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  1. Research Projects
More: Research Projects

Listening to Data Flows

How Art and Biology Bring the Environment into the Computer

Institute for Contemporary Art Research (IFCAR)

Fotografie: Marc Latzel

In order to maintain our capacity to act in the age of climate crisis and species extinction, we must experience ourselves as part of our environment, in which the usually unnoticed materiality of digital media, processes and infrastructures are embedded. Immersive artistic approaches, even and especially those that work via auditory perception, allow environmental facts to be experienced sensually and facilitate an empathetic treatment of the environment.

What actually are the digital data we have so much to with in everyday life? How do they occur? Do they have a body? Can we touch them, or hear them? In contrast to climate change, the consequences of which are evident and perceptible, the data that analyse these effects and visualise them in models are themselves imperceptible. They do have a body, however, which leaves an ecological footprint in the physical world and can be calculated in the form of CO2 emissions (the server farms of the Google search engine produce around 0.2 grams of CO2 per query).1 We cannot touch data, they are coded in abstract language, but we can listen to the physical emissions which occur in computers while they execute their programmes: the electromagnetic oscillations of the device, the subtle vibrations of the energy consumption, or the micro-rhythmic clicks of a processor.

In order to maintain our capacity to act in the age of climate crisis and species extinction, we must experience ourselves as part of our environment, in which the usually unnoticed materiality of digital media, processes and infrastructures are embedded. Immersive artistic approaches, even and especially those that work via auditory perception, allow environmental facts to be experienced sensually and facilitate an empathetic treatment of the environment. In order to make digital data processes audible, the long-term artistic project Computer Signals: Art and Biology in the Age of Digital Experimentation developed a special experimental system consisting of sensors like induction coils and contact microphones. These probes were planted as parasites in the measuring instruments, computers, and infrastructures of two research units that investigate the behavior of fish, one in the Arctic Sea and the other in a laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. The project combined the recorded sounds with simultaneously recorded video images to create audio-visual installations.

The art installations will be presented in exhibitions at three different locations2 and constitute the cornerstones of the Agora communication project. The exhibitions will create audio-visual experience spaces, which are enriched by a number of additional sound diffusions. The integration of local guest artists intends a lasting shift among, especially younger, people, to a more complex and differentiated way of consideration: the concrete formats will be developed over the course of the project such as soundwalks, concerts, club nights, and workshops. Alternatively, the most exciting sound artists are looked for via an open call at the various venues (working title: ”Outsourced sounds, compositions and environments”). After all, the project has generated a voluminous bundle with thousands of hours of sounds, which are available to artists to develop their own projects. These sounds are now supposed to be made accessible publicly in order to develop a life of their own in a variety of forms. This is not only interesting from an artistic perspective, but also allows very different audiences to be reached. Working with these innovative sounds with their rich reference can turn an initially somewhat abstract interest in the materiality of digital processes into an experience to be relished.

Details

  • Research Focus
    • FSP Wissensformen der Kunst
  • Project Lead
    • Hannes Rickli (IFCAR)
  • Team
    • Christoph Stähli (IFCAR)
    • Valentina Vuksic (IFCAR)
    • Birk Weiberg (IFCAR)
  • Cooperations
    • Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz Zentrum für Polar und Meeresforschung
    • German Maritim Museum, Leibniz Institute for Maritime History
    • Kunstverein Bremerhaven von 1886 i.V.
  • Resources
    • Project website
  • Duration

    01.06.2021 – 31.05.2025

  • Financing
    • Ernst Göhner Stiftung (01.04.2024 – 31.05.2025)
    • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds SNF, Agora (01.06.2021 – 31.05.2025)
  • Research Approaches
    • Basic research
    • Artistic-scientific research
  • Disciplines

    Fine Arts

  • Keywords

    media ecology; climate change; digital infrastructure; digital literacy; art & science

Output

  • Vorträge, Referate

    Weiberg, Birk (2022): «Kritische Infrastrukturen und künstlerisch-technische Praktiken». 23.02.2022. Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe. Online unter: https://hfg-karlsruhe.de/aktuelles/vortrag-kritische-infrastrukturen-und-kuenstlerisch-technische-praktiken/.