Hannah Kemp-Welch is a sound artist with a socially-engaged practice. She produces audio works with community groups for installation and broadcast, using voices, field recordings and found sounds.

Portfolio

Trailer for augmented reality audio work, produced with Lisa Hall for Finsbury Park, May 2021.

We are just animals, humans & machines getting on together in specific lifewords - trailer

This work relates to the secret cupboard and door located upstairs in the main office. Using only recorded sounds, the piece follows the story of a thief sneaking through the grand house… interrupted before they can find what they are looking for. Many sounds used in this piece were recorded in the house itself, including the creaks of the doors and footsteps on wood.

Secret Cupboard - Edie Faulkner Wootton

During the pandemic, artist Hannah Kemp-Welch was in-residence at the Women’s Art Library, based at Goldsmiths. Reaching out to community groups in New Cross, Hannah photocopied and collated packs of ephemera from artists' projects documented in the library and posted these to local residents. Seven women selected an artist from the archive and responded to their work, recording personal reflections as they looked through materials. This audio essay considers access to archives, and how voices can bring the Women’s Art Library to life.

Voicing the Archive

Inspired whilst reading 'Earth Sound Earth Signal' and listening to Stephen P. McGreevy's aurural recordings, I built a VLF (very low frequency) radio receiver - a simple loop of copper wire housed in a found bicycle tyre, plugged into an audio recorder. I used the recipe by Dan Tapper, and with the help of John Grzinich, sound artist and co-founder of MoKS, we were able to make some recordings of sferics - atmospheric disturbances caused by lightening - driving out to a field and then forest to be away from mains electricity wires and ticking electrical cow fences.

Sferics recording, Estonia

Sferics are Earth’s natural static – bursts of radio waves emitted by lightning. The name is a shortening of ‘atmospheric’ disturbances. They take the form of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves, typically between 0.1-10 kHz, and travel thousands of miles between the ground and ionosphere. A VLF receiver allows you to hear sferics at any time - lightning strikes around the world approximately 44 times per second. Sferics sound like little crackles and pops. 

In September 2021, I built a series of VLF (very low frequency) radio receivers - loops of magnet wire housed in a bicycle tire, copper wire and a hula hoop wrapped in electrical tape, 10 meters of ribbon wire crimped in a circle. Using these antennas, plugged into an audio recorder, I made a series of recordings in several locations in Cumbria.

Sferics: South Walney Nature Reserve

Antenna on lowest wall of Piel Castle, half a mile from more populated mainland. Rustling sounds due to wind? Clear sferics, low hum of mains electricy from local cottages. No commercial radio or data packets audible.

....................

Sferics are Earth’s natural static – bursts of radio waves emitted by lightning. The name is a shortening of ‘atmospheric’ disturbances. They take the form of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves, typically between 0.1-10 kHz, and travel thousands of miles between the ground and ionosphere. A VLF receiver allows you to hear sferics at any time - lightning strikes around the world approximately 44 times per second. Sferics sound like little crackles and pops. 

In September 2021, I built a series of VLF (very low frequency) radio receivers - loops of magnet wire housed in a bicycle tire, copper wire and a hula hoop wrapped in electrical tape, 10 meters of ribbon wire crimped in a circle. Using these antennas, plugged into an audio recorder, I made a series of recordings in several locations in Cumbria.

Sferics: Piel Island

Hoop antenna hung in a tree on the highest point of Barrow Park. With the hoop facing west, we hear several radio stations and the hum of mains electricy in the town alongside data modes, telephone signals and sferics.  

.......................

Sferics are Earth’s natural static – bursts of radio waves emitted by lightning. The name is a shortening of ‘atmospheric’ disturbances. They take the form of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves, typically between 0.1-10 kHz, and travel thousands of miles between the ground and ionosphere. A VLF receiver allows you to hear sferics at any time - lightning strikes around the world approximately 44 times per second. Sferics sound like little crackles and pops. 

In September 2021, I built a series of VLF (very low frequency) radio receivers - loops of magnet wire housed in a bicycle tire, copper wire and a hula hoop wrapped in electrical tape, 10 meters of ribbon wire crimped in a circle. Using these antennas, plugged into an audio recorder, I made a series of recordings in several locations in Cumbria.

Sferics: Barrow Park

Antenna held in hand on Ulverston's Hoad Hill, under the John Barrow monument. Mains hum, clear repetitive data signals, possible wind roar. Crispy sferics. 

.......................

Sferics are Earth’s natural static – bursts of radio waves emitted by lightning. The name is a shortening of ‘atmospheric’ disturbances. They take the form of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves, typically between 0.1-10 kHz, and travel thousands of miles between the ground and ionosphere. A VLF receiver allows you to hear sferics at any time - lightning strikes around the world approximately 44 times per second. Sferics sound like little crackles and pops. 

In September 2021, I built a series of VLF (very low frequency) radio receivers - loops of magnet wire housed in a bicycle tire, copper wire and a hula hoop wrapped in electrical tape, 10 meters of ribbon wire crimped in a circle. Using these antennas, plugged into an audio recorder, I made a series of recordings in several locations in Cumbria.

