URBANtraces

A Radio-Based, Oral History, Public Art Project

Part of Free Fall Baltimore, 2006

Celebrate the history and future of the Station North area neighborhoods through a series of interactive workshops and sound walks lead by the URBANtells artist collective.

Participants will learn how to build inexpensive FM transmitters, do field recording and editing, and create their own narratives to add to a developing community storyline. Placed in key locations, the network of handmade transmitters will broadcast these stories to residents and visitors alike tuned to the common FM frequency - using inexpensive radio technology to empower a community and give voice to its history and changing dynamic vitality.

FREE COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS

Workshops build upon each other, and participants are encouraged to attend all four. However, each can be attended on its own. Pre-registration is strongly recommended. Call 410-962-7075 or email info@stationnorth.org.

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New Workshop for Gotta Have Art!

Saturday, May 12, 2007, 10am-2pm, Westnorth Studio, 106 W. North Ave.

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Saturday, October 7, 2006, 10am - 2pm, Load of Fun Studios, 120 W. North Ave.

Introduction to the history of radio and sound art. Participants will build radio transmitters. Lunch provided.

Monday, October 16, 2006, 6 - 8:30pm, Cork Factory Gallery, 302 E. Federal St.

Improvisation, story telling, poetry, music. Participants will discuss what the past, present and future of North Avenue represents as a place. Who tells these stories? How should they be recorded and transmitted?

Saturday, November 4, 2006, 10am - 2pm, (St. Marks Lutheran Church, 1900 St. Paul St.)

Sound walks, deep listening, recording soundscapes, audible recipes. Working in groups, participants will learn how to create sound recordings from the street, and edit their work. Lunch provided.

Saturday, November 18, 2006, 10am - 2pm, Area 405 Gallery, 450 E. Oliver St.

Participants will finish editing their work, and upload sound files for transmission. Lunch provided.

URBANtraces: Station North will continue, with workshops, events and additional elements in the spring of 2007.

URBANtraces: Station North is part of Free Fall Baltimore, made possible by a grant from Mayor Martin O'Malley and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. The project is also supported by generous grants from the Baltimore City Arts & Humanities program, with funds provided in part by the Maryland State Arts Council; the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund; and the Baltimore Community Foundation, a collection of charitable funds benefiting the Greater Baltimore region.

The three artists of URBANtells (http://urbantells.net) - Steve Bradley, Joe Reinsel and James Rouvelle - are united by their common interest in community art, history and technology. Their work uses low and high tech means to engage a city's residents, transients and lost inhabitants, exploring ways to build and strengthen connections among community members through research, learning and affordable technology.

Steve Bradley, Assoc. Prof. of Visual Arts University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), is an artist and educator who works with time-based media, sound performance, installation, and material culture. He explores the boundaries of urban and suburban culture by collecting debris, sound and images to map human behavior.

Joe Reinsel, Visiting Asst. Prof. of Visual Arts at UMBC, creates aural and visual art using digital and analog tools. With a background in music composition, he combines original media - including video, sound installation, music and digital art - to give form and substance to his vision.

James Rouvelle is Prof. of Interactive Media at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Earlier in life, he was a classical music composer and performer, but has gravitated into the sound installation genre, where he learned basic electronics and became interested in micro-controllers and robotics - the basis of work he does today.