Marko Peljhan
«makrolab»

Marko Peljhan's Makrolab project was first presented to the public at the documenta X. A laboratory based on the model of the Russian MIR station is used to tap communications data streams emanating from anything from police radio to satellite telephones. This arouses in equal measure the suspicion of official bodies and the curiosity of professional surveillance institutions. However, the means employed are strictly legal, thus providing further evidence of the vulnerability of allegedly impregnable telecommunications networks. In view of the degree of permanent data mining revealed by the publications regarding the US Echelon System, this topic is now more acute than ever.

For the duration of the documenta X, the Makrolab was sited not in Kassel but some kilometres outside the city, in a countryside location that attracted few visitors. When the exhibition closed, the mobile laboratory embarked on a world tour. The first stop was Rottnest Island off the Australian coast. Precisely such a location – non-urban and far removed from any city-typical data smog – is ideal for a bird's-eye view of the topography of the signals circulating between the centres. From the urban to the orbital – that is the radius of the new perceptual horizon opened up by this project.

DD