Sferics: Hoad Hill, Ulverston

Ribbon antenna hung from balcony at Cooke's Studio, Barrow-in-Furness. With the antenna facing west from this and other locations, you can hear clear Radio 4 broadcast. Data modes and interference.

.......................

In September 2021, I built a series of VLF (very low frequency) radio receivers - loops of magnet wire housed in a bicycle tire, copper wire and a hula hoop wrapped in electrical tape, 10 meters of ribbon wire crimped in a circle. Using these antennas, plugged into an audio recorder, I made a series of recordings in several locations in Cumbria.

Ribbon antenna

During a residency at Full of Noises (Barrow-in-Furness) in September 2021, I built a series of antennas to pick up the Earth’s natural static. In this piece, I use Dan Tapper’s recipe for a hoop antenna and listen for lightning and atmospheric disturbances around Cumbria. This project was support by a DYCP grant from Arts Council England.

Searching for Sferics

Residents of Southampton listen to community gardens via headphones and share their experiences. For some, sounds trigger memories; field recordings from across the globe illustrate their stories.

Workshops delivered in collaboration with movement artist Gabriel Galvez, for the Voices in the Gallery project in partnership with John Hansard Gallery.

Listening Memories

A introductory guide to software-defined radio - a way to listen to all kinds of global transmissions directly from your web browser.

Read the beginners toolkit and look at diagrams alongside this audio guide: https://issuu.com/haniaagnieszka/docs/shortwave_listening_toolkit

First broadcast on Transmission Ecologies, Movement Radio, May 2022. With thanks to Oliver Sanders.

WebSDR Guide

In April 2023, I worked with community groups in Southampton to explore sound and memory, inspired by Bani Abidi’s The Song (2022). This film follows the fictional story of a migrant who recreates soundscapes from home to counter feelings of isolation. Workshop participants described particularly memories of sounds and the feelings these evoked, which were then recreated by the group using specialist microphones and everyday objects, and edited together with layered creative commons recordings from Radio Aporee’s soundmap.

Dance For Parkinsons - Seascape

Chandlers Ford Dance Group - Seascape

Visually Impaired Group - Seascape

Lynne - Sea Story

Julie - Pachinko

Clara  - Cars And Washing

Jenny S - Cow Bells

Carla - Island Story

'Handsworth Songs' is a seminal film by the Black Audio Film Collective, produced in 1986. The film deals with the racially motivated riots of the 1980s in London and Birmingham alongside archival footage of early Windrush migrants from the West Indies arriving in the UK.

'slow emergency siren, ongoing' is a project that aims to make this film more, and differently, accessible through the production of an audio description track and creative captions. In 2022, I was commissioned by Dr Sarah Hayden, working with LUX, to produce an audio documentary that captures the complex process of making artists' moving image work accessible.

'[voices surface]: An audio-documentary about accessing Handsworth Songs' centres the process of audio describer Elaine Lillian Joseph speaking over the film’s soundtrack, looking for words to describe the rich imagery for visually impaired and blind audiences. It includes interviews with Trevor Mathison (founder member of Black Audio Film Collective responsible for 'Handsworth Songs’ distinctive soundtrack) and captioner Anita Wolska-Kaslow of Care-fuffle (a disabled-led experimental film and art working group) about capturing the film’s emotive sound in text. 

The audio documentary was launched at MAC Birmingham and released on the LUX website in June 2023, with spacial and colour captions by Care-fuffle.

[voices surface]: Accessing Handsworth Songs

Gallery 3

Gallery 2

Gallery 1

Alyssa Moxley, Dan Tapper, Hannah Kemp-Welch, Matt Parker, pantea, Rob Stammes, Sébastien Robert and Stephen McGreevy share stories about listening to very low frequency radio waves emitted by atmospheric disturbances and other natural phenomena

Sunspots and Earth Static

#11 Javanese

#1 Mandarin

Binaural recording from Arbury Carnival. Produced as part of Open House residency, 2018, at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge. 

Listen on headphones.

Arbury Carnival

Extract of Jim Ede reflecting on Kettle's Yard, from A Way of Life, a radio programme recorded by BBC in 1984.

Jim Ede (extract)

Peter Howell of Cambridge and District Amateur Radio club introduces me to the hobby.

Amateur Radio

An audio log of a collective listening session using WebSDR by Georgia Muenster, Lisa Hall, Hannah Kemp-Welch, Rhiannon Hunter and Hester Buck.

Date: 01/05/20
Time: 18:20-18:40
Location: University of Twente, WebSDR

Shortwave Records

Meet Me on the Radio is a weekly programme I produce with Grant Smith (Soundcamp) and elders at Meet Me at the Albany. The show has been broadcasting on Resonance FM since May 2020 to connect elders at risk of social isolation. This is a sampler with moments chosen from across the year.

sound art hannah

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