Through the Looking Glass engages with the general phenomenon of surveillance technology. Specifically, I’m shedding light on the ubiquitous yet invisible methods of using Wi-Fi to capture body tracking data in seemingly “passive” ways.

Using household Wi-Fi as a method to capture multiple people’s body position within a space has proved to be more accurate than camera-based solutions. It also works invisibly within already existing infrastructure such as our phones, as well as widespread integration of open-access Wi-Fi networks in public space (such as on TFL et.al.).

This project exposes these Wi-Fi services as surveillance technologies by tracking a mundane, day-to-day action - showing my own seated body while scrolling on a mobile phone - through the eyes of the building's open Wi-Fi. In this case, a hacked version of a Microsoft Kinect uses specific Infrared and near-Wi-Fi ranges of light to detect when a body has entered a space. This data is then displayed in a holographic 3D plinth that projects the body tracking output as a ghostly figure, using the Victorian technology Pepper’s Ghost - originally used to create theatrical appearances of ghosts. In this project, this technology is now being used to create the theatrical appearance of my own body as a data ghost.