Etheroforming Broadcast
Etheroforming Broadcast is an experiment in finding anthropogenic effects on the ethereal environment.
Ether is an invisible and omnipresent environment on the border between the information dimension and physical reality, known since Antiquity. Over the centuries, the features of the ether helped explain various phenomena and develop concepts beyond the reach of the scientific knowledge of the time—zoomagnetism, telekinesis, psychic practices and long-distance communication, space travel, and music of the spheres.
In the twentieth century, the force of the electromagnetic ether was tamed by humans, and some of these concepts became integral parts of our everyday life and received firm scientific grounds. Channels and ethereal roads traced by technology formed a noosphere—a habitat for radio and television which transformed the ephemeral notions of the truth and the lie into geologic forces capable of changing the face of the planet.
However, our knowledge of the ethereal environment is incomplete. Science and technology are yet to discover many of the ideas concerning the impact of humanity on the ether. How do the torrents of toxic information and propaganda change the features of the information environment? Can we detect this impact on the way we detect toxic pollution or global warming consequences?
From Thomas Edison with his experiments on communication with entities beyond the physical world to the contemporary explorers of the ‘electronic voices’ phenomenon, many researchers looked for the traces of human beings in the ether. They can be located in various points of the electromagnetic sphere, which were particularly exposed to industrial anthropogenic influence—on deserted analog television and radio channels.
Clear signals of the old test generators broadcast on frequencies of the main channels of the Central USSR, and later Russian television that were active over decades, form an audiovisual composition containing an imprint of the historical media layers that let us see to what extent our television is polluted.
Multichannel audiovisual performance.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Boris Shershenkov—sound-artist, Cand.Sc., musical instrument engineer. Involved in projects on the development of new methods in technological and sound art, combining the latest technologies and media archeology. Active in various fields of experimental music and sound art, author of sound installations and performances; curator of concert programs and educational projects. As a musician, he is involved in live electronics and electroacoustic improvisation, performs both solo and in collaboration with musicians nationally and internationally. His installations and media performances were presented at the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Electromuseum, Sound Museum, Yelagin Island, Moscow Manege, Popov Central Museum of Communications, Sirius Educational Centre; as well as part of the following festivals: Dark Sounds in White Nights, Cyberfest 11, Acousmonium, 101.Mediapoetry, Prepared Surroundings, Geometry of Now, Ars Electronica (Austria), Hors Normes (Switzerland), Art Fair Suomi (Finland).