Open Hertzlab: Letters To Mars

An open lab on protocols, latency, and the rituals of interplanetary contact with the artist Che-Wei Wang.

The distance between Earth and Mars is between three and 22 light-minutes. Every message is delayed, every reply is slow in coming. Communication becomes a ritual: sending, waiting, receiving.

But what happens when delay, failure, or uncertainty are not seen as problems, but as conditions for exchange? What forms of closeness, trust, and attention emerge when immediate communication is impossible? How will great distances and long communication delays shape the way we connect with one another?

At Open Hertzlab, we jointly develop protocols and design prototypes for communication stations based on interplanetary conditions: delay, asymmetry, uncertainty, failure, distortion, and absence.

You are cordially invited. Just drop by!

Meeting point: 2nd floor via atrium 9 – access via the exhibitions

https://zkm.de/de/2026/07/open-hertzlab-letters-to-mars