New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) launches its 21st annual Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art on February 5 in its new permanent venue at 313 Highway 124 right in the heart of South River.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre will be open for in-person events for the first time starting February 5, 2021 with installations, performances, and online workshops, radio art compilations and videos of radio and transmission art performances.
“As with the past 20 annual editions of Deep Wireless, NAISA will continue to present experimental radio works that give an outlet to artists to experiment with storytelling by enhancing the grain and tonal character of their audio productions. As well as radio art, Deep Wireless will also include transmission art that continues to take us back to the physical and tactile aspects of radio transmission, where the fuzz and noise of the radio medium filters the contact between listener and artist,” said Darren Copeland, artistic director, New Adventures in Sound Art.
Sudbury-born artist Shaughn Martel wins James Bailey Award. Works by both exhibited February 5 to April 4, 2022.
The James Bailey Award was established by NAISA in 2021 from a donation made by Kevin Austin, and is presented to an artist that displays an inventive spirit and that pushes the boundaries of radio and transmission art. The very first award winner is Shaughn Martel, whose work EMF Turntable will be presented alongside James Bailey’s new work The Piano Travels at NAISA’s new permanent location.
Shaughn Martel is a Sudbury-born new media artist now based in Toronto whose installation EMF Turntable de-mystifies technology by grounding it in human physical interaction and natural electromagnetic phenomena. James Bailey’s Piano Travels uses radio transmission and amplification to modify and extend the capabilities of an 1864 Armand upright piano. Bailey is a sound artist from Toronto who has been recording sound art works since the mid-’70s and performing on occasion since the early ’80s.
Three in-person/online hybrid concerts
Artists from around the world will be featured in three presentations accessible for in-person and online audiences.
North Bay-born artist Claude Schryer will be in South River on Feb 5 at 7 p.m. and Feb 6 at 2 p.m. to present the premiere of his new soundscape composition, “Winter Diary Revisited. The piece also forms episode 99 of his Conscient podcast series and features excerpts from an unpublished essay that R. Murray Schafer wrote after a 10-day field recording trip that he undertook with Schryer in rural Manitoba in February 1997.
On February 13 at 2 p.m., Trevor Wishart will connect to NAISA live from York, England to present his 70-minute radiophonic electroacoustic work “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. Audiences in South River will hear the 8-channel version while online audiences will hear a new binaural version. Wishart is a seminal figure in the development of sound art as both an author and composer and NAISA has commissioned works from him in the past.
NAISA will present the experimental narrative podcast series Constellations on March 26 at 4 p.m. Joining co-founders Michelle Macklem and Jess Shane will be artists John Hill from Hamilton, Arif Mirbaghi from Tehran, Sophia Steinert-Evoy and Nicole Pingon from Sydney, Australia for a real-time global listening exchange.
In all three of the above presentations audiences both at NAISA and online can each share their personal responses to the pieces and ask questions directly to the artists.
Radio art on NAISA Radio
New Adventures in Sound Art broadcasts radio art and experimental sound art 24/7 on its online audio stream NAISA Radio. Featured presentations this year include the entire podcast series of Conscient (by Claude Schryer ) and Constellations. The July 2021 issue of the Wire Magazine (UK) featured NAISA Radio as one of 100 essential online radio stations, a distinction shared by only one other online radio station in Canada.
Deep Wireless 16 compilation online album
The 16th compilation album will be available starting in February for on-demand listening on Soundcloud. This year’s edition has work by indigenous artists Janet Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora), John Hill (Oneida/Six Nations of the Grand River) and Elizabeth Hill (Six Nations of the Grand River) as well as Shaughn Martel from Toronto, Cecilia Tyrrell from the UK and Anton Pickard from Tiny Township (ON). The album also includes a work created last year by Anna Friz for NAISA’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
More NAISA 20th anniversary videos
NAISA continues to release more videos on its Youtube page, NAISAtube, documenting performances from its past 20 years of adventurous programming. Featured are radio art performances with James Bailey, Dan Tapper, Allison Cameron, Anna Friz, Richard Windeyer, Richard Lee, Christine Duncan and more.
New Adventures in Sound Art is a non-profit media art organization in South River, Ontario that is funded in part by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage.
The Deep Wireless Festival is at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River and online at naisa.ca from February 5 to April 4, 2022. Pay-what-you-can donations for in-person exhibition; $10 admission for in-person and online concerts.
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