This project came about as a design discourse on digital technologies, and the invisible infrastructure underpinning it.

I believe our interaction with this landscape of electromagnetic signals, described by Antony Dunne as Hertzian Space, can be characterised in the same terms as that with ghosts and spectra.

They both are paradoxical entities, whose untypical substance allows them to be an invisible presence. In the same way, they undergo a process of gradual substantiation to become temporarily available to perception.

Finally, they both haunt us. Ghosts, as Derrida would have it, with the secrets of past generations. Hertzian space, with the frustration of interference and slowness.

from on .

Confused? The site unfortunately is heavier on flowery metaphor than details, but the core idea is actually really fantastic.

Essentially, Hernan constructed a method for turning the wireless signals that are constantly around us into colorful ghostlike spectres using long-exposure photography and a custom-built device that translates WiFi signal strength into color.

Via Digital Ethereal.