LiminalSpaces

Ligna
Based in Hamburg. The free art group LIGNA consists of the media
theorists and radio artists Ole Frahm, Michael H?ners and Torsten
Michelsen, working in the broadcast station Freies Sender Kombinat, a
free, non-commercial, local radio station in Hamburg. Broadcasts of
LIGNA?s Music Box started in 1995; they transformed different spaces by
setting up sound installations. Since 1999, LIGNA has examined the
meaning of dispersion in and of radio, relating to forgotten or isolated
utilizations of this medium to developing new practices. LIGNA has put
on performative radio plays, in which on-site broadcasts influencethe
process. Since 2002, LIGNA is developing concepts of how radio can
intervene in public and often controlled spaces, so that their public
reappears as uncontrollable situation.
ligna@fsk-hh.org

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Ligna
Icons of Palestine
A find. During our stay in Ramallah, we found an interesting device of
knowledge ? a collection of sticker sheets that functioned as an
introduction of sorts to the Arab world. Each sheet contained fifteen
numbered stickers consisting of a small icon and one or two words of
explanation. Some stickers depicted different plants and sites; others
were about the weather, various countries and oceans. The quality of the
printing was rather poor, and the text and image did not always match.
These stickers were designed for school children: when one of the topics
they describe is discussed in class, the children are supposed to take out
the appropriate sticker and paste it into their workbook as an illustration.
We were fascinated by this way of gaining knowledge about the world,
and by the system through which this knowledge is distributed.
A medium. These sticker sheets may seem on one level like a simple
medium for disseminating a certain type of knowledge. Nevertheless, we
were struck by the obsolete manner in which the stickers produce an
image of the world and transmit practical knowledge. Due to the limited
number of stickers, numerous subjects obviously remain un addressed,
and this restriction in itself seems interesting to us. At the same time, the
stickers constitute a rather complex medium: each sheet contains five
rows of three images, which might, for instance, tell a story about a certain
type of food (detailing the stages of its evolution from a seed to a cooked
dish presented on a plate). The reception of the image is further
complicated by the accompanying text, which does not always fit the
image in an exact manner. Text and image may thus entertain ambivalent
relations, producing a constellation that is not easily decipherable.
Icons. What does our own knowledge about Palestine consist of? During
our sojourn in Ramallah and Qalandia, we realized that we do not know
very much, and that what we do know is a product of the media discourse
on Palestine. The political and social situation we encountered was quite
different from our preconceptions,and worse than we expected in nearly
every regard. Our initial perceptions had been further distorted by the
many icons of the Palestinian struggle that dominate the German
discourse. We had no un mediated perception of Palestine or of the
conflict. These constellations of icons and texts thus called into question
our own secure knowledge.