Over the course of a research residency abroad, artist Clare Strand asked her husband at home to choose photographs from her archive and apply an agreed grid. He then communicated the sequence of numbers (between 1-10) relating to the tonal code of each photographic element on the grid, via telephone. When received by Strand, she methodically painted the code on a matching hand drawn large-scale grid, borrowing from George H Eckhardt’s simple method of sending images via wire or radio in 1936, pre-internet. 

The Discrete Channel with Noise is concerned with the potential pitfalls of the transmission of information and imagery via everyday electronic methods, and how easily information can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. For this exhibition, Strand offers a silk cloth made out of the Information Source #9 image. The female face complete with red pen code is multiplied across the cloth whilst draped over the projector machine in the Internet Gallery.

Silk, is lightweight and silent. It was therefore an excellent material for printing escapes maps and codes onto during the Second World War. See Anita Hardenburgs silk war map scarf donated to the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park.

www.clarestrand.co.uk