Long Exposures Capture WiFi Signals as Eerie Patterns of Color

Digital Etheral is a multi-media project in which designer Luis Hernan explores human interactions with electromagnetic signals like WiFi, and attempts to create a visible representation of this wireless technology that surrounds us every day.

As part of the project, the artist developed The Kirlian Device mobile, an app that translates WiFi signals into a five-color heatmap scheme where red means stronger signals and blue means weaker signals. Using that app, he created this vibrantly stunning series of performance art, entitled Spirit Photographs. To capture each mesmerizing photo, Hernan asked subjects to wave a cell phone throughout the air as the colors from the app changed on the face of the phone. He relied on long exposures to document the movement throughout the space in one still image.

The final photographs feature rainbows of color that surround ghostly forms in an energetic pattern of light. The images have an eerie feel to them as ghostly forms in the center slowly reveal themselves to the viewer. “The fact we are becoming increasingly reliant on something that we can't see intrigues me. I wanted to find a way to show the wireless which is around us and also to show how it changes,” explains Hernan.

Luis Hernan's website
Digital Ethereal website
via [Laughing Squid]

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