scrying

workshop with Martin Howse

Dates: 1-2, 4 July 2008

Fee: EUR 60

Workshop Language: English

Scrying can variously be defined as a technique of divination or revelation, of producing visions, perhaps of the future, through prolonged gaze at an object, usually of crystal or liquid nature. Scrying was famously practiced by the 16th century astronomer, mathematician and alchemist John Dee with the assistance of presumed impostor Edward Kelley.

Scrying presents the third part in a series of practical workshops examining electromagnetic [EM] substance within the constructed environment. These previous workshops, Maxwell City, in Oslo and, more recently, Demons in the Aether, in Dortmund trace a clear spectrum of concerns, a novel route informed by the work of James Clerk Maxwell, with the notion of entropy and thus ecology bridging physics and information theory; from thermodynamics now into the digital domain.

Scrying thus moves from detection of a twinned EM architecture, a ghost city, through active intervention or transmission, towards an idea of making sense within the social regime of signal and noise. City-wide EM phenomena will be explored primarily from the perspective of a modulated, data space. The demons in the aether, the workshop participants, are transformed into detectors, coherers and detectives, attempting to make sense of an equally ghosted landscape composed of leaked signals and questionable [EVP/ITC] transmissions.

Across three days, the scrying workshop will explore and construct city-wide EM phenomena within the data space domain, examining techniques of digital forensics, of signal archaeology overlapping with contemporary artistic concerns. The scrying platform, an open hardware project concerned with the design and implementation of low power (enabling long-term, solar-powered urban installation) devices interfacing code and EM practice, will be used during the workshop.

On the afternoon of 3 July, Martin Howse will present a public Scrying performance in the area of Alexanderplatz.

Scrying is open to a wide audience of practitioners from fields such as media art, audio art, architecture, contemporary art, and radio. Participants need not have attended a previous workshop, and no previous experience is required for this workshop. Participants will be able to keep the Scrying equipment constructed during the workshop. The workshop is limited to 12 participants, so early registration is required.

http://www.scrying.org

please register here