Communication Breakdown

In 2012, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s analog television transmission was decommissioned, opting to transmit only through digital means.

This decision affected millions of Canadians, particularly those in rural areas and smaller cities where digital over-the-air signals were unavailable. People in these regions would have no choice but to pay cable or satellite fees charged by private telecom companies to access their national public broadcaster. The analog transmission provided the public access to the broadcast at no charge, given they had access to a television and basic antenna. Of particular concern was that the public broadcaster is a service paid for by all taxpayers that, for over eighty years, has held the mandate to provide programming that informs, enlightens, and entertains the public. 

These images represent attempts to receive the analog signal from rural Canada during the final transmission months. They provide a document of Canadian culture as portrayed through the lens of a technology rapidly fading from daily Canadian life; while raising questions of representation and the public’s continued access to information.

The archival pigment prints in this series are 40”x30” each, printed on metallic paper in an edition of 2 + 1 artist proof.

2012-16