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WiFio is a radio which tunes through the internet.
Wifio will manifest as a hardware device which allows users to 'tune'
through the electromagnetic spectrum 'listening' to internet traffic.
Wifio will make internet data transmitted via wireless systems audible,
using text to speech synthesis.
Wifio will behave like an ordinary transistor radio, but instead of
picking up radio stations, it will detect internet data, transmitted via
wireless systems. This internet traffic will be made audible, using text
to speech synthesis, allowing users to 'listen to the internet'.
Wifio is related to a police scanner or wireless 'sniffer' technology. It
will scan the airwaves looking for information, and present the
information back to the user, in sound.
Background
Wifio draws attention to the connections between wireless internet
technology, and free radio and micro-radio. It shows how wireless
technology using the radio band is an extension of radio, technically and
conceptually. It uses the process of sonification to examine the kind of
data which is being transmitted using wireless internet protocols. It will
uncover the sonic character of the 2.3 GHz part of the spectrum, revealing
tantalising fragments of information, as it moves through the airwaves.
My work has always been about hybridizing the internet and FM radio.
Perhaps the most pertinent example of this is in the r a d i o q u a l i a
project The Frequency Clock . This not only required the construction of
hardware systems, which will also be necessary in the Wifio development,
but also the creation of a comprehensive software system. Being the
central developer on The Frequency Clock software gave me valuable
insights into how software can be used to manage sound data and network
data.
My work has often used sonification as a way of making technical processes
easier to understand. Sound can often be a highly effective way of
aesthetically and conceptually representing data, and in this way also
shows the role sound can play in depicting data flows.
r a d i o q u a l i a's Free Radio
Linux, for example, was an online and on-air radio station, which
distributed the of the Linux source code in audio. The sound transmission
consisted of a computerized reading of the code used to create the
operating system, Linux. Free Radio Linux made audible what is usually
silent and hidden, and took Linux into the previously uncharted sonic
realm. Wifio builds on the ideas represented in Free Radio Linux, this
time making audible network traffic, rather than source code.
In my past work, I have also tried to illustrate the connection between
wireless internet systems and traditional radio systems. fm.thing.net, for
example, was an experiment in enabling mobile devices and laptops to
receive internet streams from WiFi networks.
This work was responding to the upsurge in wireless internet using the
radio band, which catalysed new mobile social networks in cities all over
the world. UK groups such as Consume and Free2Air were acting as hubs for
research and data-sharing regarding methods to distribute wireless
connectivity for cultural and not-for-profit use. The focus of these
groups is on 'localising' the global medium of the internet, connecting
neighbourhoods together in local area networks, using hundreds of radio
antenna and wireless hubs. These networks are driven by a Brechtian ideal
to 'mobilise the user and redraft him/her as a producer'. What we wanted
to do with fm.thing.net and related work drew out connections between
these kinds of new social networks emerging around wireless internet
activities, and social networks which have historically developed around
free radio and micro-radio. And key to all of this was to untether the
computer.
Wifio builds on this research, attempting to create a simple object which
powerfully illuminates the connection between wireless internet and radio.
Wifio will illustrate that accessing wireless internet data is as easy as
tuning a radio dial. Radio and wireless internet are, in fact, the same
thing.
Wifio also asks questions about the open nature of the 802.11. Wireless
internet transforms the user into a broadcaster. If everyone is a
broadcaster, then what are 802.11 sniffers : tuners or spyware?
Adam Hyde is a musician, developer and format artist working at the
convergence of broadcasting and Internet technologies. Adam has a
background in television and radio in New Zealand, where he founded the
b.net radio network and Static Television, New Zealand's first community
television station. Together with Honor Harger, he is one of the founders
of r a d i o q u a l i a. He relocated to Europe in 1999, and has worked
as a producer and manager at the internet service provider, XS4ALL in
Amsterdam between 1999 and 2003. Whilst in Amsterdam, he co-founded
HelpB92 and Open Channels for Kosovo, which assisted independent media in
the former Yugoslavia. He was also the initiator of Net Congestion: the
International Festival of Streaming Media, held in Amsterdam in October
2000, and a co-founder of the Open Source Streaming Alliance, an
initiative that has established several internationally distributed,
streaming media servers for arts and cultural use. Under the name 'eset',
Adam works as a software artist and musician and has designed and built
several applications including the Theory Machine and the Frequency Clock.
His performances as an electronic musician have incorporated live software
development as an integral and demonstrative part of the performance.
radioqualia@va.com.au
adam (at) xs4all.nl
selected projects
http://www.xs4all.nl/~adam
the streaming suitcase
http://www.streamingsuitcase.com
r a d i o q u a l i a
http://www.radioqualia.net
member of the Multimedia Institute, Zagreb
Aleksandar Erkalovic - member of Multimedia Institute lab (mi2 media lab)
- is responsible for programing and maintaining source of TamTam and for
seting up TamTam servers. TamTam is online collaboration tool based on
original Ward Cunningham's wiki web concept.
Erkalovic is well experienced C, Python programmer and advanced Linux user.
http://24.72.34.35/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=wifio_working_page
http://www.itchybit.org
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This project has been carried out with the support of the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union. The content of this project does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Community, nor does it involve any responsibility on the part of the European Community. |
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