Tag Archives: art

Carlos Latuff’s shortwave radio logs are a work of art

For those who don’t know, our friend and SWLing Post contributor, Carlos Latuff, is not only a devoted radio enthusiast, but also a prominent political cartoonist in Brazil and throughout the world.

Recently, Carlos has been posting his shortwave logs on his Twitter feed and they’re pretty amazing.

Carlos’ shortwave logs not only include comments and notes from each broadcast, but also his own artwork.

Here’s Carlos’ recording of Vatican Radio which accompanies the log at the top of this post:

Click here to check out Carlos’ Twitter feed where he posts his political cartoons and, yes, even the occasional shortwave listening log!

If you’ve been a reader of the SWLing Post for long, you’ll notice that we’re not a space for political discussions; there are much better options out there on the Internet. Here, we stick to the world of radio, but we can’t help but highlight this intersection and Carlos’ creative logs.

In fact, Carlos, I might nudge you for that Vatican Radio recording and your artwork to post on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive!

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The Knitted Radio: An FM radio transmitter sweater

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who shares a link to this fascinating maker/art piece from designer Irene Posch:

The Knitted Radio is an installation piece that manifests how to knit a sweater that is also a FM radio transmitter. The tactile centerpiece is a functional electronic object knitted out of ordinary wool and commonly available conductive materials. The accompanying knitting instructions, to be published in a knitting magazine, allows the reproduction of the electronic object by an alternative maker group.

The piece is part of a larger investigation into using traditional textile crafting techniques to create electronic components and devices from scratch. The critical question is whether ‘what’ one makes is really more important than ‘how’ one makes things. Industrial technology research is mostly driven by the desire to invent the next killer application, whereas artistic research holds the chance to question implications. By exploring alternative production procedures, we might be able to reveal skills, techniques and materials that have been uncharted, undervalued, or decisively left out of popular demand.[…]

Click here to continue reading and to check out other works by Irene Posch.

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Switzerland: Museum Tinguely to host a sonic journey

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Justin Moore, who writes:

This may be of interest to your readers in Switzerland (and nearby!). From Bruce Sterlin’s Beyond the Beyond blog at Wired:

“From October 24, 2018 to January 27, 2019, Museum Tinguely will host a sonic journey giving access to works of radio art from the last hundred years in a unique way. As visitors navigate the space with headphones and specially programmed smartphones, their movements act as “human radio dials,” activating works (current and historical, well-known and unknown) by artists including Antonin Artaud, John Cage and László Moholy-Nagy through to Michaela Mélian, Milo Rau and Natascha Sadr Haghighian. The installation was designed by the artist, architect and musician Cevdet Erek and realized by Meso Digital Interiors. The resulting interplay of sound and space is both technically sophisticated and aesthetically striking, giving visitors an immersive experience of the world of radio. In the second part of the exhibition, diverse aspects of the theme of radio will be discussed in 14 themed weeks, offering visitors a chance to engage and experiment actively with this fascinating medium.

Over the hundred years since its emergence, the radio medium has been explored by musicians, composers, writers, philosophers and fine artists (and many others who do not fit into such categories). They have examined the production of programs, ways of recording, transmitting and receiving, and the possibilities for recording broadcasts. In the first exhibition of its kind, Radiophonic Spaces brings together more than 200 pieces for radio from around the world with the aim of documenting this sustained engagement with the medium by artists of all fields, and allowing visitors to hear it. Unforgettable broadcasts that existed only in obscure archives can be experienced afresh, presenting the history of a medium whose rootedness in actuality means it gives a picture of the century of its existence. The major disasters of the last hundred years are revisited here, as are the great technical and social achievements of the period—to current positions such as Documenta Radio (2017). The “sonic journey” combines artistic approaches to radio art and broadcasting with a scholarly project led by the research group on experimental radio at the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar. The results of this creative interplay unfold in an immersive journey featuring some 200 gems of international radio art. Historical and contemporary works are related to one another: from Antonin Artaud, John Cage and László Moholy-Nagy through to Michaela Mélian, Milo Rau and Natascha Sadr Haghighian. With the help of a headphone system, visitors gain access to individual works of radio art, triggered by their movements. In a space designed in cooperation with the artist, architect and musician Cevdet Erek and realized by Meso Digital Interiors, visitors immerse themselves acoustically in this art form. This experience resembles the reality of using an actual FM radio: looking for channels until a voice, a piece of music or a sequence of sounds prompts the listener to stay a while longer, or at least to note the frequency so as to be to return to the channel and the voice later. The range of channels on offer is confusing, overwhelming, sometimes too much, but it reflects both the sprawling variety that characterizes the medium and the possibility to decide quickly what to listen to.”

https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2018/10/radiophonic-spaces-museum-tinguely/

https://www.tinguely.ch/en/ausstellungen/ausstellungen/2018/radiophonic-spaces.html

Many thanks for the tip, Justin!

