Smoke Signals

Film by Alan Fentiman

SMOKE SIGNALS

Digital interactions can be seen as the smoke signals of our day, both being accessible and intangible approaches to long-distance communication. The nature of each medium means the original message is susceptible to constant transformation from the point of transmission.

This collaborative project by Ed Carter and David Cranmer takes data from a contemporary communication network, and places it beyond the confines of the screen.

Using abstracted email archives as the dataset, twelve smoke ring cannons create a transient sculptural form informed by the Polybius Square cypher.

The result is a series of encrypted communications, where information collides and chains of correspondence create additional turbulence, affecting the original trajectory of each message.

Commissioned by Future Everything for ArtsAPI.

With special thanks to Matt Jarvis for additional programming.

Links:
David Cranmer
Future Everything
Arts API