At Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana three artists, Jesse Allison, John Fillwalk and Keith Kothman, created interactive wireless installation which was incorporated into an existing bell tower. Heavily reliant on digitial media the installation consists of four projection screens, computers, audio equipment, and speakers. The piece is designed to interact with the campus wireless zones and is also fitted with its own wireless access points which pick up the activity of nearby wireless devices. Sound, imagery, and lights are all programmed to interpret and respond to wireless activity in real time and claims are made that nearby viewers can witness their own projected wireless activity. Sound is both synthesized and plucked from Internet based streams. Video images are created using responsive 3D animation as well as other graphics generated according to local network activity.
This installation directly incorporates both immediate and passive audiences as it maps and interprets wireless activity. It can be seen to provide an all encompassing sensory experience for the viewers. Its incorporation into a bell tower is poignant as the structure once served as communal source for relying information such as time and special events. The advent of the digital age has usurped the towers original function. The installation, however, incorporates the bells in its interpretation of wireless activity by using MIDI control providing an interesting correlation between antiquated and recent communication technology.