Andrea Langlois et al - Islands of Resistance - Pirate Radio in Canada

The Voyage of a Gender Pirate and Her Toolbox • 139
more feminine gender expression despite the limitations of a social
framework where I was assigned a male gender at birth, and was subsequently
raised and perceived as male. In both instances, at first I felt
overwhelmed. Yet as I began to explore, and met many other trans
people with different modes of expression and direction, I began allow
myself the freedom to have a more expansive identity and to express
my femininity. Today, by living out my true gender, I manifest a complex
and non-binary expression, and hope to provide inspiration for
others making parallel journeys.
Exploring Uses of the Radio Spectrum: Pirate Stations and Art
The transmitter-building workshops I facilitate have, in some cases,
led to the establishment of pirate stations. The longest running is Radio
Free Emily 1 at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, which I
helped set up in 1994. It stills exists as a student-run station that continues
to evolve, airing music, art installations, sound design and public
presentations. In the 1990s I also set up a station at the Western
Front where we broadcast periodically over several years. This station
even got publicity from the mainstream media (BCTV), which in turn
generated interest from the general public. Unfortunately, we also got
interest of the wrong sort — from Industry Canada. A few months
after the BCTV piece was aired, a couple of men in suits came to the
Western Front to deliver an order to cease and desist transmitting, laying
out the federal regulations and consequences of broadcasting with
an illegal transmitter. The station temporarily went off air, but eventually
started up again to broadcast performances and other events. In
addition to these two stations, I have also been invited to set up over
eight others for high schools and community groups, and transmitters
that I have built have been used for activist ends, such as in opposition
to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in
Vancouver in 1997, and against the twinning of that city’s Port Mann
Bridge in 2005.
Amongst all of these uses of pirate radio, the most creative has been
its use in sound art. The wireless nature of transmission adds a bit of
magic to performances and installations. If the receivers are hidden,
the audience is not sure from where the sound is coming. A number of
my students have made installations that included hidden radio receivers.
From inside a sink or under a blanket, they emit a soundtrack that