LANscapes
LANscapes is a research project into how one can work with the pre-existing infrastructure found within a given environment for creating and deploying communication networks.
Building upon the common natural phenomenon such as (and not only) radio, electromagnetism, acoustics in combination with elevations, forestation, (known and unknown) geodesic anomalies of a local terrain, the project aims to determine a set of possible solutions for creating local area networks (LANs) for communicating digital forms of information within a certain unmodified landscape.
Trees, plants, rhizomatic root systems, bodies and streams of water could become antennae, signal leads and waveguides for messages sent from point A to point B.
The outcome is a collection of low-tech technological solutions and methodologies for working with a given natural environment. Such a technique could become a useful tool for disaster relief, rural network deployment and last but not least understanding of the environment we find ourselves surrounded by.
Speaker
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Sarah Grant and Danja VasilievSarah Grant is an American media artist and educator based in Berlin. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Fine Art from UC Davis and a Masters of Professional Studies in Media Arts from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Her practice engages with the electromagnetic spectrum and telecommunication networks as artistic material, social habitat, and political landscape. With a focus on radioart and computer networking, she researches and develops artworks as educational tools and workshops that demystify computer networking and radio technology. She organizes the Radical Networks conference in New York and Berlin.
Danja Vasiliev is a Berlin-based Russian artist and Critical Engineer. He studies systems and networks through anti-disciplinary experimentation with hardware, firmware and software. Using computational platforms, he engages in the examination and exploitation of system and network paradigms in both the physical and digital realms. Based on these findings, he creates and exhibits works of Critical Engineering. Since 1999, Vasiliev has been involved in computer-technology events, media-art exhibitions and seminars around the world. He has received several awards and mentions at Ars Electronica, Japan Media Art Festival and Transmediale, among others.
EASTN-DC, European Art-Science-Technology Network for Digital Creativity, is a network dedicated to the time-based digital arts: musical arts, visual arts, performing and interactive arts. It is gathering 16 partners in 13 different countries from Europe to the Americas. They will host and exchange about 70 creators in the frame of a 16 international events tour spread over 4 years. These privileged moments, in direct contact with the audience, will frame a new and systemic approach, binding the Knowing “Disseminate”, the Learning “Inseminate”, the Making “Collect”, a digital creativity factory leading to a creative citizen.