Radio Tapestry
Radio Tapestry, 2022
Sound Installation; Etched Zinc plates connected via copper thread, interfaced with a Raspberry Pi Computer
Dimensions: 2.33m height x 1m width
Radio Tapestry is an installation work, composed of photographic etchings of received radio transmissions on zinc plates. Used as antennae, each plate captures a fleeting moment in time, an intersection between electromagnetism, propagation, and human agency.
Whether the recorded transmissions are intentional - music or communication - or unintentional – polluting electronic sources; security systems, transformers – the materiality of each plate offers an interface into an often-overlooked understanding of space, the Radio Frequency (RF) Landscape. A topographical conception of RF which emphasises that these ethereal interactions exist in parallel to the corporeal space we inhabit in our day-to-day lives.
Each inscribed radio artefact is woven into the next via copper windings. An acknowledgement of the historic association with the textile process of warp and weft to radio’s interrelation between electricity and magnetism. This conductive continuity between plates allows each ‘stitch’ to become part of a larger fabric of antenna, in which every collated radio artefact serves part of a more substantial receiver. Received signals are then audibly played back in real-time, allowing us to witness the propagation of information in space.
Sound Installation; Etched Zinc plates connected via copper thread, interfaced with a Raspberry Pi Computer
Dimensions: 2.33m height x 1m width
Radio Tapestry is an installation work, composed of photographic etchings of received radio transmissions on zinc plates. Used as antennae, each plate captures a fleeting moment in time, an intersection between electromagnetism, propagation, and human agency.
Whether the recorded transmissions are intentional - music or communication - or unintentional – polluting electronic sources; security systems, transformers – the materiality of each plate offers an interface into an often-overlooked understanding of space, the Radio Frequency (RF) Landscape. A topographical conception of RF which emphasises that these ethereal interactions exist in parallel to the corporeal space we inhabit in our day-to-day lives.
Each inscribed radio artefact is woven into the next via copper windings. An acknowledgement of the historic association with the textile process of warp and weft to radio’s interrelation between electricity and magnetism. This conductive continuity between plates allows each ‘stitch’ to become part of a larger fabric of antenna, in which every collated radio artefact serves part of a more substantial receiver. Received signals are then audibly played back in real-time, allowing us to witness the propagation of information in space.