How to Catch the Fire Dragon
Installation Design
2025
Gijs Bakker Award Nominated
Since 2000, the People’s Republic of China has conducted radio signal jamming against specific foreign broadcasts. This system continuously transmits twelve traditional Chinese opera pieces via satellite and can actively shift frequencies and time slots to track and interfere with target signals—primarily shortwave broadcasts from Taiwan. Due to its distinctive sound pattern and wide coverage, radio enthusiasts have named it firedrake, the fire dragon.
“How to Catch the Fire Dragon” reveals the concealed nature of signal control and interference—particularly how cultural packaging and technical design make such interventions difficult for listeners to detect. Using a modified radio antenna that sways in response to incoming signals, the project makes the invisible tensions in the air perceptible, exposing how the radio spectrum is deployed as a tool for political conflict and border management.
Installation Design
2025
Gijs Bakker Award Nominated
Since 2000, the People’s Republic of China has conducted radio signal jamming against specific foreign broadcasts. This system continuously transmits twelve traditional Chinese opera pieces via satellite and can actively shift frequencies and time slots to track and interfere with target signals—primarily shortwave broadcasts from Taiwan. Due to its distinctive sound pattern and wide coverage, radio enthusiasts have named it firedrake, the fire dragon.
“How to Catch the Fire Dragon” reveals the concealed nature of signal control and interference—particularly how cultural packaging and technical design make such interventions difficult for listeners to detect. Using a modified radio antenna that sways in response to incoming signals, the project makes the invisible tensions in the air perceptible, exposing how the radio spectrum is deployed as a tool for political conflict and border management.