Radio Crawler

Production Year: 2022

Release: Premiered at the Onassis Foundation as part of the Borderline Festival 11

Medium: A sound & visual installation for 4 groups of “wounded” radios, 4 micro-FM transmitters, custom open-source algorithmic software, 4 instances of SDR (software defined radio), 4-channel audio interface, monitor display, vinyl lettering.

Documentation: video, radio, code

“Radio Crawler” is an ongoing, open-ended, experimental radio art project. It is a custom software framework and a multiform iterative piece that aims to explore and resurface the technology, concepts, and content of the declining medium of shortwave radio. The software algorithmically controls and mixes four instances of the online shortwave receiver located at the University of Twente.

A meta-radio is generated live through the blending and mixing of the radio transmissions. The emergent radio is narrowcasted on four micro-FM transmitters and then received by an assortment of “wounded” analogue radios.

The combination of the analog shortwave with the newer technology of SDR forms a unique, amalgamated medium with mixed properties. “Radio Crawler” probes the high frequency band revealing ham radio transmissions, Morse codes, NAVTEX, encrypted messages, commercial radio, jammers, and time-signals, among many other unique transmissions.