'Waves', writes Armin Medosch, 'are the sort of invisible work horses of electronic mass society, but the waves as such are generally ignored.' Here, in his catalogue essay for the show Waves which he co-curated with Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, (Riga, August, 2006), he explains how the concept of the show developed out of a desire to build a new media art discourse from the bottom up, starting with its two 'fundamental layers': code and (electromagnetic) waves. Chosing to focus on the relatively neglected side of the equation, Medosch gives a brief history of the relationship between electromagnetism and culture, and an overview of the projects in the show. With thanks to RIXC for allowing Mute to re-publish this text