White Spaces (Radio) (Prototype)

Installation: Modified Sony ICF-7600D radio; continuous FM signal; stereo narrated soundtrack (27:08). 2024–ongoing. For the group exhibition, Echoes of the Heart (Emerson Contemporary, Boston, July–December 2025), curated by Leonie Bradbury and Shana Dumont Garr, I presented White Spaces (Radio) (Prototype)—a custom listening device that scans the so-called unused frequencies on the FM dial, those gaps designated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to prevent licensed stations from overlapping. The device tunes not to dominant broadcasts but to the static-laden spaces between them, where openness and restriction meet, and transmission becomes a form of territorial negotiation.
    The installation includes an audio essay that braids technical explanation with history, poetics, and political analysis. Drawing on Frantz Fanon and a conversation with wireless systems expert Chris Rose, the narration considers how power, regulation, and resistance shape what may be heard—and what is kept silent. Moving from Haitian pirate radio in Boston to revolutionary broadcasts in Palestine and Myanmar, the work positions radio as both connective infrastructure and contested terrain, inviting listeners to engage with noise not as emptiness, but as a charged, generative field. This project is ongoing. Extra special thanks to Chris, Leonie, and Shana, with particular thanks to Jazer Giles for assisting in the prototype design.