Wavematters: Attending to the Spectral—Bodies, Cities, Devices

And yet people lack a language to describe how these waves affect them, even when they become matters of concern: as radiating heat that makes life unbearable, as wireless signals that enable dystopian futures, or as environmental noise and artificial light that take their toll on human and non-human health.

At the same time, people are surrounded by ‘wave matters’: speed bumps that dampen traffic noise; rooftop antennas that transmit 5G signals; curtains, clothing, trees and innovative surfaces that block, reflect or refract radiant heat. Yet the connection between waves and things is neither simple nor stable. Waves throw bodies, cities and devices into disarray—their effects are vague, difficult to put into words, and almost impossible to trace. Situated between physics and politics, they are not merely part of the spectrum; they are also spectral.

This exhibition explores how waves become objects. It invites visitors to experience the spectral in three ways. Sensory, it plays with the thresholds of perceptibility through works created in collaboration with participating artists.

Narratively, the exhibition revisits controversial scientific theories that challenge established notions of the human body and the boundaries between the senses. Ethnographically, it presents objects that relate to waves in different ways and tell stories of how people and cities deal with waves in everyday life.

WHAT TO EXPECT

At the heart of the exhibition is the Wave Cabinet, a multimodal device that displays wave-like objects collected by the WAVEMATTERS team during their fieldwork. Within the exhibition space, these objects are each placed in relation to their own context. They illustrate how waves are materialised and problematised in cities. These stories deal with prickly plants that regulate recreational noise in Barcelona, court cases in the UK that become sites of protest against 5G, fashion trends in Japan designed to help people adapt to the heat, and insects that are shielded from light.

Five artistic approaches invite viewers to focus their attention and senses on these ubiquitous yet often unnoticed waves:

In a video installation, Amor Schumacher and Summer Banks present fragments of conversations in which heat disrupts everyday human life in various ways.

Sound artist Mathias Klenner transmits the background noise of a square in Barcelona into the main exhibition space. In a second work, he makes the elusive thresholds between the perception of sound and vibration tangible within a walk-in display case.

Merche Blasco invites visitors to walk through the TA-T building with specially crafted electromagnetic instruments to hear its electromagnetic hum.

Jeremy Knowles transports the audience to the perspective of a pond in Görlitzer Park at night, when it is disturbed by artificial light.

ooooo, a techno-feminist, transuniversal constellation, challenges conventional notions of bodies and how they relate to electric fields via various types of antennas.

Two interactive wall installations reconstruct controversial scientific theories concerning the sense of vibration and the body’s bioelectricity. They document the search for a sixth sense – vibration – and the idea of a body shaped by electrical currents.

EVENTS

Sound artist Merche Blasco will perform on 10 November 2026 at 8 pm as part of Berlin Science Week 2026.

• Guided tours led by members of the Wavematters team on 10 November 2026, 8 December 2026 and 12 January 2027.

CONTRIBUTORS

• Curators: Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros & Ignacio Farías (IfEE, HU Berlin)
• Curatorial support: Felix Sattler & Paz Ponce (TA T)
• Ethnographers: Brett Mommersteeg, Nona Schulte-Römer, Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros, Ignacio Farías/Albert Arias, Elisabeth Luggauer & Margherita Tess (IfEE, HU Berlin)
• Historical research: Brett Mommersteeg (IfEE, HU Berlin)
• Exhibition design and production: Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros & Ignacio Rivas
• Graphic design: Studio Gretzinger
• Production and installation: Ignacio Rivas, Fanny Welz, Eisenholz, Schellenberg, Mark Stroemich, Andras Breuer & Sami Ben Larbi
• Multimedia design and installation: Mariano Rosales (Die Luftfabrik)
• Artists: Summer Banks/Amor Schumacher, Merche Blasco, Mathias Klenner, Jeremy Knowles & ooooo

Funded by the European Research Council (ERC)

Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices is the result of a five-year ERC Consolidator Grant led by Ignacio Farías at the Institute for European Ethnology at Humboldt University in Berlin.