Participating artists:Projektteam: Frederike Moormann, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Angelika Waniek, Tuli Mekondjo, Dieter Daniels, Luka Mukhavele, Gundolf Nandico, Friedrich Lober, Lefteris Krysalis, Listening at Pungwe.
Vortragende: Frederike Moormann
Venue:Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
Horns call. Masts transmit. Satellites flying. This presentation on the (post-)colonial violence of electric telecommunications infrastructures and resistance to it emerged from a transcultural dialogue. Participants addressed issues of making silent documents audible, exposing violence, and retelling the history of technology.
In 1911, the first wireless telegraph link was established between Windhoek (Namibia), Kamina (Togo), and Nauen (Germany). For the first time, wireless telegraphy was "tested" during the war and genocide of the Herero and Nama people[1]. Innovation and exploitation form a cycle: technical innovation enables exploitation, which enables the exploiters to accumulate wealth, which is used to enable technical innovation, which is in turn used to exploit. Horns have been used for long-distance communication for several thousand years. Perhaps the development of electrical telecommunications apparatus was only possible based on knowledge of these ancient means of communication. Today, undersea fiber optic cables run along the 19th century telegraph cable network. Orbiting above the Earth are 10,000 satellites composed of hundreds of different metals and rare rocks mined from mines in various regions of sub-Saharan Africa, among others. What does all this mean for tomorrow's communications infrastructure?
A performative lecture with original sounds and horn music.
[1] The war was triggered, among other things, by the fact that the Germans built a railroad line from Tsumeb (in northern Namibia) to Swakopmund (on the coast) right through their grazing grounds without the consent of the Herero. The railroad line was used to transport copper mined in Tsumeb to Europe. This copper, in turn, was essential for telegraph cables and electrical infrastructure.
