Writes McIntyre, “During a six-week artist residency on Kapiti Island, a nature reserve on the coast of New Zealand, I explored radio transmission and reception as a way of reading the materiality of environmental signal, via mediums such as VLF receivers and mini FM. On May 9th, 2012, I took a multi-band radio receiver once used as a maritime communication device into three very different environments, and recorded this device tuning in to signals on the shortwave band on the shores of a lagoon, in a grassy field, and at the site of a demolished lighthouse on the shoreline. With the 2012 Transit of Venus almost upon us, I couldn’t help but reflect on the possibility of tuning into the electromagnetic emissions of planetary events, and also the ways in which astronomical way-finding and scientific practice were crucial parts of the histories of these islands, with the sighting of Aotearoa/New Zealand by Captain James Cook’s crew aboard the Endeavour as a side-effect of their mission to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus. This is the first of the three pieces made from these three recordings, released as part of the album three inclements (the ocean does not mean to be listened to) by Radio Cegeste, released on Consumer Waste.