Open Lab [Ørsted ]

[Ørsted ]

by

Riccardo Martorana and Jonathan Hielkema

Incipit

Do your actions really determine the future? Then, why the future is unpredictable?

Every second of our life we unconsciously interact with portions of reality that we are not able to perceive. We continuously trigger sequences of events between elements that we can't see, hear or touch. We are perpetually surrounded by imperceptible events and we interact with them.

Every electronic device or electric tool produces an electromagnetic field around itself, waves and waves permanently surround us, despite we don’t perceive their presence. How do we interact with them? Did they change over the years according to the evolution of our devices? Is it meaningful to talk about electromagnetic pollution?

The installation

In the first section three televisions with headphones playing three short videos are arranged. In the clips It's possible to listen and compare the sounds produced by the electromagnetic fields around three different working mobile phones from the years: 1991 (Nokia), 2001 (Nokia) and 2011 (Samsung).

In the second section it is possible to directly analyze the own personal mobile phone and listen the electromagnetic fields around it while carrying on common activities, such as switching on connections, sending SMS, or take a picture.  The system is composed by a pair of headphones and a DIY circuit based on the open-source project Elektrosluch.