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The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA) Announces Neighborhood Public Radio (NPR)

The Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the artist-run radio project Neighborhood Public Radio (NPR) as the spring 2011 participants in Engagement Party, MOCA’s program presenting new works by innovative Southern California–based artist collectives. Harnessing the airwaves, NPR will create three interactive sound projects for MOCA visitors to experience on the first Thursday evenings of April, May, and June 2011. All events are FREE to the public and no reservations are required. For further information, visit moca.org/party.

THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 7–10pm
MOCA Grand Avenue
Neighborhood Public Radio (NPR) will harness the airwaves around the museum to transmit a collection of radio programs on local frequencies. MOCA visitors may tune into these programs via handheld personal transistor radios they either bring to or buy at the event for 2 USD. For “FMemory,” NPR will broadcast interviews with downtown Los Angeles’s communities about memorable experiences of MOCA as well as their perceptions of Bunker Hill’s evolving landscape. “Small Audience (for Large Ensemble)” will create a large-scale polyphonic voice ensemble, creating an unexpected space for museum-goers to perform on-air together. For “Silent Disco Party,” NPR will transmit live performances of original music and remixed dance classics.

In Your Car
THURSDAY, MAY 5, 7–10pm
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
In Your Car will comprise two concurrent sound projects broadcasting on local frequencies, “Park Park Revolution” and “Ping Modulation.” “Park Park Revolution” will comprise layers of choreographed and looped sound emanating from visitors’ car radios. “Ping Modulation” will pay homage to artist Robert Rauschenberg’s Open Score. For this project, NPR will outfit ping-pong tables with contact microphones and sound processors; as visitors match off in games of table tennis, the noise of their play will be fed to radio broadcasts that will transform their participation into sound art. Parking is FREE in public lot 7, the entry to which is accessible from Judge John Aiso Street.

In the Air
THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 7–10pm
MOCA Grand Avenue
For In the Air, NPR will bring together local noise musicians and sound and performance artists to facilitate a live performance gesture exploring the ways in which we sonically experience indoor and outdoor spaces, and how sound informs our perceptions of our surroundings. Approximately 100 guitarists will occupy MOCA’s galleries and plaza; oscillating between moments of silence and moments of drone, these musicians will perform an open-ended score that will be transmitted through speakers scattered around the museum as well as broadcast on local airwaves.

NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC RADIO
Neighborhood Public Radio is an independent artist-run radio collaborative committed to exploring new frontiers of broadcast expression through technical and social experimentation. NPR began, as a commentary on the state of “public” radio, with a five-day broadcast from 21 Grand Gallery in Oakland, California, in 2004. Since then, the group has evolved into a workshop developing wireless geographical experiments, cell phone exploitations, and sound deformations, all the while re-imagining the idea of “public” space and art exhibition space through an artistic approach to social engagement.

Engagement Party
Engagement Party offers Southern California–based artist collectives and collaborators an opportunity to make new artworks, interacting with and exploring MOCA and its resources in unexpected ways. Invited to work on site for three months, the artists may employ any medium, discipline, or strategy to create performances, workshops, screenings, lectures, or any other activity emerging from the group’s particular focus.

moca.org

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