“Listening Space” by Afroditi Psarra, Audrey Briot

Title:

Listening Space

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Exhibiting Artist(s):

Afroditi Psarra -
- University of Washington
Audrey Briot -
- DataPaulette

Symposium:

ISEA2020: 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Medium:

NOAA weather satellites’ audiovisual transmissions knitted into textiles

Artist Statement:

Listening Space is an artistic research which explores transmissions ecologies as a means of perceiving the surrounding environment beyond our human abilities. Conceptually the project seeks to define transmissions ecologies as raw material for artistic expression, to understand and re-imagine in poetic means, representations of audio and images broadcasted from space, while regarding knitted textiles as a physical medium for memory storage and archiving. Through hands-on experimentation, we sought to intercept the NOAA weather satellites’ audiovisual transmissions using Software-Defined-Radio and hand-crafted antennas. The intercepted signals were then knitted into textiles named Satellite Ikats, as a means of physical archiving of the detection and decoding process.

By investigating the energies that have been harvested by humanity to knit this complex layer, a turbulent sea of radio waves that penetrates the fabric of our everyday lives even if it remains unseen and unheard, we aim to create poetic connotations between textiles-as a means of data detection, collection and archiving, and bodies as agents of power to re-interpret current technologies through handmade crafting techniques. Specifically, by focusing on electromagnetic-field (EMF) and radio frequency (RF) detection, we aim to reclaim the depth of transmission ecologies, evolving at a higher rhythm than liveness, through our environment and bodies.