NOISE RADIO FEM 女子噪音台
An off-site project of Beijing’s Arrow Factory Space
In collaboration with guest curator Yuan Fuca
For Fei Arts’ 1st Borderless Art Season, Beijing-based Arrow Factory presents NOISE RADIO FEM, an interactive, open-platform sound-studio for female-identifying individuals to record noise music. NOISE RADIO FEM is a unique engagement that adopts Arrow Factory’s conceptual core and dispatches the idea to a remote location, in a re-configured format. Taking cues from Arrow Factory’s setup as an independent, alternative art space embedded in the hutongs, NOISE RADIO FEM is also conceptualized as an autonomous creative space within the Fei Arts exhibition hall. Arrow Factory’s aim is to give artists a different context with which to experiment; NOISE RADIO FEM provides a distinct space for non-conventional creative pursuits. The size and physical footprint of the NOISE RADIO FEM recording studio mimics the facade of Arrow Factory’s hutong storefront. The outward facing wall of the sound studio is modeled on Arrow Factory’s Beijing façade, including the window that gives a view to the inside. In both the hutongs and the recording studio, access into the space is through a small back door. Conceptually, Arrow Factory functions as an ambiguous non-sequitur embedded in the center of the old city, categorically separate from its neighbors, with its own rules of engagement. NOISE RADIO FEM also presents itself as an aberration, a brightly colored, free-standing, isolated structure, amongst other artworks on the gallery floor. This isolation of the studio is literal; soundproof walls block ambient sounds from entering the space. This change in spatial sound quality allows for a moment of respite, carving out a protective environment for imaginative play.
NOISE RADIO FEM is designed for making sound recordings, but it can also be used for experimentation, collaboration, informal performances, small-scale gatherings or just as a quiet space to rest. Along with the physical studio, NOISE RADIO FEM also has a virtual presence as a podcast channel where recordings can be uploaded and accessed by the public. Through this online platform, NOISE RADIO FEM hopes to amplify the actions and sounds that manifest in the studio and extend their life into the online sphere. These often overlooked, non-mainstream reverberations are given the potential for an expanded listening audience, granting these rarely heard voices and investigations a channel to the outside world.
NOISE RADIO FEM’s framework for limiting gender participation is intentionally provocative. With new awareness of gender fluidity, revived interest in feminism, and increasing social-network complexity, highlighting female-identified individuals who make noise music offers a subtle counterpoint to the ubiquitous male-dominated voice in art circles and in society at large. The project draws attention to an overlooked, edgy, dynamic and innovative art practice that is currently happening in sound and performance circles. NOISE RADIO FEM designates an amorphous space of ‘otherness’ which parallels Arrow Factory’s operational mode in the hutongs. The existence of these types of spaces is in itself a subtle act of resistance. Rejecting prescribed actions or activities, both NOISE RADIO FEM and Arrow Factory allow a rare and precious opportunity for that which is undefined, functionally ambiguous and open-ended to exist and persist in our midst.
TO PARTICIPATE
Interested parties are invited to book a time slot in the NOISE RADIO FEM studio, bring their own instruments and use the recording equipment for free during the museum’s regular opening hours. Facilitators will be on hand to answer technical questions and show participants the basics of using the recording equipment. With participants’ permission, recordings will be collected and linked on the Ximalaya and Arrow Factory websites as a noise-only podcast channel. The resulting sound and noise catalog is at: http://arrowfactory.org.cn/?page=noiseradiofem
NOISE RADIO FEM is equipped with three (3) relatively high quality mics, three (3) headphones, one (1) sound mixer, one (1) speaker/monitors, and a desktop computer loaded with Pro-tools and other sound recording software. Finished sound files can be copied to a USB drive to take home.
Running in parallel with the recording studio, will be programming that includes additional events. An up-to-date schedule of events will be posted at http://arrowfactory.org.cn/?page=noiseradiofem and at https://www.ximalaya.com/zhubo/133967596/
To book a time slot in the recording studio, or for more information, scan the QR code below.
Fei Arts opening hours are Wednesday thru Monday 10:00-19:00.
The 1st Borderless Art Season runs Dec 3,2018 – April 1,2019
Tune in to our non-scheduled live stream or peruse the archives:
https://www.ximalaya.com/zhubo/133967596/ |