[ISEA2011] Paper: Georg Russegger & Michal Wlodkowski (et al) – Insecure Territories

Abstract  also workshop statement

Public space does not end at the borders of visible, perceptible reality but extends into the invisible. The increased population of communication devices in public life results in a dense layering of electromagnetic content passing through both air and bodies, on route to its target. As such we are not just senders and recipients but carriers of signal.

We unwittingly move through numerous digital and analog networks, leaving traces of our electronic passing with the devices and gadgets we carry. More so, we inadvertently leak information about ourselves that can be analysed to a disturbing level of accuracy with publicly available forensic tools.

In Form of a workshop and presentation, the technologies and techniques of how to read the plethora of signal in the air, manipulate it and pass it on will be covered.

Network Insecurity                                                                                                                          Experienced wireless hackers Julian Oliver and Bengt Sjolen will present the WiFi spectrum (2.4-2.5Ghz) as a rich material for activist intervention, study and play. In tandem with Gordo Savicic and Danja Vasiliev, from a temporary outpost in Sao Paulo, they will lift network packet analysis and manipulation into a trans-continental domain.

Invisible Territories                                                                                                                            Brendan Howell and Martin Howse will take investigation and intervention into other bands of the spectrum, introducing custom hardware and rigorous techniques for a psycho-geophysical reading of the area around Tempelhof airport.

  • Georg Russegger is Scientific Manager of the research and development project »Ludic Interfaces« gamejournal.it/ludic-interfaces-driver-and-product-of-gamification/ at the Interface Culture Lab, University of Art and Design Linz, Austria. Together with the association »5uper.net« he is artistic director of the CODED CULTURES festival in Vienna. Georg Russegger received a Ph.D. in media- and communication-theory and did a Post Doc. at the Graduate School for Film and New Media (Tokyo National University of the Arts). As a theoretician  Russegger focuses on creative delineation-practices in human-mediated processes of selforganization within complex media environments. Since 1999 he is active in artistic and scientific fields based on the research about new artistic practices, mediaintegrated knowledgecultures and its greater impact on project design and individual selfempowerment. website: datadandy.net
  • Michal Wlodkowski
  • Julian Oliver
  • Bengt Sjolen
  • Brendan Howell
  • Martin Howse 

Full text (PDF) p. 2087-2089