What if our bodies are antennas? 📡✨
From our Activating Waves series, we invited ON3MCR (ooooo) — techno-transhack-activist, radio-amateur and performer — to develop a project on wireless electromagnetic signals. From there, they build a rectenna: a device that 'collects' electromagnetic waves from the air and converts them into electricity.
A rectenna receives radio frequencies all around us and rectifies them into usable power. ON3MCR built theirs from recycled components, including germanium diodes sourced from old radio equipment in Szczecin — a reminder of the unequal global distribution of rare earth materials built into our technologies.
Alongside artist Isabel Burr Raty, they explored the capacities of decharging mats and ways to channel our bio-electricity and to free electrons from our body.
From a techno-transhack feminist approach, this experiment opens space for rethinking our entanglement with electromagnetic fields beyond Western technoscience. What if we stopped exploiting free-flowing electrons for endless consumption and instead attuned to the waves that surround us?
Full article on wavematters.eu 🔗
#Wavematters #Rectenna #TechnoTranshackFeminism #ElectromagneticArt #ActivatingWaves #RadioArt #EnergyHarvesting #ParaScience #ArtAndScience #CreativeEurope #ERCresearch
🔌✨ Dresden in 2040. What happens when the 6G mobile communication infrastructure suddenly breaks down? And experts and citizens are suspecting each other of having sabotaged the network.
Time to recap the successful launch of our game prototype “Krimidinner der Zukunft” – an immersive crime dinner experience exploring the social and technical entanglements of hyper-connected future infrastructures. The perfect setting for the event was the “Mensch, Roboter!” exhibition organized by Barkhausen Institute in the Cosmo Science Forum at Kulturpalast Dresden. A group of 15 role players, including colleagues and members of the public, stepped into the shoes of activists, engineers, politicians, and tech managers navigating an imaginary 6G blackout in Smart Silicon Saxony.
The goal? Using speculative scenarios and role-play to spark real conversations about various controversies of emerging technologies.
This was our first test run, and the energy was incredible! Huge thanks to everyone who played, debated, and helped us learn. More to come! 🚀
Special thanks to:
Game Conception and Graphic Design: Flora Halbert und Lucy Marlow
The incredible Science Communication Team at Barkhause Institute
Sociology Students of the TU Dresden @tudresden
And all of our participants, for your engagement and valuable feedback
All photo credits: photographer Kathi Langsdorff @k4thilogue@cosmo_wissenschaftsforum
#wavematters #scicomm #6G #multimodal_ethnography #Silicon_Saxony #speculativedesign #krimidinner #futuretech #prototype #dresden #barkhausen #Kulturpalast
Our WAVEMATTERS highlights in 2025
Hosting the multimodal series ACTIVATING WAVES and DEACTIVATING WAVES @euro_ethno with artists and designers working on wavy phenomena. Thanks to @buj.studio@blasco.merche@jeremyphilipknowles@christiane.sauer Caroline Vibrandt, Guilietta Laki and ooooo!
Presenting our Cabinet of Waves designed by @jorgemartinst during the STS Hub 2025, the Berlin Science Night #LNDW2025 and @studiumplanetare@omgirlwtf@udkberlin . Thanks to @ignaciorivasp and team!
Co-organising the STS HUB 2025 with a great team of dear colleagues at Humboldt University Berlin @humboldt.uni@mattersofactivity@stathub2025@berlinuniversityalliance . Thanks for coming, STS community!
Working on transdisciplinary publications with artists, research partners and colleagues! Thanks for the inspiring collaborations Silke Steets, @nicolausgansterer , @jeremyphilipknowles and @dr_fred_fld .
Developing and launching the prototype for the immersive science communication game – the 'crime & dine' format "6G Blackout" during a robotics exhibition in Dresden @cosmo_wissenschaftsforum . Big thanks to the students @tudresden that contributed, the team at Barkhausen Institute Dresden and to Flora Halbert and Lucy Marlow who guided us through the game design process.
In December, we ended the year with a promising #writing_retreat – thank you @bahnhofszeit – and look forward to continuing this work on our WAVEMATTERS book in 2026.
Photo credits: Wavematters, Heike Zappe; Kathi Langsdorff @k4thilogue .
2,5 days in Brandenburg, 5 chapter outlines, 500 gr. of coffee, only, 1 zoom meeting (with a potential publisher) and X pages of drafted text. This was our first writing retreat. We will do it again.
🌊 New Glossary Post
In this glossary entry, Manuel Delgado-Ruiz, Professor of Religious Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, explores rhythmanalysis as a method to detect the various rhythms—like the swell—that constitute our lived space and time.
⛓️ Read the full glossary entry on our website—link in our story highlights!
#WaveMatters #EnvironmentalAnthropology
#Ethnography
🌀 Making wireless signals visible at Cosmo Science Forum with Dr. Konstantin Klamka (Barkhausen Institute Dresden). We saw early versions during our Wireless Walk & Talk in March 2024.
⛓️ We look forward to our experimental 6G role play “Krimidinner der Zukunft”.
☀️We are back from our summerbreak with a new Glossary post announcement
📖 Check out Elsbeth Oppermann’s work on “Thermal Flows”
🔗 Link is in our story highlights
#WaveMatters #ThermalFlows #UrbanHeat #CriticalGeography #EnvironmentalAnthropology #ClimateAdaptation
Announcing the WAVEMATTERS Glossary 📚
How do physical waves come to matter in contemporary urbanism? Our new glossary explores thermal flows, seismic communications, electromagnetic fields, and the viscous materialities that shape our cities and bodies.
Over the next week, we’ll be sharing highlights from each entry—featuring insights from different collaborators who challenge how we sense and understand wave-like phenomena.
Link to our glossary is on our website—find it in our story highlights!
#WaveMatters #Glossary #UrbanAnthropology #PhysicalWaves
[EN]
Together with Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros from wavematters, we explored tools that can make the invisible waves around us (like sound waves, UV waves, and electromagnetic waves ...) visible in ways that are tangible and accessible, rather than abstract.
"WHERE IS THE PLANETARY IN INVISIBLE WAVES?"
30/06/25
[DE]
Gemeinsam mit Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros from wavematters, haben wir verschiedene Werkzeuge ausprobiert, mit denen sich unsichtbare Wellen unserer Umgebung (z.B. Schallwellen, UV-Strahlen oder elektromagnetische Wellen) auf anschauliche und zugängliche Weise sichtbar machen lassen, statt bloß abstrakt.
"WHERE IS THE PLANETARY IN INVISIBLE WAVES?"
30/06/25
![[EN]Together with Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros from wavematters, we explored tools that can make the invisible waves around us (like sound waves, UV waves, and electromagnetic waves ...) visible in ways that are tangible and accessible, rather than abstract."WHERE IS THE PLANETARY IN INVISIBLE WAVES?"30/06/25[DE]Gemeinsam mit Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros from wavematters, haben wir verschiedene Werkzeuge ausprobiert, mit denen sich unsichtbare Wellen unserer Umgebung (z.B. Schallwellen, UV-Strahlen oder elektromagnetische Wellen) auf anschauliche und zugängliche Weise sichtbar machen lassen, statt bloß abstrakt."WHERE IS THE PLANETARY IN INVISIBLE WAVES?"30/06/25](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6714704739636768613049_0_b3e2f89573c7adf5cf8d8c67d7580da1.jpg?o=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&h=0ce660fe440302e5087a46b58138c42f)
