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Jol Thoms: Radio Amnion

Radio Amnion underwater and at museums: The Radio Amnion deep-sea radio station submerged in the Pacifiv Ocean as part of the STRAW experiment (left) and replica installations on display at exhibtions, here at the Ming Contemporary Art Museum in Shanghai. (Photos: Ocean Networks Canada, Jol Thoms)

The Radio Amnion project grew from the collaboration of physics students from the CRC 1258 and art students from the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München initiated in the first funding period. Elisa Resconi called a competition among the students to raise ideas for an 'underwater' exhibition to be installed as part of the experiment STRAW in the Pacific Ocean.

'Radio Amnion' by the Canadian artist Jol Thoms was one of the chosen artworks to be encapsulated in one of the glass spheres of STRAW (see also the UNDERCURRENTS art project). It was submerged in the Pacific Ocean in October 2020.

Made of glass, steel, rubber, and sound electronics, Radio Amnion is a deep-sea radio station sending supporting tunes and voices into the Earth's 'amniotic' waters. International artists, composers, and sound designers are invited to contribute to the program; the contributions can be listened to from the Radio Amnion website. To realize the program, Jol Thoms received a grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts.

The 'Radion Amnion' project has been invited to a number of international exhibitions. To this end, three replicas of the subsea-buried Radion Amnion were assembled at the CRC 1258; they are equipped with loudspeakers to listen to information about the CRC 1258 neutrino project P-ONE and to the invited artists' contributions.

Radio Amnion was on display in the following galleries and museums (so far):