Dispatches is a sound installation and network of portable radios. Three rotating beams transmit the acoustic sounds of the space to 32 radios. Each transmitter is competing to broadcast on the same band causing chaos and interference as each radio’s reception weaves in and out of focus. As the transmitters pass, feedback loops of different pitches and qualities form. This gives the installation a spatialized and evolving characteristic. Because the feedback is broadcast on the FM band, passersby near to the installation can also tune in to hear a strange radio show unfold. Because of the nature of the radio interference, this installation is also in competition with the standard and much stronger broadcasts of the local area, which can undulate below the waves of feedback that permeate the space.

This system reacts to every gradation of change: bodies moving in the space, the chosen volumes and stations of the radios, the size and shape of the room, and the placement of the radios.

The installation explores radio as more than just a conveyer of information: the resulting broadcast is a sonic reflection of the way in which the radio waves have interacted with and responded to their surrounding physical space and each other.

Dispatches was developed by Passepartout Duo during their residency at the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska in July, 2024.