stolon/station 91.9
FM radio transmitter, raspberry pi, custom software, handheld radios, receiver, two 33’’ x 33’’ photo prints, (additional speaker and sound transmission in staircase), field recordings made in Hunter’s Point South. Dimensions variable. (2015-16)
stolon, n. (botany): a creeping horizontal plant stem or runner that takes root at points along its length to form new plants.
Stolon/Station is a low-frequency radio station transmitting from inside Hunter’s Point South, a post-natural wilderness zone, which was up until late 2016, the last undeveloped parcel of land on the East River in Long Island City.
The station relayed a soundscape of the post-natural into the adjacent waterfront park, and out onto the East River. The radio program consisted of field recordings taken inside the wilderness zone, combined with commissioned pieces from sound artists, ecologists, and urban explorers.
The station broadcast a continuous, 24-hour program over four consecutive days – August 28, 29, 30, 31 in 2015 – and intermittently thereafter, on 91.9 FM.
Timeline
- Sound walks with handheld electromagnetic field receiver kits through Hunter’s Point South and the surrounding neighborhood in January of 2016.
- The project was exhibited as part of Chance Ecologies: The Wild Landscape of Hunter’s Point South at Radiator Arts in Long Island City, New York from December 17, 2015 – January 21, 2016.
- A second iteration of the project was exhibited at the Queens Museum from October 8 – October 30, 2016.
Chance Ecologies artists included: Joianne Bittle, Laura Chipley, Allison Danielle Behrstock, Luciana Freire D’Anunciação, Edrex Fontanilla, Dylan Gauthier, Dillon de Give, GH Hovagimyan, Ellie Irons, Christopher Kennedy, Anne Percoco, Edmund Mooney, Matthias Neumann, Natalia Roumelioti, Raphaele Shirley, Marisa Tesauro, Sarah Nelson Wright