Spectral Exchange

Spectral: of or like a ghost; of or concerning the spectrum. Exchange: a conversation; an economic transaction; to give or receive one thing in place of another (e.g. energy between an organism and its environment).

Tabakalera, the International Centre for Contemporary Culture, is hosting the Spectral Exchange seminar on November 16 and 17. Artists, curators, researchers and scientists will analyse the relationship between contemporary culture, artistic practices and the electromagnetic spectrum in talks, debates and screenings open to the general public.

Spectral Exchange is an on-going project that takes its structure and content from the non-visible electromagnetic spectrum (infrared, microwaves, and radio to one side of the visible; and ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays to the other). It is first and foremost an interdisciplinary methodological framework to draw out connections between disparate domains of knowledge and practice, bringing together cultural and scientific ways of knowing.

The investigation, use, and abuse of the non-visible spectrum is an essential component of modernity and contemporary life. Invisible energies of various wavelengths are involved in the mechanisms of mass media, communication, both animal and machinic non-human sensory systems, the economy, climate,  cosmic phenomena, past and potential unfoldings of evolution and extinction, and paranormal phenomenon and metaphysical speculations.

The seminar is the outcome of Matthew C. Wilson’s artistic research residency in Tabakalera. Wilson (b. 1982, USA) works in a variety of media including installation, sculpture, video, and site specific action. His work draws out entanglements between natural, historical, cultural, and economic processes.

Participants: Lars Bang Larsen, Esther Leslie (with material from Susanne Kriemann’s Library for Radioactive Afterlife), Margarida Mendes (with recordings by Nuno Da Luz), Pádraic E. Moore (with optics and electronics by Liz Wendelbo), Eduardo Navarro, Jaume Navarro, Licia Verde, Matthew C. Wilson.
A screening program curated by: Rachael Rakes.
Scientific support by: Raúl Jiménez, Gabriel Molina Terriza, Licia Verde.
Etheric interventions (remote presentations) by: Ana Teixeira Pinto + Christoph  Keller.
Video (ongoing) by: Marjolijn Dijkman. 
Initiated and organized by: Matthew C. Wilson.

Spectral Exchange
November 16-17, 2018
11am-2pm & 3:30-8:30pm
Tabakalera, Artist's Space