P1V1 is a project that started in my first year at the ArtScience Interfaculty at the KABK in the Hague. Through multiple courses I followed, the electromagnetic spectrum caught my interest, and since the news was talking about the then new 5G network, the frequency of mobile phones seemed like a good start to delve deeper into.
By using, new mediums [new mediums in the sense of, I never used them myself], I explored fields which I didn't knew existed. Within courses that I followed during my studies, a curiousity grew towards electromagnetic fields. In the meanwile I learned how to use python, making patches in max/msp, and ended up connecting it all to the 'hot-topic' that the news in The Netherlands was talking about; the 5G network. Questions like, "what is 5G?", "How to understand 5G?", led to creating a basic understanding of electronic fields. This became more interesting in a time where communication through the electromagnetic fields became very import due to COVID-19. Therefor P1V1 has never been shown/presented live, but is only documented and edited for online presentations.
To understand something that is not visual, is difficult. Therefor I bought an RTL-sdr to use an already set existing visual translation of frequencies. And then, a whole forest is in front of you, with codes, explanations in number forms... The biggest part of this project became more an understanding of frequencies around us, and how to use programms to use numerical data to do something with it.
looking at the Netherlands I made a list with what belongs to what. Since the 5G network was not rolled out yet, I decided to use information that was already here. In the Netherlands the frequency bands are divided between certain companies; Vodafone, KPN, T-mobile and private ones.
900 Mhz range:
880-890 + 925-935 belongs to Vodafone
890-900 + 935-945 belongs to KPN
900-915 + 945-960 belongs to T-mobile
1800MHz range:
1710-1730 + 1805-1825 belongs to KPN
1730-1750 + 1825-1845 belongs to Vodafone
1750-1780 + 1845-1875 belongs to T-mobile
1780-1785 + 1875-1880 belongs to private people
With an RTLSDR [which is a receiver + capturer [RX]] I could receive ranges between 24MHz and 1766Mhz.
I have a subscription with Tele2 [my phone provider] which belongs to T-Mobile, which means I use the frequencies between 900-915 + 945-960 + 1750-1780 + 1845-1875 MHz.
I'm not the greatest with calculations or the recalculations. [like to go from milliliters to liters...] For the ones who have the same difficulties, here is a formula by my coach [Thank you Arthur Elsenaer!] who tried to explain to me the recalculation of Mhz to Hz:
f(Hz) = 1MHz x 106 = 1 000 000 Hz
Don't worry! I am as confused as you are now, while I'm re-writing this project. That's why we're gonna go skip the technicality of it now and fast forward to what I made/presented.
On the right you see me fiddling around in python together with the RTLSDR, and still figuring out what I want to do. In the video under that one, I actually was able to get something out of it.
Remember how the frequency ranges are shared between mobile providers? Well, that's what I translated into sound. By connecting my RTLSDR to my laptop and a python patch, I was able to send data-messages (the numerical things) to MAX/MSP and make the electromagnetic spectrum audible.
In the video I explain it all to you. But if you want to read it rather than listen, on the right side of the video's theres the written text.
All code & patches will be shared. I need to clean it up first before sending it out. (It still has to work right?!) If you want it anyway, I can send it all to you, but you'd have to figure out yourself what to install.
"Final" piece is at the top of this page. [Final in like a milestone of a bigger research]
