Organising Sound with Encrypted Thinking
Data encryption has become a matter of National Priority and Security across most countries around the world but it is also becoming hugely important among normal people. Monitoring, processing and the interception of encrypted information have been a matter of controversy and debate in public and private domains. Can cryptology and encryption strongly inform the way we Organise Sound and Media? To what extent Creativity and Aural Invention can contribute to ciphering/de-ciphering "the message"?. This is what I am after!
From ancient cultures such as, Egyptians and Mayans who hid secrets on glyphs, to more recent Cipher Machines employed in WWII, humans have encoded messages to protect key information from undesired recipients. Current trends claim the idea that the Internet of Things (IoT), where everyday objects share embedded data through networks, is the starting point of the Next Digital Revolution. There are clear evidences from large software companies that the nature of future transmission of any information will be fully encrypted (Apple’s iCloud already is).
This project on Aural Scramble focuses on a form of data cryptography which uses Sonic Encryption, as a form to hide Aural messages in the context of the Augmented City. This technology will allow citizens to implant encrypted audiovisual information in the City, which can be retrieved by other citizens using GPS-aware devices (e.g. smartphones).
The project examines how aural and visual encryption can play an important role to determine the pace, distribution and grammar of such encoded audiovisual signifiers, within the wider context of digital humanities. Critical engagement with technology will provide strong evidences of how social network data might be implemented in the Internet of Things, raising a number of new questions about creativity but also about security and privacy.
Ricardo Climent, 2015
