Immaterial: Converting WiFi Strength To Urban Photography

There is a new art form emerging, and it has everything to do with technology. Previously we were used to art being created using brushes, pencils and paint, but that landscape is changing. The new way of creating art involves using lights and stop motion capturing. It isn’t so much about animating what you create, but rather using a light and taking a picture of it with a long exposure time. Furthermore, people have started experimenting with the ways technology is captured in an image, and there have been many ideas about that. It’s inspiring to see that with concept technology and some imagination combined, you can create quite a visual experience that will rival almost anything that you can capture with a camera.

Immaterial is a brilliant example of that, and it reaches far beyond the limits of radio waves and Internet connectivity. Until now, we haven’t been able to see the strength of a WiFi signal, but with this new project created by Timo, we will be able to see exactly what’s going on with the WiFi signal.

The Immaterial project is basically a rod with a bunch of lights and a custom made receiver that shows the strength of any WiFi signal with the lights on the rod. The stronger the signal, the more lights light up on the rod. By catching each position on a photo and then combining them, you get a thread of different numbers of lights lighting up, which then creates peaks and valleys in brilliant and inspiring technology photography. It’s one of the most creative ways to portray wifi signals in photography I have seen to date.