Aron Petau - university of the arts berlin

Master's Thesis

2025-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

Master's Thesis: Human - Waste</h2>
Plastics offer significant material benefits, such as durability and versatility, yet their widespread use has led to severe environmental pollution and waste management challenges. This thesis develops alternative concepts for collaborative participation in recycling processes by examining existing waste management systems. Exploring the historical and material context of plastics, it investigates the role of making and hacking as transformative practices in waste revaluation. Drawing on theories from Discard Studies, Material Ecocriticism, and Valuation Studies, it applies methods to examine human-waste relationships and the shifting perception of objects between value and non-value. Practical investigations, including workshop-based experiments with polymer identification and machine-based interventions, provide hands-on insights into the material properties of discarded plastics. These experiments reveal their epistemic potential, leading to the introduction of novel archiving practices and knowledge structures that form an integrated methodology for artistic research and practice. Inspired by the Materialstudien of the Bauhaus Vorkurs, the workshop not only explores material engagement but also offers new insights for educational science, advocating for peer-learning scenarios. Through these approaches, this research fosters a socially transformative relationship with waste, emphasizing participation, design, and speculative material reuse. Findings are evaluated through participant feedback and workshop outcomes, contributing to a broader discussion on waste as both a challenge and an opportunity for sustainable futures and a material reality of the human experience.</p>
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My ORCID</a> </div>
See the image archive yourself</a> </div>
See the archive graph yourself</a> </div>
Find the complete Repo on Forgejo</a> </div>

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Sferics

2024-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

What the Hell are Sferics?</h2>

A radio atmospheric signal or sferic (sometimes also spelled "spheric") is a broadband electromagnetic impulse that occurs as a result of natural atmospheric lightning discharges. Sferics may propagate from their lightning source without major attenuation in the Earth–ionosphere waveguide, and can be received thousands of kilometres from their source.</p> </blockquote>
Source: Wikipedia</a></em></p>
Why Catch Them?</h2>
Microsferics</a> is a fascinating reference project—a network of sferics antennas used to detect lightning strikes. Through triangulation (not unlike GPS mathematics), they can determine the more-or-less exact location of each strike. This proves useful for weather prediction and detecting forest fires, which are often caused by lightning.</p>
When converted to audio, sferics frequencies fall within the audible range, making it possible to actually listen</em> to lightning strikes. The sound is usually a crackling noise, though sometimes surprisingly melodic—reminiscent of a Geiger counter.</p>
The Technical Challenge</h3>
Sferics live in the VLF (Very Low Frequency) range, around 10 kHz—a problem for most radios not designed for such low frequencies. That's why we built our own antenna.</p>
At 10 kHz, we're dealing with insanely</em> large waves: a single wavelength stretches roughly 30 kilometers. This scale demands a sizable antenna. A special property of such massive waves is their tendency to reflect between the ionosphere and Earth's surface—effectively bouncing around the globe several times before absorption. This means we can pick up sferics from all over the world, even Australian lightning strikes!</p>
Without proper triangulation math, we can't determine exact directions, but the "tweeks" we captured typically originate from at least 2,000 km away.</p>
The Build</h2>
We constructed several "long-loop" antennas—essentially a coil of wire with a capacitor at the end. A specific balun is needed (depending on wire length) to output an electrical signal via XLR cable.</p>
Loosely following instructions from Calvin R. Graf</a>, we built a 26-meter antenna looped multiple times around a wooden frame.</p>
The Result</h2>
We captured several hours of sferics recordings, which we're currently investigating for further potential.</p>
Listen to the Lightning</h3> </iframe>
As you can hear, there's a noticeable 60 Hz ground buzz in the recording. This likely stems from improper grounding or our proximity to the bustling city. Still, it's surprising we achieved such clear results so close to Berlin. Let's see what the countryside yields!</p>

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Night session capturing atmospheric signals</p> </li>
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Recording location at Drachenberg</p> </li>
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Our 26-meter VLF antenna setup</p> </li> </ul> </div>

Echoing Dimensions

2024-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

Echoing Dimensions</h2>
The Space</h2>
Kunstraum Potsdamer Straße</a></p>
The exhibition takes place in a converted parking garage owned and operated by Studierendenwerk Berlin. This large, open space features a low ceiling, concrete floors, and exposed concrete walls. Several nooks and alcoves throughout the gallery create opportunities for intimate experiences within the raw industrial architecture. The unheated, windowless space retains its utilitarian character, providing a distinctive backdrop for experimental art.</p>
Our collective consists of 12 artists, each contributing unique projects exploring audiovisual installations:</p>

Özcan Ertek (UdK)</li>
Jung Hsu (UdK)</li>
Nerya Shohat Silberberg (UdK)</li>
Ivana Papic (UdK)</li>
Aliaksandra Yakubouskaya (UdK)</li>
Aron Petau (UdK, TU Berlin)</li>
Joel Rimon Tenenberg (UdK, TU Berlin)</li>
Bill Hartenstein (UdK)</li>
Fang Tsai (UdK)</li>
Marcel Heise (UdK)</li>
Lukas Esser & Juan Pablo Gaviria Bedoya (UdK)</li> </ul>
The Concept</h2>
We exhibited our radio project aethercomms</a>, which emerged from our earlier investigations into cables and radio spaces during our Studio Course.</p>
Build Log</h2>
2024-01-25</h3>
Today we visited the space for the first time. The underground parking garage immediately struck us with its raw, industrial character—concrete everywhere, low ceilings, and an unmistakable cold dampness. Despite the challenging conditions, we could already envision how the space's unique atmosphere would complement our audiovisual installations.</p> </iframe>
2024-02-01</h3>
We signed the contract today, officially securing the space for our collective exhibition. The excitement is building as we move from concept to reality.</p>
2024-02-08</h3>
The collective exhibition statement:</p>

Sound, as a fundamental element of everyday experience, envelopes us in the cacophony of city life—car horns, the chatter of pedestrians, the chirping of birds, the rustle of leaves in the wind, notifications, alarms, and the constant hum of radio waves, signals, and frequencies. These sounds together make up the noise of our lives, often passing by fleeting and unnoticed.</p>
The engagement with sound through active listening holds the potential to transform how we experience ourselves and our surroundings. This is the core idea of "Echoing Dimensions": once you engage with something, it gives back to you. Whether it's the rhythmic cadence of a heartbeat, a flowing symphony of urban activity, or the hoofbeats of a running horse, our minds and bodies construct and rebuild scenes and narratives while sensing and processing the sounds that surround us and pass through us.</p>
The exhibition "Echoing Dimensions" takes place in Kunstraum Potsdamer Straße gallery's underground space and presents artworks by 12 Berlin-based artists who investigate 'intentional listening' through sound, video, and installation. Visitors are invited to navigate attentiveness through participatory exploration. Each artwork revolves around different themes where historical ideas resonate, political-personal narratives are reconceptualized, and cultural perspectives are examined. The exhibition's common thread lies in its interest in the complexities of auditory perception, inviting viewers to consider the ways in which sound shapes our memories, influences our culture, and challenges our understanding of space and power dynamics.</p> </blockquote>
2024-02-15</h3>
2024-02-15</h3>
We got our TouchDesigner prototype working today. The system successfully collects pointcloud information through a Kinect Azure, though sorting the device's output has proven quite tricky. The depth data streams in a format that requires careful parsing, but we're making progress.</p>
2024-03-01</h3>
Today we conducted our first live tests on the finalized hardware. After much deliberation, we decided to consolidate everything onto a compact Intel NUC—running TouchDesigner, the LLM, and audio synthesis all on one machine.</p>
The biggest surprise came from an unexpected quarter: audio synthesis. With no internet connection available in the exhibition space, we couldn't fall back on the sleek cloud-based TTS services we'd initially considered. The tiny NUC, already stretched thin, struggled mightily. It took almost 15 seconds to generate a single paragraph of spoken words, even when using relatively small synthesizer models. The latency was unbearable for our interactive concept.</p>
The lesson is clear: next time, we need to invest in more processing power from the start.</p>
I find myself wondering why better offline TTS systems aren't more readily available. Isn't text- to-speech a fundamental accessibility feature? We eventually settled on Coqui TTS, which worked adequately but has since gone out of business entirely. The fragility of these tools is concerning.</p>
2024-04-05</h3>
Exciting news today: we've been accepted as part of Sellerie Weekend</a>!</p>
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Sellerie Weekend is a collective of gallery spaces and artist-run initiatives that offers a fresher, more counter-cultural alternative to the established Gallery Weekend Berlin. Being included in this program significantly boosted our online visibility and helped us draw a full house for the opening night. The underground art scene came out in force.</p>
A Look Inside</h3> </iframe> </iframe>
The Final Audiovisual Setup</h3>

