Archives Access: Bobbi Kozinuk

Description:

A talk by media artist, curator, and technician Bobbi Kozinuk exploring the history of radio art at Western Front. Her presentation included reflections on the pioneering influence of artist Tetsuo Kogawa who visited Western Front on numerous occasions in the 1990s, and her own work producing low-powered FM transmission at schools, universities, and artist-run centres across Canada. Kozinuk was joined in conversation by Susan Gibb and Becket MWN, co-curators of the exhibition Broadcasts from Here. The talk concluded with a question and answer period. 

In the lead up to the conversation, attendees were invited to view Wiener as Marconi (1995) from Western Front’s archives. The collaborative video work made by Kozinuk and Elizabeth Vander Zaag recreated the world’s first transatlantic wireless signal achieved by inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi in 1901. By raising a 150-metre-long antenna attached to a kite at Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Macaroni was able to receive the Morse code signal for the letter “s”—an achievement that became critical to the birth of radio. 

Presented with the support of Library and Archives Canada.

Video documentation of this event is available upon request.