Tapping the air: weak signals for six radios and nightfall

This work was part of the Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art, organised by NAISA, Ontario. As a programme of works entitled Off The Beaten Track, the work is broadcast on-line and available on the Deep Wireless Festival 14 CD.
The work is a recording of a live micro-FM transmission performed at the Lizard Wireless Telegraphy Station, Cornwall: site of Marconi’s first ‘over-the-horizon’ wireless transmission in 1901.
The composed transmission is based on field-recordings collected on the Lizard Peninsular, a landscape littered with the architectural remains of listening and communication. Haunted by the did-dit-dit of Marconi’s test signal tapped out on the towers and blast walls of these architectural ghosts, the emerging soundscape mingles local sounds with others recorded on the Isle of Wight, from where Marconi’s original signal had arrived. The transmission begins as the first illuminated arc of the Lizard Lighthouse signals nightfall.