Any electronic device that is switched on (a mobile, a laptop, a GPS receiver)
generates constant electromagnetic emissions, even if it is on standby.
British designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby called this "The Secret
Life of Electronic Objects", the perception that the activity of electronic
technology is not transparent or subject to the way it is used by consumers;
below the friendly interfaces hide autonomous processes with their own dynamics.
“Tempest” is based on a spy program that uses the “Van
Eck Phreaking” technique, in which the radio waves that are emitted
by all monitors and can be tuned using a simple transistor are used to reconstruct
everything that appears on a computer screen. Following a long tradition
of subverting military technologies for creative purposes, Erich Berger
creates an audiovisual piece in which the relationship between images and
sounds is precisely determined by the electromagnetic emissions produced
by the monitor. The graphics that appear on the screen in “Tempest”
produce waves which, when captured using various radios tuned to different
AM frequencies, become the sharp and vibrant sounds that go along with the
images.