Radius | Episode 65: Mario de Vega
Mario de Vega | DOLMEN

DOLMEN displays the strength and presence of modern technologies for mass control. A response against capitalist oppression, privacy violation, human health disturbance, and bioethical conflicts. DOLMEN is an intervention that confronts and explores the boundaries of human perception and the social, political, and physical impact on the human body provoked by the development of technologies for human telecommunication. The piece observes and discusses the possible negative results produced by the overpopulation of signals active in the boundaries of human sensory threshold.

The installation, which was commission by Sonic Acts (Amsterdam) and donauFestival (Krems), was composed by a cellular base station displayed in the exhibition space along with an analog interface designed to demodulate high frequency electromagnetic transmissions produced by the interception wireless telecommunications networks. This interface is based on RSSI analysis techniques (Received Signal Strength Indicator) and makes use of logarithmic detectors to intercept and demodulate electromagnetic traffic on ranges between 800 MHz and 4 GHz.The visitor was invited to perceive high frequency electromagnetic emissions produced by wireless telecommunications infrastructure.

In addition, the installation will be accompanied by a publication coming out later in 2015, entitled LIMEN, an on-going research project by Mario de Vega, Daniela Silvestrin, and Victor Mazón Gardoqui, visualized as a 272 page bilingual publication including a portable device for high frequency detection.