The Wave Farm Residency Program is pleased to welcome Jeff Thompson (Jersey City, NJ). His “Every Radio Station” is a sculptural sound installation composed of 93 hand-made radios, one for every possible station in the FM band. Each radio is equipped with a speaker, letting viewers experience the entire spectrum at once, walk along it, or come in close to hear an individual station. For each geographical location the piece is installed, a totally different sonic experience results, informed by the number, strength, and kind of stations broadcasting in that area. As the terrestrial radio spectrum increasingly gives way to streaming services, “Every Radio Station” will reflect these changes.

The idea of “everything of something” is a recurring and significant thread in Thompson’s work. He is interested in found materials and remix practice, but also seeks to remove the artist’s hand from his work. By presenting every element from a set at once, the result is a sublime whole that is more than the sum of its parts. In “Every Radio Station” the static of non-broadcasting frequencies, hyper-compression of Top-40 stations, and presence or absence of public and community radio will collectively serve as a portrait of both the FM and physical landscapes of the installation’s site-specific location.

Jeff Thompson is an artist, educator, curator, and programmer whose work explores collaboration with, empathy for, and the poetics of computers and technological systems. His work investigates how and where technology can provide access points for meaningful exploration, the agency of increasingly self-aware systems, and what happens when a technology is pushed against a breaking point or asked to do something it wasn’t intended to. Through installation and performance Thompson seeks to physicalize otherwise invisible processes.

He has exhibited and performed internationally. Most recently Thompson’s work has been shown at venues including Harvestworks, New York; Brighton Digital Festival; Brighton, England; Georgia Southern University, Statesboro; Omphalos Gallery; Terlizzi, Bari, Italy; Somerset House; London, England; College Art Association Conference, Washington DC; and El Arte En Juego Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jeff Thompson received his BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and his MFA from Rutgers University. He currently teaches at Stevens Institute of Technology.