Numbers Stations
(2011)
161 pencil drawings on blank postcards
Each postcard 141m x 89mm
Installation at dalla Rosa Gallery
This project began with an interest in an online taxonomy called ‘The Enigma Control List’ which aims to classify unexplained radio activity. Many of the stations that appear on the list are ‘Numbers Stations’, mysterious radio stations which broadcast strings of numbers from locations all over the world. Other stations listed may not be stations at
all; they are equally likely to be radio interference from radar or sounds (such as birdsong) used as placeholders for commercial frequencies.
I was interested in the dubious authority that the ‘Control List’ has as a document. The Numbers Stations project illustrates every station listed with a drawing of a radio mast or transmitter. All of the masts shown are fictional, none of them are drawn from life and some of them are not in fact drawings of radio masts at all but show washing lines or flag poles. This was an experiment with the authority of image making; the interest
was in producing images that shared the character of the text they illustrated.
The final piece is an installation composed of 161 postcards each showing what appears to be a radio mast. From a distance the piece appears to be a sequence of images of radio antenna, but seen close up this initial appearance breaks down and becomes absurd. It was important that the images were displayed so that they can be viewed as a single piece so that the viewer might gain a sense of the number of stations in the taxonomy. Exhibiting them in this way also allowed the viewer to navigate the piece in their own way and to discover the ‘fictional’ aerials on their own terms.