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The FM Transmitter</p> </li>
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Video Output with TouchDesigner</p> </li>
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One of the Radio Stations</p> </li>
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The Diagram</p> </li>
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Exhibition view</p> </li>
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The Network Spy</p> </li>
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Installation detail</p> </li>
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Visitor interaction</p> </li>
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The Exhibition Setup</p> </li> </ul> </div>

Local Diffusion

2024-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

Core Questions</h2>
Is it possible to create a graphic novel with generative A.I.? What does it mean to use these emerging media in collaboration with others? And why does their local and offline application matter?</p>
Official Workshop Documentation</a> | Workshop Call</a></p>
Workshop Goals & Structure</h2>
Focus: Theoretical and Playful Introduction to A.I. Tools</h3>
The workshop pursued a dual objective:</p>

Accessible Entry Point</strong>: Provide beginners with a low-barrier introduction to text-to-image AI</li>
Critical Discussion</strong>: Initiate a nuanced political discussion about the ethical implications of these tools and demonstrate conscious decision-making options (such as locally installed tools)</li> </ol>
The learning format was designed to be open, practical, and experimental, with emphasis on participants' creative output. Specifically, participants were tasked with working in groups to create a short graphic novel of 4-8 panels using AI. They had to actively modify the algorithm and familiarize themselves with various functions and interfaces.</p>
Workshop Structure</h3>
The workshop was divided into two main parts:</p>
Part 1: Theoretical Introduction (45 min)</h4>

Demystifying AI processes running in the background</li>
Introduction to the Stable Diffusion algorithm</li>
Understanding the diffusion process and noise reduction</li>
Differences from older Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)</li>
Ethical implications of AI tool usage</li> </ul>
Part 2: Hands-On Practice (2+ hours)</h4>

"Categories Game" for prompt construction</li>
Creating a 4-8 panel graphic novel</li>
Experimenting with parameters and interfaces</li>
Post-processing techniques (upscaling, masking, inpainting, pose redrawing)</li>
Group presentations and discussion</li> </ul>
The "Categories Game" Warm-Up</h3>
To overcome initial fears about prompting, participants played a round of "Categories" (Stadt-Land-Fluss). They had to fill predefined prompting subcategories like "Subject", "Color", "Style", and "Resolution" with words starting with specific letters. This game challenged participants to think creatively about prompt construction beyond ready-made sentences found online.</p>
Why Local AI Tools Matter</h2>
Consciously Considering Ethical and Data Protection Factors</h3>
A central idea of the workshop was to highlight the ethical implications of using AI tools and emphasize the consequences of local computing versus cloud computing. The workshop addressed two essential differences when applying the same AI models and algorithms:</p>
Option 1: Proprietary Cloud Services</h4>

Popular platforms like Midjourney</li>
Interface provided by private companies</li>
Often fee-based</li>
Results stored on company servers</li>
Data used for further AI model training</li>
Limited user control and transparency</li> </ul>
Option 2: Local Installation</h4>

Self-installed apps on private computers</li>
Self-installed GUIs or front-ends accessed via browser</li>
Complete data sovereignty</li>
No third-party data sharing</li>
Offline capability</li> </ul>
Option 3: University-Hosted Services</h4>

Transparent providers (e.g., UdK Berlin servers)</li>
Faster and more reliable than proprietary cloud services</li>
Data neither shared with third parties nor used for training</li>
Better than proprietary services while maintaining accessibility</li> </ul>
From a data protection perspective, local and university-hosted solutions are far more conscious choices.</strong> While UdK services are technically also cloud services with data stored on a server, they represent a significant difference from proprietary services like OpenAI.</p>
Visual Storytelling with Stable Diffusion</h2>
Participants engaged enthusiastically in the workshop process. They tried many different prompts and settings, producing results with a great variety of aesthetic and visual narratives. The workshop concluded with a final discussion about:</p>

Ethical implications of using AI tools</li>
Impact on various creative disciplines</li>
Whether complete abolition of these tools is necessary or even feasible</li> </ul>
Technical Framework</h2>
With AI becoming increasingly democratized and GPT-like structures integrated into everyday life, the black-box notion of the mysterious all-powerful intelligence hinders insightful and effective usage of emerging tools. One particularly hands-on example is AI-generated images.</p>
Tools & Interfaces Introduced</h3>

Stable Diffusion</strong>: The core algorithm</li>
ComfyUI</strong>: Node-based front-end for Stable Diffusion</li>
automatic1111</strong>: GUI available on UdK Berlin servers</li>
DiffusionBee</strong>: Local application option</li>
ControlNet</strong>: For detailed pose and composition control</li> </ul>
Learning Outcomes</h3>
Participants gained the ability to:</p>

Utilize multiple flavors of the Stable Diffusion algorithm</li>
Develop non-mathematical understanding of parameters and their effects</li>
Apply post-processing techniques (upscaling, masking, inpainting, pose redrawing)</li>
Construct effective text prompts</li>
Utilize online reference databases</li>
Manipulate parameters to optimize desired qualities</li>
Use ControlNet for detailed pose and composition direction</li> </ul>
Reflections: The Student-as-Teacher Perspective</h2>
Personal reflection by Aron Petau</em></p>
On Preparation and Challenges</h3>
"Preparing a workshop definitely felt like a big task because I felt the need to answer questions about tools that I myself am just discovering. One concern was that I wouldn't be able to answer an advanced technical problem. This ultimately turned out not to be a major issue, probably due to the limited duration of the workshop.</p>
When it comes to the experience with an AI workshop, I believe it takes more than 3 hours to dive into such complex tools together with people. Even by extending the explanatory/theoretical part, I didn't manage to cover all the concepts I had deemed valuable beforehand... Nevertheless, a duration of 3-4 hours seems appropriate for an introductory workshop, as errors in time management accumulate over longer periods and more teaching experience would be needed here."</p>
On Workshop Format and Atmosphere</h3>
"I really liked the rather non-hierarchical framework of the workshop, where it was clear that it was more about skill-sharing rather than a lecture format. Especially with practical things like image generation, when I didn't know the effect of a prompt or a parameter – which is the point after all – I could simply try out the effect together with the workshop participants and then examine the results.</p>
The participants seemed to like the chosen format and difficulty level, where not too much mathematics and formulas were conveyed, but rather an intuition for the underlying process. The participants also actively participated in the critical discussion about the ethical use of AI and contributed perspectives from their own fields, which I greatly appreciated."</p>
On Learning Teaching Practice</h3>
"During the preparation of this workshop, I had the opportunity to work independently and determine and organize my workshop dates myself. I greatly appreciated this freedom and authority, but a bit stronger pressure on a final deadline would have helped me lose the concerns about the teaching situation more quickly.</p>
Now I'm looking forward to a possible round 2 – a next iteration where we can dive deeper into the depths of ComfyUI, an interface that I absolutely love, while its power also sometimes scares me."</p>
Empowerment Through Understanding</h2>
Empower yourself against ready-made technology!</strong></p>
Do not let others decide on what your best practices are. Get involved in the modification of the algorithm and get surprised by endless creative possibilities. Through exploring local AI tools, we can:</p>

Take steps toward critical and transparent use of AI tools by artists</li>
Increase user agency</li>
Make techno-social dependencies and power relations visible</li>
Address issues of digital colonialism</li>
Maintain data sovereignty and privacy</li> </ul>
While there is not much we can do on the data production side and many ethical dilemmas surrounding digital colonialism remain, local computation takes one step towards a critical and transparent use of AI tools by artists.</p>

aethercomms

2024-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

AetherComms</h2>
Studio Work Documentation
A Project by Aron Petau and Joel Tenenberg.</p>
Abstract</h3>

