Matthew Biederman: Sensing the Spectrum

Explore the world of the radio spectrum!

24 February 2016 | 4 – 8pm @ Poligon, Tobačna 5, Ljubljana

This workshop by the polyvalent artist Matthew Biederman will introduce the fundamentals of exploring the electromagnetic spectrum through the use of a Software Defined Radio (SDR). We’ll look at a little bit of the history of SDRs, some RF Theory as well as a hands-on approach using R820T2 tuner based USB dongles. We’ll listen to a variety of modes and modulations and descramble some of the radio jargon.

No prior experience with radio is necessary, just a desire to explore and understand the invisible architecture of the spectrum.  Each participant will be supplied with an RTL-SDR USB Dongle w/ telescoping antenna.  Please bring headphones and a laptop w/ USB 2.0 interface, booting either Windows 7/8/10 or Ubuntu/Fedora/Debian etc.

Mentor

Matthew Biederman has been performing, installing and exhibiting works, which explore themes of perception, media saturation, and data systems from a multiplicity of perspectives since the mid nineties. Biederman was the recipient of the Bay Area Artist Award in Video by New Langton Arts in 1999, First Place in the Visual Arts category of Slovenia’s Break21 festival. He has served as artist-in-residence at a variety of institutions and institutes, including the Center for Experimental Television on numerous occasions, CMU’s CREATE lab, the Wave Farm and many more.His works have been exhibited in the US, South America, Europe and Japan, in a variety of festivals and venues such as 7 ATA Festival Internacional (Lima), the 11th Lyon Bienniale, the 2011 Quebec Trienniale, 2014 Montreal Bienniale (Musee des Arts Contemporain), Bienniale of Digital Art (BIAN, Montreal), Artissima (Turin, IT), Moscow Biennale, Art and Alternative Visions (Tokyo) and Sonic Acts (NASA, Amsterdam) among others. As a film and video maker, his works have been included in the FILE festival (Sao Paulo), New Forms Festival (Vancouver), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Paris/Berlin International Meetings, and the Chicago Underground Film Festival. His public works have been shown at the ZeroOne2006 Festival (San Jose US), the SCAPE Biennial in New Zealand as well as producing custom commissions. He has collaborated with musicians as a visual artist since 1999, performing at the historic Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, as well as Ars Electronica, AV Festival, Elektra, Mutek, Futuresonic, FILE and many, many more. His works are included in public, corporate and private collections in North America.

Matthew Biederman

How to apply

Contribution for the workshop is 25 EUR with the RTL-SDR dongle (recommended) or 5 EUR if you do not wish to keep the dongle (you can decide later). Workshop will be in English language, the number of participants is limited, so please apply/announce yourself to delavnica@ljudmila.org. No previous skills are needed, newbies are welcome. Please bring headphones and a laptop w/ USB 2.0 interface, booting either Windows 7/8/10 or Ubuntu/Fedora/Debian etc.

Production

Workshop is a collaboration between Zavod Projekt Atol, KC Tobačna 001, Ljudmila Lab and Poligon and is a part of Changing Weathers programme.

With support from Ministry of Culture and Municipality of Ljubljana, Department for Culture. Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.