Communication is not unique to the human species, but we have worked hard to perfect it by technical means. Communication at a distance, and to masses more than a few, has been the Grail of technologies from movable type to mobile wireless internets.
The telegraph, beginning with inventions in the early 1800's, was the point to point web of the time, primarily following railroad routes over distances. Early telegraph pioneer Morse sent a prophetic inaugural message, "What hath God wrought?", between DC and Baltimore in 1844. Eventually submarine telegraph cables spanned the ocean.
Telegraph messages, carried by wire, spawned wireless transmission, based on the research of Hertz and others. Early wireless radio carried telegraph codes. Later analog modulation was developed. That allowed voices and music to be broadcast at a distance. That brings us to current history.
Any sufficiently evolved technology is indistinguishable from art, and that is the theme of performances tonight accompanying a book release of Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves.
Performances tonight include Chloé Womack's Community Amateur Radio Project, Weird-Fiction's sculptural transmission, The Video Gentlemen's rogue television broadcasts and Joe Milutis' text experiments.
The fascinating book, Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves, covers 90 years of transmission arts - video, audio and codes transmitted by radio, sound and the internets.
Performance and book release at Monograph Bookwerks monographbookwerks.com 5005 NE 27th x Alberta Map 7PM-9 Free
Artist, writer and curator, Sam Korman, opens I Want To Believe, an essentially one night show, tonight, at the Labrador. Korman is noted for a year of shows in his garage, extensively documented in a Publication Studio book, and for curating a great show, Watersports, on the boat. Pop culture is a rich vein for sampling into art. We are familiar with the references and each carries emotional associations attached as we first experienced them.
Korman is a writer, and the press release for the show is well worth a look. You don't have to believe aliens have visited earth in spaceships to see the show!
The show takes place on a 65 foot boat moored in the Willamette River near Sauvie Island. At 12128 Labrador Project www.labradorproject.com It's moored by Fred's Marina 12900 NW Marina Way, Portland. Map More detailed directions, don't get lost, on the website. 7PM-10
Fourteen30 hosts Mike Bray and Glen Baldridge tonight in a talk about their works in the current show at the gallery. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 922 SE Ankeny Map 6:30PM Free
Kalakendra presents classical Indian musician Kartik Seshadri and his ensemble, including Arup Chattopadhyay on tabla. Both are young generation virtuosos fluent in traditional rags, their own compositions and collaborations with Western musicians. By Kalakendra www.kalakendra.org at 909 SW 11th 8PM $20, $15 students
