AIRWAVES: 100 YEARS OF RADIO

On the twelfth hour of the twelfth month of 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal. The letter “S” in Morse Code (dit dit dit) was transmitted from Poldhu in Cornwall to Signal Hill in St Johns, Newfoundland, a distance of nearly 3000km (1800 miles). So began the age of radio and wireless communication.

Topology and Loops celebrate both the medium and the century, looking back over key events and people by means of recordings of radio broadcasts of voices. These broadcasts have been used to make ‘voice portraits’ – finding the characteristic musical qualities of each speaker and then emphasising and underscoring them with instrumental accompaniment.

This intriguing performance has the somewhat dubious distinction of having the most politicians present at an arts event at any one time.

Performing together again for the first time since 2005, Topology and Loops will also celebrate Australia’s centenary of regular radio broadcast that began in 1924.

Airwaves is part opera, part documentary and part entertainment. Fascinated by the way recorded sound has the power to take us to the actual people and events, Topology and Loops have created a form of time travel.