Electromagnetic Bodies

This is the zone where the physical boundaries between what may be called "organic", or bodily sensors, and technological constructs intermingle. Considering the now lengthy history of the cyborg, the electron beam and the warp engine as a cultural concepts, one may wonder whether the distinctions between the natural world and globalised technologies are still valid. These issues were topics of Tesla's investigations a century ago as he sought to create a new utopian 'World Society' fueled by free energy created by the earth's own natural electromagnetic sphere. The contemporary implications of these observations and predictions in today's world of wireless detachment and unlimited mobility still present enigmatic research material to both scientists and artists alike.

Electromagnetic Bodies features electronic, interactive and acoustic artworks by Ælab, Jean-Pierre Aubé, Craig Baldwin, Mateusz Herczka, Simone Jones, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Carsten Nicolai, Paulette Phillips, Catherine Richards, Jocelyn Robert, Daan Roosegaarde, David Tomas, Edwin van der Heide and Norman T. White, with commissioned works premiering by Michiel van Bakel with Bill Spinhoven, and Marnix de Nijs.

Vernissage Thursday May 4th, 20.30 at TENT., Rotterdam

The Electromagnetic Bride conference, accompanying the exhibition and hosted by the Goethe-Institut Rotterdam, will take place on Saturday May 6th from 10.00 to 17.00.

ÆLAB IN/FLUENCING, 2005

Permutational media installation with four sensors

The installation creates an interplay of invisible forces which reflect the translation of electromagnetic phenomena to nano- and microscopic levels. The intuitive understanding that Tesla had of zero point into the atmosphere as a global source of self-sustaining energy, is played upon through an endless exchange of magnetic/ voltage coordinates. Ælab, founded in Montreal by Stéphane Claude and Gisèle Trudel, is an artistic research unit focusing on an ecological and technological conscience rooted in the arts and sciences.

ÆLAB SPARKS, 1999-2005

Experimental documentary series
 

• Tesla and his time 1999, 7min An overview of his life work and prodigious personality.
• Colorado Springs 2005, 6 min The wireless transmission of electricity/energy.
• Niagara Falls 2005, 5 min The war of the currents (AC vs. DC), and Edison's rivalry with Tesla.
• Wardenclyffe 1999, 10min His laboratory in Long Island, N.Y. where in 1901 he tried to establish the basis for his 'World Broadcasting System.'
• Tesla and the future 2005, 8 min The legacy of the inventor and a reflection on the perception of time.

JEAN-PIERRE AUBÉ SPYING THE TENT. /WDW WORKFORCES, 2006

In situ VLF installation

In situ VLF installation VLF (Very Low Frequency) receivers silently monitor the electronic flow within the TENT. / WdW building. Aimed at CD-ROM drives, network cables, lighting fixtures or elevator control panels, the VLF receivers report back on the electromagnetic presence within the building in real time. A live generator decodes the information and broadcasts the data through four speakers and a 3-D model. Sound artist Jean-Pierre Aubé, has been exploring various electromagnetic phenomena via VLF since 2000, including sounds 'captured' live from the aurora borealis in Finland.

MICHIEL VAN BAKEL / BILL SPINHOVEN REALTIMEWARPER, 2006

bio/electromagnetic triggering interface for audio/visual narratives

As the perceived need for security grows, so too does the need for surveillance. RealTimeWarper researches means with which to give this imagery back to the public. In this case the visitor's bioelectromagnetic presence is picked up by sensors which trigger cameras feeding an editor. Real-time animations of those caught in the web of cameras are processed and projected, visualising an invisible scenario of movement. Before becoming an artist, Michiel van Bakel studied astronomy and psychology. Bill Spinhoven studied at the Technical University Twente and teaches since 2000 at the AKI Enschede.

CRAIG BALDWIN SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM, 1999

16mm film on DVD projection, 93 min.

Spectres of the Spectrum is a feature-length 16mm film utilizing old 'kinescopes' (filmed records of early TV broadcasts) to create an eerie 'media-archaeological' sci-fi time-travel tale. Threatened by the 'New lectromagnetic Order', a young telepathic woman helps search for a way to save the planet from a futuristic war-machine based on the real life HAARP- High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a sophisticated research component of the Star Wars weapons arsenal. Craig Baldwin is an independent filmmaker, programmer and media archaeologist using pirated footage to subvert conventional documentary.

