In Your Aerial
2022
In Your Aerial is an ongoing body of work that deals with contemporary and historical acts of care, repair, maintenance and inheritance of Internet infrastructures. Initiated in 2018 in Bristol, as part of a continuing engagement process with the community Internet group, Bristol Wireless about the legacy of their work.
Later manifestations of the work, emerged as part of Forests of Antenna, Oceans of Waves a programme, which explored art, the electromagnetic spectrum, urban environments and theory.
As part of this programme a walking performative tour, took the act of witnessing a fibre optic cable repair, close to Jannowitzbrücke Bridge as its starting point. This act of repair is retold through the lens of Berlin’s current and ongoing Internet upgrade whereby existing copper infrastructures are being replaced with the promise of faster fibre optic cables. With the recent launch of the Berlin’s Gigabit Strategy and the utilisation of existing infrastructures, such as Ringbahn shaft acting as portals of infrastructural care, maintenance and upgrade. The tour takes audiences from the community gardens at Alte Münze, along the Spree to Jannowitzbrücke Bridge and down Stralauer Str. Along the way, seven different points mark chapters that reflect on a series of interconnected, infrastructural care lines.
For the performance the imprints of disused router parts, where also used to create environmental prints on cloths, which were used as cloaks for the staging of a series of photographs, which were created in partnership with the photographer and visual artist Magnus Bjerk. These images were displayed in situ at Jannowitzbrücke Bridge for one-week, in a take over of the public display boards.
Further contextualisation of the work was presented as part of the academic discussions associated with the programme at the Museum for Communication Berlin on 23-25 September.
Credits:
Image: Magnus Bjerk
Forests of Antenna, Oceans of Waves curated by Daniela Silvestrin, Birgit Schneider and Shintaro Miyazaki, Berlin (May-October, 2022).