Image: THOSE WIRELESS KNOBS. Mixed Media on Canvas, 60 x 60 x 4 cm. 2012. Private Collection, Cornwall.

THOSE WIRELESS KNOBS.

 If you associate like me and Van Morrison that wireless belong to the days of rock and roll, think again. As Wikipedia explains:

The term wireless has been used twice in communications history, with slightly different meaning. It was initially used from about 1890 for the first radio transmitting and receiving technology, as in wireless telegraphy, until the new word radio replaced it around 1920. Radios in the UK that were not portable continued to be referred to as wireless sets into the 1960s. The term was revived in the 1980s and 1990s mainly to distinguish digital devices that communicate without wires, such as the examples listed in the previous paragraph, from those that require wires or cables. This became its primary usage in the 2000s, due to the advent of technologies such as mobile broadband, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Innovation is the child of adversity, and when we can’t do things the way we used to we have to think outside the box brownie. During lockdown this not only goes for those super intelligent scientists and medics who are exploring cures for the Corona Virus but businesses and individuals who are finding their tried and tested formulas for survival are under threat. Communications have come a long way since the crystal set or two cans and a length of string. The fact that people worldwide are finding innovative ways to operate in this new world is not only a testament to their creativity and resilience but also their  ability to see opportunities in adversity.

We will never lose the past but we can always find the future.