This past Friday on the Spring Equinox, I planned my second attempt at listening with the Open Wave-Receiver I had assembled. During the process of creating the We Are A Murmuration phone line project, my research into transmission arts led me to the Shortwave Collective “an international feminist group using the electromagnetic spectrum as artistic material.”

I was immediately smitten. They generously offer DIY instructions for creating an Open Wave-Receiver which is modeled on foxhole radios utilized in World War II. These simple radios are battery-less and powered by the radio waves themselves. The Shortwave Collective’s reimagined version invites curiosity and play, rather than tuning into something specific, it is a chance encounter with time, place and the natural phenomena of radio - a band of frequencies within the electromagnetic spectrum.

The Shortwave Collective acknowledges the “open” in Open Wave Receivers as both open access and open as something that is untunable¹, essentially something you cannot control or master. It is beautifully relational. As a practice of listening and being-with it requires letting go of outcomes and expectations.

“What happens when we treat radio not as a technology to command, but as a living field that gathers us into relation? We consider radio primarily as a cosmic force, moving through bodies, landscapes, and infrastructures.

… a poetic reorientation toward listening and dreaming -together, openly, and within the ever-shifting electromagnetic field that surrounds us.”²

My curiosity is my greatest love. I let it lead my life, and fully trust in where it will take me. So naturally I printed out the instructions for making an open wave-receiver (they also made a zine and an audio guide) and began collecting the materials to make one.

Working with wires, alligator clips, and anything of the mechanical nature is not a part of my skillset (but maybe it can be?). It felt like a huge stretch for me to experiment with this process, yet again, my curiosity gets to lead the way and I follow.

My first attempt was a practice in failure. Not as something negative but neutral, it just didn’t work. Because not all experiments or first attempts result in something “working”, but they do help us to stay curious and try again.

Then, I tried again. A week later, at dusk on the Spring Equinox I spread my blanket out, strung up the 10 meters of antenna wire across two ragged elm trees, touched the “cat’s whisker” to the galena crystal and heard the crackle and hiss of radio waves. I could not believe it. For moments I could hear a local radio station playing music in Spanish, layered with faint voices talking in English, and distant atmospheric sounds weaving through.

What magic!

How might a practice like this, a practice that invites deep presence, curiosity, embodied listening, and letting go of a specific outcome help us to stay enchanted in a time of distressing uncertainty? What would it mean to allow ourselves space to play and be in relationship with the world around us, especially with that which we cannot see or readily hear, to be in relationship with an animate force that is ungovernable?

These are a few of the questions I am tucking into my pockets and carrying with me.

Perhaps you’ll check out the work of the Shortwave Collective and fall down the rabbit hole of making and experimenting with an open wave receiver, and if you do, please tell me so we can nerd out on the wonders of radio waves.

We Are A Murmuration

This dial-in phone line project is so dear to me. Thank you for those who have emailed me and shared their enthusiasm, it means a lot!

Next week, there will be a new listening score to engage with, and you are always welcome (and encouraged!) to leave a message.

I’d love to hear about your experience with it, you are always welcome to reply back to this email.

LINKS FOR LISTENING WITH RADIO

If you want to wander into a rabbit hole of radio and transmission arts, I have curated an Are.na channel all about it, you can find it here.

Listening beyond radio, listening beyond history by Kate Donovan. A 14-minute audio journey, Kate is brilliant, go have a listen.

Listening with you,

Adrienne