ARCHIVE

Anna Friz is a Canadian sound and media artist and media studies scholar whose work inspires many a radio artist. Radiotelegraph, invites us into the thickly poetic space of radio. Across the vastness of space and time, we hear a lone voice greeting the listener in one of radio’s mother tongues, morse code. Anna Friz created Radiotelegraph in Seyðisfjörður a small coastal town in eastern Iceland that was the site of the first telegraph cable connection between Iceland and Europe in 1906. She describes the context of the piece: “Radiotelegraph is a beacon simulcast by a private low-watt transmitter in Seyðisfjörður (on 107.1 FM) and by Radius Chicago (88.9 FM) at sundown Seyðisfjörður time, for a period of five days in October. The beacon signals the descent of the sun into the northern night.” Here is a translation of the morse code that Anna Friz is voicing in Radiotelegraph: Clear light/ waning light/ sun setting/ day closing/ night closing in/ this is the evening of the year/ cheer us for the darksome hours/ We remains together/We are here for the night. For an interview Anna Friz did with Gregory Whitehead about Radiotelegraph, please see: desperadophilosophy.net/2013/10/21/here-for-the-night - Introduced by Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellow 2019/2020, Karen Werner.