Ball State invents the Interactive Wireless Sculpture
This is the kind of entertainment for CICS geeks you don't want to miss and this is for next week (or the week after in the event of rain)! Ball State University is operating the fusion of Art and Wireless Technology.
Who said that "top unwired campus" is nothing but a generous gift from Intel, that Ball State is no wireless pioneer? If the show goes as expected, you may review your judgement. At least, open your mind.
What is this all about?
I just read an article from Slashdot featuring Ball State! [Zonk (2006, April 15). Sculpture to Reflect Campus Wireless Traffic. Slashdot], posted during the day, which I echo with the reference to the corresponding article from the Star press:
"Ball State University, the top unwired school in the nation according to Intel survey, is set to unveil a sculpture that will reflect the wireless traffic on the campus network. From the article [Koch, G. (2005, April 15). Sculpture to reflect Internet traffic. The Star Press]: '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".
You'll find a concise what-where-when-how in the Star Press article and all the details in the original article from John Willfalk at Ball State.
As for the WHO, the project is lead by J. Fillwalk (Associate Pr. of Electronic Art), K. Kothman (Associate Pr. of Music Technology) and J. Allison (Instructor of Music Theory and Composition), supported by Information Technology and University Computing Services, sponsored by the Center for Media Design and a grant from Lilly Foundation ($20M).
This sounds like a WOW project. The only thing that bothers me is the lack of open source software involved in the project. But that's just me.