Ray, Telegram and Semaphore

Through a series of interplay between communication technologies, forests and islands, Ray, Telegram and Semaphore traces the historical connotations and geophysical reverberance embedded in Kulangsu, an island on the Southeast coastline of China. The project probes the colonial traces of communication technology, its gradual transformation and encryption when localized, delineating a chain of temporal evidence that reflects the historical imagination and contemporary of the island. The project is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, the ray lights the island, demystifying its forests and coastlines. The lit ray follows the footsteps of the “explorer” wandering in ruins, kneading the island’s past, where it was a destination for “international settlement” in the 20th century, a time when nighttime lighting was considered an “advanced” import to the island. Chapter two is spotlighting the Great Northern Telegraphy Company, one of the historical sites on the island. Through archaeological interrogations of archives, texts and images, slow-scan TV, and transmission technologies, the chapter unveil the passive emergence of Kulangsu into the Eurasian telegraph network, querying the alternating forces of communication infrastructures in relation to local history. The final chapter highlights the use of semaphores, a standard marine communication technology. The work recomposes the invisible correlation between marine communication and archipelago narrative.