Radiation Day at Ars Electronica


Performing Radiation Day at Ars Electronica, Big Concert Night 08.10.2017

I had a world premiere of new work at the Big Concert Night of Ars Electronica Festival at PostCity in Linz Austria this past weekend on 10 September 2017. Radiation Day was created during my research residency in Chile this summer, in collaboration with artist Rodrigo Ríos Zunino. This is the first of what will be a series of audio/visual works for performance and installation. Many thanks to Canada Council for the Arts for supporting the work, and for the Arts Research Institute of the University of California Santa Cruz for flying me over to perform!
The live concert was curated by Elisabeth Zimmermann for the 30th Anniversary of ORF Kunstradio, and broadcast live to national public radio Ö1 in Austria the same evening as part of a special program entitled Different Places.
Radiation Day

This is the metamorphosis of Earth being: in the desert, around open-cast mines loom massively heaped and compacted slagheaps; evaporation ponds spread across the salt flats, and pipelines and power lines run alongside roads punctuated by truck transports and blowing dust. Copper, lithium, rare earths; mining the ingredients for wireless communication devices. Ancient geoglyphic inscriptions on the desert are dwarfed by deep industrial scars visible from satellites. But environments are also media, and bodies are recording devices. For days under the sun at high altitudes in northern Chile, we sought elemental media amidst the industrial continuum. A performance devised of infrastructural sounds, atmospheric signals and live electronics.

Video by Rodrigo Rios Zunino (CL/EC)