Being RadiotropicTega Brain (AU)

Wifi routers, candles, plant, concrete replica of a lunar rock, prints (archival ink on rag paper); 2016

"We are radiotropes. Just as other lifeforms orientate themselves in response to the radiation of the Sun, many human behaviours are now shaped by network topographies and the invisible landscape of electromagnetic signals. We prepare for the quiet zone of the metro and notice how data speeds vary as we move across geographies."

Being Radiotropic is composed of a series of eccentric wireless routers that explore our sensitivity to the presence or absence of wireless networks. One router provides a network that fluctuates over 28 days with the phases of the Moon. Another is controlled by a living plant and inserts photos of itself into unencrypted web pages. A third requires a user to light a candle to bring up its network. These devices shun technological ideals that have emerged with the internet – that of fast, always-on, uninterrupted connectivity. Instead, their deliberate intermittence and worldly entanglements encourage a shift in attention away from virtual environments, and to local conditions.

Made with the support of Australia Council for the Arts.

Tega Brain (AU)

Tega Brain is an artist and environmental engineer. She makes eccentric engineering to examine how technologies redistribute power, capacities for agency and shape perceptions of the environment. Her work takes the form of online interventions, site specific public works and poetic infrastructures. She has recently exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; the Science Gallery Dublin and Eyebeam in New York City. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies by Data & Society, Eyebeam, GASP Public Art Park, New York Public Libraries and the Australia Council for the Arts. She is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media, New York University and works with the Processing Foundation on the Learning to Teach conference series and p5js.

contact: tega.brain@gmail.com