Local event: RADIORATOR by Agustina Palazzo

Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture, Carrer D'Espronceda 326 Nave 4, 08027 Barcelona, Spain 26.10.2023 20:00

Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture is happy to present the performance Radiorator by artist Agustina Palazzo, in the framework of the European Creative Europe project Theatre in Palm.
Radiorator is a sound experimentation performance, the result of the expanded perception generated by capturing radio frequencies through a digitally designed and manufactured technological helmet.

The helmet-shaped wearable works as a portable device that allows you to listen to a broad spectrum of radio frequencies. Equipped with an antenna, it receives the frequencies that are around it, allowing it to interact with the environment. The radio frequencies are digitally decoded into sounds that I use as raw material, generating a live piece that becomes experimental electronics. Oscillating between ambient and techno, they invite deep and introspective listening.

Radiorator was born with a premise inspired by the cultural and intellectual movement “transhumanism” which is based on the philosophy that we can transform and expand the human condition using technology. More specifically we focus on the human senses and how to expand their capacity of perception.

Radio frequencies are part of an environment that constantly passes through us but are invisible and inaudible. Through the technology included in the helmet, the human being can feel the invisible radio energy that is around him in the form of sound to generate in turn an auditory interpretation and turn it into an artistic expression, a performative and sonorous act. The helmet is a portable device that captures radio waves (electromagnetic waves from 3 to 300 Gh) and converts them into sound and image. This wearable uses an antenna and a Raspberry to convert analog signals into digital ones. The radio frequencies are picked up by the antenna and then digitally decoded into sound and images through SDR (software-defined radio) technology.

Morphologically following the guidelines of the constructivist movement, which proposes three-dimensionality as the main axis and geometric rigor, the design of the helmet takes a semi-circular module that is repeated in a scaled way around a concentric axis. The main intention is to represent in form the expansive effect of sound waves.

For the materialization of the helmet, 3D printing technology was used. The final piece is constructed by means of modules and a fitting system between the helmet and the geometry that emerges from it.