A generative overnight radio piece for Tsonami Festival de Arte Sonoro in Valparaíso, Chile December 3 – 10, 2022
by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz © 2022.
The mountain sleeps; dreams stone. Festooned with power lines and communications towers, striated by long-ago meltwater and creeks that have since evaporated, blown bald by the prevailing winds. Some day, come earthrise or landfall, the mountain will walk out into the sea. Until then, micro-movements in the sediment and rock are its uneasy speech, while the antennae atop its massive breathing shoulders continue to call and respond.
The piece is inspired by coastal mountains that have been implicated in human long distance communications and listening, whether occupied by overland telephone and telegraph cables, military monitoring stations, radio and acoustic beacons for ships and airplanes, or 5G cell towers. Morse Mountain considers the ephemeral human occupations of signal space as they overlay mineral durations; fireflies buzzing around ancient beings that have merely paused to rest.
Morse Mountain streamed for Art’s Birthday 2023 and was featured on 24 Hours of Radio Art, CiTR 101.9FM Vancouver.