[spectre] // The Crystal Line //

[Julian Oliver]

Hi list,

A bit about a recent small project of mine, The Crystal Line, commissioned by
The Cutting Room and Phoenix (UK):

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The advent of radio communications revolutionised war, removing the need for
human and animal messengers and gave commanders near-instantaneous, long-range
control of troops.

The new 'crystal radios' possessed an almost magical quality, channelling
electromagnetic phenomena in the air directly into electricity, without any need
for power of their own. Today, all wireless communication descends from the
crystal radio - from mobile phones to GPS and wireless networking.

The Crystal Line positions the crystal set at both the root and tip of this vast
lineage. Firstly, a small computer scours the web for the latest developments in
future combat systems and battlefield technology, which is then passed to a
text-to-speech engine and spoken in the manner of an English radio broadcaster.

This spoken text is then transmitted as an AM broadcast, which when captured by
the set inherits audio properties and textures unique to the medium; heard just
as men in the trenches would have heard news of battle a century ago.

This project was commissioned by The Cutting Room and Phoenix, celebrating the
centenary of World War One.

    http://julianoliver.com/output/the-crystal-line
    http://www.phoenix.org.uk/event/julian-oliver-the-crystal-line/

Greg J. Smith also wrote an introduction to the project here:

    http://www.creativeapplications.net/sound/retrobroadcasting-the-future-of-warfare-julian-olivers-crystal-line/

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Cheers,

-- 
Julian Oliver
http://julianoliver.com
http://criticalengineering.org
PGP key: https://julianoliver.com/key.asc
Beware the auto-complete life.