[artinfo] How I learned to love RFID, HMKV Dortmund, May 20, 2006

[Inke Arns]

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 
http://blog.wired.com/sterling/ 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 exhibtion “mit allem rechnen/face the 
unexpected. Media art from Estonia, Latvia and 
Lithuania".
Cf.: http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_program_exhibitions/detail.php?nr=1225

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


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

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


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