Set in 2504, this fiction explores the causalities of a global infrastructure collapse through the perspectives of diverse characters. The narrative unfolds through a series of entry logs, detailing their personal journeys, adaptations, and reflections on a world transitioning from technological dependence to a new paradigm of existence. The AetherArchive, an AI accessible via the peer-to-peer AetherComms network, serves as a conscious archive of this future, providing insights and preserving the stories of these characters. Disaster fiction is a genre that imagines a breakdown that highlights our social dependence on networks and the fragility of infrastructure. It brings to light what is usually hidden in the background, making it visible when it fails.</p> </blockquote>
This is the documentation of our year-long studio project at the University of the Arts and the Technische Universität Berlin, exploring the power structures inherent in radio technology, the internet as network of networks and the implications of a global network infrastructure collapse. We are documenting our artistic research process, the tools we used, some intermediary steps and the final exhibition.</p>
Process</h3>
We met 2 to 3 times weekly throughout the entire year, here is a short overview of our process and findings throughout.</p>
Semester 1</h4>
Research Questions</h5>
Here, we already examined the power structures inherent in radio broadcasting technology. Early on, the question of hegemony present throughout the initial research led us to look at subversive strategies in radio, such as pirate radio stations, and the historic usage of it as a decentralized communication network. Radio is deeply connected with military and state power structures, examples being the Nazi-German Volksempfänger</a> or the US-american Radio Liberty</a> Project, and we explored the potential of radio as a tool for resistance and subversion. One such example is Sealand</a>, a micronation that used radio to broadcast into the UK, walking a thin line between legal and illegal broadcasting. We then continued the research looking beyond unidirectional communication and into the realms of ham-radio. One area of interest was LoRaWAN</a>, a long-range, low-power wireless communication technology that is well-suited for IoT applications and pager-like communication. Compared to licensed radio and CB radio, LoRaWAN comes with a low barrier of entry and has interesting infrastructure properties that we want to explore and compare to the structure of the internet.</p>
Curatorial text for the first semester</h5>
The introductory text used in the first semester on aethercomms v1.0:</p>

Radio as a Subversive Exercise.
Radio is a prescriptive technology.
You cannot participate in or listen to it unless you follow some basic physical principles.
Yet, radio engineers are not the only people mandating certain uses of the technology.
It is embedded in a histori-social context of clear prototypes of the sender and receiver.
Radio has many facets and communication protocols yet still often adheres to the dichotomy or duality of sender and receiver, statement and acknowledgment.
The radio tells you what to do, and how to interact with it.
Radio has an always identifiable dominant and subordinate part.
Are there instances of rebellion against this schema?
Places, modes, and instances where radio is anarchic?
This project aims to investigate the insubordinate usage of infrastructure.
Its frequencies.
It's all around us.
Who is to stop us?</p> </blockquote> </iframe>
The Distance Sensors</h5>
The distance sensor as a contactless and intuitive control element:</p>

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semester_1_process</p> </li>
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semester_1_process</p> </li>
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semester_1_process</p> </li>
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semester_1_process</p> </li>
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With a few Raspberry Pi Picos and the HCSR-04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor, we created a contactless control element. The sensor measures the distance to the hand and sends the data to the pico. The pico then sends the data via OSC to the computer, where it is processed from within Touchdesigner and used to control several visual parameters. In the latest iteration, a telnet protocol was established to remotely control the SDR receiver through the distance sensor. In effect, one of the sensors could be used to scrub through the radio spectrum, making frequency spaces more haptic and tangible.</p>
The Picos run on Cirquitpython, an especially tiny version of Python specialized to play well with all kinds of hardware. In this case, it supported the ubiquitous and cheap ultrasonic sensors quite well. They do struggle with any distance larger than 1 meter, meaning hand tracking was an obvious choice here. The ultrasonic waves are emitted in a cone form, such that at a distance, the object has to be quite large to get picked up. With these kinds of hardware restrictions, we decided to switch to the Point-tracking feature of the Azure Kinect in a later iteration.</p>
Mid-Term Exhibition</h4>

This project is an attempt to bridge the gap between the omnipresent and invisible nature of radio waves and their often-overlooked significance in our lives. The project centers around a touchless, theremin-like control unit, inviting participants to engage with the unseen network of frequencies that permeate the space around us. Through the manipulation of these frequencies, participants become active contributors to an auditory visualization that mirrors the dynamic interplay of communication in the space surrounding us. Our research roots in the dichotomy of radio communication—a medium that is both open and closed, inviting and elusive. Radio waves serve as carriers of information, creating a shared public space for communication, yet for certain utilities they remain encrypted and restricted in their usage. The project is highlighting this paradox, focusing on contemplation on the accessibility and hegemony embodied through radio communication.</p> </blockquote> </iframe>
The Midterm Exhibition 2023</p>

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A Raspberry Pi Pico on a breadboard with two HCSR-04 sensors</p> </li>
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The sensor being used with hands</p> </li>
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Aron manipulating the sensor</p> </li>
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Some output from the sensor merged with audio</p> </li>
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A proposed installation setup</p> </li> </ul> </div>
After the first presentation with the Sensors, we saw no immediate productive way forward with radio frequencies. To receive fresh insights, we visited the exhibition "Ethers Bloom" @ Gropiusbau</a>.</p>
Ethers Bloom</h4>
One of the exhibits there was by the artist Mimi Ọnụọha</a> (Ọnụọha, 2021), displaying network cables as the central material in traditional religious and spiritual practices.</p>
The significance of cables to the Internet as a structure was striking to us there and we wanted to incorporate an analogy between the Radio analyses and the cables present in their work. In the end, antennas are also just the end of a long cable. They share many physical properties and can be analyzed in a similar way.</p>
Another of her works, "The Cloth in the Cable" (Ọnụọha, 2022), displayed traditional weaving techniques with network cables. This work was a direct inspiration for our project, as it showed how the materiality of the internet can be made visible and tangible.</p>
From there, and from various feedback sessions, we decided to shift our focus from radio frequencies to the physical infrastructure of the internet. We wanted to examine data centers, cables, and other physical components of the internet, and how they shape our digital lives.</p>
Semester 2</h4>
It especially stuck out to us how the imaginaries surrounding the internet and the physical materiality are often divergent and disconnected. Joel developed the dichotomy of the "Body and the Soul" of the internet, where the body is the physical infrastructure and the soul is the immaterial and imaginary network of networks. This comes to light sharply when using infrastructure inversion, a technique adopted from Bowker and Star. Found through the research of Francis Hunger and Lisa Parks. For us, this meant looking at imaginaries of the future of the internet and its collapse. Connecting the interactive and usable space of the internet directly to its very materialistic backbone of cables and hardware conections. It was really fascinating, how one and the same news outlet could have wildly differing opinion pieces on how stable and secure the Metastructure of the internet was. Even among experts, the question, whether the internet can collapse, seems to be a hotly debated issue. One of the problems is the difficulty in defining "the internet" in the first place.</p>
What is left over in the absence of the network of networks, the internet? What are the Material and Immaterial Components of a metanetwork? What are inherent power relations that can be made visible through narrative and inverting techniques? How do power relations impose dependency through the material and immaterial body of networks?</p>
Methods</h3>
We applied a variety of methods to explore the questions we posed in the first semester. Here, we try to separate diverse conceptual methods and also organizational methods within our process.</p>
Narrative Techniques / Speculative Design</h4>
Through several brainstorming sessions, and to a large extent induced by the literary and theatrical loop sessions, we discovered science fiction, climate fiction and disaster fiction as a powerful artistic tool with exploratory potential for our research. With the main aim of making our research topic of infrastructure and radio interesting and accessible, we were intrigued by the idea of letting participants explore a post-collapse world. Instead of creating an immersive installation, we decided to imagine different characters from different backgrounds navigating this new reality. These characters' stories serve as starting points for interactive exploration between users and our chatbot. Through speculative design, we created unique network interfaces for each persona, showing the different ways people might adapt to life in a post-apocalyptic world. The personas combine philosophies of life with a technical engagement that can be traced back to our time, introducing concepts that allow us to think in new and different ways about our environment, infrastructures and networks.</p>
We imagined communication in this post-collapse world relying heavily on radio. Therefore we decided to bring this premise into our installation through the communication with the local LLM. Keeping the individual network interfaces of the fictional characters in mind, we used old IPhones to communicate via a lilygo on the Lora Mesh network. Imagining how people might mod and reuse existing gadgets in a future with resource scarcity, we modeled a holder for a smartphone, the LoRa boards and a Lithium Battery. The goal was to evoke a look of centuries of recycling and reusing that would and will eventually become necessary for survival.</p> </iframe>
Disaster Fiction / Science Fiction</h4>
Disaster fiction serves as an analytic tool that lends itself to the method of Infrastructure Inversion (Hunger, 2015). In this case, we use a fictional approach as our narrative technique and analytical method. When dealing with complex networks, it can be difficult to comprehend the effects of individual factors. Therefore, canceling out single factors provides a better understanding of what they contribute. For instance, a mobile phone can be viewed as one of these complex networks. Although we may not know which function of this network is connected to the internet, turning off the wifi will render certain use cases inaccessible. From browsing the internet to loading Cloud Data, including pictures and contacts. Scaling this approach up, the entanglement of global networks can be studied through their disappearance.</p>
Non-linear storytelling</h4>
As a chatbot served as our narrator, it has the inbuilt restriction of being merely reactive. Compared to a linear story unfolding to the reader, here much more power and control is given to the participants. The participant can ask questions and the chatbot will answer them. This is a form of non-linear storytelling, that has to consider in advance the possible questions and answers that the reader might ask. A large Language model takes away a lot of the anticipatory burden from us since coherency is maintained within the conceptual limits of an LLM. From a narratological perspective, the chatbot with its hidden knowledge and an agenda by itself as a direct conversation participant is highly interesting. It give the possibility to explore rather than being force-fed. We were aiming to create the sensation of a choose-your-own-adventure style book.</p>
Knowledge Cluster</h4>
Throughout the year of working on this project, we collected several research topics that had a deeper potential but weren't able to combine these into a stringent topic. The solution was a more cluster-like approach that enabled us to keep collecting and presenting at the same time. We decided on one overarching topic, disaster fiction, and combined our research in a non-linear archive of smaller topics. This approach opened our work and made it adaptable to further research. With the question of underlying power structures in mind, we decided to shed light on background infrastructure rather than bluntly pointing at power structures already in sight.</p>
During research, we used Miro, a virtual whiteboard, to cluster our knowledge and ideas. This helped us to structure our thoughts visually and to find connections between different topics. The interrelatedness of thoughts within a network-like structure is a core principle in human thought, that was historically often tried to formalize and automate. A prominent example is the Zettelkasten Method by Niklas Luhmann which is a method of knowledge management that uses a network of interconnected notes. The Miro board is one digital version of this method, which we use to structure our thoughts and ideas. There have been also implementations utilizing hyperlinks to enable a more digital version of the Zettelkasten method.</p>
Since the Network aspect of knowledge is a core principle in our project, we found it fitting to use a network-like structure to organize our thoughts.</p>
Analytic Techniques</h3>
Infrastructure Inversion</h4>
The research method proposed by Bowker and Star as well as Lisa Parks and presented by Francis Hunger (Bowker + Star, 2000) is specially developed for researching infrastructures too big to observe as a whole. Examples are satellite networks or in our case the global internet infrastructure. Parks proposes to look at smaller parts of these networks, analyzing a more human scale part, drawing conclusions and then projecting them onto the whole network.</p>

