Patchbent: Building an Open Wave-Receiver w/ Shortwave Collective

Presented in partnership with Critical Sounds

The Patchbent Sessions are a meeting place and learning community supporting women, trans, and non-binary people in sound and music. 'Open Wave-Receiver' is the Shortwave Collective’s design for a simple, low cost, no battery, radio receiver. Though initially based on foxhole radios and crystal sets proliferating in the 1940s, we think of our work with the circuit more as a reinterpretation, a reclamation, an intentional moving away from roots entangled with the military, and the single clear channel, from which much radio technology stems.

During this workshop, participants will follow the build instructions and guidance of Shortwave Collective members to create Open Wave-Receivers from household and easily accessible materials. In the second half of the workshop, participants will move outdoors to test and experiment with receiving frequencies.

$25 materials fee

Sliding scale, donation-based participation

Spots are limited, registration required

Shortwave Collective is an international feminist artist group using the electromagnetic spectrum as artistic material. They deliver workshops constructing open and untunable radio receivers that connect the listener to a fusion of natural radio emissions and human-generated transmissions. They have produced long-form broadcasts for PAM (2025) and Radio Art Zone (2022), and, as part of the Struer Tracks Biennial for Sound and Listening (2023), hosted a Living Radio Lab. Their collective practice includes performances and installations, most recently for Somaphon Festival (DE), School of Commons (CH), and at Cafe Oto (UK).

Recent artistic research projects include Radio-Dreaming into the Electromagnetic Commons (supported by School of Commons) and Becoming Citizens of the 11 Metre Band (developed during a tekhnē online residency). Reflections on their methodology for radio-listening as a plural, situated and embodied endeavour are shared in Bodies of Sound: Becoming a Feminist Ear (eds. Revell & Shin, 2024).

https://www.shortwavecollective.net/

https://www.instagram.com/shortwavecollective/

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 North Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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