Political Song for Justin Timberlake to Sing is a pair of electronically controlled low power FM radio transmitters designed to alert and confuse listeners.
The “Alert” Transmission
[listen to the 1min broadcast] The first of the pair, the “alert” transmitter, walks scattershot across the FM band from 88Mhz to 108Mhz overriding licensed programming with a computerized male voice. This voice informs listeners that US Air Force patrols have spotted enemy aircraft in the Capital Region of New York (this message can be updated to reference the surroundings of wherever the transmitters are installed). I reference the listener’s surrounding area in my broadcast in order to center, implicate and unsettle the viewer and give my broadcast legitimacy.
I intentionally interrupt licensed broadcasters with this one-minute “alert” broadcast. This interruption is designed to make listeners believe ownership of the transmission has shifted from a typical commercial FM radio entity to a government entity. Usurping control of local radio stations also personalizes the broader topics of militarization, fear and unknowing. Introductory beeping in the broadcast mimics a weather alert and interrupts the highly ordered programming of commercial radio. By interrupting the licensed broadcasts I also subvert the user-locked preset stations defined by the “scan” and “seek” interfaces of contemporary digital FM tuners.
I want listeners to be immediately engaged and be startled. My “alert” transmitters mission is to grab the unwitting participant and throw them into the piece.
The “Confuse” Transmission
[listen to a 1min sample from 12hr broadcast loop]
When the user reaches this second radio station they expect immediate information regarding their wellbeing. Instead, they hear an audio collage of experiences and information regarding bombing. The collage contains peoples’ reflections on the fear experienced while being bombed mixed with pilots explaining what it is like to bomb. Also, peoples’ dealing with loss of property and loved ones as a result of bombing are mixed with scientific techniques used to try to make sense of bomb scenes. These are all things the listener would be forced into considering in the event of an actual bombing - but are acts that can neither be learned nor barely imagined without firsthand experience as a guide. We can only sketch in our minds what we think we might do based on what we know and our prior experiences. For most non-immigrant Americans, we know very little about this and have experienced even less when confronted with this new and seemingly real concern. We are thrown into a new open mental frequency filled with static.
After hearing the “alert” transmission, visitors may reach my second transmitter. I call it my “confuse” transmitter as this station is meant to capitalize on the alerted state of the listener and push them into a state of confusion and wonder. This station broadcasts my interviews with bombing survivors, interviews of US military bomber pilots and computer-read forensic investigation reports of bomb blast scenes. It is a simple fixed-frequency low power FM radio station occupying 88.9Mhz, an unfilled spot on the radio band in upstate New York’s Capital District (this broadcast frequency can be updated to best fit into the region where the transmitters are installed). I use a previously unoccupied frequency in order to preclude any local radio station brand affiliations and fill a fresh spot in the listener’s mind.
This content of this broadcast also creates confusion of authorship, as it is not the type of transmission any governmental or commercial entity would put on the air. It provokes the questions “Where is this coming from?” “Who owns this broadcast?” and “What am I listening to?” I cross the threshold of extremely ordered airspace and inject anomaly to create confusion.
A 24 page booklet (pdf) accompanies gallery installations of this piece.
