ICC
OPEN SPACE 2009
"Frequency and Volume"
2003
Rafael LOZANO-HEMMER
Frequency and Volume photo: KIOKU Keizo
Through the motions of their own shadows, projected onto the wall, participants can receive radio and television broadcasts, other wireless telecommunications, and a variety of other electromagnetic waves. The participants enter a public space that is a radioelectric spectrum, in which they experience the sensation of being able to access the many types of waves flying about. Shifting the shadow left or right scans the frequencies, while the shadow's size controls the audio volume.

A cluster of twelve AM/FM radios in the exhibition space and VHF/UHF television antennas set up outdoors receive a broad band of electromagnetic waves. This work was inspired by the regulations imposed on indigenous peoples' radio stations by the Mexican government in 2000. LOZANO-HEMMER has pointed out that electromagnetic waves are a medium that communities and other groups ought to be able to use for small-scale transmissions, schemes in which they are monopolized by the government and corporations are found throughout the world. This work itself, through an encounter with unknown waves, acts as a radio, making the participants aware of those waves, while the relationships between the participants can change the acoustic space.
Rafael LOZANO-HEMMER Profile Rafael LOZANO-HEMMER is a Mexican-Canadian artist who creates interactive works using light and shadow and carries out large-scale projects throughout the world to tie together cities and information spaces and trigger new communication. In Japan, in addition to showing the work described here at the ICC as part of "Art meets Media: adventures in perception" in 2005, he has shown "Amodal Suspension" at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media in 2003. Past Exhibition / Event