max/msp, processing, kismac

 

This project grafts audible images of an environment’s wifi-atmosphere on top of one’s visual perception of otherwise natural and neutral spaces. The timbre of each space thus reveals its relative safety in terms of the amount of networks present, their interference with each other and our subsequent vulnerability to them.

In an age where the contemporary citizen can be better defined by their data than their physical bodies, judging space by its ability to connect, we are more present in this other networked atmosphere than the material world and should thus be more aware of our presence and surroundings in that space as well. As such, a part of us is more safe in the middle of a large boulevard or on train tracks rather than in an urban square or on the sidewalk. By being able to hear what’s around us, we are better able to judge the spaces we are in and understand them in these terms, changing the notion of what a “safe” space really is.

 

These are audible images of this other space, the other part of our cities.