Parasites on Waves: The Political Potential of Radio Transmission in the Works of Katarzyna Krakowiak

Abstract

Radio, as it was argued by Friedrich Kittler, already in its early history was regarded as a tool allowing for making politics. Although nowadays it may seem to be an example of dated technology, overturned by other, newer media, the question of how the political potential recognized in radio in the early 20th century translates into contemporary reality, is still worth asking. Perhaps some general qualities of that medium can be described by observing how radio is used by contemporary artists. By placing wireless broadcast in the center of interest, transmission art – the term coined at the end of the 1990s – allows to embrace a wide spectrum of artistic practices presenting the issue of transmission as political at its core. On the examples of radio-based projects by Katarzyna Krakowiak: parasitic Free Radio Jaffa and Reconstruction of the Shipyard’s Broadcasting Centre set against the historical background of Krzysztof Wodiczko’s works I am going to pose the question if the transmission art projects can nowadays fulfill the subversive potential recognized in radio almost 100 years earlier.