Research Centre
Art and Design Research Centre

Date
2010

Analogue Kingdom is an audio-visual installation by Esther Johnson, commissioned by Sound and Music and BBC Radio 3 for Cut and Splice: Transmission.

The work is a poetic portrait of Gerald Wells, founder and curator of the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum. Wells stole his first radio, a Belmont, in 1943 at the age of thirteen. He was immediately sent to an ‘approved’ school, whose psychiatrist diagnosed ‘an obsession’ with wireless and electricity – an obsession that continues today. The house Wells was born in and still inhabits is now home to over 1,500 wireless objects and 45,000 valves - the UK’s largest such collection.

The film reveals the charm of Wells’ world, where radio relics and their attendant stories fill every nook and cranny of his Kingdom. With the digital switchover complete freeing up the radio spectrum for a new generation of wireless internet, Wells analogue collection is a reminder of the magic that may soon be lost.

Listing

• IMDb
• Blanche Pictures
• The British Films Catalogue
• Commissioned by Sound and Music for Cut and Splice
• Exhibition at South Square Gallery
• Exhibition at Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery

Interviews

• Feature about Esther's work by Frances Morgan for Sound and Music
• BBC Radio 3: 'Here and Now' Cut & Splice: Transmission · Episode 2 of 3 Saturday 13 Nov 2010

Researchers involved

 
Esther Johnson - Reader in Media Arts · Principal Lecturer, Film and Media Production

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