2024

soundinstallation
copper, shortwave radios, 5 speakers

A copper antenna/sculpture is placed on a sugar beat train wagon in a hall of veteran trains. Thin copper thread picks up the electromagnetic rays from the air and trough shortwave radios the rays are transmitted to five speakers placed in different wagons. In realtime, a field of noise with subtle signals and occasional voices fills the hall. The noise changes slowly with the movement of the sun.

Shortwaves move around the earth through bouncing between the ground and the atmosphere. When the sun is in zenit the ionosphere’s capability of reflecting the radio waves back to the earth gets blurred, but when the sun starts to sink again the clarity of the atmosphere’s reflection increases and more nuances and details of sounds can appear in the noise. By dawn there are good conditions for hearing more signals and messages like morse code, radio broadcasts from the other side of the earth and other more or less identifiable sounds.

In preparation for the installation Sjögren worked together with Anders Stenberg from the local radio amateur community on the island Gotland. Anders Stenberg who spent his whole life working as an electronic engineer did a talk during the exhibition about electromagnetism, shortwave radio and the infrastructure of radio today, which has been kept in place in the event of cyberattacks or sun-storms blowing out the digital communication.

Group exhibition I DIN TID, Konstfrämjandet Gotland, September 2024

Curators Birthe Jørgensen, Konstfrämjandet
Angelica Blomhage, Gotlands Konstmuseum.