HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE RFID

Admission: 4 Euro, reduced 2 Euro (including admission for the exhibition "Glamour and Globalization" and "Solar Radio Station")

The series of lectures brings together approaches and projects that artistically and critically deal with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology – a technology that is significantly being developed and advanced by companies and research institutes in Dortmund. This technology which at first glance seems to be a simple further development of the bar code (well known from the supermarket) is much more powerful that the good old bar code technology. RFID tags are passive radio transmitters, which upon receiving a minor wireless energy impulse are sending back the information stored on their memory. Today, this information can be read already at a distance of six meters – without the process getting noticed. In addition, with its unique identification numbering system, this technology will allow for a precise identification of every object worldwide. What will it be like to live in a world where all the objects constantly will be talking to each other?

Program:

10:00 Welcome and Introduction
- Screening of the video "The Catalogue" (GB 2004, 5:42 min.) by Chris Oakley -
Dr. Inke Arns (Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund)
Rasa Smite (RIXC, Center for New Media Culture, Riga)
Francis Hunger (Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund)

11.00 Keynote: Bruce Sterling (Autor, Belgrade)
Bruce Sterling is a science fiction writer who has, among others, shaped the notion of „cyberspace“ together with William Gibson („Neuromancer“). In his blog http://blog.wired.com/sterling/ he discusses future technological developments.

12:00 Rena Tangens, padeluun (FoeBuD e.V., Bielefeld)
Rena Tangens and padeluun are the most articulate and outspoken critics of RFID technology in Germany. They will speak about their Stop-RFID campaign, the Metro scandal, the use of RFID in the context of the World Cup and sketch a future vision for the use of RFID compatible with privacy issues.

1:30 Break

2:30 Rob van Kranenburg (Virtual Platform, Amsterdam)
Rob van Kranenburg will speak about RFID and Pervasive Computing, i.e. how computer technology increasingly permeates our everyday life. He sees RFID as an unavoidable logistics technology that poses the question of social control.

3:30 Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Lammers (Fraunhofer Institut Materialfluss und Logistik, Dortmund)
The Dortmund Fraunhofer Institute is one of the most significant research centers for RFID technology in Germany. An overview of its working areas and current research projects will be given.

4:30 Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits (RIXC, Center for New Media Culture, Riga) und Honor Harger, Adam Hyde (radioqualia, NZ/AUS/GB/NL)
Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits will introduce RIXC, the Center for New Media Culture in Riga and its activities in the field of Locative Media. Honor Harger and Adam Hyde (radioqualia) will speak a.o. about Solar Radio Station, an installation developed in cooperation with RIXC.

6:00 break

7:00 – 9:00 Solar Radio Station – Live Installation
The Riga based group Clausthome and VJ Martins Ratniks (F5/RIXC) will perform live in the Solar Radio Station. The live audio stream from the VIRAC radio telescope in Irbene, carrying data from the sun and from space, will be electronically enhanced by Clausthome and interpreted visually by VJ Martins Ratniks.

Curated by:
Francis Hunger (Junior Curator)

Supported by:
Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund
38. internationale kulturtage der stadt dortmund / scene: estland lettland litauen in nrw
Kunststiftung NRW
Der Ministerpräsident des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Kultusministerium der Republik Estland
Kultusministerium der Republik Lettland
Kultusministerium der Republik Litauen
Botschaft der Republik Litauen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Lietuvos Institutas
dortmund-project
LEG
PHOENIX
Medion
Coolibri (Medienpartner)

Documentation

How I learned to love RFID
texts und pictures (PDF 2.5 Mb)

With texts by:
Timo Arnall
Inke Arns
Dorothea Carl
Francis Hunger
Rob van Kranenburg
Oliver  Leistert
Franziska Nori
Bruce Sterling
Jasmina Tesanovic

Audio
Vorträge, Performances (Realaudio-Stream)
Inke Arns und Francis Hunger
Honor Harger and Rasa Smite
Rob van Kranenburg
Wolfgang Lammers
Bruce Sterling
Rena Tangens und Padelluun

Solar Radio Station
Solar Radio Station Live 1
Solar Radio Station Live 2
Workshop Discussions