[syndicate] Anti-Crystal

[Alan Sondheim]

Anti-Crystal

Crystal radio apparatus set up in Morgantown, with main inductor coil of
the honeycomb type. A diode and air-capacitor were used; these three
elements constituted the original radio, with the exception of the diode.
The antenna was coupled with a variometer and second air-capacitor, both
old. The antenna was 90 feet long-wire wrapped around two sides of a house
in a hollow. Reception on 1300 from a local station was so dominant that I
attempted at all costs to avoid it, bringing hum and background into play,
with mixed results. The whole was fed into a sound editing program for
further modification. I attempted a democratization of the airwaves,
allowing the power grid and other interferences their say. The result is
at http://www.alansondheim.org/mg1.mov which is a nice sound in a way,
sculpted to be of sufficient interest in itself. This sculpting, like
other aesthetic decisions, interfered with the original intent, but I do
believe such interference constitutes the history of much recent art, if
not certain schools of somewhat machinic poetics. For what is present must
be presence, if presented, there must be a force behind it driving the
efflorescence, there must be intention behind that force or a reading of
that intention, there must be a consciousness behind that reading, there
must be mind behind that consciousness, there must be confluence beyond
that. What is here is confluence, for your listening and your listening
pleasure.