The Zero Hour is an interactive radio transmission that ironically engages the mythology around the tinfoil hat - it's ability to thwart hazardous mind control rays - as a platform for reflecting on the persuasive mechanisms inherent in advertising, instructional training and propaganda. The performance/street intervention launched at the 2006 Buffalo Infringement Festival this summer in Buffalo, New York and included performers Jennine Griffear, Kristi Meal and Stephanie Rothenberg.

The performance is based on the notion/precept that a mysterious white noise has been pervading western New York's "All America City" for the past several weeks and that Buffalonian's safety may be at risk. In order to counteract any detrimental microcellular effects, the PAN-O-MATIC Emergency Broadcast Network developed a special broadcast called The Zero Hour. By wearing PAN-O-MATIC's state-of-the-art mobile headgear, participants on the street can receive the "transmission" - recalibrating mind and body to it's original primordial, pre-technological resonance of 7.83 hertz.

Operating under the auspices of a research laboratory, the performance appropriated the rhetoric and aesthetics accordingly. The storefront of Rustbelt books in Allentown became the base station for the transmission. Radio receivers inside the tinfoil hats enabled participants on the street to hear the performer in the base station as well the performers outside using wireless microphones. The performers collectively led participants through a series of instructional exercises, diagnostic tests and questionnaires based on various techniques and training programs (i.e. meditation, yoga, dance, boot camp, language). Similar to a radio call-in, street participants responding to questions through the wireless microphone could hear their voices broadcast. Along with the voices of the performers and participants, the live broadcast became a recombinant mix of live and recorded sound that included historic and current news bulletins, radio advertisements, sound effects, instructional training tapes and music. Eyewitness accounts of the mysterious white noise previously recorded on the streets of Buffalo also played during the broadcast.

Free103point9 provided a live stream of The Zero Hour during the run of the performance. The August 4th performance took place at the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo. The project was developed through a residency at Free103point9 Wave Farm.

Video documentation of performances
(5 min, 12.6 mb Quicktime)



Eyewitness accounts of mysterious white noise
(excerpt, 5 min, 4.6 mb mp3)

The Zero Hour web site
Buffalo Infringement Festival web site
Free103point9
www.pan-o-matic.com