[ISEA2010] Paper: Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag – From the sonArc::project to C_plexus solaris: From In-forming Plasma in Vitro to Transforming the Solar Storm in 2012 in Vivo

Abstract

In 2012 NASA scientists expect the next solar super storm, an “electromagnetic tsunami”, like in September 1859 when auroras could be seen all over the world and the new technology of electric telegraphy was disturbed by natural radio – decades before our radio had been invented.
In 2003 I have started my sonArc::project. Since then I have been exploring the question of the “domesticability of lightning” with the sonArc cycle – the coding or forming of high-frequency high-voltage plasma as a pure electrical / electronic interface, a direct yet bodiless connection to an electrical system and its medial-epistemic roots and changing formats.
sonArcinterfaces are high-voltage-DC-arcs based on the studies of Duddell and Poulson or AC-arcs based on the inventions of Tesla around 1900. It is a reversal of de Maria’s “Lightning Field”. The system, an amorphous sculpture of electromagnetic waves, is scalable. When the lightning’s impulses connect in order to form long waves that resonate with the ionosphere, the weather becomes modelable.

  • Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (DE) is an artist focusing mainly on media art-based installations and theory. He studied fine arts, art history, music theory, composition, philosophy and cognitive science and, in 2002, founded “N-solab”. He is a cofounder of “hARTware-projects”, now “HMKV”, “oh Ton” and “unerhört”. He had several grants and participations in international exhibitions.

Full text (PDF) p.  346-348