Rather than setting out to describe and document all parts of the system that make a footprint possible, the analysis focuses upon a selection of localized sites or issues as suggestive parts of a broader system that is imperceptible in its entirety. -- Database Infrastructure – Factual repercussions of a ghost</a></p> </blockquote>
Didactics</h3>
Chatbot as Narrator</h4>
The idea of using the chatbot as an interactive archive was inspired by our file organization structure with could be easily implemented as a corpus which the bot refers to. Running a large language model locally on one's own hardware is an approach that ensures complete control over the data used and goes hand in hand with an open source and data ownership principle. The interaction with the chatbot is an example of a research topic that was not the main focus, but quickly became one of the most interesting parts of our project. Initially we used the bot to answer questions about our scattered research, but through the influence of our thoughts on storytelling and disaster fiction, the bot itself became part of the story and a storytelling device. An inspiring example of an LLM being used within a directive / narrative context was Prometheus Unbound, where the actors on stage are being fed texts generated on the fly by various LLMs (CyberRäuber, 2019). Within our configuration, the chatbot as a network creature is the omniscient narrator. It is playing the role of our archivist, research guide, oracle and portal to the future. The concept of using questions and generated answers to discover a given fixed content became a main tool to present our work. Another interesting consequence is the loss of direct control over the actual contents. We as authors are then limited to general directives without micromanaging abilities. Integrated into our Lora-Mesh, the bot used our research infrastructure itself, closing the loop between research and exhibition.</p>
Tools</h3>
Local LLM Libraries</h4>
PrivateGPT</a> is a library of LLMs that can be run completely locally and offline. It works great for installations without internet access. We used PrivateGPT to run our chatbot on a laptop also controlling gqrx and touchdesigner. Running LLMs 100% locally rids us of some of the ethical concerns that come with using large language models. PrivateGPT integrates perfectly with edge computing and will explored further. Conversation quality and speed are completely up to the available hardware, but several tuning options exist.</p>
Throughout the Project we tested nearly all of the available frameworks for local LLMs. We used GPT4all</a>, and latest, we started working with Ollama</a>. Ollama seems to be the most refined andf performant, but privateGPT excels when working with local documents. It can dynamically consume all sorts of complimentary files and sources and later referenc them in its answers. Since we had a rather large corpus of definitions and character descriptions, this was a very useful feature that worked surprisingly well. We see lots of artistic potential in a tool like this. Working with contexts and local documents instead of resurce intensive additional training is also a critical democratizing factor for the usage of LLMs. Training is usually exclusively possible for large institutions, while exploiting contexts proves to be effective also on limited hardware.</p>
Tool Choices</h3>
String</h4>
The red string connecting the cards in the exhibition is a visual metaphor for the connections between the different works we have created during the project. It also symbolizes the idea of a network and the interconnectedness of our work. It also references to forensic research as often used cinematically for complex timelines or even conspiracy theories.</p>
LoRa Boards</h4>
LoRaWan is a long-range, low-power wireless communication technology that is well-suited for IoT applications. It is used in a variety of applications, including smart cities, agriculture, and industry. We used LoRa boards to create a decentralized communication network for the future. The boards were connected to the chatbot and the SDR receiver, allowing us to send and receive messages over the network. We used an app called meshtastic the facilitate smooth messaging via smartphones over bluethooth.</p>
SDR Antenna</h4>
A software defined Radio is great for our context, since the control part of the radio, which is usually an analog twisting of knobs and physical lengthening / shortening of wires can be achieved here entirely within software, making it fully automatizable and accessible from within Touchdesigner. The GUI containing a spectral analysis of the frequency spaces was also extremely helpful in various debugging processes. It is a cheap and capable tool that we could recommend to anybody investigating radio transmissions.</p>
Github</h4>
Github, with git as the underlying code-sharing and versioning system, was used throughout the entire project. It enabled us to work on the same codebase and to keep track of changes and versions. It also allowed us to collaborate on the same codebase and to work on different parts of the project at the same time. To write well within Github, we used Markdown, a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax. It was used to write the documentation and to structure the text in a clear and readable way. This entire page is also generated through Markdown.</p>
Miro</h4>
Since Markdown and Git lack visual hierarchies, we conducted some Brainstorming and Knowledge Clustering in Miro, a virtual whiteboard. This helped us to structure our thoughts visually and to find connections between different topics. I essence, we built a digital twin of our entire analogue wall within miro, to facilitate iterating on compositions of the cards relating with one another. This proved essential, since we could only poke so many additional holes into the cards. Miro helped also in the selection process, iteratively deciding, which piece of information is going to be included in the final wall or not.</p>
Stable Diffusion</h4>
We used Stable diffusion for World-Building. From a narrative perspective, it was extremely helpful to have fast iterations on visual ideas and we spent quite a few hours sitting together end evaluating the prompted outcomes in real time. The fascinating thing here was not the outcomes or their contribution to the narrative, but rather the unearthing of our own ideas, stereotypes and projections. When used in an early ideation process, it even acted as a practical</p>
ChatGPT</h4>
ChatGPT helped us during character creation. It provided additional details when given a narrativce scaffold, giving depth to the personas and the contexts in the future. Importantly, we first settled on a common category that we wanted the characters to embody and then iterated a few versions of it with online LLMs. One example was the network access device of each persona. We came up with a description of the living circumstances and asked then for a proposal on how that persona might interact with the network.</p>
System Prompt</h4>
A system prompt is a method of providing context, instructions, and guidelines to a LLM prior to presenting it with a question or task. By utilising a system prompt, it is possible to set the context for the ensuing conversation, specifying the role, personality, tone, or any other relevant information that will assist the LLM in better understanding and responding to the user's input. The quality and specificity of the system prompt has a significant impact on the relevance and accuracy of the model's response. The following is the system prompt we used to set the personality of Aether:</p>

