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Workshop, in person
Atmospheric Antennas with Hannah Kemp-Welch
Tue 21 July 202621 Jul 2026
07:00—09:00 PM
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Description
This workshop proposes listening as a way to sense infrastructure and atmosphere as overlapping fields of signal and flow.
In small groups, we’ll build DIY antennas that allow us to tune into Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio waves. In cities, these antennas make audible the hums and buzzes of urban infrastructures – microwaves, fridges, computers, phones, and the mains power grid all leak radio frequencies. Outside the city, we can hear electromagnetic waves produced by natural phenomena, such as bursts of static from lightning striking in distant places. Sometimes, you can hear whistlers – when lightning travels along the Earth’s magnetic field lines to create mysterious descending tones.
We’ll trial two antenna designs: a large loop of computer cable that requires many hands to operate, and a more portable hula-hoop design by artist Dan Tapper. A process of ‘commoning’ the antennas will also be agreed, creating a shared library for participants to borrow and take out of the city.
Photo Credit: John Grzinich
In small groups, we’ll build DIY antennas that allow us to tune into Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio waves. In cities, these antennas make audible the hums and buzzes of urban infrastructures – microwaves, fridges, computers, phones, and the mains power grid all leak radio frequencies. Outside the city, we can hear electromagnetic waves produced by natural phenomena, such as bursts of static from lightning striking in distant places. Sometimes, you can hear whistlers – when lightning travels along the Earth’s magnetic field lines to create mysterious descending tones.
We’ll trial two antenna designs: a large loop of computer cable that requires many hands to operate, and a more portable hula-hoop design by artist Dan Tapper. A process of ‘commoning’ the antennas will also be agreed, creating a shared library for participants to borrow and take out of the city.
Photo Credit: John Grzinich
This workshop is part of the series Under Construction. During this period of renovation, as we work on improving our building to make it more accessible for our audiences, we are introducing a series of monthly workshops curated by artist and PhD researcher Alisa Oleva. These workshops invite artists and writers from diasporic backgrounds to think about the theme 'under construction'. What happens when we move homes and we change languages? What remains unspeakable, what emerges in the gaps of translation? How are new identities constructed and how can poetry express what otherwise remains unspeakable? What is hiding in the cracks and what is haunting our ideas of home? The workshops use writing, listening and zine-making as tools to learn and explore together.
Pushkin House is committed to making our events as welcoming as possible for everyone. Please get in touch with us if you have a particular request and we will gladly discuss the best way to accommodate it with you.
Performers
Hannah Kemp-Welch
Hannah Kemp-Welch is a sound artist with a social practice. Since gaining her amateur radio license in 2019, she has focused on developing inclusive pedagogies and technologies for radio. She constructs DIY antennas to tune into natural radio, documented in the BBC Radio 4 feature All Under One Magnetosphere, produced with Oliver Sanders. Hannah is an Associate Lecturer for MA Sound Arts at LCC, a PhD student with CRiSAP, and a member of Shortwave Collective.
https://www.sound-art-hannah.com/
@soundarthannah
Location
5a Bloomsbury Square London WC1A 2TA