Cities are filled with an invisible landscape of networks that have become an interwoven part of daily life. Intrigued by the fact that Wi-Fi networks are starting to influence how urban environments are experienced and understood, Touch set out to explore just what the immaterial terrain of Wi-Fi looks like.
Touch is a research group investigating Near Field Communication (NFC); a technology that enables connections between mobile phones and physical things. Based in the Institute of Design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway and funded by the Norwegian Research Council, Touch have been developing applications and services that enable people to interact with everyday objects and situations through their mobile devices.
Their latest project explores the invisible terrain of Wi-Fi networks in urban spaces by light painting signal strength in long-exposure photographs. A four-metre tall measuring rod with 80 points of light reveals cross-sections through WiFi networks using a photographic technique called light-painting.Take a look below at Immaterials a light painting film by Timo Arnall, Jørn Knutsen and Einar Sneve Martinussen.
RFID is currently regarded as the replacement for barcodes in logistics and supply chain management. It is also becoming widely used for contact-less ticketing, credit cards, animal tracking and e-passports. But a new set of applications and services are opening up as NFC (a new standard based on RFID) is integrated into mobile phones. Commercial applications for NFC include ticketing, payments and service discovery, where these things can be achieved with a simple ‘touch’ of the mobile device.
Additional photos of the project on Flickr
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