April 15, 2004
Turbulence Commission: "Prototype #44, Net Pirate Number Station" by
Yoshi Sodeoka
http://turbulence.org/works/sodeoka/

"Prototype #44, Net Pirate Number Station" is essentially a short-wave
radio "number" station broadcasting over the internet. Enter and you
will hear random web-generated number sequences read aloud by
prerecorded video host personalities. Calming and trancelike–in a
droning and vaguely threatening way–"Prototype #44" was inspired by the
many "Spy Numbers Stations" that sprang up in intelligence communities
around the globe during the 1960s. They still exist.

"We are proud to take our place in this community, amorphous as it may
be. Interactivity has been kept to a minimum. Users are encouraged to
enjoy themselves. Welcome to our station."

"Prototype #44, Net Pirate Number Station" is a 2003 commission of New
Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore), for its Turbulence web
site. It was made possible with funds from The Greenwall Foundation.

BIOGRAPHY

Yoshi Sodeoka is an artist, designer and musician who has been producing
both art and commercial projects for over a decade. His interactive
digital artwork has been featured on numerous CD-ROMs and web sites and
in exhibitions at the San Francisco MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American
Art, the Design Museum, Germany and Art & Design Museum Brazil. In
addition, Sodeoka has lectured widely on the topic of digital design and
has juried design awards for PDN magazine and the One Club. He was a
contributing writer for Artbyte magazine for which he wrote a bi-monthly
column about underground digital culture.

Sodeoka was formerly the founding art director of Word.com, one of the
Web's oldest and most influential e-zines, which launched in 1995.
Sodeoka's designs for Word won awards from I.D. Magazine and Print,
among others. He holds a degree in computer graphics from Brooklyn's
Pratt Institute and studied art in his native Japan from the age of five.

For more information about Turbulence, please visit http://turbulence.org