Marconi: Between Earth & Air

FM & Digital

Digital Waves - Hermeet Gill

Digital Waves - Hermeet Gill

In the years that followed the first public broadcast, radio became a vital part of communication, broadcast and public life.

In 1933, frequency modulation (FM) was invented. It became the standard technology for broadcasting high fidelity sound and music.

Frequency Modulation - Hermeet Gill

Frequency Modulation - Hermeet Gill

We still use radio waves every day.

Wireless radio technology is still used for FM, AM and digital sound broadcasts. But today, we rely on this technology much more extensively: mobile communication, wifi, Bluetooth and GPS are all forms of radio.

Our mobile phones and devices contain multiple radio transmitters and receivers.

The story of the development of radio isn't just history: it truly is the foundation of our modern life.

Modern digital signals are highly complex, transmitting huge quantities of data. And they are all around us.

For over two centuries, the world's oldest surviving purpose-built public museum building — now home to the History of Science Museum — sat under empty skies.

Those skies would have seen traces of Marconi's early radio transmissions travel through. The "S" that he sent across the Atlantic would have rippled (serenely) through. Gradually those same skies were criss-crossed, filled, and now hum with an endless stream of invisible airwaves.

For my final lightwave artwork, I imagined that chaos of data-laced waves filling the skies above this iconic building.

Hermeet Gill, Artist and creator of Between Earth & Air

Radio Waves at the Museum - Hermeet Gill

Radio Waves at the Museum - Hermeet Gill

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Ken Taylor (Museum volunteer and member of ODARS*), for so generously sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm, and Andrea Ruddock at the History of Science Museum (HSM) for being so brilliant to work with.

Thanks to Dr Silke Ackermann and the team at the HSM: Dr Anne Tiballi, Dr Stephen Johnston, Cai Marshall, Rhiannon Jones and Melanie Howard.

Thank you to The Bodleian Libraries for the use of documents from the archive.

Special thanks to Dr Alexy Karenowska from the Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Terry Giles from the Poldhu Radio Amateur Club and Brian Hawes from ODARS*.

*Oxford and District Amateur Radio Society

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History of Science Museum, University of Oxford