JEAN-PAUL DE ROOVER

“Dead Hand Switch” is a 12-minute piece of avant-garde instrumental music originally commissioned by Vox Popular, a media arts festival and organization in Thunder Bay, ON, and funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

The piece is based around a Russian radio broadcast called UVB-76, often referred to as “The Buzzer”. This broadcast has been live since the Cold War and some speculate (inconclusively) that it is part of the mutually assured destruction deterrent known as a “dead hand.” This means that in the event of an attack on the former Soviet Union, the broadcast would go unanswered automatically triggering a retaliatory attack of missiles on the United States. It is speculated that that function is still fully operational.

Visitors are invited to experience 12 minutes from the perspective of a radio operator with an unexpected ending. Mired in propaganda, the exhibit is meant to cause confusion as to who is the actual victor as well as disorient them due to the surround sound nature of the composition.