Next to the Jasper Johns and Diego Riveras at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a work not in oils or watercolors — but in projectors, cameras, radio electric scanners, antennae, portable radios and multi-channel sound. It’s remarkable. Scroll below for a video I shot of it.
Image credit: Russ Johnson
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer created “Frequency and Volume Relational Architecture 9” in protest of the Mexican government shutting down pirate radio stations. It is one of a series of installations aimed at showing how the public environment can be transformed into a data space and asks the question of who has access to the communications channels.
Your body becomes an antenna and tuner, with shadow scanning frequencies that include broadcast, air traffic control, satellite and even CB radio signals.
Yes, CB still exists.
I shot a short video to give you an idea of what’s going on here.
The exhibit is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) until February 3, 2013.