Conjuring the Northern Lights, 2014. 1 min, 51 sec.
I created the video Conjuring the Northern Lights while an artist-in-residence at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada, in October and November of 2014. This video is an experimental sketch made while anticipating seeing the northern lights for the first time. The audio was recorded using a VLF (Very Low Frequency) radio receiver around the residence and town, capturing radio emissions from household appliances, streetlights and passing cars as I practiced in the hopes of recording my first “whistler” or other radio activity emitted by the northern lights (see auroralchorus.com for some great examples). The images are a simulacrum created from materials-at-hand: the last 8 oz can of glow-in-the-dark paint at Dawson’s hardware store, a studio wall, and a headlamp.