Week-long workshop held in the waves – radio waves, sound waves, sea waves – of Arbroath, Scotland. Developed and facilitated in collaboration with local artist, writer and artworker, Alison Scott.

Our goal was to build an expanded Earth Station and use the signals it captures to create an experimental ‘weather cast’ to be broadcast on Dundee Radio Club and across the Atlantic on Wave Farm. The week began with an introduction to each other and radio, before learning about the storied Dundee Satellite Receiving Station that was our inspiration. Mid-week, we were joined by curator/producer Becca Clark and musician/artist Su Shaw from Dundee Radio Club who led us as we tuned out of the electromagnetic spectrum and sound waves. With Becca and Su we practiced field recording and listening assisted by binaural microphones, hydrophones, and our own ears. We ended the week by assembling a 30 minute communal weather cast. 

What ‘insurgent meteorology’ meant was up to the group and took on different meaning throughout the week. Our starting definition was borrowed from Iranian-American urbanist Faranak Miraftab who coined the term “insurgent planning” to describe and call for grassroots practices in urban planning and architecture that are transgressive, imaginative, and challenge dominant ideas. Additionally, we engaged with an emergent consensus in feminist and anticolonial scholarship and activism that weather and climate are more-than-meteorological.

Credits

Thank you to the whole Architecture Fringe team and staff at Hospitalfield, Sharon Kelly at Dundee University Archives, Paul Crawford from Dundee Satellite Station.

Workshop developed by Sophie Dyer with Alison Scott

Workshop participants: Eva Corrigan, Melissa Ernstberger, Shoji Funakawa, Ali Hutchinson, Salomé Massart, and India Walton

Field recording and listening session led by Becca Clark and Su Shaw from Dundee Radio Club

Commissioned by the Architecture Fringe