Pilot Light Media is a showcase for experimental audio and visual artists. We propagate the work of our solo and collaborative artists by documentation, publishing, distributing, and exhibiting their most compelling pieces. 

Current Exhibit:

Edwardian Transmissions
recent works by DJ Detour

Edwardian Transmissions is a series of aural representations of the world’s first wireless communications. They are pieces of what electrical waves and audio may have sounded like during the frontier of the air. Examples include Morse code, Marconi communications, shortwave radio, and the dawn of FM radio. 

These waves had their own unique traits based on the source of the wave and the materials they passed through. Early radio equipment was built of cardboard, wax, wood, and various metals. Many of these metals used were not pure. Early copper contained traces of other metals, creating a proprietary blend. The wires they forged yielded their own brand of sound.

Popular turn-of-the-century building materials also affected these waves. Materials such as marble, terra cotta, and limestone certainly leave a different fingerprint on waves than vinyl, plastic, or asphalt. Add to this a stately Dutch Elm, versus today’s skinny maples, and you have a different transmission altogether.    

It must have been a wonder to hear these early outputs. Although weak and unstable, they floated effortlessly in the empty skies. The static filled scratch of an old sea captain reporting his position, or some of the worlds first DJ’s, armed with primitive transmitters and relays. Their final destination was the tiny receivers in the ships, laboratories, studios, and homes across the globe.  

Today, we have all sorts of electronic waves darting across our atmosphere. From radio and television, to infrared interfaces, two-way radios, and cellular technology, our buildings and bodies are bombarded with electronic fields. Again, these waves have their own traits contributed to by today’s conditions.

Followers of Chrissy