March 8, 2011 - Here's a project that explores
and maps the topology of wifi signals. Using a 4-meter long
rod whose LED-driven glow correlates with signal strength, the
artist creates long exposure photographs showing Tron-esque light
walls that traverse across the landscape. These trajectories
map the network of information-rich electromagnetic signals that
increasingly permeate our urban areas.
http://yourban.no/2011/02/22/immaterials-light-painting-wifi/
http://www.nearfield.org/2011/02/wifi-light-painting
These photos and videos show how our world is permeated by
electromagnetic signals that are invisible to our normal senses,
but can be probed by appropriate electronic detectors.
Similarly astronomers learn far more about the Universe if they
observe in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and not just
the visible (and geoscientists do the same when studying the
Earth). When Earth and space-bound telescopes survey the sky
at other wavelengths, we are in essence mapping the universe in the
same way as the wifi artists, but in many more dimensions.
The sky as seen in the microwave
part of the electromagnetic spectrum by the Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). The structure shows tiny temperature
fluctuations of 1 part in 100,000 in the radiation that existed in
the Universe 400,000 years after the Big Bang.
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