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November 2020 · Code (Node) · For: Felix Lenz

Political Atmosphere

→ "Political Atmosphere" by Felix Lenz traces the invisible connections between flight turbulence, climate change and war. My task was to write the code for this installation.

Siren in a dark room
Siren at the exhibition

"Political Atmosphere" traces the invisible connections between flight turbulence, climate change and war. Flight data is captured by an antenna and sent to a controller. Felix asked me to visually display the flight data and correlate the measured flight density in the sky with the speed of a DC motor. This motor turned a gearbox which ultimately triggered a siren. The more planes in the sky, the more frequently the centerpiece of the exhibition - the deafening siren - is triggered.

antenna and a plane
Antenna captures flight-data
acrylic gearbox
Gearbox and DC Motor

The Code

The open source software dump1090 was used to translate the antenna data to json data. This data was then sent to an Electron UI. If there was a change in flight-density, the App emitted the data via a websocket. The controller was therefore able to set the speed of the DC-Motor by changing the pwm signal. This was done by using a double-h-bridge board.

Siren and interface are outside
Installation setup at ARS Electronica 2020

All images are © Felix Lenz 2020. The Project “Political Atmosphere” was designed by Felix Lenz. If you want to read more about it, visit his website. Learn how to run a React App inside Electron here.