The second wave of numbers radio

Numbers radio has entered phase two: artistic imitation. 

Prototype #44 is a net.art work, offering new numbers recordings.  You can listen to the numbers read aloud, which is alternatively eerie and soothing.  As a bonus, videos are available, which is either a logical expression of the form, or its multimedia hack and violation.   The spoken numbers are streamed from some live data:

Q: The constant stream of data being fed into your station makes me feel sad--and the droning of the video hosts is eerie, and they stutter a lot too —are you trying to hurt us?

Then there's parody, of course, courtesy of Rodent Radio.  SpyNumbers.com tells us about this New York City gag, with its laser-sharp focus on the small mammal revolution.  Check out this sample track.  Or follow the SpyNumbers page as they find ciphertexts in the numbers, then decrypt them.  ARG designers, take note.

Maybe it's a genre thing.  Numbers radio appeared from the margins, was adopted by the avant garde, become rave/trance fodder, made an appearance in the work of a fairly well-known band, downloadable from Archive.org ... has aesthetic fatigue set in? 

I await the inevitable: numbers radio fanfiction.  Operator B and A, separated by the radio spectrum, yet with a hidden yearning, glimpsed between the numbers.

(via MeFi)

Comments

[Gardner]

Man, I love this stuff.