TEAM ZATARA

Mobile Transmission/Broadcast Jacket w/ bipedal hook-ups
91.1 TZFM.

The jacket interface is equipped with five ExiTrip devices. Each device is connected to a single contact mic, which is relayed into a portable Walkman with a built in microphone concealed in the jacket’s interior. The Walkman acts simultaneously as a transmitter/receiver thereby modulating the real time audio picked up by the contact mics as well as the sound broadcast over the FM frequency. The contact mics are fashioned to the cuffs of each sleeve and inside the front pocket of the jacket. Two smaller contact mics come down from the Jacket’s side pockets that can be attached to the wearer’s shoes. The concept of this project was to generate a wearable interface that would merge the user with the technology- adapting hands, chest and feet into a synchronous audible expression. The ExiTrip devices are used not only as prosthetic extensions of the performing body, but also as a series of instruments, that together produce an atmospheric impression or soundtrack of that body encountering the immediate space it inhabits. The body’s movements are transfigured into waveforms where space, sound, and environment combine into a single event of aesthetic self-awareness. The jacket was worn on various occasions to broadcast audible translations of indeterminate walks in the city, choreographed movements from a dance studio, and improvised public interactions.

Images courtesy of Eric Kim 2011

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Rama Gottfried

Radio Nest (2011) computer controlled FM transmitters, FM radio, microcontroller and MaxMSP

A lone radio perched in a tree receives audio from five FM transmitters nested below. As each transmitter turns on and off an interwoven field of interference forms between them - multiple information channels competing for the radio's focus.
Depending on the strength and characteristics of the sound material being transmitted, the interference forms various patterns of frequency flanging, rhythmic flutterings, and harmonic distortions.
Cars, birds, leaves, trains, and fog horns merge in the air with the radio broadcast as well as invisible environmental frequencies radiating from cellphone towers, industrial refrigerators and the San Francisco Bay Area jazz station KCSM 91.1 FM.
Photos and recording taken at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies - University of California, Berkeley - May 2011.

Images courtesy of Rama Gottfried 2011

Tommy Martinez

Critical Bands is a year-long culmination of work with field recordings and custom live multichannel audio software. The software made by Martinez gives the performer the ability to layer and assemble collages from their library of sound files, and manipulate individual tracks using a variety of digital processing techniques on the fly. It also allows panning or placing sounds to specific speakers. For this performance, Martinez used the ExiTrip to incorporate a social element in a live performance. The ExiTrips allowed the artist to "unmount" and thus mobilize the sound sources. Placement for the speakers were no longer bound to the rigid constraints of the composer/performer and the audience could take more of an active role in the performance. Listeners are able to change timbral qualities in the sounds by placing them in different areas of the room and are not chained to any specific array designated by the composer.  

lili maya & james rouvelle's robot radio/transient, set from maya.rouvelle on Vimeo.

Maya.Rouvelle

used variations in signal strength of 5 ExiTrips to create a live audio work entitled robot radio, that was premiered within another new project entitled transient, set. Each of robot radio's ExiTrips was outfitted with a new, longer antenna sized to its selected broadcast frequency and encased in acrylic.  In addition to contributing audio, the ExiTrips became a sculptural element of transient, set. In transient, set, software processed live video from a resurrected, yet glitchy iSight camera and projected the resulting two dimensional, black and white imagery through an assemblage that included the encased antenna's of robot radio. The software for both works used similar logic, creating shifting perspectives of alignment and individuation between the two projects, activated by environmental factors including visitors’ movements and locations on site.

Images courtesy of Maya.Rouvelle, 2011

Byron Westbrook

used the ExiTrips for a multichannel distributed sound performance/installation both in NYC and in San Francisco at Activating the Medium in the Spring of 2011. For this appearance at Activating the Medium, Westbrook presented multichannel work that incorporates sonic elements broadcast to multiple radio receivers which are held and passed around by the audience. Sounds sent to these receiver/speakers will interact with each other as well as with stationary sounds positioned in the room, allowing the audience to help determine the outcome of the performance.

http://byronwestbrook.com/

Photos by R. Yau for 23five Inc.

Radio recievers installed on the banks of the river.

Keiko and local children listening to the transmission

Keiko Uenishi (o.blaat)

 has been using the ExiTrip for a site-specific outdoor installation for a residency and festival 'Paivascape' curated by Portugal's binauralmedia.org, funded by Meet the Composer/Global Connections grant. For her piece "Paiva Games: Sound Dam", she placed the transmitters along the banks of the river, layered and extended several signals from transmitters to transmitters, creating an additive sound piece using field recordings she collected in collaboration with children in two villages (Espiunca & Canelas) along the river Paiva. The listener is supposed to experience the piece by strolling the riverside and listening to the transmitted sounds mixed with the real-time sounds on site. Final presentation will be in the early March 2011 in Espiunca, Portugal. (Main url is currently being created. Updates at http://facebook.com/oblaaat )

ExiTrip Transmitter installed in a tree on the Paiva River.

Marcia Bassett

is using her ExiTrips for both solo and collaborative experimental drone performances. We are working with Marcia to replicate a sound that an electrical short in one of her devices has caused. She has discovered how to create an analog oscillator out of the digital circuits. It sounds like an amazing pipe organ!!! She is interested in creating a touch sensitive controller that will allow her to play the ExiTrip like an instrument and fully integrate it into her musical setup. http://www.zaimph.org/

<The ExiTrip being used in a performance at Issue Project Room in November 2010. Marcia Bassett, Margarida Garcia, Barry Weisblatt.

Pt. 4 - Ominous Clouds Over Brooklyn - Twisty Cat from Corey Bauer on Vimeo.

Ed Bear and Lea Bertucci (Twistycat)

recently used a pair of ExiTrips in a performance in Brooklyn. For this show, we broadcasted our electroacoustic instrument's signals to handheld radios that we distributed among audience members. Our acoustic sounds were embellished through the crackle of FM transmission and electronics. The audience experienced our sound in a directly physical, intimate manner. Some interesting feedback effects were also produced during the performance. www.twistycat.org

John Also Bennett

has been working with the ExiTrip in the context of a public sound installation. Hidden in a ubiquitous road cone, in one of the most hectic and congested intersections of Columbus OH, his ExiTrip will broadcast soothing, meditative sounds to unwitting drivers who happen to have their radios tuned to particular stations. His project concerns displacing psychological space through sound, and references the original use of the ExiTrip as an in-car transmitter. We worked with him to build an RF amplifier using components harvested from old VCR's that Ed had lying around the studio.

Roy Mohan Shearer

used his Exitrip to create a mobile children's toy with a built in microphone and antenna. Using everyday household objects and a toy train design, his "Mouseymitter" transmits sounds captured with a microphone in one of the vessels to an external radio.

www.zero-waste.co.uk

Lovid (Kyle Lapidus, Tali Hinkis)

sent video components through three ExiTrip devices and ran the
signals through their analog synthesizer, Sync Armonica. Beyond simply using the ExiTrip transmitters to facilitate production, LoVid
was interested in the limitations of these devices. Particularly, the
increasing noise to signal ratio with increasing frequency, made vertical lines almost imperceptible once passed through the transmitters. By combining wirefull and wireless signals, videos were recorded and stills captured. These reflect both clear, pure signals,
and interference from nearby bands.

Special thanks to Antonio Biermann.

www.lovid.org

Stills captured from the transmitted video