Wayfinding re/dicto

Alvan Lucier’s score, I Am Sitting in a Room (1969), provokes the architectural surround into a Janus-faced prosthesis, de dicto/de re (about the said and the sensed), as well as in locus sin quo (but if there is, where?). In order to arrive at the creative work made possible by the edited collection, this chapter uses Lucier’s score and acts as a locus sin quo to consider three ongoing laboratory projects, each using off-the-shelf hardware to reengineer the poetic imaginaries of surveillance, control, spatial practice, and speculative design. My first case is DIY’s laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) into covertly sensing human signature and event detection by operationalizing the resonant/sonorous surround. My second case directly exploits the same sensorium to instead hunt untapped perceptual modalities for feeling and navigating invisible space. My third case is the “Transborder Immigrant Tool” (TBT), a global positioning satellite (GPS) hack by “artivist” collective Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT)/b.a.n.g. lab for assisting immigrants navigating and crossing the Mexico/US border. Rather than suggesting a solution therein, the chapter appropriates the challenge as a creative bead both on Foucault’s idea of counter-conduct and back to Lucier(’s) sitting in a room.