Demons in the aether workshop:

An active, artistic investigation of electromagnetic substance within a constructed environment

http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_program_events/detail.php?nr=2951&rubric=events&

presentation: http://1010.co.uk/demons1.html

“Ether, or Æther (aiqhr, probably from aiqw, I burn, though Plato in his Cratylus derives the name from its perpetual motion - oti aei qei peri ton aera rewn, aeiqehr dikaiwV an kaloito), a material substance of more subtle kind than visible bodies, supposed to exist in those parts of space which are apparently empty.”

[James Clerk Maxwell. Encyclopaedia Britannica 1875]

Presenting a clear sequel to the Maxwell City workshop in Oslo (Atelier Nord, 2007) which investigated a broad spectrum of contemporary concern with electromagnetic phenomena (EM), Demons in the Aether attempts active intervention into the ghosted EM city. The speculative work of James Clerk Maxwell informs both workshops, with the notion of entropy and thus ecology bridging physics and information theory; a clear route from thermodynamics into the digital domain. Equally, under the sign of the aether, Maxwell can well be considered as an essential figure within a contemporary physics of uncertainty.

Notions of signal and noise offer clear variables within our own artistic equations, rewriting those of Maxwell, which attempt to make sense, to decode an architecture sketching (in)visibility and a politics of the spectrum. At the same time, these watchwords provide a ready route into primarily physical, active intervention; a reworking of the intentionality of transmission.

Across three days workshop participants, the demons in the aether, will both investigate and construct city-wide EM phenomena, exploring and producing an alien architecture of emissions. Simple devices will be built in both instances, translating between audible, physical trace and the aether itself.

Friday, May 9, 2008, 12:00 – 19:00:

- Short introduction to electromagnetic [EM] phenomena primarily through demonstration [static electricity, spark transmission, Van Eck phreaking]

- Comparison of a few designs for EM sniffer or probe devices within the context of the EM spectrum

- Construction by participants of the most simple hardware probe device

- First city field trip with constructed probes

Saturday, May 10, 2008/Sunday, May 11, 2008, each day 12:00 – 19:00:

- Discussion of first field trip findings. Interpretations of recorded material.

- Construction and experimentation with simple devices allowing intervention into EM space (wideband transmission, creation of magnetic fields). Investigation of effects on matter.

- Second field trip investigating EM architecture and investigation (use of city material as ad-hoc antennas)

- Concluding discussion and projection for further artistic work.

1) Selection of a well-defined portion of the electromagnetic spectrum; for example, low frequency RF, Microwaves, Ultra-violet, Infra-Red and Gamma-Rays. Acquaintance with properties, for example consequences of wavelength, power and ownership, and with intervention and measurement devices.

2) Ghost radio; the spectral spectrum. Radio, viewed from invention and inception as a medium for an unseen (human) double. Subtopics could include the history and culture of the spectral spectrum, spectral technologies, double refraction and ghost detection.

3) The architecture, aesthetics and functional design of antenna. Radio telescopes present a vast, architected landscape implying both the relation between wavelength and antenna, and a relation of distance to the observed phenomena. Mushrooming inner city antenna clusters offer a literally spread spectrum; a relation to property in all senses and an ad-hoc architecture.

Please bring headphones (with cable to plug into a stereo 3.5mm minijack/klinkenstecker) and any recording apparatus (portable laptop, hard disk recorder, minidisk or cassette). We will provide all tools, parts and (if necessary), headphones and cables. A GPS device would be nice to have, although not essential.

Maxwell City workshops: http://anart.no/projects/maxwell-city/

WAVES: http://www.rixc.lv/waves/en/publication.html

Ghostlab: http://www.ghostlab.org/sommaire.php3

Constraint City: http://www.yugo.at/equilibre/

A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism Volumes 1 and 2, James Clerk Maxwell

The Demon in the Ether: Story of James Clerk Maxwell, the Father of Modern Science, Martin Goldman (22 Sep 1983)

Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon, Jonathan Cape (21 Nov 2006)

Lectures on Physics, by Richard P. Feynman (1963)

Radiotext(E), edited by Neil Strauss and David Mandl, Autonomedia (March 1, 1993)

Waves publication, edited by Armin Medosch, RIXC (August 2006).

Wireless Imagination Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde, edited by Douglas Kahn and Gregory Whitehead, The MIT Press (July 25 1994)

Hertzian tales, electronic products, aesthetic experience, and critical design by Anthony Dunne, The MIT Press 2005

Design Noir, The secret life of electronic objects by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Birkhauser 2002

Spectres of the Spectrum, directed by Craig Baldwin (1999) : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0224156/

The Ghost Orchid - An Introduction to EVP (1999): http://parc.web.fm/PARC%20CD1.htm

Friedrich Jurgenson - from the studio for audioscopic research (2000): http://touchshop.org/product_info.php?products_id=56

Short compilation: http://anart.no/projects/maxwell-city/software/

http://anart.no/projects/maxwell-city/hardware/

Some simpler designs to come soon. See also:

1novdocumentation

http://1010.co.uk/maxwell_notes.html