EDWIN VAN DER HEIDE RADIOSCAPE IV, 2005

Live urban radiowave exploration

Radioscape IV transforms the urban environment into an orchestrated acoustic labyrinth. Based on the fundamental principles of radio, visitors are provided with a special handheld receiver/antenna and a pair of headphones with which to create sonic compositions. Fifteen transmitters, spread out in the neighbourhood, each broadcast their own independent compositions listed from the short wave spectrum. As these transmissions overlap each other in space, unique meta compositions are formed by the movement and change in position of the visitor. Edwin van der Heide studied sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and works as an independent artist in the fields of sound, space and interaction.

MATEUSZ HERCZKA LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS: VANDA, 2005

Electrolytic variable media installation

Life Support Systems explores ideas of a future existence for living organisms in attempting to achieve the milestone of artificial intelligence. Starting with the orchid Vanda Hybrida, which has both inspirational beauty, as well as behavioral simplicity, an electrolytic system uploads the organism's behavioral characteristics to a computer. Once the living individual is disconnected, its emergent virtual counterpart will continue to generate signals which mimic the original. Kept 'alive' inside computer media such as hard disks, servers, and networks this newly created virtual organism can now exist indefinitely. Mateusz Herczka teaches at the Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam and creates conceptual audiovisual pieces as a software artist and performer.

SIMONE JONES CAMERA EXERCISES, 2001

single channel video

Camera Exercises is inspired by the artist's interest in levitation as a fantastical phenomenon. The 16 mm film refers to the early cinematic works of George Melies as well as the films of performance art from the 1970s. Just as electricity and electromagnetism function as invisible forces, Camera Exercises presents the impossible nature of a floating body upheld by an unseen power that defies the earth's gravitational pull. For Simone Jones, who teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design, technology functions as both an extension of the human body and as a physical manifestation of thought and desire.

MARIE-JEANNE MUSIOL BODIES OF LIGHT, 2005

Light sculpture

A wall of images gradually lights up to reveal the natural energy of the living world. Consisting of 60-100 light boxes triggered by an electronic eye Bodies of Light gradually increases in intensity creating an experience of cosmic illumination, before going back to dark until a new visitor comes in. Marie-Jeanne Musiol experienced the limits of photographic representation while working in Auschwitz in the 1990's. After experiencing such a charged site she began exploring means to directly record the luminous imprints of electromagnetic fields around biological bodies.

CARSTEN NICOLAI MODELFOR VISUALISATION OF SOUND, 2001.

Electron deffraction tube, magnetic field, coll, CD player, CD, amplifier, loudspeakers, ligth table Libra Art Collection, Courtesy: Gallery EIGEN + ART, Leipzig/Berlin

This project enables the visualization of sound based on the impact of magnetic fields on an electronic beam. The sound-track, crafted specifically for this project, comprises of a precise constellation of sine waves. Acoil within the electron diffraction tube receives these frequencies, converting them into a  magnetic field whose impact becomes visible in the form of the modulation of a blue electronic beam. This phenomenon is reminiscent of utopian experiments of the past that tried to combine the elements light and sound. Carsten Nicolai uses electronic sound and visual art as a hybrid tool to create his own microscopic view of creative processes.

MARNIX DE NIJS THE BEIJING ACCELERATOR, 2006

Interactive installation

Fascinated by the dynamics of the city of Beijing, Marnix de Nijs'; installation examines the precarious balance of machine, image and body in time and the effects that accelerated forces of gravity have on today's urban citizenry. By manipulating both elements separately, the installation plays with both physical and visual perception. Participants sit in a racing car seat attached to a motorized revolving arm and focus on a video projection which is simultaneously circulating with them. Using a joystick the 'accelerators' control their own tempo and direction, and are challenged to synchronize their own speed with that of the images. Faster than ever and against the earth's gravitational pull ... the experience begins to tilt to a condition inducing a relative visual standstill. Rotterdam based artist Marnix de Nijs presents his works internationally and has recently been awarded with the Witteveen & Bos Art and Technology Prize in 2005.

PAULETTE PHILLIPS HOMEWRECKER #1 / HOMEWRECKER #2, 2005

Homewrecker examines physical levitation through the ethereal phenomena of telepathy, hypnosis, attraction and electromagnetism. The 16mm film loop, reminiscent of early cinema, is shot in such a way that the space around a woman, enacting a forceful gaze, appears to contract and expand. Juxtaposed with a quizzical electromagnetic sculpture hovering in space the installation refers to the early histories of alternating current and cosmology. Paulette Phillips is an artist and Associate Professor of Art at The Ontario College of Art and Design.

