signal tree
2017-2018
 
Sound Research, Installation
@Gwangju Media Art Festival
 
 

 

Signal Trees.
They are not hard to find anywhere people gather, from busy city centers to quiet country villages and
subway stations. They are the relay towers for telecommunications, the main routes traveled by signals
on the information superhighway. AS our gaze unthinkingly settles on these Signal Trees, perched like
crowns atop high rise building, we experience before them the fundamental solitude of the human condition
_ utter disconnect, the inability to ‘link in ‘ with their conversations. As a media installation work,
signal Trees uses electromagnetic wave pickup to overhear the devices’ electronic communication, trying
its best to guess at the words in microsecond units.

 

 

 

Video Collaboration | Ueta Jiro

 
 

cellular antennas, pickup devices created to eavesdrop on signal carriers
Manufactured by winding copper wire of various thicknesses

 
 

 

 
 

 

High-gain antennas, LoRa signal repeaters, power supplies, LTE amplifiers, thermal dissipation devices, and so forth—the signal handlers and machinery are comprised of a diverse array of equipment.
We collected the distinct sounds (inaudible to our ears) and mixed them together.

 
 

 
 

 

At the very top sits the high-gain transmitter, positioned at the highest point to broadcast mobile signals in all directions… There’s even a magpie’s nest up there.