Radio Row: John Cage x IDM

video upload by Electrum Modular

"Channeling the spirit of John Cage, with the aid of ADDAC’s Servo module, a cheap radio, and a looper.

FURTHER NOTES:
• feedback on the Disting stereo delay is set to 28, just below the 100% level (32), so that sounds eventually fade out. The transience of sound - and the futility of trying to capture it through recording - was a theme in Cage’s writing.
• analog radio itself now seems to be fading away; several countries have already dropped FM. This kind of piece may not be possible soon.
• to ensure intervals of silence (rests), Cage specified AM band, which had fewer stations. I opted here for FM, for the warmer sound, reduced static, and closer spacing of stations.
• finding a radio that would work was a challenge. It had to be analog, with a headphone jack, and a simple frequency dial (1:1 ratio as Servo cannot go beyond 270 degrees). And the dial cap had to be removable. The only one I could find with all this was Studebaker Portable AM/FM Radio SB2002: https://studebakerhifi.com/collection...
• To fit the Servo’s arm to the tuner dial, I needed an adapter (a coupler from my son’s old Meccano set fit perfectly!)
My earlier video about ADDAC’s Servo: • When modules grow limbs: ADDAC's Servo [posted here]

SOURCES
John Cage, Silence (1961)
Andrea Valle and Amedeo Casella, 'Imaginary Landscape No. 4: study and annotation of the score,' Proceedings of the XXI CIM-Colloquio di Informatica Musicale (2016)
Alana Pagnutti, Reception: The Radio-works of Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage (Smith+Brown, 2016)
'Bedlam on Radio Row,' New York Times, May 25, 1930, 144"