Static Ritual
Galway International Arts Festival, 126 Artist Run Gallery, The Hidden Valley, Galway, Ireland.
This collective performance led by Anne Marie Deacy / Foras Na Fuaime as part of an open invite to the public looking at radio as ritual and exploring the gallery space through static exchange.
What is static? The definition most think of is the noise when tuning in between stations on a radio/TV, a hindrance when one wanted a clear signal, it was also the sound when the broadcast went off air, a point in early radio that poised the question Why is it not silent when nothing is being broadcast on that channel? This idea that a radio was still broadcasting when it shouldn’t and could tune in to the electromagnetic pulse of the atmosphere from nearby storms, lightning, to even the aurora borealis, changed everything. If it can hear lightning flashing in a storm, if it can pick up the static of pollen on a hot mid-summer day, then maybe it made sense that it could tune into something else, or be an aid in sounding the departed? But one doesn’t need to listen for something so abstract, what if all one wanted to do was listen to the mood of a room when a group of people are charged with intent and how static exchange can be so much more than noise.
This work takes an explorative view of a fascinating time in early radio telecommunications when ‘AM radios’ were being used by artists, inventors, mediums & amateur enthusiasts as a creative conduit/medium.
In acts of listening they would find that space ‘in between’ the stations, tuning into the static, viewing this interference not as noise but as a portal where one could not only listen in to atmospheric phenomena, or hidden codes but also could imagine being communicated with from something hidden, another realm &/or another time.
The radios become more than just circuit sniffers, they are a connection to the other. Something else comes alive as we participate in navigating around the room and each other, signals are affected as one crosses another’s path, attuning to the sounds of the space, the unseen rules unfold in this improvised sonic choreography and act of deep listening.
For this collective performance with its mindful respect of each other and of place, we were not venturing into a sonic séance but instead an opportunity to delve into this rich world of transmission, space for a shared listening ritual & viewing static as a collaborative embodied energy exchange from which a different dialogue can arise.
With thanks to all who participated in this first rendition of Static Ritual.
As part of the exhibition Musica Universalis + Eternal Equations Of Love
Curated by Lindsay Merlihan and Méabh Noonan.
Made with the kind support of The Arts Council Of Ireland & GIAF.
Photo Credits : Lindsay Merlihan & Anne Marie Deacy
