October 3rd, 2013
Sending a Radiotelegraph to the Radius
For the month of October, I have a new piece up created especially for Radius. I’m halfway through my two month residency at the Skaftfell Center for Visual Art in the small town of Seyðisfjörður on the east coast of Iceland, and the piece involves radiotelegraphy in spoken morse code. Seyðisfjörður is located in a deep fjord off the Atlantic Ocean just shy of the Arctic Circle, and was the site of the first telegraph cable connection between Iceland and Europe in 1906. 1906 was also the year of the first audio transmission of the human voice by wireless means undertaken by Reginald Fessenden on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean at Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
Radiotelegraph is a beacon simulcast by a private low-watt transmitter in Seyðisfjörður (on 107.1 FM) and by Radius Chicago (88.9 FM) at sundown Seyðisfjörður time, for a period of five days in October. The beacon signals the descent of the sun into the northern night. Voice, electronics, and radio signals, all recorded and mixed at Hóll, Seyðisfjörður.
Seyðisfjörður broadcasts (GMT 0):
October 7: 17:59; October 8: 17:56; October 9: 17:52; October 10: 17:48; October 11: 17:45
Chicago broadcasts (GMT -5):
October 7: 12:59; October 8: 12:56; October 9: 12:52; October 10: 12:48; October 11: 12:45
Radius is an experimental radio broadcast platform based in Chicago Illinois.
