Psychic forces

I've always been very curious about digital artists or interaction designers' take on the Twilight Zone.

The Consciousness Field Resonator consists of almost 100 random number generators around the world that feed data back to a central server at Princeton University. Events that attract much of the world’s attention, such as September 11th or Princess Diana's funeral, appear to cause statistical anomalies in the random numbers. It is thought that the anomalies are caused by changes in global consciousness.

Rob Seward's device consists of a random number generator and hardware that detects any statistical anomalies. It will hang on your wall and alert you to any abnormalities with bright lights. If the psychic forces that are purported by Princeton exist, this device will react to them.

Whether or not these forces exist, Seward expects the user to develop a strong relationship with the device. Any time it "goes off," the user will try to associate it with a significant event either in his life or the lives of others. Even if his rational mind thinks the basis of this device is complete nonsense, the primitive brain will develop a system of superstitions around the machine. While the device has been constructed with rigorous scientific purpose, interaction with it takes place in a very human and emotional space.

Check the Consciousness Field Resonator, play Mobile Assassin and discover many other cool projects today at the ITP Spring show, from 6-9 PM, in New York.

Brad Todd has developed two pieces that explore "psychic" dimensions and manage to be extremely beautiful as well:

Aether incoporates an emf sensor and speaker inside a hollowed out copy of Edgar Allan Poe's complete works. When switched on the book becomes a mobile electromagnetic field detector and renders audible the invisible flow of electromagnetic currents in the environment. The apparatus functions as a companion piece to the "terrors" of Poe's worlds, and by extension to the anxiety (of influence?) and "presence" of the past in our lives.

Halo is comprised of an antique Priest’s portable last-rites kit from 1912 and a Schumann Resonator (a kind of electromagnetic resonator.)

The last-rites kit (see images 1 and 2) was intended as a mobile form of the Catholic ceremony, to be used by the Priest when attending the bedside of a fading person.

A Schumann Resonator has been installed inside the box. The Schumann Resonances are quasi-standing electromagnetic waves that exist in the Earth's "electromagnetic" cavity (the space between the surface of the Earth and the Ionosphere). Many researchers believe that the wide spectrum of artificial man-made EMF radiation masks the natural frequency of the Earth, acting as a kind of electro-smog or pollution, which affects living entities. This discrete device generates a field of the 7.83 Hz frequency, the pulsing rhythm of the Earth itself – effacing all other frequencies within a range of nearly 300 feet – viewers may unconsciously sense something within the halo of this effect.

Related: Mysterious people, After Life, Crucific for electromagnetic faith, Dream recorders, music over sleeping cities.