Common Objects / Gewöhnliche Objekte

Abstract

The present intervention is a temporary engagement with the exhibition Curious Communication. Unusual Objects and Stories from the Collection, which stages uncommon objects and rituals pertaining to telecommunication. We seek to complement this perspective with objects that are everyday, yet hidden in the heights of telecommunication masts and towers, such as 4G and 5G antennas, and satellite receptors. Proliferation naturalises them as mundane infrastructure, sometimes even mimicking nature. Antennas are objects that increasingly re-naturalise electromagnetism: engineered to facilitate communication between people, they put to use the disposition of metals to resonate with radio waves, picking up both human-made and natural emissions, and figuring in urban and rural landscapes to secure global interconnectivity.