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Növö – The Shortwaves

Novo - The Shortwaves

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who writes:

A few weeks ago this amazing album was released which is totally jammed packed full of shortwave weirdness wrapped into a synth concept work.

[…]Here is some info about the album…

http://www.side-line.com/electronica-project-novo-returns-with-5th-album-the-shortwaves-recommended-to-metroland-kraftwerk-duet-emmo-and-the-normal-fans/

This is so fantastic, full of numbers stations including the very weird Asian ones, interval signal inspired tunes, data bursts and general shortwave radio weirdness.

Plenty of deep mixed samples of Radio Peking, Moscow, NHK, VOA etc.

Hopefully you can listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music or somewhere though any progressive DXer won’t be disappointed if they chose to purchase the album.

https://itunes.apple.com/be/album/the-shortwaves/id1113480207

Mark actually sent this tip several weeks ago–immediately after the album release. I had problems, at first, downloading the album (probably because I was outside of the US at the time). I finally did download it, though, and I agree with Mark: it’s well-worth a listen. I’ve added it to my music collection.

Növö may not appeal to everyone, but if you’re a fan of electronic music with heavy use of samples and an “industrial” flavor, you’ll love The Shortwaves.

Here’s a video promo I discovered on YouTube:

Thanks, Mark, for the tip!

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Guy shares his nostalgia radio wallpaper for download

Hertzian Vision_2560x1440SWLing Post contributor, Guy Atkins, writes:

I’m writing to let you know of a “nostalgia radio” Windows wallpaper graphic I’ve made available to radio hobbyists. This design is called Hertzian Vision, and I created it three years ago for a few SDR enthusiasts/software authors in Finland. I’d like to offer it to your readers too.

My design was inspired by the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention in Bellingham, Washington, which opened initially as a showcase for antique radios.

Here is a link to a folder with two sizes of the wallpaper:

https://app.box.com/s/33qzg7ouo3sztzzbnd36ylytt1cp7u3y\

The two high resolution wallpaper files are 1920 x 1200 and 2560 x 1440 pixels.

This is a fantastic graphic you’ve created, Guy–many thanks for sharing it with us!

KMREOn a side note, Guy also informed me that the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention also operates a low power FM station, (KMRE) that features old time and classic radio shows. You can listen to KMRE online via TuneIn Radio or several other sources.

All morning, I’ve been listening to KMRE via my SStran AM transmitter though my BC-348-Q. Great fun!

[Update: if you have difficulty downloading the wallpaper via the link above, you can download them directly from the SWLing Post server by clicking here and here.]

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Lewis Bush seeks London radio listening posts

Crosley-Dial-BlackAndWhitePhotographer, Lewis Bush, is seeking ham radio stations and shortwave listening posts in the London, England area. Lewis writes to the SWLing Post:

I’m working on a project which involves trying to locate and map possible broadcast sites for numbers stations (confirmed, suspected, and some highly unlikely) for an eventual book on the subject. These satellite maps (22 in total) are going to be displayed alongside spectrograms of an assortment of shortwave broadcasts and noise, but the final element of the project which I’d really like to include are photographs of ham shacks and shortwave radios themselves.

These photographs would be without people in them and could be as anonymised as the owners like. It’s also not important to me whether the owners are themselves interested in numbers stations. The main thing I’m interested in is really the equipment and the spaces that people listen from.

You can read a little more about the project and see some sample images here: http://www.lewisbush.com/category/numbers-in-the-dark/

If you’re willing to help Lewis, please contact him via email:  [email protected]

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1944 “Chart of Electromagnetic Radiations”

Hat tip to Dennis Walter for sending me a link to this beautiful circa 1944 “Chart of Electromagnetic Radiations” by W.M Welch Scientific Company. According to Flickr user llnl photos, it was found, “tucked away in the back of an unused office years ago, but now hangs framed in a high-traffic hallway populated by Lawrence Livermore engineers.”

ChartOfElectromagneticRadiation

Being a big fan of vintage maps and technical illustrations, I would love to dedicate a wall of my radio room to this chart.

Click on the photo above to enlarge this image to 1600 × 1113.

You can download the original, high resolution image by visiting llnl photos’ Flickr page.

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