Moogfest

WiFi Whisperer

Agency:

McKinney

Role:

  • Creative Technologist
  • Front End Developer

Project Type:

Art Installation

Date:

Jun 2016

Built With:

  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Captive Portal Networks
  • WiFi Hardware
One of the greatest moments in my career was working on this project with new media artists Kyle McDonald and Surya Matu. Wifi Whisperer was an art installation that ran during the music festival Moogfest, playing on the notion that no data is secure, especially on unknown wifi networks that users might use without hesitation. For this project, I worked as a Front End Developer to help build the web interface for the Wifi Whisperer installation.

WiFi Whisperer Installation @ Moogfest

Curation of Leaky WiFi Data

The installation deduced hypothese based on the available visited network data a user might have accessed previously. The installation was specially curated to sniff out "leaky data" (no longer the case) from phone's and then put a story together about the user with the found data

WiFi Whisperer Web App

A complimentary mobile web application displayed the curated data back to the user as a means to educate through provocation and a touch of eeriness

Conversations happened

Kyle McDonald's installation generated conversations around privacy and how out hardware, devices, and data can impact society