The Zero Hour

(2005-2008)

Project web site: http://www.pan-o-matic.com/zerohour

Zero Hour is a participatory radio performance that transforms the city streets into a laboratory for experiments in subliminal communication. Using a storefront or public space as a control base station, a live broadcast is transmitted to the audience outside on the street through special state-of-the-art mobile headgear: tinfoil hats outfitted with radio receivers and wireless microphones. These DIY devices allow the audience to eavesdrop on sounds culled from historic airtime propaganda, local radio stations, public transport service announcements and the surrounding environment while simultaneously redirecting their navigation through the urban landscape.

The tinfoil hat, a homemade contraption popularized in 1930’s sci-fi and still used today, is believed to thwart hazardous mind control rays emitted by aliens, the government, military and random evildoers. Used as a tool to detourne participants from the typical ways they navigate familiar public spaces, Zero Hour becomes a platform for reflecting on how public information impacts our daily behaviors and shapes our value systems.

Calgary, Canada Performance:

In October 2008, Zero Hour was performed at the M:ST Festival 2008 in Calgary, with Suzanne Thorpe.

Buffalo, New York Performance:

Free103point9 provided a live internet stream of Zero Hour’s Buffalo performances broadcast from Rustbelt Books and the Albright-Knox Museum as part of the 2005 Infringement Festival. Additional performers include Kristi Meal and Jennine Griffear.

Developed through a residency at Free103point9 Wave Farm.