SSTV is a radio-based transmission that uses audio to send images, it is an abbreviation of the title, slow scan television in reference to a communication type that was developed in the 1960s using a combination of radio and radar technology in order to send images via sound over long distance, even into space.
Operating on the 20 band frequency 14.23 MHz SSTV is now used more by amature radio enthusiasts than anyone else to send specifically designed image and text as a form of hobbyist communication. SSTV is the predesessor to meme culture and often is created for an intended specific audience of older white men who dominate the radio hobby. Often the subject matter of SSTV broadcasts are discriminatory and exploitative often centering on the naked female body or ill placed jokes from astronauts sending a card saying “send nudes” to men on redit thirsting over images they’ve recieved.
By shooting, writing and transmitting images with a scripted feminist dialogue this piece intends to reclaim SSTV. When transforming an image or sound into something new you become aware of the binary of each and everything. In the translation space, something pre-existing can be manipulated or bent into new forms and definitions through the framework of ‘queering’ and ‘glitching’ in reference to the work of Legacy Russell, Mindy Seu, Laboria Cuboniks, and Judy Wajcman.
The images were taken and edited into the SSTV format then transmitted over the radio. With the files being audio I used a selection of effects pedals to perporsfully reprocess the images, glitching and distorting them, changing the narrative of SSTV.
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