Wireless Fidelity
After reading in this paper that it’s possible to "harvest" electricity from wifi signals using metamaterials (split-ring resonators to be precise), I came up with an interesting way to use this recently discovered phenomenon.
I want to build 100 tone generators whereby the amplitude of the sound emitted is determined by the power harvested from wifi signals, and place them evenly about a space. This would be with the intention of making wifi’s radio waves - the invisible, and incredibly pervasive technological “residue” - and their fluctuations and location- determined variations into something sonically perceivable.
People frequently talk about the "virtual world" as if it is separate from their own reality. While philosophically I disagree with this, as I feel that the words on the screen of my computer as I type this exist in my perceivable reality, so why is a YouTube video, or the character that one inevitably creates when confronted with a troll on Reddit considered a part of a separate reality. I also disagree with this on a scientific level to the effect that I will make others come to realize when hearing the results of wifi's radio waves conversion into electricity.
I hope to work towards getting it installed in public spaces beyond New York City. Work also on utilizing the energy harvesting abilities of the devices to pick up and make audible other types of radio waves at different frequencies.