WORKSHOP
Workshop with Martin Howse (UK):

** TEMPEST: DECODING THAT WHICH IS

October 17 (Friday) –18 (Saturday), 2008
Location: Riga Art Space
Max. 12 participants, in English
Registration until Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at rixc [at] rixc.lv or Phone: +371-67228478 (office), +371-26546776 (mob.)

Two day practical and theoretical workshop exploring contemporary paranoia/ontology as a tale of so-called compromising emanations (CE).

Any time a machine is used to process classified information electrically, the various switches, contacts, relays, and other components in that machine may emit radio frequency or acoustic energy.

... This problem of compromising radiation we have given the covername TEMPEST.

[TEMPEST: A Signal Problem. NSA 1972]

Following a lucid line of development from Maxwell City (with Erich Berger), through Demons in the Aether and later scrying, the TEMPEST workshop arrives clearly with a signal concern; making sense of a physical data landscape, ecology and economy within the constructed environment.

TEMPEST... presents a practical introduction to the modulation and demodulation of any signal, allowing a fresh perspective on the digital as primary material; the transition into a digital realm which humbles its carrier, submitting the aether to the status of a lowly medium; that which is modulated.

TEMPEST... underscores a rich adventure, making sense of fortuitous emanations of sound, light and, primarily, electromagnetic phenomena using simple apparatus and theory. Research topics for artistic examination include, but are not limited to: signals and noise, van Eck phreaking, decoding, encryption and hiding, surveillance, information and carrier/support, intentionality of CE.

Finally, TEMPEST, as covername; the word itself as revealing a certain relation to both hiding (information) and the state (subject). TEMPEST, as term, supposedly means nothing, quite simply denying the possibility of being decoded as itself an acronym. A codeword for the exposure of the world as (being) encoded.

**Schedule:

October 17, 14.00 – 18.00

  • Practical demonstrations of TEMPEST-related phenomena and eavesdropping practices
  • TEMPEST as theory: short overview
  • Practical collective investigations exploring emanations of EM presence, sound and light from constructive perspectives

October 18, 12.00 – 14.00

  • Final discussion of research and future projects

**Regulations:

  • free admission
  • registration until Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at rixc [at] rixc.lv (or Phone: +371-67228478 (office), +371-26546776 (mob.))
  • there are still available budget for travel and accomodation for 2-3 persons (primarly from Baltic/Nordic countries and Eastern Europe, as well as rest of Europe) – please send your email with short biography to rixc [at] rixc.lv with subject “participating in TEMPEST workshop” until Monday, October 13, 2008.
  • other participants will pay themselves the costs for travel, food and accomodation

**Venue:

The TEMPEST workshop takes place in SPECTROPIA exhibition venue in Riga Art Space, Old Town of Riga, Address: Ratslaukums 1.

**
For any furher information please contact:
RIXC,
11. Novembra krastmala 35 – 201,
Riga, LV 1050, Latvia
Phone: +371-67228478 (office), +371-26546776 (mob., Rasa Smite)
E-mail: rixc [at] rixc.lv

http://rixc.lv/08