The performance-broadcast at Wave Farm Radio WGXC-90.7 FM will explore the migrant experience from the early 20th century through the Cold War, using shortwave radio as both medium and metaphor. Shortwave created invisible links between migrants and their homeland—transmitting language, memory, politics, and emotion across distance. Shortwave is the frequency that can transmit beyond the horizon. 

What does “home” sound like from afar? How is belonging sustained sonically? Using archival broadcasts, live transmissions, field recordings and sounds crafted from self-build antennas, it will create a layered, immersive soundscape. 

Shortwave radio served as both bridge and battleground: from U.S. programs like Americans All, Immigrants All to Cold War-era broadcasts by Deutsche Welle, Radio Berlin International, and Radio Free Europe. The latter, still active today, broadcasts to places like Ukraine where analog signals remain crucial. 

Though often seen as obsolete, shortwave frequencies still carry static, signal, and memory. The performance seeks to tune into those layers—reanimating a spectrum once filled with longing, resistance, and connection. 

Developed during summer 26 at Interlude Artist Residency and with research time at Wave Farm archive. 

Supported by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.

Anna Schimkat is a visual artist working at the intersection of sculpture and sound. Her large-scale installations and performances explore sound as a spatial and perceptual force. Using field recordings and self-built instruments, she creates immersive environments that invite active engagement. Her practice investigates natural, social, historical and cultural systems, focusing on the interplay between sound and space. 

www.annaschimkat.de

www.instagram.com/annaschimkat

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Sounds, songs, and radio art from a variety of contributors. Tune in for something you've never heard before with familiar classics and transmission art mixed in.