Digital video (color, sound), 4:08 min.
The designers of the Touch project—
which explores near-field communication
(NFC), or close-range wireless connections
between devices—set out to
make the immaterial visible, specifically
one such technology, radio-frequency
identification (RFID), currently used
for financial transactions, transportation,
and tracking anything from live animals
to library books. “Many aspects of RFID
interaction are fundamentally invisible,”
explains Timo Arnall. “As users we
experience two objects communicating
through the ‘magic’ of radio waves.”
Using an RFID tag (a label containing
a microchip and an antenna) equipped
with an LED probe that lights up
whenever it senses an RFID reader,
the designers recorded the interaction
between reader and tag over time and
created a map of the space in which
they engaged. Jack Schulze notes that
alongside the new materials used in
contemporary design products, “service
layers, video, animation, subscription
models, customization, interface,
software, behaviors, places, radio,
data, APIs (application programming
interfaces) and connectivity are
amongst the immaterials.”