CATHERINE RICHARDS SHROUD/CHRYSALIS, 2000

Performative installation

Shroud/Chrysalis is a performative interactive installation in which spectators are invited to be wrapped in a copper fabric shielding by two female attendants. When wrapped, the spectator becomes totally immersed in a wireless circuit, lying on a glass table inspired by those used in early electricity treatments to unground patients. Unplugging users of their lectromagnetic environment Shroud/Chrysalis reverses the accepted notion of wireless signals that habitually submerge us. Is it a body bag or the signal of a post-human rebirth? Catherine Richards is a visual artist working with old and new technologies.

JOCELYN ROBERT SAINT-GEORGES ETLE DRAGON, 2004

Video electronic installation

Two video animations, each with their own rhythm, play in loops. One shows a typewriter tracing the accumulation of time, while the other shows time, as the movement of a pedestrian moving step by step closer to the typewriter. When getting too close, the pedestrian abruptly jumps back and starts over in its own Sisyphusian loop once again. The work is inspired not by the history of Nikola Tesla but by the fact that there actually is such a history. Jocelyn Robert is founder of the Avatar artist-run centre in Quebec City, trained as an architect, and works on the composition of interactive computer pieces.

DAAN ROOSEGAARDE / PETER DE MAN 4D-PIXEL, 2004

Interactive electromagnetic installation

The sense that architectural space is more than a collage of construction elements combined with a desire to use 'interaction' as a basic building material drives the 4D-Pixel wall. Developed as a responsive smart surface based on intelligent software and electromagnetic technology, the wall reacts physically to voice and sound. Its beauty is determined by the behaviour of the visitor, its shapes constantly evolving, reflecting new input collected from its immediate environment. Daan Roosegaarde is a recent graduate of the Berlage Institute, a Postgraduate Laboratory of Architecture. Peter de Man studied at the Saxion Hogescholen in Enschede specialising in interactive objects.

DAVID TOMAS MATRIX FOR YELLOW LIGHT, 2005

4-part loop PowerPoint installation

Featuring an automatic Power Point presentation and a gold spinning disc sandwiched between two large glass plates, the installation explores how knowledge could be articulated in the twenty-first century. Using today's language for organizing visual and audio-based information the piece explores the possibilities embodied in a given medium (sound) and the fictions of its own technological environment. The work points to a strange and exotic science fiction world where information might have intelligence. David Tomas is an artist/writer whose multimedia works explore the trans-cultures of science,  anthropology, technology, and their imaging systems.

NORMAN T. WHITE ABACUS, 1974

Electronic sculpture

Abacus was designed and constructed while the artist was experimenting with the creation of chaotic systems using the simplest possible principles. Four out-of-phase oscillators induce and determine the speed of tiny tubes shuttling back and forth across metal hoops. Employing random and structured principles working in harmony to produce a chance effect - partially predictable, partially not - Abacus creates a semblance of autonomous life. Norman T. White presented his first major electronic work in 1969 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and has been exhibiting his electronic and robotic work internationally ever since.

The project is supported financially by the Mondriaan Foundation, the Stichting CBK Rotterdam, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, The Filmfonds Amsterdam, and the Canadian Dept. of Foreign Affaires.

Electromagnetic Bodies: Aether, Desire and Resonance in Art and Technology is based on the Resonance: Electromagnetic Bodies international touring exhibition initiated and curated by Nina Czegledy and Louise Provencher in Canada, and co-curated by Stephen Kovats and Willie Stehouwer in Rotterdam.

images credits:

IN/FLUENCING and SPARKS: Æ lab;  SPYING THE TENT. /WDW  WORKFORCES: Jean Pierre Aubé; RADIOSCAPE IV: Edwin van der Heide; LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS: VANDA: Jan Sprij; CAMERA EXERCISES: Simone Jones; BODIES OF LIGHT: Marie-Jeanne Musiol; MODEL FOR VISUALISATION OF SOUND: Uwe Walter; THE BEIJING ACCELLERATOR: Marnix de Nijs; HOMEWRECKER #1 HOMEWRECKER #2: Paulette Phillips; SHROUD/CHRYSALIS: Catherine Richards; SAINT-GEORGES ET LE DRAGON: Jocelyn Robert; 4D-PIXEL: Daan Roosengaarde.

http://www.resonance-electromagneticbodies.net/
http://www.tentplaza.nl