-> To join this or other workshops, first purchase a Mapping LAB ticket here and then register (for either a full-day or two half-day workshops) here.

Making the invisible visible: artist Susanna Hertrich and researcher Daniela Silvestrin will reveal the secret world of electromagnetic (EM) fields – and how easily our senses can be tricked. Using EM field detectors and hands-on experiments, participants will prototype sensorial hacks.

Welcome to a journey through the human and non-human sensorium, where we will play with our perception and reveal what cannot be seen (heard, smelled, tasted, felt). After a series of hands-on experiments that ‘hack’ our primary senses, we enter the secret world of electromagnetic (EM) fields – signals emitted from wireless telecommunication devices and other microwave technologies – equipped with custom EM field ‘detektors’ (developed by Shintaro Miyazaki and Martin Howse). Over the course of this workshop, participants will develop a new understanding of how we define and use our senses and learn how reflecting on the bodily ways of sensing accessible or hidden information can be used as a methodology in the design and creative prototyping of sensorial hacks.

Workshop duration: half-day
Workshop language: English
Number of participants: 12 max.
Requirements: pens and paper / workshop materials will be provided.

About Susanna Hertrich & Daniela Silvestrin: Susanna Hertrich works at the intersection of conceptual design and contemporary art. Along with her artistic practice, she is a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Basel, Switzerland. Her artistic research investigates extensions of the human senses and the role of the physical body in relation to technology-driven environments.
Daniela Silvestrin is a curator, researcher and program developer for international cultural projects. In her work she explores hybrid artistic practices and knowledge production at the intersection of art, law, and science, driven by her particular interest in the various physical, ethical, and other boundaries and distinctions between the human and non-human, life and matter, that gradually become invisible due to techno-scientific innovation.