This workshop proposes listening as a way to sense infrastructure and atmosphere as overlapping fields of signal and flow.

In small groups, we’ll build DIY antennas that allow us to tune into Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio waves. In cities, these antennas make audible the hums and buzzes of urban infrastructures – microwaves, fridges, computers, phones, and the mains power grid all leak radio frequencies. Outside the city, we can hear electromagnetic waves produced by natural phenomena, such as bursts of static from lightning striking in distant places. Sometimes, you can hear whistlers – when lightning travels along the Earth’s magnetic field lines to create mysterious descending tones.

We’ll trial two antenna designs: a large loop of computer cable that requires many hands to operate, and a more portable hula-hoop design by artist Dan Tapper. A process of ‘commoning’ the antennas will also be agreed, creating a shared library for participants to borrow and take out of the city.

Hannah Kemp-Welch is a sound artist with a social practice. Since gaining her amateur radio license in 2019, she has focused on developing inclusive pedagogies and technologies for radio. She constructs DIY antennas to tune into natural radio, documented in the BBC Radio 4 feature 'All Under One Magnetosphere', a Social Broadcasts production with Oliver Sanders. Hannah teaches BA & MA Sound Arts at LCC, is a PhD student with CRiSAP, and a member of Shortwave Collective.

Hannah Kemp-Welch | Sound Artist | London

FESTIVAL PASS HOLDERS ONLY
BOOKING IS REQUIRED