5-Way Sensing Flaneur, Collaboration, Report 2

By Afroditi Psarra, July 21, 2018

The Hilbert space-filling curve at the back of the sweatshirt was like having ears at her back. She was drifting in space, sometimes unaware of the others like nothing else existed; only her and her tuning device, endlessly trying to figure out the best position to eavesdrop in the invisible. Other times gaining full consciousness of the playful and colorful note that she and her fellow collaborators were providing to the other pedestrians. Shocking pink, some soft-circuits, fractal antennas, noise and radio. Maybe in another place all these might have looked extremely normal, but in the specific area of San Francisco maybe they were just another attraction.

There was a definite moment of happiness in the corner of 10th and Market. She was standing across the Twitter HQ and white noise was blasting through her body. Almost feeling the electricity radiating and penetrating her back and spreading to her chest. But it didn’t feel uncomfortable. It felt immersing. Like suddenly she was at one of her favourite noise shows, where after the session she felt cleansed.

Sure, the device could pick-up radio and especially grounded spots like street signs, building walls and street columns, or even trees where very clearly helping the handmade antennas. These were the moments that she cherished with the others. This places were everything was converging, where all of them were tuned in the same channel.