Nam June Paik is known for manipulating a TV set with a magnet. One might think that after we abandoned monitor tubes, the combination of TV and magnetism must be gone as well. But similar techniques are still possible today by manipulating the monitor signal.
The fact that VGA is a signal based on electric current allows for hacking. One can manipulate it with coils and magnetic fields. The signal being similar to sound signals makes for an easy transfer to sound and vice versa. Signal transfer is often a forgotten and invisible part of technologies, and easily imagined just as a virtual flow of information. Every kind of data has to move from one device to another in a physical form, as electrons, photons, waveforms. That allows us to interfere with the signal flow.
In the workshop we will unmap the VGA signal of a computer. We learn the basics about the VGA and how to manipulate, mix and sonify the signal. Every participant makes a modified VGA cable that allows them to manipulate the signal in between two devices.