Deep Wireless Audio Residency Going Deeper

The theme for next year's Deep Wireless festival is "Radio Without Boundaries." May 2004 will mark the third anniversary of this celebration of radio art and the second anniversary of the Deep Wireless Commissioning Program co-produced with CBC Radio's "Out Front" and Charles Street Video.

Call for works: What is your culture?
Does radio reflect your culture or way of life?

Let us hear your ideas and how they represent your world. Create a piece for radio that reflects your culture and examines social issues that are relevant to you. Go to:
www.deepwireless.ca to download the submission guidelines.

All completed works submitted by September 30, 2003 from the Call for Works will be considered for radio play on Community Radio stations across Canada and on international radio stations throughout the month of May, 2004. From the submissions, four Canadian artists will be selected to produce a new work for both CBC radio broadcast and octaphonic concert spatialization that combines sound exploration and
personal narrative in innovative ways.

New Adventures in Sound Art is a non-profit organization that produces performances and installations spanning the entire spectrum of electroacoustic and experimental sound art.Ê Included in its Toronto productions are: Deep Wireless, Sound Travels, Sign Waves and SOUNDplay.

Deep Wireless was a month long celebration of Radio Art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art with performances at the Ambient Ping, the Rivoli, special radio broadcasts on CBC Radio 1 99.1-FM and CIUT 89.5-FM, Radio Art Interventions broadcast throughout May 2003 on CKLN 88.1FM, residencies at Charles Street Video and a conference "Transmissions sans Frontieres" sponsored by the Canadian Society for Independent Radio Production.

As part of this second annual Deep Wireless festival, New Adventures in Sound Art initiated a special commissioning/residency opportunity co-produced with CBC Radio's "Out Front" and Charles Street Video. Four Canadian artists (playwright Mark Brownell, radio documentarian Dan Hart, sound artist Kathy Kennedy, and violinist/audio artist Reena Katz) were selected from a Canadian-wide call for submissions
to produce a work for both CBC radio broadcast and octaphonic concert spatialization that combined sound exploration and personal narrative in innovative ways.

Deep Wireless opened in May with radio art interventions broadcast on CKLN 88.1-FM.Ê These short pieces and excerpts were representative of some of the finest radio art in North America. Two free shows "RADiO iN AMBiENCE 1 & 2" on May 6th & 13th were presented at The Ambient Ping (club nia / C'est What - 19 Church Street at Front Street). These special presentations by THE AMBiENT PiNG for Deep Wireless
featured experimental artists Andrew Aldridge, Rick Hyslop, David Pritchard, Byron Wong, Scott M2, Jakob Thiesen and Rebecca McLellan making extensive use of radio as a live ambient sound source. http://www.theambientping.com

The Deep Wireless commissioned works were broadcasted on CBC Radio 1
99.1-FM between May 19-22, 2003 11:45 - noon, as part of the regular "Out Front" programming. Spatialized versions of the pieces were also included in two shows "Radio-a-Mock 1 & 2," May 23 & 24 @ the Rivoli. Each show was a double bill of experimental sound and radio art creating the world of radio on stage and featuring Radio hosts Kristiana Clemens and Chandra Bulucon, Director Lynda Hill, composer
Matt Rogalsky, DJ-Artist Jeremy Mimnagh, sound artist Susanna Hood, media artist Zev Asher and soundscape recordist and radio producer Jim Metzner. Radio-a-Mock was a mock radio show in a world gone amok.

The Deep Wireless two-day conference, "Transmissions sans Frontieres", was sponsored by the Canadian Society for Independent Radio Production and took place on May 24-25, 2003 at Victoria College explored the boundaries of radio. "Transmissions sans Frontieres" was about transcending boundaries
Presenters included: Steve Wadhams, Christos Hatzis, Garvia Bailey, Chantal Dumas, Victoria Fenner, Anna Friz, Julie Shapiro, Chandra Bulucon, Dan Hart, Reena Katz, Mark Brownell, Kathy Kennedy, Jim Metzner Barb Woolner, and Chris Brookes. Bios can be seen on the Deep Wireless website: www.deepwireless.ca/tsf/ Transom sent Benjamin Walker up from the states to cover the conference. You can get a really good idea of what this conference was about by checking out his comments and audio on www.transom.org.

Deep Wireless Residency Artists at Charles Street Video

Mark Brownell

Mark Brownell is a Toronto-based playwright. In 2001 he was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award for his play, Monsieur d'Eon. He also received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for his libretto Iron Road. He last collaborated with Sound Travels on Bells and Whistles (an "annoying but strangely addictive" travelling installation piece). Other written work includes The Martha Stewart Projects (Buddies in Bad Times) and The Chevalier St. George (Tafelmusik Baroque Ensemble). Mark is also co-artistic director of the Pea Green Theatre Group with his wife and partner Sue Miner. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School and has had many of his plays produced across the country and internationally.

Daniel Hart

Dan Hart cut his radio teeth in the Maritimes as Spoken Word Director and Program Director, a position also held at the University of Toronto (1993 to 1995 with CIUT-FM). Dan also worked as a Station Manager in Kitchener and corporate trainer, writer, and project controller here in Toronto.

Last year, Dan took a course taught by Laurence Stevenson, Outfront Recording Engineer and Producer, resulting in, My Father, a reminiscence on alcoholism and divorce. Dan's subsequent radio pieces include Suspicious Fire (Producer, Lynda Shorten), seeing faith through the prism of unemployment, and Et in Arcadia Ego (Producer, Alison Moss), accepting the brutality of homelessness. In "Buridan's
Ass" (Producer, Lynda Shorten), his newest commission for Deep Wireless, Dan brawls with bisexuality as he and Deborah prepare their commitment ceremony.

Reena Katz

Reena Katz is a Toronto based violinist, audio artist and teacher. Her solo work uses electric violin, effects pedal, samplers, sequencers and turntable to weave unique Klezmer based electro-acoustic soundscapes..Ê She collaborates with musicians and video artists, playing with rock divas Queen Size S.H.A.G, as well as
Klezmer starlettes Pomegranate Squad and composing scores for local film and video artists, including Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay and Aleesa Cohene. She has toured and played live in Toronto, Montreal, New York, and Berlin as well as throughout Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Her emerging audio art has been exhibited on community radio, the TransTech festival in Toronto, as well as at the SOX36 Gallery in
Berlin. Her collaborative work includes musical landscapes for performance artist Mirha-Soleil Ross's Yapping Out Loud and poet Trish Salah. Reena is currently working with choreorgrapher/dancer Karen Guttman as well as on a residency for CBCâs Deep Wireless at Charles Street Video, in Toronto.

Kathy Kennedy

Kathy Kennedy is a sound artist with a background classical singing. Her art practise generally involves the voice and issues of interface with technology, often using telephony or radio. She is also involved in community art, and is a founder of the digital media center for women in Canada, Studio XX, as well as the innovative choral groups for women, Choeur Maha and Esther. Her large scale sonic installation/performances for up to 100 singers and radio, called "sonic choreographies," have been performed internationally including the inauguration of the Vancouver New Public Library and at the Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Series.

 23 September 2003