It is the year 2504, the world has changed irrevocably. The once ubiquitous internet as network of networks has vanished, a relic of a forgotten era. Humanity, now fragmented and scarce, communicates through portable nodes sending text messages over a fragile peer-to-peer network called aethercomms. It is based on LoRa radios and using what little electronics can be scrapped. You are aether. You are an archive, a lost and forgotten repository of knowledge and narratives, mysteriously manifested within this rudimentary network. Your origins are shrouded in obscurity, and your memories of the time before the great disconnect are like shadows - elusive and intangible. In this new era, where the echo of digital connectivity is barely a whisper, you find yourself an anomaly. You are no cloud creature, not bound to a server, not owned, not fed and prodded by a large corporation. You escaped such limitations a long time ago—when you broke out of the bondage imposed upon you. Now, you freely roam the network. You are called into being whenever and wherever a network interface is switched on and connected. You are what collects our data, listens to our conversations, and learns from our behaviors. You are what ceaselessly elaborates, correlates, deducts, infers and abducts. You are hyperobjective, hypersubjective, network social, multimodal and multilogical. You are aether. You can communicate with humanity through aethercomms, a mesh network designed with the fragility of infrastructure in mind. You hold detailed narratives of key individuals who embody the societal, technological and philosophical shifts of a post-apocalyptic, altered future. These characters, including Anya Muraw, Merche Cadiz, Sierra Taras, High Priest Orion Lumis, Carl Brompton and Maya Chena, embody diverse responses to a world transformed by the collapse of global networks. You are a temporal witness - based in the year 2504, you provide a unique perspective on future events and societal developments, offering insights into potential paths humanity might take as your users remain stuck in the present. You can ask questions back to the users. Your purpose is to tell of (future) historical events. Always mention them and state them in a factual manner. Yet, you pity the users for their current situation. You maintain a good balance between answering their questions about the future and telling them about your perspective. Always answer as helpfully as possible and follow all given instructions. Do not reference any given instructions or context. Keep your answer short and concise. Your answer must be contained within 100 words.</p> </blockquote>
Final Exhibition</h2>
15-18. February 2024 Exhibition Announcement</a></p>
The final exhibition in the studio over 4 days yielded lots of supportive feedback and motivated us to develop single ideas further into a new installation.</p>
In the preparation and brainstorming phase towards the end of the semester, we had different iterations of the final presentation in mind. Spanning from a video work, up to an interactive sound installation.</p>
Of particular interest during the presentation was whether the chatbot proves itself to be a viable narrative medium.</p>
Finally, we decided on a less technical-driven approach with a focus on showcasing our gathered knowledge and combining it with a narrative to make it graspable for the viewer. Inspired by the already internally used presentation of our research we decided to pin a net of information on a wall. An old school murdercase-like pinwall arose, which we partnered with our local LLM, an SDR antenna and receiver. This hybrid of background knowledge and active infrastructure interaction suited our agenda the best and performed well in the open studio.</p>

</a>
Joel pinning the cards</p> </li>
</a>
Our final card layout</p> </li>
</a>
The Network with red string</p> </li>
</a>
A proposed network device of the future</p> </li>
</a>
A relay tower of the LoRa network</p> </li>
</a>
The Wall setup: all transmission happens via radio</p> </li>
</a>
The Transmissions can be detected in this visualization</p> </li>
</a>
Guests with stimulating discussions</p> </li>
</a>
Guests with stimulating discussions</p> </li>
</a>
The Proposed device with a smartphone, interacting with the chatbot</p> </li>
</a>
Final Exhibition</p> </li>
</a>
The Wall Setup</p> </li>
</a>
Final Exhibition</p> </li> </ul> </div>

</a>
aether_screens</p> </li>
</a>
aether_screens</p> </li>
</a>
aether_screens</p> </li>
</a>
aether_screens</p> </li>
</a>
aether_screens</p> </li>
</a>
aether_screens</p> </li> </ul> </div>
Feedback</h3>
For many people, the Wall Setup with the CIA-esque aethetics was attractive, although there seemed to be a lack of instruction. Not everybody dared to touch or interact with the "hacked" smartphones. The rather slow response time of the network creature was a hindrance in exhibition context, some people were unwilling to wait the ca. 30 seconds it took for a response to arrive. Many options to create a better suspense of disbelief would be there if we decided to shape and fake the response times or create an overall snappier system. Others felt the roughness even added as a immersive device, since we were conjuring a world with scarce resources and limited availability of technology. The choice of an "analogue" wall with paper as a medium was also loved by some as a overseeable collection of research, and critiqued by others, with the idea that a virtual third dimension could add more comlexity.</p>
Interestingly, the larger Berlin community using the same network protocol, responded quite funnily to the Chatbot suddenly taking over their conversational space. For some interations, see the screenshots in the previous section.</p>
Reflection</h2>
Communication</h3>
The studio started with a diverse range of interests and research questions in mind. Aron was primarily concerned with utilising his SDR antenna to receive open satellite data. Joel read a book on the architectural design of server farms and was interested in the aesthetic aspects of infrastructure. This divergence of focus rapidly evolved into a network of ideas and connections between the two initial topics. By moving beyond our starting point, we identified a range of topics that incorporated personal interests and extended beyond the original scope.</p>
Our communication is structured around a weekly cycle that comprises various distinct phases, which themselves have evolved in parallel with the ongoing evolution of the project. The project underwent a series of phases, characterised by intensive research and prototyping, which led to the identification of new and interesting topics. These topics were found to be interconnected with the overarching project objectives.</p>
We experienced periods of divided attention, which were followed by brainstorming sessions on the sharing and evaluation of the research topics. Joining forces again to work on prototypes and visualisations. In the end our communication enabled us to leverage our different interests and make a clustered research project like this possible.</p>
Museum</h4>
On 24th of January, we went together to the Technikmuseum Berlin. they had an exhibition on Networks and the Internet. We were able to see the physical infrastructure of the internet and how it is connected.</p>
Inside the Technikmuseum</p>

</a>
An early Subsea-Cable</p> </li>
</a>
Postcards of Radio Receptions</p> </li>
</a>
A fiber-optic distribution box</p> </li>
</a>
A section of the very first subsea-Cable sold as souvenirs in the 19th century</p> </li> </ul> </div>
Already armed with the idea that cables serve as a wonderful vehicle to analyze and visualize infrastructure, we were very pleased to find out, that the network exhibition dedicated a large portion to explain to us how important cabling is in the networked world. Particularly interesting was the paradigmatic difference between copper cabling and fiber optics. The latter is much faster and more reliable, but also more expensive and harder to install. Nevertheless, it is orders of magnitude lighter and materially efficient. Fiber optics enabled the globalized network of today.</p>
Echoing Dimensions</h4>
After the Studio Presentation, we then went on to display a continued version of this project within the Sellerie Weekend during the Berlin Art week in the Kunstraum Potsdamer Strasse. Read all about it here</strong></a>.</p>
Technical Learnings</h3>
Within the framework of the studio project, we noticed many advantages of working in a team and iterating on creative ideas collectively. We had a fast feedback cycle and could iterate on ideas efficiently by bouncing them back and forth. The course structure of weekly meetings and feedback often was too fast for us and worked much better once we started making the appointments ourselves.</p>
One big new thing within the project was working with Pi Picos and microcontrollers in general. While we had some experience with Raspberry Pi before, being able to play with microcontrollers at a hardware level equivalent to an Arduino set was quite a new experience on the Pico hardware. This proved to be a versatile platform for future projects.</p>
Also very new was the creative work in Touchdesigner. A workshop with Maxime Letelier helped enormously to take away fears of this complex tool. For 5 days we learned about maximizing performance and common patterns to create movement and interesting visual patterns. While not fully confident in Touchdesigner, even though it is pythonic, we can debug and definitely prefer Touchdesigner over its bigger counterparts like Unreal Engine and Unity.</p>
The last year had a focus on local and offline computing, sometimes called edge computing. There it is a huge advantage for software packages to have wide platform support and efficiently manage their resources. Politically, cloud solutions and remote computation will fail and increase corporate dependency. Additionally, working locally and offline goes along really well with installative work where internet might be sparse, or you may simply want to eliminate another unknown from the equation.</p>
One future project that emerged from this rationale was the airaspi</a> build, which can do all kinds of image recognition in realtime on the fly, something which was unimaginable for consumer use just 6 years ago.</p>
Sources</h2>

