Frequency Unknown
photos by Miguel Edwards
Commissioned by the Broadcast Apartments in 2018, this lobby-filling installation was created by me, Miguel Edwards, and Jonathan Womack, under the moniker "F.E.W. Research".
The piece is inspired by several key components of broadcast technology and history. These include Origination or Creation: the creation of content. This is the "what" of broadcast. Broadcast: sending the content out on a signal, though a transmitter. This is the "when" of broadcast. Transmission: the signal traveling through the air, the wire, or the net. This is the
"how" of broadcast. Reception or Consumption: This is you receiving the signal on your TV, your radio, your mp3 player, or other device. You not only receive it but you absorb it. You watch, you listen, you consume. This is the "why".
The tower rises six stories through the building, as though the building was built around it. The panels represent many moments, milestones, and technologies in the history of broadcasting. The video represents the role and content of the broadcasting phenomenon, much taken from the past but filtered by today's sensibilities. The
circuitry evident throughout represents that technology has always played a role.
Media includes steel fabrication, vacuum-forming, video creation, editing, and surface mapping, aluminum bending and sandblasting, the laser cutting and hand finishing of wood components, 3D printing, CNC routing of acrylic panels, computer-controlled vinyl cutting, programmable LED lights, custom photographic and augmented reality elements. In addition to the artists and their human helpers, six robots were employed to create this piece.