Situation SPECTRE WP and workshop

 

MAKROLAB – A SPECTRAL WORK STATION is a two-stage presentation of a process

The first stage is manifestative and conceived as a prevision of more extensive research into the social-political territory of communications and migrations (especially of the military industrial complex, capital, science, and the power related to them). It is represented by the last speech American President Dwight. D. Eisenhower recorded in the White House Oval Office on 17 January 1961.

In his speech, Eisenhower warns very specifically – and with real integrity – of the danger of the uncontrolled growth of the military industrial complex and the power of scientific research institutions in American society; which of course does not mean his speech is not applicable in a pan-global context. His warning not only anticipates today’s society of control – validated in 2013 by the Snowden scandal and everything it entailed – but it also represents a clearly drawn historical vector that, due to its power, needs to be not only detected but also intensely reflected in order to understand the present-day situation.

The second stage is conceived as a workshop for 11 participants on 11 January 2013 at the +MSUM. The workshop forms part of the research planned also for 2014 and 2015 by the SPEKTR projects team (Mx, DelRay, Nullo, Springer, Taut and collaborators) under the umbrella title: WE SHOULD TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED! On the building of an alert and knowledgeable citizenry

A functional working unit (SPECTRE WP) for mapping the electromagnetic spectrum of the MAKROLAB mkVII module, which will be set up on the Gora plateau above Ajdovščina in 2014-2015, will operate at the +MSUM during the workshop.

In the radio and optical range, the electromagnetic spectrum is a natural resource humanity has used for the information and communication revolution, which has, in addition to its decisive role in accelerating the development of free individuals, social systems, and capital, also a dark and hidden counter-image in the exponential growth of the society of control and spectral capital in all of its forms.

In the context of the Makrolab project, mapping, reflecting, and archiving events in the radio and optical range of the electromagnetic spectrum is one of three main focal points of the research and work done in the framework of this long-term project; the other two are mapping, reflecting, and archiving migrations, and mapping, reflecting, and archiving climate dynamics.

MAKROLAB – A SPECTRAL WORK STATION consists of a computer unit and a software- defined radio, a work console, and a system of antennas set up on the roof of +MSUM.

A log cataloging the use of the system at the workshop will be kept and made available until the end of the show, giving insight into the technological and political dimensions of the workings of this system.

 

Marko Peljhan (b. 1969) is a theater and radio director, conceptual artist, and researcher. Living in Slovenia, the United States, and Latvia, he works globally. He has been coordinating the Makrolab project in all its dimensions since 1994, and is the co-founder of Ljudmila, the initiative I-TASC and the Arctic Perspective Initiative. Currently he works as full professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, co-ordinates the programs of the art/science projects of the University of California Institute of Research in the Arts, and is the artistic director of the Projekt Atol Institute. In the radio spectrum he is known as S54MX.