False Detection (2019–21)

Urgencies (2021)

Electricity (Annascaul) (2019), 35mm negative scanned to digital.

Clouds (Venice floods) (2019), 35mm negative scanned to digital.

Installation view, Cathedral School, London Street, Derry, as part of CCA Derry~Londonderry’s ‘Urgencies’ group biennale exhibition (30 March –22 May 2021). Photograph by Paola Bernardelli.

Urgencies (2021)

False Detection (2019–21), sound artwork presented via surface transducers attached to single pane windows.

Installation view, upper-floor windows of the Cathedral School, London Street, Derry, as part of CCA Derry~Londonderry’s ‘Urgencies’ group biennale exhibition (30 March –22 May 2021). Photograph by Caolán Maguire.

Christopher Steenson · False Detection (Ambisonic Binaural Mix)

False Detection (2019–21) is a sound artwork composed of audio recordings from the electromagnetic spectrum. Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) exist beyond the threshold of human perception, yet envelop the environment around us, emanating from electronic devices such as laptops, mobile phones, cellphone towers and WiFi transmitters.

Although the risks of EMFs are largely inconsequential to humans (despite the proliferation of fake news stories that link 5G signals to the spread of Covid-19) they can have detrimental effects on other wildlife. Recent research has found that animals, such as birds, can find it difficult to navigate and find their way around their environments when exposed to EMF signals.

For False Detection, Steenson collected a series of audio recordings of EMFs and played them to a mobile phone app called BirdNet, which uses a machine learning algorithm to identify bird sounds in the user’s surrounding environment. By iteratively manipulating the sound recordings and letting the BirdNet app listen to them, the artist was able to ‘trick’ the app into thinking that EMF sounds being played were being made by birds residing in the local area. These sounds – manipulated and in their original forms – comprise the basis of False Detection.

False Detection was shown at CCA Derry~Londonderry as part of the biennale group exhibition ‘Urgencies’ (30 March – 22 May 2021), curated by artist Locky Morris and CCA Director Catherine Hemelryk. For this exhibition, False Detection was programmed to broadcast to the public outside the Cathedral School on London Street on the hour and on the half-hour between 9am and 6pm, Monday–Saturday.

The sound artwork was presented alongside two 35mm photographs, titled Annascaul (Electricity) (2019) and Clouds (Venice floods) (2019), which were installed on the windows of the Cathedral School building’s windows.

The other exhibiting artists for ‘Urgencies’ were: Brian Farrell, Bryony Dunne, Edy Fung, Frank Wasser, Kathryn Graham, Lucie McLaughlin, Martin Boyle, Michael Hanna, Patrick Hickey, Siobhán Kelly.

False Detection was first presented as part of ‘Umbrella in the Park’ at the Soundscape Park Project, Belfast, in June 2019.