
If you were asked what WiFi looks like, you’d probably be tempted to say “nothing.” Well, you’d be right for the most part. Just because WiFi is a radio wave signal doesn’t mean you can’t create a visual representation of it. That’s just what Austrian artist and architect Peter Jellitsch has done in a new art project.
Jellitsch’s new installation is called Bleecker Street Documents, named after the apartment building where he acquired his dataset. You see, Jellitsch spent 45 days in a New York apartment last year and took careful measurements of the WiFi signal strength in the building on a daily basis. He ended up with hundreds of painstakingly transcribed data points.
What he did with those numbers is the really cool bit. Jellitsch created a physical model based on the signal readings with each data point chronologically plotted with signal strength. Higher numbers jut upward, and lower values stay flat.
The resulting sculpture is essentially a visualization of signal strength over time an angular mountain range of WiFi numerology, if you will. The final version was milled on a CNC machine and affixed to a shipping pallet for exhibition. The installation has the sculpture, of course, but also some of Jellitsch’s original data and general info on WiFi signals and radio waves.