submission process to launch with the Online Transmission Archive in early 2011. In the meantime, artists are welcome to submit their information through the link below.

We look forward to your contributions!

TransmissionArtsInteractive.pdf