Some subjective afterthoughts about the workshop, which could lead to long-term developments or other projects.
Dish Geometry & Channel Surfing
Once, I've been interested in how the (historically defined) architecture of the movie theatre plays a huge role in creating a regime of experience that is considered intrinsic to the cinematographic medium. A similar inquiry was aroused by the formal simplicity of the satellite dish, whose pure geometry is greatly responsible for the proper organization of video signal. I was curious to see how the intervention in the physical shape of the dish affected the audiovisual reception. I thought that this could lead to techniques for the meaningful modulation of the signal using the antenna itself.
This curiosity led me to participate of the drawing session with the Büro für Unabwägbarkeiten. It proved to be a wonderful opportunity to imagine how the dish (and its feedhorn) could be employed either as a tool or as an occupiable construction. Most of the situations I came up with allowed the public to manipulate the dish according to certain physical parameters and constantly monitor the visual results of such interactions. In that sense, they were playful, pedagogic pieces, which promoted a general awareness of infrastructural aspects of media.
However, once the satellite dish is disconnected from its normal architectural situation, there is nothing preventing it of becoming an instrument for performance. Thus, I feel that some of the pieces also suggested a sort of poetics of channel surfing. With this term, I’m implying all forms of manipulation of a reception device in search of particular signals. Primary examples of channel surfing would be scanning radio frequencies after a station; zapping through TV channels with a remote control; and even adjusting an antenna on the roof to increase the quality of the image. Of course, the list could be expanded to include more spatial forms of signal rummage, from centuries old dowsing to modern techniques such as CCTV sniffing (and, why not, the auditing of electromagnetic fields of the SnowKrash duo and the research-performances of the Büro).
On the one hand, a poetics of channel surfing would turn all available free-to-air signals in an infinite source for image making. Collaterally, it would create opportunities to reveal the spaces in-between structured channels, foregrounding the natural patterns – often called noise – that video devices try to suppress with their placid blue screens.
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the echo as a measure of pure presence.