The Listener

'The Listener' takes the form of a transparent case, laser-etched with text on all sides, with its exposed components and processes displayed. Inside, the screen shows the results of the live probe request scan being performed at that moment, allowing the form and structure of this data to be read by the owners of the devices which are generating it. The text inscribed onto the case details information such as the hardware and software used in The Listener itself, a translation of the code being run, a break down of the probe request process, and the nature of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the standards body that determines function of the probe request.

'The Listener' is surrounded by four speakers, and sonifies detected MAC addresses by mapping each element of the MAC address to a specific vocal sample. This produces vocal ‘chants’ unique to each wireless device, that call out into the room whenever a probe request is detected. The signal strength of the device to The Listener determines the volume of the chant, so that it increases as the device approaches it; and from inside The Listener itself, the names of any broadcast SSIDs are then ‘whispered’ through a text-to-speech algorithm and internal speaker.

By employing these multiuple forms of reading the probe request process, The Listener pulls its layers and context apart for examination, experimenting with how we can read and understand the nested technological processes that we rely upon, and how we can critique their implications for privacy and control.

• http://www.wesleygoatley.com/the-listene...