Der Bahnhofsgeist: explorations on the psychogeography of the electromagnetic space

Abstract

This short essay discusses the acknowledgement of the Urban electromagnetic space as an acoustic territory and its potentialities for musical creation. Departing from ideas borrowed from Critical Design and Psychogeography, the project attempts to create a temporary zone of “electromagnetic drift”, by appropriating the auditory territory of Bremen’s Central Railway Station using a simple circuit that detects and amplifies GSM cellphone signals, and re-contextualizing them into busker-like musical micro-performances. These experiments aim to broaden the current acknowledgement of the ether as an “inhabited” territory. Its goal is as well to call the city dweller to perceive herself as an intrinsic part of it, as well as to question and engage herself onto the ongoing discussions about the Hertzian Space and its concerns with pervasiveness, surveillance and privacy.