Macro Impressions
Macro Impressions, 2023
Photographic Series.
An extreme macro-photography series of inscribed metal plates.
Used for their conductive properties, each plate depicts a moment of reception; a material representation of transient transmissions. Using such an intimate perspective affords us the ability to register the minute topography of each etching.
Photographic Series.
An extreme macro-photography series of inscribed metal plates.
Used for their conductive properties, each plate depicts a moment of reception; a material representation of transient transmissions. Using such an intimate perspective affords us the ability to register the minute topography of each etching.
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.
Inscriptions
Inscriptions, 2022
Etched zinc plates
Various Dimensions: from 2x2cm to A2
Each zinc plate has been used as an antenna, to record information, exclusive to its resonant frequencies. The resonant frequency is denoted by, and unique to, the definitions of the plate; the material, weight, size, composition. These recordings of Radio transmission vary from intentional - this could be broadcast stations or amateur communications - to unintentional spurious emissions of RF, such as locally oscillating circuits, but most crucially they all involve the provocation of electromagnetic energy. Each piece of recorded information is bound to the plate that was used to receive it. A literal moment in time in which the recording was taken; a specific intermingling of time, electromagnetism, and human agency (receiving or transmitting)
The digital recording taken was then inscribed back into the plate, leaving an impression; thus turning the machined zinc plate from an industrial material to an RF artefact. Not only does each antenna (plate) offer a conduit into the electromagnetic spectrum, the medium of the computational (software) also offers a visual interface in which to present such a phenomena.
Etched zinc plates
Various Dimensions: from 2x2cm to A2
Each zinc plate has been used as an antenna, to record information, exclusive to its resonant frequencies. The resonant frequency is denoted by, and unique to, the definitions of the plate; the material, weight, size, composition. These recordings of Radio transmission vary from intentional - this could be broadcast stations or amateur communications - to unintentional spurious emissions of RF, such as locally oscillating circuits, but most crucially they all involve the provocation of electromagnetic energy. Each piece of recorded information is bound to the plate that was used to receive it. A literal moment in time in which the recording was taken; a specific intermingling of time, electromagnetism, and human agency (receiving or transmitting)
The digital recording taken was then inscribed back into the plate, leaving an impression; thus turning the machined zinc plate from an industrial material to an RF artefact. Not only does each antenna (plate) offer a conduit into the electromagnetic spectrum, the medium of the computational (software) also offers a visual interface in which to present such a phenomena.
Contact Drawings
Contact Drawings, 2021
Media: Digital Image
Contact Drawings is an ongoing project culminating of real-time global contact recordings.
Created during lockdown, when communication was almost exclusively through digital devices, I began to explore many of the telematic architectures we as humans employ to communicate globally.
Looking at ‘Dxing’, the amateur transmission of non-commercial messages globally to make two-way radio contact with distant agents, I was able to transcribe real-time data of these global exchanges as they happen in the world.
Substituting a global geographical map for a white background, each thread made emphasises not where they occurred in the world but rather on the shifting compositions themselves. These contemporary drawings, although digital, concern physcial interaction; as they instigated by globe agents collaborating in the physical world. Each line, begins and ends with a human on an international level, irrespective of their nationality or cultural identity; ultimately, and unknowingly, informing the shifting composition through their interaction.
Media: Digital Image
Contact Drawings is an ongoing project culminating of real-time global contact recordings.
Created during lockdown, when communication was almost exclusively through digital devices, I began to explore many of the telematic architectures we as humans employ to communicate globally.
Looking at ‘Dxing’, the amateur transmission of non-commercial messages globally to make two-way radio contact with distant agents, I was able to transcribe real-time data of these global exchanges as they happen in the world.
Substituting a global geographical map for a white background, each thread made emphasises not where they occurred in the world but rather on the shifting compositions themselves. These contemporary drawings, although digital, concern physcial interaction; as they instigated by globe agents collaborating in the physical world. Each line, begins and ends with a human on an international level, irrespective of their nationality or cultural identity; ultimately, and unknowingly, informing the shifting composition through their interaction.
Physical Marks
Physical Marks, 2019
Digital Image
Whilst observing and capturing fleeting moments of information within the radio spectrum, I began to consider my involvement within the visuals I was recording.
From composing and foregrounding a specific transmission (tuning), to the sensitivity of reception (the rejection or acceptance of weaker signals), each digital recording retains an impression from the artist. Developing this notion further, I decided to explore explicit impressions on the RF waterfall.
The geometric segments in the image depict negative space. That is, space in time that no information was received by the program. A loss of information caused by my physical action of detaching the antenna from the receiver.
Although this programmatic illustration already charts the physical - yet non-optical - propagation of radio waves, the direct cause and effect of physically altering the receiver is emblematic of the physicality of an otherwise computational representation, and secondly the responsibility of observer as artist.
Digital Image
Whilst observing and capturing fleeting moments of information within the radio spectrum, I began to consider my involvement within the visuals I was recording.
From composing and foregrounding a specific transmission (tuning), to the sensitivity of reception (the rejection or acceptance of weaker signals), each digital recording retains an impression from the artist. Developing this notion further, I decided to explore explicit impressions on the RF waterfall.
The geometric segments in the image depict negative space. That is, space in time that no information was received by the program. A loss of information caused by my physical action of detaching the antenna from the receiver.
Although this programmatic illustration already charts the physical - yet non-optical - propagation of radio waves, the direct cause and effect of physically altering the receiver is emblematic of the physicality of an otherwise computational representation, and secondly the responsibility of observer as artist.