Ghosts in the Air Glow
Press Release
October 17, 2022.
Quick Information
Title: Ghosts in the Air Glow: Composition No. 2
Medium: Transmission Art (artwork made about or with the electromagnetic spectrum)
Funded by: Canada Council for the Arts / Conseil des arts du Canada (CCA / CAC)
Artist: Amanda Dawn Christie
Organization: UAF-HAARP: the University of Alaska Fairbanks High-frequency Active Auroral Research
Program, Gakona Alaska
Project Website : www.ghostsintheairglow.space
Dates and Times:
October 23 & 24, 06:00 UTC and October 25 & 26 16:30 UTC
Description:
Ghosts in the Air Glow: is a transmission art project working with the HAARP Ionospheric
Research Instrument to mix audio and images at the liminal boundaries of earth’s atmosphere and outer
space. Composition No. 2 is a half-hour transmission artwork that will be transmitted four times from the HAARP Ionospheric Research Instrument during the October 2022 research campaign. The Air glow and Luxembourg experiments will be paired with the AM modulation of Narrow Band Television (NBTV) video art, spoken word, and sound art created by Amanda Dawn Christie.
As a citizen science experiment to learn more about propagation, shortwave listeners from around the world are invited to tune in and submit reception reports in exchange for QSL cards. Transmission frequencies will be listed on the project’s new website, designed by Co & Co:
www.ghostsintheairglow.space . Reception reports can be submitted using the online form which is also on the website.
For those who do not have access to shortwave radio equipment, the project will also be streamed live on the home page of the project’s website. This allows people to tune in online from anywhere in the world. The live streams will be sent from receptions on the ground in Gakona. There are frequently two frequencies transmitted simultaneously, and as such there are two videos embedded side by side (one for each frequency) that can be viewed simultaneously.
The first tests for this project, designated as Composition No. 1 included a full hour of audio and SSTV images were transmitted four times during the March 2019 campaign. The project will culminate with a third and final artwork, Composition No. 3 to be transmitted sometime in 2023. The October 2022 transmission also serves as a test for a new web form built to receive and manage reception reports. The new website for this project, beautifully designed by Co&Co, includes a web form for submitting reception reports that will automatically populate a searchable database with information for archiving in the repository.
Ghosts in the Air Glow is being created with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. HAARP is a phased array of 180 HF crossed-dipole antennas spread over 33 acres of land in Alaska. The site was built in the 1990s and was a jointly managed program of the United States Air Force and the United States Navy. Responsibility for the HAARP facilities and equipment formally transferred from the military to UAF in 2015, the goal of the research at HAARP is to conduct a fundamental study of the physical processes at work in the very highest portions of our atmosphere, called the thermosphere and ionosphere. For more information on HAARP, see https://www.gi.alaska.edu/facilities/haarp.
Since 2015, the bulk of the research experiments conducted at HAARP are in plasma physics. However, there is a great deal of potential for research in radio propagation. Very few experiments have
been done with transmitting audio and images.
Amanda Dawn Christie is an interdisciplinary new media artist who makes film, installation, performance, and transmission artworks. Over the past decade, her works have been presented on five
continents by various galleries, museums, festivals, broadcasters, and research facilities. Concepts and
themes explored in her work focus primarily on the relationship between the human body and analog
technology in a digital age.
She spent the last decade working on various projects related to shortwave radio and the RCI (Radio Canada International) shortwave transmission site. These include Spectres of Shortwave —a two-hour experimental documentary film as well as several accompanying gallery installations, sculptures, and photo series —and Requiem for Radio —a one-hour interdisciplinary performance comprised of five parts, including interactive instrument design, international shortwave simulcasts, and theatrical performance.
Both Spectres of Shortwave and Requiem for Radio were created with the support of Arts NB and the Canada Council for the Arts. Christie completed her MFA at the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts, and most recently worked as Assistant Professor in Studio Art: Intermedia (Video Performance, and Electronic Arts) at Concordia University in Montreal. She is currently based in the Atlantic region of Canada. Ghosts in the Air Glow is generously supported by funds from the Canada Council for the Arts.
For more information contact: