12-14 June 2020/ online
How to build a sick timer switch with a cool retro watch (a media archaeology of Ramzi Yousef's 1993 Casio-nitro bomb trigger)
Dani Ploeger is an artist and cultural critic who combines technological objects, video, software and performance to explore situations of conflict and crisis on the fringes of the world of high-tech consumerism. His work has been shown at transmediale, ZKM Center for Culture and Media, WRO Media Art Biennale, Het Nieuwe Instituut (The New Institute), V&A Museum and many other places. He holds a PhD from the University of Sussex, UK, and is currently a Research Fellow at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and Artistic Researcher at Leiden University. He works in London and Flushing (Vlissingen, NL).
"Trigger"
(interactive installation;
live video stream / phone dial-in)
'Trigger' is a work-in-progress that reprocesses documents and artefacts related to terrorist Ramzi Yousef's so-called 'signature' Casio-nitro bomb trigger from the early 1990s, which involves a C106D thyristor connected to a digital Casio watch. The principle of his design has subsequently been used to create mobile phone bombs, which are still among the most frequently used Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) today. Currently, I am extrapolating Yousef's design into different directions: the electronics-based bomb trigger as devotional, quasi-religious artefact; IED design as Hollywood-esque spectacle; the improvised bomb as gangster bling fetish object. By pushing the perverse nature of the technologies of terrorism into the seemingly disconnected realms of consumer spectacle and religious devotion I am trying to provoke new insights into the ways imaginaries of the high-tech, progress and innovation, commonly associated with digital consumer culture in the so-called 'West', are at times intertwined with cultural paradigms that might seem diametrically opposed to this.
The live video stream shows several artefacts in my studio in Flushing (Vlissingen) in the Netherlands. One of them is equipped with a mobile phone trigger system based on Yousef's design. You may dial the phone number.
"Media archaeology of Improvised
Explosive Devices (IEDs)"
(open discussion)
In this moderated situation I would like to invite you to examine, reflect on, and brainstorm about an electronic bomb trigger design made by Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Yousef in the 1990s. This situation is connected to the inclusive situation 'Trigger,' which will take place continuously from 16:00 until midnight on Saturday. Ramzi Yousef was one of the perpetrators of the 1993 WTC bombing in NYC and has been imprisoned in the US since 1995. This small scale investigation of Yousef's activities during the Shelter Festival will be a pilot study of sorts for a broader media archaeological investigation into a topic that has thus far remained unexplored in the discipline: the design and construction of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) using reappropriated and hacked digital consumer technologies. Through archival investigation and practice-based inquiry, the project will trace the material and cultural development of IEDs since the emergence of digital methods in the 1980s.
IEDs from the Middle Ages until the present have been examined in existing research in conflict studies (e.g. James Revill's study of IED histories from 2016). However, this research has hardly engaged with the creation processes of electronics-based IEDs and has not considered how these are connected to the ways digital devices are perceived and used in the context of media culture. Research in media archaeology has thus far largely been confined to western consumer contexts and has not examined the making-practices of these informal technologies of conflict.
My project will respond to this gap through a series of case studies on prominent types of electronics-based IED from the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s. IED designs and associated contextual materials will be retrieved from archives. They will subsequently be reappropriated and experimented with, drawing from the method that Garnet Hertz and Jussi Parikka call 'zombie media.' However, unlike Parikka and Hertz, this project does not focus on obsolete or discarded devices as 'dead' media. Instead, the IED technologies examined in this project are considered 'dead' because of their violent and destructive intended purpose. These dead devices will be developed into 'pseudo-historical objects from a speculative future.' (Hertz and Parikka, 2012). Thus, non-violent 'zombie media' will be created. Here, the figure of the zombie acts as a positive character that gives life, akin to the protagonist in Bruce LaBruce's pornographic film LA Zombie, who brings people back to life by penetrating their wounds.
In the context of 'really useful knowedge,' this moderated situation will focus on discussing ways to creatively re-appropriate the technical and media cultural aspects of Yousef's Casio-nitro bomb trigger design for non-violent purposes. In addition, I would be interested to discuss the ethical aspects of investigating violent and disturbing phenomena through artistic and media theoretical methods.
(interactive installation;
live video stream / phone dial-in)
'Trigger' is a work-in-progress that reprocesses documents and artefacts related to terrorist Ramzi Yousef's so-called 'signature' Casio-nitro bomb trigger from the early 1990s, which involves a C106D thyristor connected to a digital Casio watch. The principle of his design has subsequently been used to create mobile phone bombs, which are still among the most frequently used Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) today. Currently, I am extrapolating Yousef's design into different directions: the electronics-based bomb trigger as devotional, quasi-religious artefact; IED design as Hollywood-esque spectacle; the improvised bomb as gangster bling fetish object. By pushing the perverse nature of the technologies of terrorism into the seemingly disconnected realms of consumer spectacle and religious devotion I am trying to provoke new insights into the ways imaginaries of the high-tech, progress and innovation, commonly associated with digital consumer culture in the so-called 'West', are at times intertwined with cultural paradigms that might seem diametrically opposed to this.
The live video stream shows several artefacts in my studio in Flushing (Vlissingen) in the Netherlands. One of them is equipped with a mobile phone trigger system based on Yousef's design. You may dial the phone number.
"Media archaeology of Improvised
Explosive Devices (IEDs)"
(open discussion)
In this moderated situation I would like to invite you to examine, reflect on, and brainstorm about an electronic bomb trigger design made by Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Yousef in the 1990s. This situation is connected to the inclusive situation 'Trigger,' which will take place continuously from 16:00 until midnight on Saturday. Ramzi Yousef was one of the perpetrators of the 1993 WTC bombing in NYC and has been imprisoned in the US since 1995. This small scale investigation of Yousef's activities during the Shelter Festival will be a pilot study of sorts for a broader media archaeological investigation into a topic that has thus far remained unexplored in the discipline: the design and construction of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) using reappropriated and hacked digital consumer technologies. Through archival investigation and practice-based inquiry, the project will trace the material and cultural development of IEDs since the emergence of digital methods in the 1980s.
IEDs from the Middle Ages until the present have been examined in existing research in conflict studies (e.g. James Revill's study of IED histories from 2016). However, this research has hardly engaged with the creation processes of electronics-based IEDs and has not considered how these are connected to the ways digital devices are perceived and used in the context of media culture. Research in media archaeology has thus far largely been confined to western consumer contexts and has not examined the making-practices of these informal technologies of conflict.
My project will respond to this gap through a series of case studies on prominent types of electronics-based IED from the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s. IED designs and associated contextual materials will be retrieved from archives. They will subsequently be reappropriated and experimented with, drawing from the method that Garnet Hertz and Jussi Parikka call 'zombie media.' However, unlike Parikka and Hertz, this project does not focus on obsolete or discarded devices as 'dead' media. Instead, the IED technologies examined in this project are considered 'dead' because of their violent and destructive intended purpose. These dead devices will be developed into 'pseudo-historical objects from a speculative future.' (Hertz and Parikka, 2012). Thus, non-violent 'zombie media' will be created. Here, the figure of the zombie acts as a positive character that gives life, akin to the protagonist in Bruce LaBruce's pornographic film LA Zombie, who brings people back to life by penetrating their wounds.
In the context of 'really useful knowedge,' this moderated situation will focus on discussing ways to creatively re-appropriate the technical and media cultural aspects of Yousef's Casio-nitro bomb trigger design for non-violent purposes. In addition, I would be interested to discuss the ethical aspects of investigating violent and disturbing phenomena through artistic and media theoretical methods.
Ramzi Yousef's Casio-nitro bomb trigger.
Photo: Philippines National Police
Photo: Philippines National Police
Instructions and the phone number will be visible in the live stream
Interactive installation "Trigger"
June 13, 16:00 - 00:00 (CEST)
June 13, 16:00 - 00:00 (CEST)
Open Discussion
June 13, 19:30 (CEST)
June 13, 19:30 (CEST)
*For the Zoom meeting, please, keep your audio/ video mute. Use the applicable pronoun and a real/ nick name in the Zoom profile (e.g. Newton's Binomial/ they). If you want to ask a question - let us know in the Zoom chat, we will switch your cam and mike. Meeting ID: 875 4860 0981
Password: 486677
Password: 486677
