Tom Roe, Wavefarm

Tom Roe is the Artistic Director of Wave Farm and a transmission artist, who works frequently with radio and sound. He co-founded microradio station 87X in Tampa, Florida; and, with Greg Anderson and Violet Hopkins, founded free103point9 as a microradio collective in Brooklyn, New York in 1997. Roe performs with transmitters and receivers using multiple bands (FM, CB, walkie-talkie), as well as prepared CDs, vinyl records, and various electronics. He creates radio soundscapes using locally available frequencies, often to the beat of manipulated pop song samples. Roe has collaborated with Pierre Huyghe, Kristin Lucas, members of the Gold Sparkle Band, Matt Bua, Carrie Dashow, Tali Hinkis, Matt Mikas, and many others.

Roe has exhibited widely both in the United States and internationally. Performances have taken place at the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; White Box, New York free103point9 Wave Farm, Acra; Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, and at Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdansk, Poland; Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico; Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; The Kitchen, New York; and The Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Florida; among numerous others. In Sept., 2006 he served as a radio technician with The Wooster Group’s show “Who’s Your DADA?!” at the Museum of Modern Art.

Roe has also written about music for The Wire, Signal to Noise, and The New York Post, among others. Roe’s writing about free jazz in New York appeared in The Wire’s 20th Anniversary publication Undercurrents (Continuum).

Roe has led many of free103point9’s “Radio Lab” education lectures and workshops, speaking about how to perform with transmitters and the history of radio performance and microcasting at venues such as Columbia University, Brown University, Brooklyn College, Flux Factory, The Kitchen, NYU’s ITP Program, Kids Discover Radio in East Harlem, Grassroots Media Conference at The New School, RPI University in Troy, and other locations.

Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization that celebrates creative and community use of media and the airwaves. Our programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. Wave Farm’s major activities include:

Transmission Arts: programs that support artists who engage the transmission spectrum, on the airwaves and through public events. The Wave Farm Artist Residency Program is an international visiting artist program. The Transmission Arts Archive presents a living genealogy of artists’ experiments with broadcast media and the airwaves. Wave FarmRadio Art is a continuous online radio feed.

WGXC (90.7-FM): a creative community radio station based in New York’s Greene and Columbia counties. Hands-on access and participation activate WGXC as a public platform for information, experimentation, and engagement.

Media Arts Grants: a Regrant Partnership with NYSCA, Electronic Media and Film, The Media Arts Assistance Fund supports electronic media and film organizations, as well as individual artists, in all regions of New York State.