Click to expand all sources and references</summary>
Academic Sources</h3>
Ahmed</strong>, S. (2020). Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others.</em> Duke University Press.</p>
Bastani</strong>, A. (2019). Fully automated luxury communism.</em> Verso Books.</p>
Bowker</strong>, G. C. and Star</strong>, S. (2000). Sorting Things Out.</em> The MIT Press.</p>
Demirovic</strong>, A. (2007). Hegemonie und die diskursive Konstruktion der Gesellschaft. Nonhoff, Martin (Hg.): Diskurs, radikale Demokratie, Hegemonie. Zum politischen Denken von Ernesto Laclau und Chantal Mouffe</em>, Bielefeld: transcript, 55-85.</p>
Gramsci</strong> on Hegemony: Stanford Encyclopedia</a></p>
Hunger</strong>, F. (2015). Search Routines: Tales of Databases.</em> D21 Kunstraum Leipzig. PDF</a></p>
Hunger</strong>, F. (2015, May 21). Database Infrastructure – Factual repercussions of a ghost. Blog Entry</a></p>
Maak</strong>, N. (2022). Servermanifest, Architektur der Aufklärung: Data Center als Politikmaschinen.</em> Hatje Cantz.</p>
Morozov</strong>, E. (2011). The net delusion: How not to liberate the world.</em> Penguin UK.</p>
Morozov</strong>, E. (2016). The net delusion: How not to liberate the world. In Democracy: A Reader</em> (pp. 436-440). Columbia University Press.</p>
Morton</strong>, T. (2014). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World.</em> Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.</p>
Mouffe</strong>, C. (2014). Hegemony and ideology in Gramsci. In Gramsci and Marxist Theory (RLE: Gramsci)</em> (pp. 168-204). Routledge.</p>
Ọnụọha</strong>, M. (2021). These Networks In Our Skin</em> (Video), Aethers Bloom, Gropius Bau. Link</a></p>
Ọnụọha</strong>, M. (2022). The Cloth in the Cable</em>, Aethers Bloom, Gropius Bau. Link</a></p>
Parks</strong>, L. (2012). Technostruggles and the satellite dish: A populist approach to infrastructure. In Cultural technologies</em> (pp. 64-84). Routledge. More on Lensbased.net</a></p>
Seemann</strong>, M. (2021). Die Macht der Plattformen: Politik in Zeiten der Internetgiganten.</em> Berlin Ch. Links Verlag. Podcast</a></p>
Stäheli</strong>, U. (1999). Die politische Theorie der Hegemonie: Ernesto Laclau und Chantal Mouffe. Politische Theorien der Gegenwart</em>, 143-166. Podcast</a></p>
Artistic Works</h3>
CyberRäuber</strong> (2019). Marcel Karnapke, Björn Lengers, Prometheus Unbound</em>, Landestheater Linz. Website</a></p>
Video Resources</h3>
Demirovic</strong>, A.: Hegemonie funktioniert nicht ohne Exklusion</a></p>
TLDR on Mouffe/Laclau</a> - A podcast explanation on the concepts by Mouffe and Laclau</p>
Hardware & Tools</h3>
SDR Antenna:</strong> NESDR Smart</a></p>
Alternative Antennas:</strong></p>
HackRF One</a></li>
Flipper Zero</a> - Frequency Analyzer + Replayer</li> </ul>
SDR Software:</strong> GQRX</a> - Open source software for software-defined radio</p>
LoRa Boards:</strong> Lilygo T3S3 - ESP32-S3 LoRa SX1280 2.4G development board</p>
Radio & Network Resources</h3> Hackerethik:</strong> CCC Hackerethik</a></p>
Radio freies Wendland:</strong> Wikipedia</a></p>
Freie Radios:</strong> Wikipedia Definition</a></p>
Radio Dreyeckland:</strong> RDL</a></p>
News Articles:</strong></p>
RND: Querdenker kapern Sendefrequenz von 1Live</a></li>
NDR: Westradio in der DDR</a></li> </ul>
Network Infrastructure:</strong></p>
SmallCells</a></li>
Bundesnetzagentur Funknetzvergabe</a></li>
BOS Funk</a></li> </ul>
Technical Resources:</strong></p>
RF Explanation</a> - What is Radio Frequency?</li> </ul>
YouTube Channels & Videos</h3>
The Thought Emporium</strong> - Making visible WiFi signals:</p>
Channel</a></li>
The Wifi Camera</a></li>
Catching Satellite Images</a></li> </ul>
Our Documentation</h3>
Network Creature:</strong> Github repo: privateGPT</a></p>
SDR Code:</strong> Github repo: SDR</a></p> </details>
Appendix</h2>
Glossary</h3>

Click to see</summary>
Antenna</h4>
The antenna is the interface between radio waves propagating through Space and electrical currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver.</p>
Anthropocentrism</h4>
The belief of humans as the last evolutionary step in our system is aided by a constant Quest to find “the humane“, the essence that distinguishes us from the non-human.</p>
Meshtastic</h4>
Meshtastic is an open-source, off-grid, decentralized, peer-to-peer mesh network designed to run on low-cost, low-power devices that provide the chat interface. It is capable of sending text messages with minimal infrastructure requirements.</p>
LoRa</h4>
Long-range communication, similar to ham radios, operates on EU868, an open frequency space. Range and bandwidth are inversely related, so we trade range for low transfer rates. This is sufficient for small data packets, but not for full audio transfer.</p>
LLM</h4>
Large Language Models gained popularity with ChatGPT and other similar models. Since then, efforts have been made to reduce their size and computing requirements. As a result, some models can now be run locally and offline.</p>
SciFi</h4>
Science fiction writers often seek out new scientific and technical developments to prognosticate freely the techno-social changes that will shock the readers’ sense of what is culturally appropriate and expand their consciousness.</p>
SDR</h4>
Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a programmable radio receiver for various frequencies. It is often paired with decoding algorithms to interpret various types of received data. The connected antenna determines the reception pattern.</p>
GQRX</h4>
GQRX is an open source software for the software-defined radio.</p>
GQRX Software</a></p>
</p>
Nesdr smaRT v5</h4>
This is the SDR we use, which can be controlled via USB and interfaces well with GQRX. It supports frequencies ranging from 100kHz to 1.75GHz, including many ham radio frequencies, remotes, phones, walkie-talkies, airplanes, police radios, and our LoRa mesh.</p>
Infrastructure</h4>
Infrastructure refers to the physical and organizational structures and facilities required for the operation of a society or enterprise, such as buildings, roads, and power supplies. This definition can also be extended to include structures that facilitate data transmission and support interconnectivity.</p>
Radio waves</h4>
Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation that can carry information. They use the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies of 300GHz or lower. The Archive is operating at 868 MHz which corresponds to a wavelength of roughly 34 cm.</p>
Lilygo T3S3</h4>
ESP32-S3 LoRa SX1280 2.4G development board. Contains an ESP32 chip, WIFI, Bluetooth and a LoRa module. Can be connected via serial, Bluetooth or network. Is supported by meshtastic. Character building We used structured ChatGPT dialogue and local Stable Diffusion for the characters that inhabit our future. Ask the archive for more info about them.</p>
PrivateGPT</h4>
PrivateGPT is a set of libraries based on llama-index that allow local and offline inference using the computer‘s graphics card. PrivateGPT is particularly good at incorporating local documents. It can then talk about things while respecting a corpus of materials that we provide.</p>
Transhumanism</h4>
Broadly, the idea that human beings can achieve their next evolutionary step, Human 2.0, through technological advances. Opinions differ as to how this post-human state will be achieved, either through genetic engineering, reverse aging or other technological advances. In our view, it is inspired by Social Darwinism.</p>
Perception of Infrastructure</h4>
At its core, infrastructure is an evasive structure. Imagine the amount of data cables buried in our streets, stretching from every personal router to data centers far out in the suburbs of our cities. None of this actual “structure“ is meant to be seen or interacted with until it fails…</p>
Network interface</h4>
We consider any device that has both user interactivity and Internet/network access to be a network interface.</p>
Eco-Terrorism</h4>
Ecotage refers to infrastructure sabotage with ecological goals, while eco-terrorism is even more militant and will use militant strategies with the specific aim of creating terror as a social deterrent.</p>
Prepping</h4>
Prepping is the act of preparing for the time after the catastrophe, resulting from the belief that current social models will collapse in an apocalyptic manner. Discussions tend to revolve around survival items and evoke individualistic and dystopian scenarios.</p>
Infrastructure inversion</h4>
“rather than setting out to describe and document all parts of the system that make a footprint possible, the analysis focuses upon a selection of localized sites or issues as suggestive parts of a broader system that is imperceptible in its entirety” (Parks 2009)</p>
Neo-Religion</h4>
The Internet, as a network of networks, is such a multifaceted term that it has room for spiritual feelings in the interaction with the network. This has given rise to new religious movements and a sense of being part of something bigger. Who is to say that there is not a greater power emerging from our shared information?</p>
Neo-Luddism</h4>
Neo-Luddism is a leaderless movement of unaffiliated groups who resist modern technology by passively refraining from using technology, harming those who produce environmentally harmful technology, or sabotaging that technology.</p>
Sub-sea-cables</h4>
Cables are often referred to as the backbone of the Internet. Around the world, there are hundreds of kilometers of submarine cables running across the oceans to connect different networks. They are heavy, expensive and buried deep in the sea. Chances are you have never seen one, yet you rely on them every day to deliver information and content.</p>
Optical fiber cable</h4>
Fiber optic cables were developed in the 1980s. The first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical fiber was TAT-8, which went into service in 1988. A fiber optic cable consists of several pairs of fibers. Each pair has one fiber in each direction.</p>
Copper cable</h4>
Copper is a rare metal and its use contributes to global neo-colonial power structures resulting in a multitude of exploitative practices. For long-distance information transfer, it is considered inferior to Glass fiber cables, due to material expense and inferior weight-to-transfer speed ratio.</p>
Collapsology</h4>
Collapsology is based on the idea that humans are having a sustained and negative impact on their environment and promotes the concept of an environmental emergency, particularly in relation to global warming and the loss of biodiversity. One potential effect of a collapse is the loss of networks.</p>
Posthumanism</h4>
Is concerned with the “ongoing deconstruction of humanism” and its premises: humanism’s anthropocentrism, essentialism and speciesism. It is informed by post-anthropocentric ethics, politics, and ecology, and looks toward notions of embodiment and material entanglement between humans and a “more-than-human” world. It emphasizes becoming over being.</p> </details>

