[node-l] Radiator Festival & Symposium EXPLOITS IN THE WIRELESS CITY -Announcement Nr. 1

[Anette Schäfer]

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RADIATOR SYMPOSIUM - EXPLOITS IN THE WIRELESS CITY
Broadway Media Centre, Nottingham UK
15 – 16 January 2009

As part of the 4th Radiator festival, the Radiator Symposium, “Exploits in
the Wireless City”, aims to instigate discussion, debate and new
interdisciplinary research networks based on the understanding that the
development of digital networks are transforming our notion of (public and
private) space.

Bringing together artists with architects, urban theorists, computer
scientists, sociologists and fellow citizens, the symposium will explore,
question and play with this new urban topography where the
re-conceptualizing of the public sphere in the regeneration developments of
the East Midlands mirror those around Europe. 

Radiator will host the symposium alongside a series of presentations,
exhibitions and discussions where the audience will have the opportunity to
explore, remodel and re-present space in its traditional and emergent forms.


In its critique, the Radiator symposium will question the opportunities,
future strategies and implementations that artists and communities face when
learning to act within these new hybrid city spaces.

Through its artistic interventions, Radiator will put theory into practice
with projects and events that both position and challenge the dominant
forces at work in the urban environment and explore the new territories
opened up by hybrid space. The “Going Underground” project, investigates
this infrastructure by placing 5 artists into the urban confines of British
cities: Glenn Davidson (Artstation) (UK), Folke Köbberling & Martin
Kaltwasser (DE), Ian Nesbitt (UK), Christian Nold (UK), N55 (DK).  These
artists will act as sleeper agents, observing and gathering information from
a range of different sources including; architects, planning departments,
city council offices, surveillance, monitoring centre’s and the Police to
create new work in response to their research.

The Radiator festival is curated by Anette Schafer & Miles Chalcraft from
Trampoline.  Trampoline has hosted and curated events in both Nottingham and
Berlin since 1997.


PARTICIPANTS IN THE SYMPOSIUM:

Saul Albert: Co-organiser of Dorkbot, and co-founder of The People Speak, UK
Richard Barbrook: Critic of the neo-liberal cyber-elite, University of
Westminster, Hypermedia Research Centre, UK
Steven Benford: Professor of Collaborative Computing University of
Nottingham, co-founder of Mixed Reality Laboratory, UK
Duncan Campbell: Freelance Investigative Journalist, UK
Neil Cummings (tbc): Professor of Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art &
Design, UK
Sean Dodson: The Guardian, UK
Charlie Gere: Director of Research at the Institute for Cultural Research at
Lancaster University UK
Peter Goodwin: Executive Director of Accelerate Nottingham, the leading
think-tank on ICT issues for the Greater Nottingham area, UK
Usman Haque: Architect & Artist, UK
JODI (tbc): The pioneer artists duo of Net Art - Joan Heemskerke/NL – 
Dirk Paesmans/BE
Rob Van Kranenburg: The Waag Society, NL
Joost Van Loon: Institute for Cultural Analysis Nottingham Trent University,
UK
Krzysztof Nawratek: Lecturer in Architecture, University of Plymouth
Saskia Sassen (tbc): Sociologist and economist noted for her analyses of
globalisation and international human migration, USA 
Kuba Szreder: Independent Curator, PL
More tbc
.


ADVISORS AND OBSERVERS:

Sarah Cooke: Researcher, co-founder and co-editor of CRUMB (the Curatorial
Resource for Upstart Media Bliss), an online resource for curators,
producers, commissioners and exhibitors of new media art, UK
Regine Debatty: Initiated we-make-money-not-art.com a weblog for critical
media art and cultural discourse, BE/DE
Alessandro Ludovico: Editor of Neural Magazine, DE
Laura Sillars: Head of Programming at FACT, Liverpool, UK



THE THEMES UNDER INVESTIGATION IN THE SYMPOSIUM INCLUDE.

Wireless Networks or Gated Communities? 
A wireless network is an ever shifting, dynamic, constant entity, with a
combination of different topographies. They are difficult networks to map,
measure or control. Since regulations of usage, frequencies and sharing are
still in the process of being negotiated, how is access control and data
manipulation being exposed, exploited, packaged and challenged?

Experiencing the E-City 
Our mobility while we work, e-shop, or communicate in a wireless zone tends
to make us nomadic and lets us adapt a particular space (café, park, home)
to our momentary need. Spaces become multi-purpose, the workspace becomes
unscheduled and deregulated. New clusters are generated. People,
increasingly un-tethered from their workspaces, are nevertheless subject to
more control and surveillance in an increasingly obscured manner. How does
this distributed social space change people’s experience of city?  

The Networked City