Dolmen

The installation Dolmen by Mario de Vega focuses on invisible data streams. The question of accessibility and availability of transmission speed are quiet, but dominant factors in our everyday lives.

Today, the possibility and quality of the provided connection are criteria and requirement for an optimal living space. Both are increasingly important indicators for the quality of life of a younger generation, who understand networking as an integral part of their self-definition. The potential length of staying at a place is more and more based on the provided access to the Internet and social media. Real life is increasingly subordinated to personal and virtual accessibility and there is hardly any action or activity without interaction via digital communication channels. We are used to having “connection” and if it is disturbed or not available at its usual speed, it is perceived as a deterioration of individual living conditions. This often results in a direct action by changing the location or contacting the network operator.

Nevertheless, the necessary equipment technology and distributing equipment remain almost invisible. Only with a conscious focus on the area-wide transmission masts and facilities, the extent can be estimated superficially. When dialing into a new WiFi, ever-extending selection lists are an indication of the occasional supersaturation of the hidden infrastructure.

Mario de Vega makes use of RSSI analysis technologies and logarithmic functions to transform these energy flows into audible frequencies and thus make them directly accessible to the recipient

Dolmen deals with the phenomenon of omnipresent wireless frequencies and transmission fields by means of translating them into a new spectrum of perception. The installation consists of a sixteen-channel audio system, eight active midrange drivers, a formal image of a telecommunications receiver, and a self-designed electronic interface to demodulate high-frequency electromagnetic waves into a human audible ranged spectrum. Dolmen is directly linked to the surroundings of the exhibition venue: Depending on the characteristics of the location, Mario de Vega adapts the concrete arrangement and compilation to the presentation space. This can be the addition of amplifying radio scanners, extra antennas or other technical devices, but these are always based in their function and selection on the conditions of the showroom. Dolmen has already been presented in three different scenarios: Dolmen horizontal (2015, Krems), Dolmen vertical (2015, Amsterdam), Dolmen diagonal (2015, Berlin).

The installation structure acts as an interface between the electromagnetic emissions and the perception receptors of the visitors. By carrying his own mobile phone as an associated radiation source, the recipient himself takes an active part in the overall experience. The attached radiation source is summed with the background radiation and transformed to sound via logarithmic processing. The sound is broadcast live via speakers in the showroom. The space simultaneously is acoustic resonator and catalyst of high-frequency emissions.

With Dolmen, the visitor gets another receptive structure and can visualize even the presence of invisible data streams. Mario de Vega leaves the recipient in his individual phenomenal perception and adds neither a narrative nor a didactic element. The visitor autonomously determines the evaluation of the experience and its possible conclusion.