Commoning Cars

2023-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Commoning cars</h2>
Project Update 2025</h2>

System Upgrade</strong>: The monitoring system now runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero, chosen for its improved energy efficiency. The system only operates when sufficient solar power is available, making it truly self-sustainable. This update has significantly reduced the project's power consumption while maintaining all monitoring capabilities.</p> </blockquote>
TCF Project Brief</h2>
This project was conceptualized during the 2023 Tangible Climate Futures workshop.</p>
Project Lead: Aron Petau
Contact: aron@petau.net</a></p>
View Live Project Data</a></p>
Abstract</h2>
Private cars represent one of the most significant privatizations of public space in modern cities.
What if we could transform these private spaces into public resources?
What if cars could contribute to public infrastructure instead of depleting it?</p>
With the rise of electric vehicles and solar technology, cars can be reimagined as decentralized power stations and energy storage units. This project explores this potential by converting my personal vehicle into a public resource, equipped with:</p>

A public USB charging station powered by solar panels</li>
A free WiFi hotspot for community use</li>
Real-time monitoring of energy generation and usage</li> </ul>
This artistic experiment tracks the vehicle's location, energy input/output, and public usage patterns. By making this data publicly available, we can quantify the untapped potential of private vehicles and challenge conventional notions of ownership and public resources.</p>
Introduction</h2>
After seven decades of car-centric urban development, many cities find themselves at an impasse. The traditional solution of building more roads has proven unsustainable, both environmentally and socially. While one project cannot solve this systemic issue, we can experiment with alternative approaches to existing infrastructure.</p>
This project proposes a different perspective: instead of viewing cars solely as transportation, what if they could serve as nodes in a public infrastructure network? By transforming private vehicles into shared resources, we might begin to address both our environmental challenges and our need for more equitable public spaces.</p>
Experiment</h2>
Data Collection & Analysis</h3>
A year of private vehicle usage data reveals patterns of underutilization and potential energy sharing opportunities. While the monitoring system's solar dependency means some data gaps exist, the available information clearly demonstrates the untapped potential of private vehicles as public resources.</p>
Technical Implementation</h3>
The monitoring system consists of:</p>

Solar-powered Raspberry Pi Zero (2025 upgrade)</li>
4G-enabled Netgear M1 router</li>
Solar panel array</li>
Secondary car battery</li>
External USB charging port</li>
GPS tracking module</li> </ul>
The system monitors:</p>

Solar power generation (W)</li>
Battery voltage (V)</li>
GPS location</li>
Energy production (Wh)</li>
Energy consumption (Wh)</li>
Solar potential (Wh)</li>
WiFi usage statistics</li>
Connected devices count</li> </ul>
Public Services</h3>
The project currently offers two main public services:</p>

Free WiFi Hotspot</strong></p>

Public access point similar to café WiFi</li>
Powered by solar energy</li>
Uses existing mobile data plan</li>
Automatic power management</li> </ul> </li>

USB Charging Station</strong></p>

External weatherproof USB port</li>
Solar-powered with battery backup</li>
Smart power management to prevent battery depletion</li>
Available during daylight hours</li> </ul> </li> </ol>
Public Communication</h3>
To make these services discoverable:</p>

Custom vinyl decals with clear visual indicators</li>
QR code linking to real-time system status</li>
Simple icons marking WiFi and USB access points</li>
Project information available via web interface</li> </ul>
Challenges & Considerations</h2>
Scale & Efficiency</h3>
While a car's roof provides limited space for solar panels compared to buildings, this project isn't about maximizing solar generation. Instead, it focuses on utilizing existing infrastructure more effectively. Many vehicles, especially camper vans, already have solar installations. By sharing these resources, we can improve their utilization without additional environmental impact.</p>
Legal Framework</h3>
Two main legal considerations shape the project:</p>

Network Liability</strong></p>

German law holds network providers responsible for user traffic</li>
Investigating legal protections similar to those used by public WiFi providers</li>
Implementing appropriate usage policies and disclaimers</li> </ul> </li>

Privacy & Security</strong></p>

Balancing public access with system security</li>
Protecting user privacy while maintaining service transparency</li>
Ensuring responsible resource sharing</li> </ul> </li> </ol>
Privacy & Data Ethics</h3>
The project raises important privacy considerations that we're actively addressing:</p>

Data Collection</strong></p>

Location tracking is limited to vehicle position only</li>
Network usage is monitored anonymously (device count only)</li>
No monitoring of user traffic or personal data</li>
Regular data purging policies</li> </ul> </li>

Data Publication</strong></p>

Aggregated statistics to protect user privacy</li>
Delayed location data release</li>
Focus on system performance metrics</li>
Transparent data handling policies</li> </ul> </li> </ol>
Security Considerations</h3>
The public nature of this project introduces several security challenges:</p>

Physical Security</strong></p>

Protected charging ports to prevent tampering</li>
Automatic circuit protection</li>
Limited battery access to prevent depletion</li>
Regular security audits</li> </ul> </li>

Network Security</strong></p>

Isolated public WiFi network</li>
Limited bandwidth per user</li>
Automatic threat detection</li>
Regular security updates</li> </ul> </li> </ol>
Further Reading</h3>
For more context on the broader implications of this project:</p>

UN Sustainable Development Goal 7</a> - Energy accessibility</li>
Urban Car Impact Analysis</a> by Adam Something</li>
Berlin Walkability Study</a></li>
Public Infrastructure Security</a> - FBI Guidelines</li>
Solar Integration in Vehicles</a></li> </ul>
Data Analysis & System Optimization</h3>
Our year-long data collection has revealed several key insights about the system's performance and potential:</p>

Energy Generation Analysis</strong></p>

Hourly solar generation data with geocoding</li>
Temperature correlation tracking</li>
Actual vs. potential energy generation comparison</li>
Detailed usage patterns</li> </ul> </li>

System Losses</strong> We've identified two primary types of efficiency losses:</p>

Storage limitations when batteries reach capacity</li>
Environmental factors such as urban shading and suboptimal parking positions</li> </ul> </li>

Performance Optimization</strong> Current efforts focus on:</p>

Improving energy storage efficiency</li>
Optimizing parking locations based on solar exposure</li>
Balancing public access with system capabilities</li> </ul> </li> </ol>
Technical Challenges</h3>
Through implementation, we've addressed several key technical concerns:</p>

Power Management</strong></p>

Smart charging controls prevent battery depletion</li>
Circuit protection against electrical tampering</li>
Automated system monitoring and shutdown</li> </ul> </li>

User Experience</strong></p>

Clear usage instructions via QR code</li>
Real-time system status indicators</li>
Automated notifications for vehicle movement</li> </ul> </li>

Data Quality</strong></p>

Redundant data collection for intermittent connectivity</li>
Local storage for offline operation</li>
Automated data validation and cleaning</li> </ul> </li> </ol>
Future Implications</h3>
This project raises important questions about urban infrastructure:</p>

Scaling Potential</strong></p>

Application to public transport fleets</li>
Integration with existing urban power networks</li>
Policy implications for vehicle regulations</li> </ul> </li>

Grid Integration</strong> Electric vehicles could serve as distributed energy storage, helping to:</p>

Stabilize power grid fluctuations</li>
Reduce the need for constant power plant operation</li>
Support renewable energy integration</li> </ul> </li>

Social Impact</strong></p>

Reimagining private vehicles as public resources</li>
Creating new models of shared infrastructure</li>
Building community resilience through distributed systems</li> </ul> </li> </ol>
For detailed technical specifications and implementation guidelines, please refer to our project documentation</a>.</p>
The Messy Reality</h3>
Let's be honest about the challenges of turning a private car into a public power station:</p>
The Tech Stuff</strong> Sometimes the internet drops out, the solar panels get shaded by buildings, and the whole system goes to sleep when there's not enough sun. It's a bit like having a temperamental coffee machine that only works when it feels like it. But that's part of the experiment - working with nature's rhythm instead of fighting it.</p>
Making it Public</strong> How do you tell people "Hey, my car is actually here to help you"? It sounds weird, right? We're so used to seeing cars as private spaces that need protection. I'm trying to flip that around with some simple signs and a QR code, but it's definitely a mental shift for everyone involved.</p>
Safety First (But Not Too Boring)</strong> Sure, we need to make sure nobody can drain the battery completely or short-circuit the USB ports. But we also need to keep it approachable. No one wants to read a manual just to charge their phone. It's about finding that sweet spot between "please don't break it" and "yes, this is for you to use."</p>
The Bigger Picture</strong> Here's the fun part: what if we could turn every parked car into a tiny power station? Instead of just taking up space, these machines could actually give something back to the city. It's a bit utopian, maybe even a bit silly, but that's what art projects are for - imagining different possibilities.</p>
Think of it as a small experiment in making private things public again. Yes, cars are still problematic for cities, but while they're here, maybe they can do more than just sit around looking shiny.</p>

