In the past, our world was filled with natural insects. Now, they have been replaced by “electronic insects,” or bits of sound data. In the city, there are numerous opportunities to collect these “electronic insects.”
Remain in Light, by Haruki Nishijima, is a visual representation of ambient analog sound waves captured using an “electronic insect-collecting kit.” The “collector” carries an insect net that functions as an antenna and is attached to a device designed to capture the waves.
Participants walk outside with the net. Through headphones, they can listen to phone conversations, AM radio, taxi drivers’ and police radio communications. A button on the handle allows collectors to record one-second sound bites.
These fragments of analogue information are transmitted to a computer that transforms them into points of light that are then projected onto the exhibition space. Each frequency is represented by a different colour. When visitors enter the space, their presence and movements are detected by sensors. This is how the “electronic insects” are activated, disperse then progressively disappear. Each light source is accompanied by a sound. The installation can be activated on the Internet.
Remain in Light was part of the Touch Me festival in Zagreb, Croatia.
During the exhibition, art group NRD Van broke into local insecure wireless networks, hijacked several printers and fooled them into believing they became alive by printing information about their online habits.
They had chosen completely uprotected wireless networks that the T-Com is installing around in Zagreb with such a hype. These networks provided the group a good example for end user ignorance meeting corporate greed for profit.
Yet two people got hurt… One smashed his printer against the floor and injured his foot in the process, while the other jumped through the window freaked out by the printer that “came to life”.
Leaving apart the anecdote, the BBC News has a compelling interview of the activists ([spectre].)
Images.
Related: Tools for radio wave hunters.