Electromagnetic Spectrum

An interactive visualization of the Radio Spectrum, and a database of artistic and social interventions that have been developed in the last decades that employ radio technologies. Projects are catalogued according to the frequencies they occupy.

AES was designed and developed by Bestiario with Irma Vila and Jose Luis de Vicente for the AV festival (New Castle) and CCCB (Barcelona).

I have some doubts, however, about the actual artistic significance of an operation of this kind. It's an excellent visualization, but there's no interpretation. It basically communicates scientific data to me in a beautiful, enjoyable form. It could be a new interface for receivers, but every now and then I get the feeling that the art label is being applied with extreme ease.

On the other hand, informational art exists, and it makes sense to highlight facts unknown to most people (we've discussed this here too). In a not-so-recent piece of writing, Eno proposed installing enormous screens that would display real-time data on the planet and climate change.

In conclusion, this is a good introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum, without any artistic pretensions. This is an eight-part playlist from NASA, with commentary translated into Italian by INAF (National Institute for Astrophysics). Click the icon in the top right to see the other parts.

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