For the 20th edition of Pikselfest, an annual event for Electronic Art and Technological Freedom in Bergen (Norway), Shortwave Collective met for a micro-residency. This was a rare opportunity for members of our international collective to meet in-person, some of us for the first time!

 

We had the pleasure of hosting two Open Wave-Receiver radio making workshops. We foraged for found materials around Bergen, looking things to include into the radios as coils or diodes. This resulted in a branch and a vacuum cleaner tube both being used  as the objects for the coil to be wrapped around, and working really well (the latter as a very open spacious coil!).

Our listening spot, up the side of one of the many hills in the city, gave us textured radio static and one or two talk radio stations to listen to in the freezing cold darkness just after sunset. On the side of the open wave-radio testing we had a play with a VLF antenna, held in a loop by a group of people who danced around with it, this tuned us into a vibrant texture of humming and the occasional click of sferics - natural radio emissions from lightning!