Short Horizon
Anna Friz (2008)
Short Horizon is an ongoing research project by LOT member Anna Friz that seeks to balance documentary, imagination, and reverie: specifically working with binaural acoustic field recordings and recordings of sounds transduced from VLF (Very Low Frequency) antennas in order to create deeply textured compositions. This practice of urban field(s) recording broadly proposes transmission as an environmental state or landscape in and of itself. Of particular interest is the relative flatness and depth perceivable in both acoustic and Hertzian space, and the diminishing horizon in the contemporary city as a result of urban design and an exponential increase in wireless infrastructure (or EM clutter). Methodologically, urban field(s) recording will also form the basis of other sonically-focussed projects proposed by Friz together with LOT colleague Jason Rovito. Short Horizon consists of a series of compositions based on recordings made mainly in Toronto. Sites of interest include the Emerson exit of the Lansdowne subway station, Sterling Road, the corner of Montrose and College streets, and domestic radiation around my house. Each of these sites has been chosen for their unique acoustic and EM character--whistling doors, harmonic drones from air circulation systems, proximity to airport flight path, Good Friday march by Italian Catholics, defunct satellite dishes, significant clusters of cell towers and base stations, or flickering neon signs.
Short Horizon has been presented as a four-part serial (consisting of 4 60-minute compositions for radio) at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Walter Phillips Gallery and Radio Free Banff, as part of the exhibition "Bureau de change" in August-September 2008.
Short Horizon will be released as a CD dispatch, co-produced with free103point9.org Transmission Arts Centre in winter 2009.