TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE

Citizens of Spectrum (and the perennial political provocations of the electromagnetic field)

2024, 55:50
Created by Celeste Oram.

For 125+ years, the sheer immaterial strangeness of the radio spectrum has mounted challenge after challenge to the “commonsense” around which our world is ordered: property, territory, the greater good. For, at heart, what *is* spectrum? Is it an invisible continent? public utility? precious natural resource? transcendent ether?

This radioplay draws together contributions and responses from community engagement workshops, hosted by Wave Farm and run by Radio Art Fellow Celeste Oram, in September 2024. Both online and in-person in the WGXC Catskill studio, participants discussed the overlapping forces of law, politics, economics & technology that shape the uses of the radio spectrum, and thereby the lives of the persons within it. Solicitation of responses and perspectives is ongoing: radioplay listeners can add their voices to the spectrumchorus by calling or texting +1 (516) 522 0763.