Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices

Waves matter. They light our streets at night, carry our voices, grow our food, send our text messages. Sound and electromagnetic waves are the ever-present, invisible forces that shape social life—connecting people, landscapes, and artifacts. And yet, we lack a language to talk about how they affect us, even as they become matters of concern. Think of the radiating heat that makes life unbearable, the wireless signals that enable dystopic futures, or the environmental noise and artificial light that burden human and non-human health.

At the same time, we are surrounded by wave matters: speed bumps that reduce traffic noise; rooftop antennas that transmit 5G signals; curtains, clothing, trees and new types of pavement that block, reflect or refract radiant heat. But the connection between waves and their matters is neither simple nor stable. Waves mess with bodies, with cities, with devices — their effects are vague, difficult to put into words, and hard to trace. Between physics and politics, they do not only attend to the spectrum. They are also spectral.

Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices explores how waves come to matter and invites visitors to experiment with three modes of attending to the spectral. A sensory mode that plays with the thresholds of perception through works produced with collaborating artists. A narrative mode that reconstructs contentious scientific theories that unsettle established understandings of the human body and the boundaries between the senses. And an ethnographic mode that presents things that materialize waves in different ways and tell stories about how people and cities relate to them in everyday life.

What to expect
At the centre of the exhibition is the Cabinet of Waves, a multimodal device that exhibits “wavy objects” that were collected during fieldwork in the Wavematters research project. In the exhibition space, each object is set in relation to its own context, narrating how waves are materialized and problematized in cities. It includes, among others, stories of how prickly plants regulate recreational noise in Barcelona, court cases become sites of protest against 5G in the UK, fashion changes in Japan to adapt to heat, or how insects are protected from the light.

Five artistic works that challenge us to attend to the ever-present, yet often unnoticed waves that surround us through our senses from Amor Schumacher/Summer Banks, Mathias Klenner, Merche Blasco, Jeremy Knowles, and ooooo.

Two wall installations reconstruct contentious scientific theories around the sense of vibration and the body’s bioelectricity. They document the search for a sixth sense—vibration—and the idea of a body shaped by electric currents.

There will be guided tours on November 10, 2026, December 08, 2026 and January 12, 2027. 

Curators: Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros & Ignacio Farías (IfEE, HU Berlin) / Curatorial Support: Felix Sattler & Paz Ponce (TA T—Tieranatomsiches Theater) / Ethnographers: Brett Mommersteeg, Nona-Schulte-Römer, Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros, Ignacio Farías/Albert Arias, Elisabeth Luggauer & Margherita Tess (IfEE, HU Berlin) / Historical research: Brett Mommersteeg (IfEE, HU Berlin) / Exhibition design: Ignacio Rivas & Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros / Graphic design: Studio Gretzinger

Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices is the result of a five-year ERC Consolidator Grant led by Ignacio Farías at the Institute of European Ethnology of the Humboldt University in Berlin.

It is funded by the European Research Council (ERC).