TEMPEST audiovisual performance and installation environment Erich Berger 2004 The audiovisual installation/performance TEMPEST draws its name from a U.S government code word for a set of standards for limiting electric or electromagnetic radiation emanations from electronic equipment such as microchips, monitors or printers.[1] In 1985, Wim van Eck published the first unclassified technical analysis of the security risks of emanations from computer monitors.[2] Because of his research radiation from computer monitors is sometimes called "Van Eck Radiation" and the associated surveillance technology "Van Eck Phreaking". "Van Eck Phreaking" means that computer screen content can be reconstructed remotely by picking up the emitted EM-field of the computer screen. Any electronic device that is switched on (a mobile, a laptop, a GPS receiver) generates constant electromagnetic emissions, even if it is on standby. British designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby called this "The Secret Life of Electronic Objects", the perception that the activity of electronic technology is not transparent or subject to the way it is used by consumers; below the friendly interfaces hide autonomous processes with their own dynamics. "Tempest" utilizes the basic principles of the "Van Eck Phreaking" technique to transform purely generative graphic into a tight and intense composition of sound, noise and light. Following a long tradition of subverting military technologies for creative purposes, Erich Berger creates an audiovisual piece in which the relationship between images and sounds is precisely determined by the electromagnetic emissions produced by the monitor. The graphics that appear on the screen in "Tempest" produce radio waves which, when captured using various radios tuned to different AM frequencies, become the sharp and vibrant sounds that go along with the images. (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST (2) Wim van Eck, Electromagnetic Radiation from Video Display Units: An Eavesdropping Risk? , 1985 http://jya.emr.pdf images: TEMPEST installation Ars Electronica Festival-2005 TEMPEST screenshot - 2005 videos:tempest pixelache05 from Erich Berger on Vimeo.
tempest from Erich Berger on Vimeo.
audio: TEMPEST life performance audio from Ars Electronica Festival 2005 article: TEMPEST mentioned in article by Heiko Hansen (HeHe) about Pixelache05 performances: - "Dans for Voksne" electronic music series at Chateu Neuf in Oslo/Norway 2004 - PIKSEL04 Bergen/Norway 2004 - crash symposium+sound event ICA London UK 2005 - Another Happy Day, Kanonhallen, Oslo/Norway 2005 - pixelache Helsinki Finland 2005 - Ars Electronica Festival Linz/Austria 2005 - Malaupixel Paris/France 2006 installation: - Ars Electronica Festival Linz/Austria 2005 - Waves festival Ricx, Riga/Latvia 2006 - (in)visible sounds, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam/NL 2007 dvd screenings: - the numusic festival in Stavanger/Norway 18-22.8.2004 - puredata convention Graz/Austria 27.9-3.10.2004 - Arco06 -digital transit- Madrid/Spain 2006 - ZEMOS98 -reclaim the spectrum- Sevilla/Spain 2006 Further artistic investigations (most likely incomplete): - Erik Thiele, Tempest for Eliza - radioqualia, Van Eck TV - Derek Holzer/Bas van Koolwijk, Ozone - Gisle Froysland, Radio Tempest Further material: - The unofficial tempest information page return