Within mediated space, that which is experienced may be physically present, or be delivered into the space digitally from afar. The phenomenology of perception in mediated space is contingent on the phenomenology of reception in such a space.

PocketPCThoughts points out the iDetect wifi sniffer — a credit-card sized device that tells you simply if there is a wifi network active where you are. It doesn’t give any information on whether its open or not, the SSID etc, but at least it acknowledges that knowing about availability, quickly, without having to turn on a complex device like a laptop, mattters. Now if only they’ll bring something similar out for Bluetooth.

Yesterday I attended the Wireless Cultures symposium at Tate Modern (archived here).

Two highlights: Tetsuo Kogawa’s ‘cooking show’ demonstration of Mini-FM, and Nancy Porter’s presentation. She works with Antenna Audio, who do audio tours for galleries. Last year they implemented a trial location-sensitive wifi guide system at the Tate using ruggedised iPaqs and some clever triangulation heuristics, with software from Pango Systems. Nice to see some people actually doing this stuff rather than just showing off vapourware and industrial design mockups.

A few thoughts on all of this to follow later in the week.