As musicians who often work with custom-built wireless technology, we are well aware
how often music-making technology is suspected to be a terrorist device at airports and
other security checks. (In fact some musicians have had their musical interfaces
confiscated by airport security claiming they were IEDs Ð even though they were simply
Improvised Electronic Devices, not Improvised Explosive Devices.) It was therefore
natural for us to build on the visual association of these custom built devices to
suicide bomber belts. We are also aware of the prevalent use of radio-wave technology
in surveillance and weapons development, and thus felt the use of this technology
offered multi-layered associations and was fitting for our artistic purposes.
One of the performers will wear a set of battery-operated (wireless) medium-wave
transmitters that emit high frequency tones above the range of hearing, but which
create differential tones within the range of hearing. These will be mounted on
her body, so that she can maintain the greatest possible freedom of movement in all
directions in space. These transmitters will interact with one another and with
multiple radio receivers distributed in the area or held by other performers to
create interference, feedback and theremin-like effects. The body capacitance of
the performers will directly affect the sound resulting from their movements.
Through the manipulation of these radio frequencies, the performers will be
involved in the direct creation not only of movement but of sound material,
thus blurring genres of performance. The musicians will also be blurring genres,
moving through the space to various locations, interacting and playing with and
on the sculptural elements, and manipulating the natural filters in the speakers.