This week Prague's NoD Gallery, in conjunction with Czech Radio and an array of international galleries and radio stations, will be celebrating Art's Birthday. Who or what is Art? It may seem like a timeless question, but to Fluxist artists like the late collage artist/filmmaker Robert Filliou, art is a living entity that deserves a party. In 1973, nearly a decade after the origin of Fluxism's multimedia reach, Filliou set a match to candles on art's first birthday cake, spawning more than three decades of annual transcontinental celebrations.

Recently, the celebrations have included radio broadcasts. "Three years ago, a network of public radio stations under the roof of the European Broadcasting Union joined this tradition of Art's Birthday, and decided to co-celebrate the party on the public radio network," says party host and local Czech Radio producer Michael Rataj. "We at Czech Radio will link with another 15 radio stations in a network of satellites, phone lines and Internet streams to join the many other artists around the world in bringing presents."

The 2007 Art's Birthday will certainly keep with Flux's goal to tie the world together via the flexibility of expression. And the emphasis on radio should bring some long-overdue recognition to Reginald Fessenden, the unsung Canadian inventor of the radio broadcast. Radio had been in wide use for sending telegraphs when, in the winter of 1906, Fessenden made the first use of the medium to broadcast voice, phonograph discs and live music from his Massachusetts woodshed.

Carrying on the Fessenden tradition at NoD will be the local turntablist duo Birds Build Nests Underground. Fresh from their recent appearance at Prague's Industrial Festival, BBNU will spin an audience-participation audio collage that member Petr Ference describes as "a sentimental journey through radio pop hits and chartbusters, where the audience will have the possibility to surf the radio waves and find their own hit to complete the melange of Muzak and voices from out there."

Further waxing the evening into the radio ether will be a project called c8400 & Machine Funck, which Rataj describes as "young DJs and electronic artists who will do a live remix of local and regional Czech Radio channels in real time."

If all of the above sounds like it has the potential to turn into an overloaded trans-Atlantic relay station, keep in mind that this is an event where you can dial with your feet. Walking out of the main theater into the NoD lobby, audience members will have an opportunity to stroll amid a four-channel installation by the Society of Algorithm. This live uplink will connect group members stationed in Tokyo, Vancouver, Brussels and Prague, who in real time will present a multilingual gift of word art to both the audience and to art ... whoever he, she or it may be.

Listeners at home or in their cars can tune into the evening's sounds via the Czech National Radio service. The live broadcast will also be available worldwide via Internet steaming (Czech Radio's Web site is www.rozhlas.cz).

And don't forget to sing "Happy Birthday, dear Art!"