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Posts Tagged ‘Signals’

Street Light Art: Traffic Signals Emit Surreal Rainbow Streams in Hazy City

10 Jan

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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It’s almost a cliche at this point to highlight the beauty that can be found in everyday items, like that scene in the movie ‘American Beauty’ where Wes Bentley and Thora Birch stare at a plastic bag waving around on a sidewalk like it’s the Mona Lisa. But sometimes, it just can’t be helped. Have you ever gazed at a traffic light and marveled at the accidental art it was producing? You’re about to.

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Being such a humble and unremarkable object, installed at countless intersections in countless cities, the traffic signal is an unlikely subject of the internet’s flighty attentions, but the magic here is really in photographer Lucas Zimmermann’s vision – and in the fog that clings to the town of Weimar, Germany.

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Zimmermann first captured his ‘Traffic Lights’ series on a particularly hazy night, noting that the light streaming from the red, yellow and green lamps was stretching out into rainbows. He wondered how the effect would be enhanced by long-exposure photography, and the results show the streams of light almost seeming to take physical form.

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“I have been waiting for two long years to finally go out again and progress on my traffic lights series,” says Zimmermann. “It was worth the wait.”

The new addition to the series is just as striking as the first, supporting Zimmerman’s belief that photography can show us things we might otherwise overlook, “such as a simple traffic light on the street.”

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[ By SA Rogers in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Bye Bye Big Brother: Airplane Mode House Severs Signals

03 Sep

[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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The curtain of the future might filter out not just light and prying eyes but also electronic signals to give us peace and privacy of another kind. The RAM House by Genoa-based design research collaborative Space Caviar ironically looks a bit like a cage, as if you have to put yourself in time-out in order to escape from all of the texts, emails, app notifications and other distractions of modern life, but the idea of a space with an automatic ‘off switch’ is an intriguing one.

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We’ve reached the point where the gaze of passersby is not nearly so much a privacy concern as the surveillance we’re under inside our own homes with all of the curtains closed, the designers note. “As the space of the home becomes saturated by ‘smart’ devices capable of monitoring their surroundings, the role of the domestic envelope as a shield from an external gaze becomes irrelevant: it is the home that is observing us.”

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“The RAM House responds to this near-future scenario by proposing a space of selective electromagnetic autonomy. Wi-Fi, cellphone and other radio signals are filtered within the space’s core by various movable shields of radar-absorbent material (RAM) and faraday meshing, preventing signals from entering and – more importantly – exiting. Just as a curtain can be drawn to visual expose the domestic interior of a traditional home, panels can be slid open to allow radio waves to enter and exit, when so desired.”

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The house itself is ultra-compact, with cabinet modules on sliding rails offering access to the office, kitchen, library and bathroom functions. When fully collapsed, the cabinets form a solid electronically shielded unit. Once you open them you allow signal traffic to flow.

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It’s kind of frightening to think about just how exposed we are within our supposedly private spaces thanks to technology – convenience comes at a cost, and smart homes learn just about all their is to know about their occupants in order to best serve them. The RAM House is like the proverbial hut in the woods to which we can retire when we want to truly escape, while enabling us to rejoin the modern world at the flip of a switch.

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[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Wi-Fi Visualized: Signals Translated to Ghostly Light Orbs

06 Aug

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Translated into glowing orbs of light with a rainbow of colors representing signal strength, these visualizations of wi-fi signals are like Victorian spirit photography for the modern age. Luis Hernan of Newcastle University makes the invisible not only visible but also vaguely eerie with his project, Digital Ethereal.

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Hernan developed a homemade gadget called a Kirlian Device that, appropriately enough, looks like a piece of ghost hunting equipment. The instrument “scans continuously for wireless networks, and transforms the signal strength to colour LEDs.”

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The effect is captured in a series of long-exposure photographs akin to light painting, the results a mass of swirling colored light showing the movement of the signals across a space.

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In another segment of the Digital Ethereal project, a gallery demonstration of a ‘chandelier’ running on the accompanying Kirlian Device Android App, which “explores the interaction of visitors with Hertzian Space.” Visitors interact with the electromagnetic waves around dangling cell phones, producing different lighting effects on the screens.

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[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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All-in-One Bicycle Helmet: Sleek Integrated Lights & Signals

03 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Bicyclists need this. Incredible design is not just about looking good (which this does) or working well (which this does), but weaving the solution so that each seems the natural outcome of the other.

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With a headlight on the front, break light on the back, and two swooping turn signals on the sides, this streamlined helmet (the result of numerous design iterations) puts signalling up high for maximum visibility and uses universally recognizable symbols and colors for clear communication.

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Balázs Filczer created this award-winning (IBDC 2013 – International Bicycle Design Competition) design with both style and everyday usability in mind. A Bluetooth handlebar controller lets the rider signal changes as simply and easily as possible. Rechargeable batteries slide into and pop out of the top for easy charging. And the four built-in lights are not just classy (helpful in promoting actual adoption) but useful as well.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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