HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE RFID

How I Learned to Love RFID: Hartware MedienKunstVerein at the PHOENIX Halle, Dortmund Public lectures (in English), HMKV, Dortmund, in cooperation with RIXC, Riga Saturday, May 20, 2006, 10:00 - 18:00

The series of lectures brings together approaches and projects that artistically and critically deal with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology - a technology that is significantly being developed and advanced by companies and research institutes in Dortmund. This technology which at first glance seems to be a simple further development of the bar code (well known from the supermarket) is much more powerful that the good old bar code technology. RFID tags are passive radio transmitters, which upon receiving a minor wireless energy impulse are sending back the information stored on their memory. Today, this information can be read already at a distance of six meters - without the process getting noticed. In addition, with its unique identification numbering system, this technology will allow for a precise identification of every object worldwide. What will it be like to live in a world where all the objects constantly will be talking to each other?
PROGRAM

10:00 Begruessung und Einfuehrung / Welcome and Introduction Dr. Inke Arns (Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund) Rasa Smite (RIXC, Center for New Media Culture, Riga) Francis Hunger (Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund)

11.00 Keynote: Bruce Sterling (Autor, Belgrad / writer, Belgrade) Bruce Sterling is a science fiction writer who has, among others, shaped the notion of “cyberspace” together with William Gibson (“Neuromancer”). In his blog he discusses future technological developments.

12:00 Rena Tangens, padeluun (FoeBuD e.V., Bielefeld) Rena Tangens and padeluun are the most articulate and outspoken critics of RFID technology in Germany. They will speak about their Stop-RFID campaign, the Metro scandal, the use of RFID in the context of the World Cup and sketch a future vision for the use of RFID compatible with privacy issues.

13:30 Break

14:30 Rob van Kranenburg (Virtual Platform, Amsterdam) Rob van Kranenburg will speak about RFID and Pervasive Computing, i.e. how computer technology increasingly permeates our everyday life. He sees RFID as an unavoidable logistics technology that poses the question of social control.

15:30 Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Lammers (Fraunhofer Institut Materialfluss und Logistik, Dortmund) The Dortmund Fraunhofer Institute is one of the most significant research centers for RFID technology in Germany. An overview of its working areas and current research projects will be given.

16:30 Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits (RIXC, Center for New Media Culture, Riga) und Honor Harger, Adam Hyde (radioqualia, NZ/AUS/GB/NL) Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits will introduce RIXC, the Center for New Media Culture in Riga and its activities in the field of Locative Media. Honor Harger and Adam Hyde (radioqualia) will speak a.o. about Solar Radio Station, an installation developed in cooperation with RIXC.

18:00 Pause

19:00 - 21:00 Solar Radio Station - Live Installation (also on Sunday May 21, 2006) The Riga based group Clausthome and VJ Martins Ratniks (F5/RIXC) will perform live in the Solar Radio Station. The live audio stream from the VIRAC radio telescope in Irbene, carrying data from the sun and from space, will be electronically enhanced by Clausthome and interpreted visually by VJ Martins Ratniks.

The lectures take place as a part of the workshop “How I learned to love RFID” in the framework of the exhibition “mit allem rechnen/face the unexpected: Media art from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania“.

“How I learned to love RFID” is a cooperation between HMKV (Dortmund) and RIXC (Riga).

Venue: Hartware MedienKunstVerein at the PHOENIX Halle, Dortmund - Hochofenstr./ Rombergstr., Dortmund-Hoerde

Road description: http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_contact_roaddescription/

URL:
http://www.hmkv.de
http://www.rixc.lv

Supported by: Kulturbuero Stadt Dortmund, 38. internationale; kulturtage der stadt dortmund / scene: estland; lettland litauen in nrw, Kunststiftung NRW, Der Ministerpraesident des Landes; Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kultusministerium der Republik Lettland, Kultusministerium der Republik; Estland, Kultusministerium der Republik Litauen, ‘Botschaft der Republik Litauen in der; Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Lietuvos Institutas, dortmund-project, LEG, PHOENIX, Coolibri (media partner).

Hartware MedienKunstVerein
Guentherstrasse 65 * D-44143 Dortmund
T ++49 (231) 823 106
F ++49 (231) 882 02 40
info@hmkv.de
http://www.hmkv.de