{"id":28263,"date":"2017-09-12T14:30:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T18:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=28263"},"modified":"2017-09-12T14:30:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T18:30:43","slug":"shadows-of-the-state-a-photobook-about-numbers-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/shadows-of-the-state-a-photobook-about-numbers-stations\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadows of the State: a photobook about numbers stations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus (Source: Lewis Bush)<\/p><\/div>\n

Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor,\u00a0James Jordan, who shares a link to this article in Wired magazine<\/a>:<\/p>\n

IF YOU TUNED into just the right shortwave radio frequency in the 1970s, you might hear a creepy computerized voice reading out a string of numbers. It was the Cold War, and the coded messages were rumored to be secret intelligence broadcasts from “number stations” located around the globe.<\/p>\n

Photographer Lewis Bush is obsessed with these stations to \u201can almost irrational degree” and hunts them down in Shadows of the State, featuring 30 composite satellite images of alleged number stations from Germany to Australia. The series took two years and endless research. \u201cIt\u2019s a difficult project to quantify in terms of man hours wasted on it,\u201d he says.[…]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Bush finds what he believes to be a station, he takes up to 50 close-up screen grabs and stitches them together in Photoshop to create one high-resolution image. He also listens to frequencies where broadcasts supposedly still happen on radio listening software, taking screen shots of the software’s spectrograms, graphics depicting the sound spectrum.<\/p>\n

The final images try to visualize something largely intangible. No government has ever confirmed the existence of numbers stations, and Bush himself isn’t completely certain of their locations. No one can be sure what these scratchy codes really are. And that’s precisely what makes them so intriguing.<\/p>\n

Shadows of the State\u00a0will be published by\u00a0Brave Books<\/a>\u00a0in December 2017. Bush is also raising funds on\u00a0Kickstarter<\/a>for an interactive companion website.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read the full article at Wired.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0James Jordan, who shares a link to this article in Wired magazine: IF YOU TUNED into just the right shortwave radio frequency in the 1970s, you might hear a creepy computerized voice reading out a string of numbers. It was the Cold War, and the coded messages were rumored to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[508,3,172,43],"tags":[6498,3894,4088,34,445],"class_list":["post-28263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-2","category-news","category-numbers-stations","category-shortwave-radio","tag-james-jordan","tag-lewis-bush","tag-numbers-stations","tag-shortwave","tag-spy-numbers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-7lR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13548,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/lewis-bush-seeking-london-radio-listening-posts\/","url_meta":{"origin":28263,"position":0},"title":"Lewis Bush seeks London radio listening posts","author":"Thomas","date":"June 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographer, 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/art-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Crosley-Dial-BlackAndWhite","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Crosley-Dial-BlackAndWhite.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Crosley-Dial-BlackAndWhite.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Crosley-Dial-BlackAndWhite.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Crosley-Dial-BlackAndWhite.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30374,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/going-by-the-numbers\/","url_meta":{"origin":28263,"position":1},"title":"Going By the Numbers","author":"Robert Gulley","date":"January 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For those who follow numbers stations or, like me, enjoy seeing articles about numbers stations, below are a few paragraphs from a recent article in Radio World by author James Careless: \u201c6-7-9-2-6. 5-6-9-9-0.\u201d Tune across the shortwave bands (above AM\/MW), and chances are you will come across a \u201cnumbers station.\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/numbers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/numbers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/numbers.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/numbers.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10770,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/numbers-stations-featured-in-highbrow-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":28263,"position":2},"title":"Numbers stations featured in Highbrow Magazine","author":"Thomas","date":"September 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, who shares this link to a numbers station piece in Highbrow Magazine; one of the more comprehensive numbers station articles I've read in a while. Here's an excerpt: \"Many nights, Spooks turn on their shortwave radios and drift through the frequencies. On any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"towers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/grimetonbandw-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":447,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/david-goren-explores-numbers-stations\/","url_meta":{"origin":28263,"position":3},"title":"David Goren Explores Numbers Stations","author":"Thomas","date":"November 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"September, 22 2011: Out of SWLing Post archives--David Goren Explores Numbers Stations: David Goren, independent radio producer and shortwave enthusiast, has produced a radio documentary about numbers stations for The Lost and Found Sound Series. It has been recently picked up by L.A. Theatre Works. What are numbers stations?\u00a0 I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"towers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/grimetonbandw-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":781,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/npr-explores-numbers-stations\/","url_meta":{"origin":28263,"position":4},"title":"NPR Explores Numbers Stations","author":"Thomas","date":"July 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend, NPR's Guy Raz interviewed\u00a0Mark Stout, the official historian at the International Spy Museum. Their topic? Numbers stations. Click hear to go to NPR's webpage, listen and\/or read the full transcript. You can also download an MP3 audio file of the report by clicking here. For even more numbers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/npr_logo.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3652,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/finding-numbers-stations-while-scanning-for-pirates\/","url_meta":{"origin":28263,"position":5},"title":"Finding the “English Man” numbers station while scanning for pirates","author":"Thomas","date":"May 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While listening for pirate radio stations last night, I recorded a numbers station. I found it on 6,949 kHz at 1:30 UTC, 26 May 2012. It was broadcast in USB for almost exactly ten minutes. The ID was sent for a full four minutes of that time. I have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Numbers Stations"","block_context":{"text":"Numbers Stations","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/numbers-stations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/grimetonbandw-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}