Morse Candle

14th February – May 21st 2021, The Lighthouse, Trinity Buoy Wharf

Currently closed due to the pandemic, the lighthouse is home to Longplayer, a 1000 year long musical composition. Written by Jem Finer, it was originally commissioned by Artangel and is now in the care of the Longplayer Trust.

During this period of inaccessibility the Longplayer Trust, with support from Trinity Buoy Wharf, presents Morse Candle, a fragile, flickering presence to rekindle the lamp of the lighthouse.

Within the light’s fluctuations, a single elemental word is transmitted in Morse Code, from dusk to dawn, repeated in many languages. These are being added to all the time with the ultimate ambition of including every language spoken in London.

Morse Code uses different combinations of dots and dashes, short and long pulses of light or sound, to represent letters and numbers in a number of alphabets, both Latin and non-Latin.

We endeavour to render words as faithfully as possible to their spelling (where a spelling exists) in their mother alphabet. You can view the word along with a full list of translations being transmitted here. We welcome new language contributions, please post on social media using #MorseCandle or email info@longplayer.org.

Morse Candle is visible from any location with a view of the lighthouse. It is a collaboration between Michael Morris, Jem Finer, Marcia Farquhar, Sam Collins and Chris Ball with thanks to Sarah Davies and trustees of the Longplayer Trust for language research and to Trinity Buoy Wharf.

More information about Longplayer can be found on other pages of this website, longplayer.org