Kia ora friends,
If you're going to be in Barcelona, at any point
over the next six months, please do drop by Arts
Santa Mònica on the Ramblas to see the Invisible
Fields exhibition.
It's a co-production between Arts Santa Mònica
and Lighthouse in Brighton, and features major
works by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Trevor Paglen,
Timo Arnall, Joyce Hinterding and many more.
Best wishes,
Honor Harger
Director, Lighthouse
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INVISIBLE FIELDS
GEOGRAPHIES OF RADIO WAVES
14 OCTOBER 2011 - 4 MARCH 2012
BARCELONA
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/programme/invisible-fields
Invisible Fields is a major new international
exhibition at Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona
Spain, co-produced by Lighthouse. It brings
together over a dozen internationally known
artists, designers and scientists to explore the
radio spectrum - the invisible environment that
underpins contemporary technology. Co-curated by
José Luis de Vicente and Honor Harger, the show
includes significant works by Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer, Trevor Paglen, Timo Arnall, Joyce
Hinterding and many more.
The show is presented in the Laboratory space of
Arts Santa Mònica
<http://www.artssantamonica.cat/> directed by
Josep Perelló.
Invisible Fields explores how our understanding
of our world and our cosmos has been transformed
by the study of radio waves. With the invention
of telecommunication technology at the end of the
19th century, the radio spectrum became a tool
for rethinking the world we live in. Radio
collapsed geographical distance, crossed borders
and cultures, became a powerful catalyst for
commerce and enabled scientists to study the
cosmos in entirely new ways. Yet whilst the radio
spectrum is the invisible infrastructure that
enables the technologies of information and
communication, most people are unaware of the way
it works, how it is managed, and how it is has
shaped our understanding of our lived environment.
Invisible Fields aims to shine a light on this enigmatic landscape.
The exhibition differs from past explorations of
these topics, in that it is conceived as an
interdisciplinary blend of social-cultural
analysis, science communication, and artistic
practice.
ARTISTS IN THE SHOW
Timo Arnall (BERG), Thomas Ashcraft, Matthew
Biederman, Anthony DeVincenzi (MIT Media Lab),
Diego Diaz and Clara Boj, Joyce Hinterding,
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Trevor Paglen, Job Ramos,
Semiconductor, Luthiers Drapaires, and Rasa Smite
& Raitis Smits (RIXC).
WORKS IN THE SHOW
- 20Hz (new commission) by Semiconductor
- Drone Vision by Trevor Paglen
- Frequency & Volume by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
- Harnessing Wild Electricities from Outer Space by Thomas Ashcraft
- Immaterials by Timo Arnall
- Invisible Forces by Anthony DeVincenzi
- Loops and Fields: Induction Drawings Series 4 by Joyce Hinterding
- Magnetic Movie by Semiconductor
- Observatorio by Clara Boj and Diego Diaz
- Office of Spectral Ecology by Matthew Biederman
- Skrunda Signal by Rasa Smite & Raitis Smits (RIXC)
- The Conet Project by Irdial Records
- New commission by Job Ramos
Plus a community Wifi workshop and information
space by Guifi.net; a satellite observation
workshop and ground-station by Plataforma Cero
LABoral; an antenna-building workshop and antenna
collection by Luthiers Drapaires; and a micro-FM
building workshop by Arts Santa Monica.
The exhibition design, by Run Design, includes an
operational Faraday Cage, a visual spatialisation
of the electromagnetic chart and a visual
timeline of spectrum utopias.
A catalogue in Spanish, Catalan and English is
being published and will be available in
November. It features essays by Douglas Kahn,
Adam Greenfield, Martin Howse, Josep Perelló and
others.
Lighthouse will be working with partners to bring the show to the UK in 2012.
MORE ABOUT THE SHOW
More than a linear, historical narration of the
evolution of spectrum technologies, Invisible
Fields can best be understood as an
"observatory", which enables visitors to perceive
the radio spectrum. It sets out the spectrum as a
physical space, invisible but present, a terrain
that can be studied, mapped, surveyed and
explored. It is an environment made of signals
and waves from nature, and from us. Its
topography is formed of waves of different
scales, from tiny emissions given off by domestic
objects to vast emissions made by distant
astronomical phenomena. It's made up of signals
that are very familiar, such as television and
radio, and signals which are esoteric and
enigmatic. It is an ecology that has public
spaces - wireless internet and amateur radio -
and secret spaces - coded military transmissions
and clandestine signals.
Following on from pioneers such as John Cage,
Alvin Lucier and Pauline Oliveros, contemporary
artists such as Thomas Ashcraft, Semiconductor
and Joyce Hinterding create powerful works that
allow us to understand the radio spectrum as an
extension of the natural world.
Sitting alongside their almost Emersonian
understanding of radio as nature, is recent work
in the field of architecture, design and
urbanism, which expands the notion of urban space
into the invisible realm of the spectrum.
"Hertzian space", a term coined by designers,
Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby, is defined by our
transmissions of radio, television, wireless
internet, GPS data and mobile phone signals. It
is a space interrogated by artists and designers
such as Timo Arnall from the BERG group in
London, and Clara Boj and Diego Diaz who create
clever visualisations of the presence of waves in
our daily life.
Elsewhere in the show, artist Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer's monumental tribute to the radio
dial, enables us to physically move through radio
transmissions, giving us a visceral encounter
with our ethereal cultural surroundings. And
experimental geographer and artist, Trevor Paglen
and artist-activists, RIXC, shed light on the
dark zones of the spectral landscape.
Invisible Fields is not only concerned with the
topology of the radio landscape, but rather the
socio-political activities that take place within
it. Alongside the artworks in the show are
operational workshops, which remind us that our
position with the architecture of the spectrum is
far from being that of a passive observer. As
such, the exhibition space hosts intensive
activity for a wide variety of audiences, with
workshops on Sunday mornings, and a complete
education programme offered to schools.
Taken together the works in Invisible Fields make
the intangible materiality of the electromagnetic
spectrum visible and audible. They open up the
Hertzian space around us, and above us, to our
senses. The visions of artists, the solutions of
designers, and the experiments of scientists give
us the tools we need to create our own mental
maps of this profoundly influential terrain.
DATE/ TIME / VENUE
Dates: 14 October 2011 - 4 March 2012
Times: 1100 - 2100, Tuesday - Sunday
Venue: Arts Santa Mónica
La Rambla, 7
Barcelona, Spain
CREDITS
Produced by Arts Santa Mònica, in association with Lighthouse.
Curated by: José Luis de Vicente and Honor Harger
Assisted by: Irma Vilà
In conjunction with British Council, Bureau du
Quebec, Barcelone | Conseil des Arts et des
Lettres du Quebec, Laboral Centro de Arte y
Creación, Gijon, Bòlit, Centre d'Art
Contemporani, Girona.
We acknowledge the support of: Proyecto PARTNeR
Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), Departament
d'Astronomia I Meteorologia-Universitat de
Barcelona, Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria
de Telecomunicació de Barcelona-Universitat
Politècnica de Catalunya.
CONTACT
Lighthouse
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk
Address: 28 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ, UK
Tel: +44 1273 647197
email: info@lighthouse.org.uk
Find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LighthouseArts
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