Transmission Ecologies Episode 23: featuring “Stargate” (shortwave radio noise from the sun) and “Ghost Shells” (plus other VLF field recordings) by Disinformation, remixed by the artists Chris and Cosey, Mark Poysden, T:un[k] Systems, Lawrence Casserley, Jim O’Rourke, Simon Fisher Turner, Atom Heart, L.O.S.D., R.L.W., Kapotte Muziek and Marc Behrens.

The science fiction author J.G. Ballard described “the dark intervals between the stars” as “a continuously flickering field of light, a gigantic phosphorescent ocean, filled with the vibrating pulses of electromagnetic communication pathways”. J.G. Ballard also described how “a huge volume of radio signals reach this planet”, and how “the hope remains that one day we will decode them, and find… a spontaneously generated choral music, a naive electromagnetic architecture”, revealing “the primitive syntax of a philosophical system... as reassuring as the pattern of waves on a beach.”

“Stargate” is a pioneering and highly influential electromagnetic sound artwork, created by the artist project Disinformation, which consists of shortwave radio recordings of “Type 2” (slow drift) noise storms, produced by Coronal Mass Ejections on the surface on the sun. Because of the similarity of this phenomenon to the sound of deep, hypnotic, rolling surf, this phenomenon has been referred to by shortwave radio operators as the “seashore effect”. “Stargate” was first published on LP (by the record company Ash International) in 1996, and first exhibited as a (large scale) sound installation (in the “Transience” exhibition) at Kiasma Museum, Helsinki, in February 2001. This podcast features interpretations of the original “Stargate” recordings, remixed by the artists Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, and by the artist Mark Poysden.

This podcast also features remixes of the Disinformation track “Ghost Shells”, which consists of Very Low Frequency (VLF band) radio “whistlers” produced by lightning strikes bouncing around the night side of the earth’s magnetic field in space. “Ghost Shells” was first released on LP in January 1996, and, alongside a host of VLF radio recordings released on the Disinformation CDs “R&D” and “R&D2”, these recordings are used as raw material for remixes by the artists T:un[k] Systems, Lawrence Casserley, Jim O’Rourke, Simon Fisher Turner, Atom Heart, L.O.S.D., R.L.W. and Kapotte Muziek. These remixes were originally released on the “Antiphony” double CD and “Al Jabr” CD compilations.

In contrast to the more directly symbolic and representational aspects of much of Disinformation’s other work, in these cases, the composers remix the original source material to conjure a highly impressionistic and cerebral montage of abstract textures and sense impressions. The material featured here formed the basis of numerous Disinformation DJ sets, while the specific “Ghost Shells” and “Synaptic Radio” combination was also performed by T:un[k] Systems and Disinformation as part of the Sound Factory exhibition at the South London Gallery, 15 August 1998 (reviewed in The Wire magazine, issue 176, October 1998). This podcast, produced by Disinformation for Transmission Ecologies in January 2023, features a new and unique combination of the original remixes, most of which have remained almost unheard for a quarter of a century. Headphones recommended.

Disinformation is a sound, video and kinetic art project, which, from 1995 onwards, has created a series of experimental music and sonic artworks, using electromagnetic (radio) noise from live mains electricity, communications, information technology and industrial hardware, rapid transport systems, lightning and magnetic storms etc, and even from the sun. Disinformation has been the subject of 19 UK solo art exhibitions, has contributed to nearly 70 group exhibitions, and has performed more than 150 times (across the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan). Aesthetica Magazine described Disinformation artworks as “mesmerising” and as “hypnotic and captivating”, The Guardian newspaper described Disinformation exhibits as “some of the most beautiful installations around”, and The Metro newspaper described Disinformation as “the black-ops unit of the avant-garde.”

Disinformation producer Joe Banks is also author of the book “Rorschach Audio - Art & Illusion for Sound”, which was published in 2012, as the final outcome of an AHRC funded Research Fellowship at Goldsmiths College and the University of Westminster. The first “Rorschach Audio” research article was published in 1999, then revised for publication by the MIT Press in 2001. In 2022 the “Rorschach Audio” book was translated into Greek and re-issued in Athens by the publisher Topovoros Books. “Rorschach Audio” offers critical analyses of claims that allegedly supernatural (so-called) Electronic Voice Phenomena are recordings of “ghosts”, and explores relevant aspects of psychoacoustics, explaining the misinterpretation of “stray” radio voices as resulting from illusions of sound. “Rorschach Audio” stresses the influence that relatively little-known wartime intelligence work with sound had on one of the most important works of visual arts theory ever published, and asserts that (quote) “the earliest form of sound recording technology was not a machine but was written language.”

Curated by Afroditi Psarra, "Transmission Ecologies" explores the turbulent world of radio signals which propagate around us. Each show features a guest sound artist who broadcasts their radio experiments using EMFs, interference patterns from devices, HAM, RF field recordings, satellite signals, space astronomy research, etc. to formulate their interpretations, compositions, and translations of the invisible and unheard layer of telecommunication technologies.

"Transmission Ecologies" is commissioned by Stegi Radio / Onassis Culture.

Afroditi Psarra is a multidisciplinary artist and an Associate Professor of Digital Arts and Experimental Media at the University of Washington where she runs the DXARTS Softlab. Her research focuses on the interweaving of art and science through the creation of artifacts with a critical lens. In her projects she explores energetic phenomena like electromagnetic radiation, and technologies such as radio-frequency sensing, fractal antennas, and software-defined radio. She is particularly interested in the use of the body as an interface of control, and the revitalization of tradition as a methodology of hacking existing norms about technical objects. Her art practice builds on and extends the work of Cyber and Techno-Feminism(s) and the idea of bodies as archives of information, and manifests through e-textiles and wearables, performances, installations and sound art.

She has exhibited her work internationally in venues such as Onassis Stegi, Bozar, Laboral, EMST, Ars Electronica, Transmediale and CTM, Eyeo, Amber, Piksel, and WRO Biennale between others, and published at conferences like Siggraph, ISWC (International Symposium of Wearable Computers), DIS (Designing Interactive Systems), C&C (Creativity and Cognition), and EVA (Electronic Visualization and the Arts).