MW Public

An animistic understanding of radio from the 1920s “And the same old Savonian personified space in the manner of the ancient Egyptians when speaking of the modern radio: «Whoever builds a radio set needs plenty of those mitten-thumbs and all manner of lever contraptions, which gather from the Air-Sphere Maiden her sensory impressions and gifts of speech.»” — Ahti Rytkönen: Savupirttien kansaa (1931) [quoted segment transl. from the original Finnish] The radio does not create sound. Its little thumbs, senses, and levers gather speech-gifts from a female being inhabiting the air. The modern machine has been understood through an older animistic grammar. Space is not an empty transmission medium; it is a personified bearer of voices, from whom the apparatus collects what is already present. Art: Reclining female borrowed from Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The rest of the illustration by: [ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]