InformationLab

Auke Touwslager and Ursual Lavencic are members of the Amsterdam based collective InformatonLab.  Their Cell Phone Disco installation is a collection of semiconductor diodes, or LEDs, on sheets of plexiglass, forming a surface that visualizes the electromagnetic, or EM, field of an active mobile phone. Several thousand lights illuminate each time a phone call is made or received in the vicinity of the installation. Cell Phone Disco allows the invisible property of radiowaves to become perceptible to our senses.

The cells consist of one or more LEDs, a battery and a sensor that detect electromagnetic radiation transmitted by mobile phones. When the sensor detects EM waves it sets off the LEDs to flash for a couple of seconds.

Cell Phone Disco has two parts:

Mobile Aura: Flashing cells with sensors of higher sensitivity detect EM radiation of an active mobile phone within the range of approximately a meter. A sort of aura then appears around the phone, revealing its once invisible force. While the user moves around talking on his/her phone, this aura follows the conversation as a light shadow through the space.

Mobile Drawing: Less sensitive cells create a canvas for an inkless marker. The LEDs are activated within extreme proximity to the EM source. Moving the phone close to the cells leaves a trace of light, an electromagnetic drawing.

Potentially, mobile phone technology can be used not only to produce individually created works of art, but also for participatory and collaborative works as well.

Temporal Installations