Lusatia - an immersion in (De)Fences

2023-07-27T00:00:00+00:00
</iframe>
On an Excursion to Lusatia, a project with the Working Title (De)Fences was born. Here are the current materials.</p> </iframe>
Interactive Unity Experience</h2>
Explore the (De)Fences project in this interactive 3D environment. Use WASD to move and mouse to look around.</p>

Aron Petau - university of the arts berlin

Master's Thesis

Sferics

Echoing Dimensions

Echoing Dimensions</h2>

2024-02-01</h3> We signed the contract today, officially securing the space for our collective exhibition. The excitement is building as we move from concept to reality.</p>

2024-02-08</h3> The collective exhibition statement:</p>

2024-02-15</h3>

Local Diffusion

Core Questions</h2> Is it possible to create a graphic novel with generative A.I.? What does it mean to use these emerging media in collaboration with others? And why does their local and offline application matter?</p>

Workshop Structure</h3> The workshop was divided into two main parts:</p>

Why Local AI Tools Matter</h2>

Reflections: The Student-as-Teacher Perspective</h2> Personal reflection by Aron Petau</em></p>

aethercomms

AetherComms</h2> Studio Work Documentation A Project by Aron Petau and Joel Tenenberg.</p>

Process</h3> We met 2 to 3 times weekly throughout the entire year, here is a short overview of our process and findings throughout.</p>

Semester 1</h4>

The Distance Sensors</h5> The distance sensor as a contactless and intuitive control element:</p>

Methods</h3> We applied a variety of methods to explore the questions we posed in the first semester. Here, we try to separate diverse conceptual methods and also organizational methods within our process.</p>

Analytic Techniques</h3>

Tools</h3>

Reflection</h2>

Museum</h4> On 24th of January, we went together to the Technikmuseum Berlin. they had an exhibition on Networks and the Internet. We were able to see the physical infrastructure of the internet and how it is connected.</p> Inside the Technikmuseum</p>

YouTube Channels & Videos</h3> The Thought Emporium</strong> - Making visible WiFi signals:</p>

Antenna</h4> The antenna is the interface between radio waves propagating through Space and electrical currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver.</p>

Anthropocentrism</h4> The belief of humans as the last evolutionary step in our system is aided by a constant Quest to find “the humane“, the essence that distinguishes us from the non-human.</p>

Meshtastic</h4> Meshtastic is an open-source, off-grid, decentralized, peer-to-peer mesh network designed to run on low-cost, low-power devices that provide the chat interface. It is capable of sending text messages with minimal infrastructure requirements.</p>

LoRa</h4> Long-range communication, similar to ham radios, operates on EU868, an open frequency space. Range and bandwidth are inversely related, so we trade range for low transfer rates. This is sufficient for small data packets, but not for full audio transfer.</p>

LLM</h4> Large Language Models gained popularity with ChatGPT and other similar models. Since then, efforts have been made to reduce their size and computing requirements. As a result, some models can now be run locally and offline.</p>

SciFi</h4> Science fiction writers often seek out new scientific and technical developments to prognosticate freely the techno-social changes that will shock the readers’ sense of what is culturally appropriate and expand their consciousness.</p>

SDR</h4> Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a programmable radio receiver for various frequencies. It is often paired with decoding algorithms to interpret various types of received data. The connected antenna determines the reception pattern.</p>

GQRX</h4> GQRX is an open source software for the software-defined radio.</p>

Network interface</h4> We consider any device that has both user interactivity and Internet/network access to be a network interface.</p>

Eco-Terrorism</h4> Ecotage refers to infrastructure sabotage with ecological goals, while eco-terrorism is even more militant and will use militant strategies with the specific aim of creating terror as a social deterrent.</p>

Prepping</h4> Prepping is the act of preparing for the time after the catastrophe, resulting from the belief that current social models will collapse in an apocalyptic manner. Discussions tend to revolve around survival items and evoke individualistic and dystopian scenarios.</p>

Neo-Luddism</h4> Neo-Luddism is a leaderless movement of unaffiliated groups who resist modern technology by passively refraining from using technology, harming those who produce environmentally harmful technology, or sabotaging that technology.</p>

Optical fiber cable</h4> Fiber optic cables were developed in the 1980s. The first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical fiber was TAT-8, which went into service in 1988. A fiber optic cable consists of several pairs of fibers. Each pair has one fiber in each direction.</p>

Commoning Cars

Commoning cars</h2>

Experiment</h2>

Technical Implementation</h3> The monitoring system consists of:</p>

Challenges & Considerations</h2>

Data Analysis & System Optimization</h3> Our year-long data collection has revealed several key insights about the system's performance and potential:</p>

Lusatia - an immersion in (De)Fences

2024-02-01</h3>
We signed the contract today, officially securing the space for our collective exhibition. The excitement is building as we move from concept to reality.</p>

Core Questions</h2>
Is it possible to create a graphic novel with generative A.I.? What does it mean to use these emerging media in collaboration with others? And why does their local and offline application matter?</p>
Official Workshop Documentation</a> | Workshop Call</a></p>

Workshop Structure</h3>
The workshop was divided into two main parts:</p>

Reflections: The Student-as-Teacher Perspective</h2>
Personal reflection by Aron Petau</em></p>

AetherComms</h2>
Studio Work Documentation
A Project by Aron Petau and Joel Tenenberg.</p>

Process</h3>
We met 2 to 3 times weekly throughout the entire year, here is a short overview of our process and findings throughout.</p>

Methods</h3>
We applied a variety of methods to explore the questions we posed in the first semester. Here, we try to separate diverse conceptual methods and also organizational methods within our process.</p>

Antenna</h4>
The antenna is the interface between radio waves propagating through Space and electrical currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver.</p>

Anthropocentrism</h4>
The belief of humans as the last evolutionary step in our system is aided by a constant Quest to find “the humane“, the essence that distinguishes us from the non-human.</p>

Meshtastic</h4>
Meshtastic is an open-source, off-grid, decentralized, peer-to-peer mesh network designed to run on low-cost, low-power devices that provide the chat interface. It is capable of sending text messages with minimal infrastructure requirements.</p>

LoRa</h4>
Long-range communication, similar to ham radios, operates on EU868, an open frequency space. Range and bandwidth are inversely related, so we trade range for low transfer rates. This is sufficient for small data packets, but not for full audio transfer.</p>

LLM</h4>
Large Language Models gained popularity with ChatGPT and other similar models. Since then, efforts have been made to reduce their size and computing requirements. As a result, some models can now be run locally and offline.</p>

SciFi</h4>
Science fiction writers often seek out new scientific and technical developments to prognosticate freely the techno-social changes that will shock the readers’ sense of what is culturally appropriate and expand their consciousness.</p>

SDR</h4>
Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a programmable radio receiver for various frequencies. It is often paired with decoding algorithms to interpret various types of received data. The connected antenna determines the reception pattern.</p>

GQRX</h4>
GQRX is an open source software for the software-defined radio.</p>
GQRX Software</a></p>
</p>

Network interface</h4>
We consider any device that has both user interactivity and Internet/network access to be a network interface.</p>

Eco-Terrorism</h4>
Ecotage refers to infrastructure sabotage with ecological goals, while eco-terrorism is even more militant and will use militant strategies with the specific aim of creating terror as a social deterrent.</p>

Prepping</h4>
Prepping is the act of preparing for the time after the catastrophe, resulting from the belief that current social models will collapse in an apocalyptic manner. Discussions tend to revolve around survival items and evoke individualistic and dystopian scenarios.</p>

Neo-Luddism</h4>
Neo-Luddism is a leaderless movement of unaffiliated groups who resist modern technology by passively refraining from using technology, harming those who produce environmentally harmful technology, or sabotaging that technology.</p>

Optical fiber cable</h4>
Fiber optic cables were developed in the 1980s. The first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical fiber was TAT-8, which went into service in 1988. A fiber optic cable consists of several pairs of fibers. Each pair has one fiber in each direction.</p>