[spectre] Forests of Antennas, Oceans of Waves. An Exploration of Art and Theory

[Shintaro Miyazaki]

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: info at antennenozeane.de

"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