Hannah Kemp Welch -
Research Residency
7th-11th September 2021

Hannah Kemp-Welch will be undertaking a research residency at Full of Noises in September 2021. During a previous visit to Barrow in 2018, Hannah connected with Furness Amateur Radio society and began work on a project that attempts to listen to the submarines docked in the local shipyards. Now returning as a licensed amateur radio operator, a field largely dominated by men of retirement age, Hannah has plans to build radio devices that pick up transmissions from submarine to shore. Using Dan Tapper's recipe for a VLF (very-low frequency) induction loop, Hannah will test effective ways to build radio receivers and spend time on the banks of South Walney Nature Reserve, attempting to intercept coded signals from the submarines. 

Hannah is part of a new feminist group 'Shortwave Collective' that meets regularly to discuss feminist approaches to amatuer radio and the radio spectrum as artistic material. Materials developed during this research residency will be shared publicly in accessible formats, with possibilities for a future 'citizen watchdog' allowing residents to use DIY VLF receivers to make audible the underwater military operations that surround them.

You can follow Hannah's work during the week on Twitter:

Tweets by SoundArtHannah