Inspired by a study that equated high levels of Electromagnetic Frequency (EMF) with depression, Los Angeles artist Jeff Cain created Dead Air, a series of field recordings taken from physical sounds of four radio towers in the Mount Wilson Antenna Farm- a collection of almost 50 radio and television antennas located on top of a mountain in the Angeles National Forest. The artist discovered that the highest concentration of EMF on the west coast was the Mt. Wilson Antenna Farm.
The recordings in Dead Air were made by placing contact mics on the surface of four Mt Wilson radio towers. The end result is a four channel recording of wind and radio physically interacting at the base of some of the most technologically and culturally powerful broadcast media in the world. Dead Air is presented at the Bleeding Edge Festival as a sound installation in the wilderness, just outside of the immediate festival activity, referencing the actual Mt. Wilson towers as they themselves loom heavily over the Los Angeles Basin.
