Sculpture to show Wi-Fi traffic as sound and colors

[Dominus Atheos]

MUNCIE -- Art will meet the digital age when Ball State University unveils a sculpture next week that aims to capture traffic on the university's wireless network.

Beginning Tuesday night at 8 p.m., as people log onto the Internet via Ball State's network, their online activity will appear as sound, color, patterns and images projected onto giant screens set up around the base of Shafer Tower, located in the middle of campus on McKinley Avenue.

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The creative endeavor will highlight Ball State's recent ranking by Intel Corp. as this year's top wireless college campus. Wireless technology, often known as WiFi, allows users to access the Internet with a wireless card -- often built into the computer -- that eliminates the need for cables or wires to connect online.

John Fillwalk, professor of electronic art, expects the sculpture to take on a life of its own, depending on the amount of traffic on the 15 wireless zones on campus.

"Part of what we hope to accomplish with the sculpture is to help people see a wireless network as a physical thing," Fillwalk said. "When people think of this form of technology, it usually doesn't bring to mind something that is tangible."

Fillwalk came up with the sculpture's concept with help from music technology professors Keith Kothman and Jessie Allison. Creating the piece of public art has taken months and required the assistance of University Computing Services, Kothman said. The project is sponsored by the Center for Media Design.

"There's a lot that's gone into the planning process," said Kothman, whose focus on the project has been sonic design.

The bell tower's bells will be incorporated as part of the sculpture's electronically generated sounds, he said.

Because the sculpture will have its own wireless access points, viewers who use wireless devices at the base of the bell tower will have a better idea of how the computers behind the screens pick up user traffic.

"If they've got a laptop or a wireless PDA on, they're going to see their own device come up as a blip of light on the screens," Fillwalk said.

The innovation behind the project is part of the university's new Institute for Digital Intermedia and Fillwalk said a more permanent digital art display is set to go up inside the Atrium of the Art and Journalism Building.

Kothman said he hopes the public enjoys the sculpture. "It should make everyone's surroundings more interesting because that's the purpose of public art," he said. "To exist and engage the people who are passing by."

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[Surlethe]

I'm fairly certain I skimmed through that article this morning, but it was early, and I had to go to a service project cleaning up trash shit-litterers have tossed all over the side of the road. This looks cool. I'm going to have to check it out sometime this week, and I might be able to post some pictures.

Ball State requires all undergraduate teaching majors to have laptops with wireless, and I'm fairly certain all the computers in the library (which is just across from the Shafer Tower) are also wireless, so it certainly won't be dull.