[iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/65321968″ width=”400″ height=”300″]
A recent project from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design has revealed the electromagnetic fields emitting from consumer electronics—normally invisible to the human eye—as eerie but beautiful light paintings.
The project was completed as part of a week-long experimental imaging workshop at CIID that asked students to visualize “invisible everyday phenomena” without using any digital retouching.
To record the electromagnetic fields, CIID designers Luke Sturgeon and Shamik Ray developed an app that enabled an Android smartphone to act as an electromagnetic field indicator and used long-exposure photography to capture images of the fields. The team reveals aspects of their method and results in an video uploaded to Vimeo.
“The gratification that came from capturing each exposure reflects the similar experience in dark-room photography, slowly watching each photograph develop,” Sturgeon told Wired. “We were surprised by the difference in magnetic strengths between objects and how strong the electromagnetic field is around hard drives and laptop computers and mobile phones, all of which we live in constant close proximity to every day.”
The images provided from the project are fairly abstract and cannot reliably quantify the exact shape and strength of each EMF, Sturgeon says. Ultimately, though, the project could be used to develop a standardized method to visually monitor a device’s EMF.
“We would like to define a suitable and consistent visual language that can be used to measure and compare any type of object that emits a magnetic field,” Sturgeon said.
