Here at ISEA 2004 in the exhibition at Kiasma is a project called Bubl Space which supposedly blocks all mobile phone signals around you to give you some quiet space without the annoying chatter of phone callers! Kinda simplistic idea and not too interesting. This reminds me a of a well-packaged version of a couple projects – namely MIT Media Lab’s Computing Culture Group student Limor Fried’s Fresh Air, a disposable device which kills signals in the 1-2.5GHz range. Also relevant is the SPAM Life project that includes ‘RFiDelete” which erases all RFID information from consumer products and “EMPulse” which kills ads in public space. These are very binary (to jam or not to jam) applications and don’t really take into account the social aspect of jamming and the people, communities and cultural aspects it effects – or how you can make a difference by adding a sociable (or de-sociable) premise to your application. This is what I’m trying to do with Wifi-Hog, which challenges presumptions of ownership over wireless space which is becoming a real problem in over-crowded spectrum. More to come….