Skyport 2019

Skyport (Mixed media) 2019 installation for Air Matters: Learning From Heathrow, Watermans Art Gallery London.
Magz Hall.

Skyport takes its name from the pirate radio station Skyport Radio which broadcast from a garden shed under the Heathrow flight path between 1971 and 1979. The commission extends the artist’s enquiry into the contested nature of radio frequencies and their governance. In the skies above London private transmissions from air traffic control compete for wavelength with a range of public transmissions, both pirate and licensed, and indeed, the AM spectrum is dominated by the airport’s transmissions. While these transmissions are available for all to hear, in the UK it is both illegal to listen to them and to relay what has been heard to a third party. In defiance of these regulations, aviation enthusiasts eavesdrop on air traffic control and there is a burgeoning market for the scanning technologies that make this possible. On display for Skyport is a set of scanners and a plasma screen showing in wave form current air traffic radio activity.

Exhibition ran October 3rd 2019 - January 5th 2020