WaveForm
WaveForm is a sculptural and audio-visual environment that reacts to the high frequency electromagnetic radiation emitted from wireless technologies such as cell phones, WiFi routers, and AM/FM radio. Its purpose is to encourage awareness of the immersive and material nature of the electromagnetic weather created by our wireless communication devices.
The installation makes use of software programmed in Max/MSP to perform FFT analysis and scaling on incoming signals from six hand-made high frequency radio receivers. The scaled and analyzed signals are then fed to the modulation frequencies of six FM synth modules in the software. The resulting frequencies are output through a six-channel interface and an array of six speakers on top of which rests a transparent tray of water. The tones from the Max patch form cymatic patterns in the water which are then projected as a shadowgraph on the wall of the gallery. The viewer may interact with the receivers directly using their cellphones or Bluetooth devices, or view the piece passively as it reacts to stray electromagnetc weather in the environment.
Photos from the build can be found here.
