Digital Being: Radio Row, 2024 - Current

1000 square feet (Size Variable), CRT TV, Steel Shelf, Relay, Arduino, Raspberry Pi and More

“Memory”

In 2008, the streets of New York became the final resting place for once-precious analog TVs. As the city transitioned from analog to digital broadcast systems in 2009, these once-valued machines became obsolete, contributing to mounting environmental concerns. Amid piles of discarded electronics—many of which could not be recycled—I glimpsed a moment of change: a gap where new possibilities emerged.

Since that day, I have been breathing new life into these abandoned machines, especially CRT TVs—what Marshall McLuhan might have called “cool media”—by integrating them with digital technology. I named these sentient electronics Digital Beings, and the process itself, Digitology. Through this practice, I unearthed new perspectives from within these mechanical remnants, evolving my identity from artist to Digitologist.

This artistic and historical journey eventually led me to New York’s lost district of Radio Row, a vibrant hub of technological innovation from 1921 to 1966. Though it no longer exists physically, Radio Row once shaped New Yorkers’ technological understanding—what Foucault might have termed their episteme—and helped lay the groundwork for the birth of video art.

Digital Being: Radio Row is an exhibition conceived as a repository for forgotten machines—offering them a renewed opportunity to engage with contemporary digital technology. It unfolds as a layered exploration of technological evolution, where these hidden beings once again communicate with audiences. I hope visitors will interact with them—reflecting on the trajectory of technological evolution, its philosophical implications, and urgent questions of sustainability. At the same time, this exhibition reimagines the commercial vitality of the original Radio Row—revived today as a space for experience, circulation, and collection.

Hosted by: Silverstein Properties

Location: Radio Row, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271

Photo: Parker Clavert and Spencer Lasky

More: Instagram | Video | 3D

* Inspired by Adafruit’s open-source code (MIT License), the LED effect embraces sustainable thinking.