Dear Spectre-List-Readers, hopefully a good occasion to visit the "Museum für Kommunikation Berlin"? Best wishes, Shintaro
>>> Forests of Antennas, Oceans of Waves. An Exploration of Art and Theory in Electromagnetic Urban Environments Location: Museum für Kommunikation Berlin, Leipziger Straße 16, 10117 Berlin-Mitte Within the event series “Forests of antennas, oceans of waves” Organized by Daniela Silvestrin (curator), Shintaro Miyazaki (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), and Birgit Schneider (Potsdam University), Contact: [email protected] "Forests of antennas, oceans of waves" is a series of events taking place in Berlin from May to October 2022. The series consists of seven artistic interventions in urban spaces, a conference, a scenario workshop and a site-specific sound installation in cooperation with the Museum für Kommunikation Berlin, and finally a concert evening at Panke Culture and an exhibition in the project space Liebig12. The conference consists of two parts: A public conference with a keynote for a general audience (Sept. 23-24) and a one-day thesis and scenario workshop for the speakers and invited guests (Sept. 25), from which a collection of results, theses and scenarios on 5G and urban environments will emerge. The field of scientific and artistic engagement with the topic of 5G and electromagnetic urban environments in terms of social, aesthetic and cultural issues – i.e. beyond the usual medical and engineering framework – is still in its infancy. In this respect, we see the conference as an urgently needed prelude to a political-aesthetic engagement with the topic, which has so far mainly been occupied by telecommunications companies and urban development actors under the buzzwords "networking," "digitalization," and "automation.” The conference is structured by three topics. The first panel, entitled “City as Resource? The Socio-political Dimensions of Smart City” will focus on socio-political aspects associated with the keyword "smart city", because there can be no smart city without stable 5G. Here the question arises for whom and what the urban space is a resource and what role the electromagnetic plays in this. The second panel, entitled “Uncanny Radiation? Towards an Aesthetics of Electromagnetic Fields,” is devoted to the techno-aesthetic and cultural dimensions of radio networks. Here, the focus is on the broad, very heterogeneous spectrum of social perceptions of networked infrastructures and antennas in public space. On the one hand, this includes the question of how the invisible networks can be experienced aesthetically in order to come to our attention at all; but we will also critically examine forms of radiation criticism with regard to their motivations – from health risks, risks to nature, and conspiracy myths in which network expansion and radiation play a central role. The third panel, “Radiation as Infrastructure? Techno-ecological Spheres” finally looks at the techno-ecological aspects of network technologies such as 5G in terms of resource consumption and sustainability. After all, "Smart City" and 5G can only be achieved by means of reinstalling countless antennas and endless cables in the ground, in street furniture such as bus stops and streetlights, and in parts of buildings. Registration via our website, http://antennenozeane.de/ and Eventbrite is requested. Conference Programme Friday 23 Sept 2022, 18:30 Keynote lecture: Jennifer Gabrys (Cambridge University, UK): The Future is Phygital: 5G in Smart Cities and Smart Forests After the keynote there will be a reception and presentation of the new site-specific and temporary sound installation “BIAS” by Mario de Vega, running for 24 hours at Museum für Kommunikation Berlin. Saturday 24 Sept 10:00 – 10:30 Shintaro Miyazaki (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Birgit Schneider (Potsdam University): An exploration of art and theory in electromagnetic urban environments. Introduction to the conference theme 10:30 – 12:15 City as Resource? The Socio-political Dimensions of "Smart City". Moderator: Shintaro Miyazaki Gabriele Schliwa (Utrecht University, NL): Dreams and the ‘smart’ city: past, present, futures Teresa Dillon (IRL/UK/DE): In Your Aerial, part 2 13:45 – 15:30 Uncanny Radiation? Towards an Aesthetics of Electromagnetic Fields. Moderator: Birgit Schneider Susanna Hertrich (Basel, CH): Sense-making in Aether Space Rahul Mukherjee (University of Pennsylvania, USA): Debating Cell Antenna Exposures: Another Genealogy of Sensitive Mediations 16:00 – 17:45 Radiation and Techno-ecological Spheres Moderation: Birgit Schneider Ignacio Farías & Nona Schulte-Römer (Humboldt-Universität Berlin, D): Backgrounding 5G networks: The challenge of governing the risks of electromagnetic radiation Ubiquity (Bregtje van der Haak, 2018), Film Screening & Discussion Final discussion / wrap-up Sun, 25 September 11:00 – 16:00 Thesis and scenario workshop On Sunday 25th of September, 11:00 - 16:00, we invite all interested guests and the speakers of the conference to a thesis and scenario workshop. Here we want to further discuss the topics of the conference together in order to derive insights, exaggerations, theses and scenarios about what the smart city and the digitization of the city could still be beyond the already existing visions and master plans. In case you are interested in the thesis workshop on Sunday please send an email to shintaro.miyazaki AT hu-berlin.de (with subject “scenario workshop”) More information: http://antennenozeane.de/ Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, University of Potsdam, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Museum für Kommunikation Berlin ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
