radio

You can listen to the 15 minutes discussion in mp3 or directly on the WRS website.

Honor Harger is New Zealand born curator and artist with a particular interest in art which uses new technologies, sound and broadcasting. She is currently director of Lighthouse in Brighton, UK.

Honor Harger is working on broadcasting what Pythagoras and Johannes Kepler called "the music of the spheres", the "sounds" that extra-celestial bodies like the sun or planets produce. Her project Radio Astronomy allowed thousands of people to emotionally connect with space in a new way.

Honor Harger

Director (NZ)
Lighthouse
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Laurent Haug: Can you introduce us to the Radio Astronomy project?

Honor Harger: In 2001, we went to the forests of Western Latvia to work with a large radio dish called RT32. It was formerly used by the Soviet Union to spy on communications between Europe and America during the Cold War. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and their withdrawal from Latvia, it's existence - previously a highly classified state secret - was revealed. The Russian authorities wanted to blow it up, but fortunately they gave RT32 to the scientific community, and it began it's life as a radio telescope, focused on celestial, rather than earthly signals.

The telescope was not about images, it was about radio. We realised that if we attached a radio receiver and amplifier to the telescope, we would be able to listen to was was detecting, in the same way that we listen to ordinary broadcast radio. The project was born. We started to collaborate with other radio telescopes around the world, and together with scientists from NASA, Latvia and the UK, created a website where people could tune in to these radio telescopes, and listen to space.
That's how the adventure began.

What does it mean to listen to space?

Whilst our project uses what we describe as "sounds from space", it is important to understand that stars and planets are not directly audible. Sound waves can not propagate in the vacuum of space. However, it is possible for radio waves emitted from celestial bodies, such as Jupiter and the Sun, to be heard by using radio technology. In our galaxy, the Sun is the strongest source of radio waves - so it's the most powerful transmitter in the radio sky. Jupiter also sends us strong radio signals.

What we hear is very curiously linked with our experience of radio here on earth - the sounds are a bit like the sound of static between the stations.

What did you try to achieve through this project?

What we're trying to do is give people a sonic encounter with space. Though weight of images associated with space is overwhelming, in popular culture, we have no sense of what space sounds like. Indeed, most people associate space with silence. But using radio, we can listen to what would otherwise be inaudible.
We'd like to think that listening to the radio waves of planets, stars, and our Sun, makes these phenomena more tangible and comprehensible. Listening brings these distant objects a little bit closer to us.

Our listeners were a combination of people who visited the various exhibitions of the project, which were displayed in galleries and museums around the world, the online audience, and the on-air audience of people who heard the broadcast when it was transmitted on FM and Shortwave radio at specific times in certain countries.

For some of the scientists we worked with, the project recalled the early history of the science of radio astronomy. Before astronomy was computerised, radio astronomers would monitor radio telescopes by listening. They used to be very skilled at detecting changes in astronomical activity by ear. We found that we were reconnecting contemporary radio astronomy with it's history.

A question that everybody probably has in mind: could you capture noises from an alien form of life?

Well, for us it is exciting and inspiring enough to be able to listen to the stars and planets. In theory it is possible that scientists will detect an extraterrestrial signal using radio astronomy technology, but the search thus far hasn't found anything.

We're aware, of course, that the popular image of radio astronomy is very strongly linked with the search for extraterrestrial life. This has no doubt been influenced by the film, "Contact", where Jodie Foster's character detects an extraterrestrial signal whilst listening to space. But so far, none of our listeners has sent us an email saying, "I think I've found something!"

Maybe the question is more, "is anybody listening to us?" We have, after all, been sending our own radio waves into space, via our television and radio broadcasts, for many years...

Nos partenaires de Radio Grenouille à Marseille tirent au sort trois tickets pour Lift with Fing 10. Pour participer répondez à la question "pour vous le web a changé quoi dans votre vie ?" et envoyez la réponse à je grenouille888.org.

Les trois meilleurs réponses gagneront un ticket qui permettra d'assister aux trois jours de conférence du 5. au 7. Juillet au Grand théâtre de la Criée :)

Nicolas and myself spent the evening at the Radio Suisse Romande for "Devine qui vient dîner, a one hour discussion around Nicolas' latest book on Geolocalised medias ("Les médias géolocalisés") where we ended up explaining much about our work at Lift.

You can listen to the show (in French) on rsr.ch, in streaming and mp3.

Beside team communications, this blog features posts written by community members. If you have a Lift account you can also share your thoughts and ideas by clicking here. Here is a post from Deutsche Welle's Anne Le Touzé seeking participants for a radio show to be recorded during the conference.

I will be attending the LIFT conference in Marseille in order to take part to the Innov’Africa Workshop as a representative of the BOBs (the Deutsche Welle international Blog competition). This meeting will also be the opportunity to record a radio programme in form of a debate, which will then be broadcasted on the Deutsche Welle French programme.

In order to stay within the subject approached during the workshop, I suggest to debate about the networks on the internet and their contribution to development. A topic that will allow to talk briefly about the state of the connectivity on the African continent, then to consider the initiatives of human networks and their effects on development. The radio programme, called “Arbre à palabre” is only 25 minutes long, but I hope to be able to give an overview of the development of new media in African countries.

If you have any ideas on the subject please let me know.

Date and time foreseen for the recording: Saturday, June 20th, 10:30 am.

[FRENCH VERSION]
Je serai à la conférence LIFT France du 18 au 20 juin à Marseille, où je participerai à l’atelier Innov’Africa en tant que représentante des BOBs (concours international de blogs de la Deutsche Welle). Cette rencontre sera également l’occasion d’enregistrer une émission-débat qui sera diffusée ensuite sur le programme français de la Deutsche Welle.

The radio show Place de la Toile will be live at Lift on Friday june 19 at 11am as Caroline Broué and Thomas Baumgartner will install a radio set during the break and discussions between 11am and noon in the Conference Hall.

We have come to an era where society breaths technology. Screens are familiar to us, however we do not know the consequences that tie with their domination.

Place de la Toile is a radio show that brings to the table the different aspects of this technological revolution. It is less about the technical site, but more about what it will induce on the media, communications, information technology, the social links and finally the way our lives are organized in society. The show offers a weekly round of findings in the science and information technology community, meets the doers in the field, highlights the important events, and discusses the economy, politics and philosophy of this revolution.

Conceived and animated by Caroline Broué and Thomas Baumgartner, the show is structured in two parts; one 45 minute report followe by a chronicle about new medias.

Lift was featured in this week's Atelier Numérique on BFM radio, an occasion to introduce Lift to French media, discuss the programme of the Marseille conference, and spotlight one of the projects that will be presented during the experience: Interac Wearing.

Listen to full show (the Lift part happens around 30 minutes)