Bitnik_following_bankers_HF_receiver_2

For this walk we had the following instructions from the Mediengruppe Bitnik:

1) Wait in front of a bank
2) Wait until a bankers leaves the building
3) Follow the banker until he enters a building
4) Document
5) Record your observations to the following telephone number xxxx

During the walk I was carrying a GHz range receiver built by Martin Howse and I recorded the "Maxwellian landscape" of the London financial district.

Pictures are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/sets/72157624956779424/

It was raining hard. I had to set up the electronics under the collonade next to Liverpool Street station and stow it in my backpack. I was understandably nervous handling electronics and wires in this sensitive area. We were watched by the smokers and the cappucino drinkers. But no one confronted us. Probably they assumed we were "normal" journalists setting up interview gear - instead of guerilla artists arranging their weapons of mass confusion.

Then we observed and followed three bankers, one of the Deutche Bank and two of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Two of them didn't notice anything. One made a perfect evasive manouvre consistent with "Moscow rules". But there was no consensus between the observers whether this was a purposeful action or pure coincidence.

Our stalking took us through Bishopsgate, Brushfield Street and Fournier Street along the strange and beautiful Christ Church Spitalfields by Hawksmoor.

===== Track 1 =====

It was raining hard while we stood in front of the Deutsche Bank, 175 BishopsGate. Everyone was coming inside. Nobody was leaving. We had no one to follow so we just observed the people. These are our conclusions:

- Bankers look different from us.
- They are planning the whole morning who they will have lunch with and then they have lunch until half past three.
- Their clothes are styled to accent the powerful chest of the alpha male.
- The body language of banker accentuates stiffness. THey walk like they are being pushed in the back. Maybe the stiffness of the soles of their shoes stiffens their whole posture and poise.
- The bank-men in general are stiffer than the bank-women.

===== Track 2 =====

We didn't see many bankers leaving the office so we decided to pick one up at the underground station. They were easy to recognize. Pin stripe suits. Carrying a folders with papers. It was fun fo observe groups and try to deduce the pecking order. We really had to run to follow the banker to the RBS, he was going so fast. Lots of wind in front of the RBS. Watching the bankers watching the women. Did the banker make an evasive manouvre? Did he get paranoid? People with rucksacks are from the banks IT department. Do they take their ties off when they go home?

I don't know why the recording breaks off suddenly. We were not sent away. My batteries did not run out. Maybe I just thought I had enough material. I should have continued recording because we had still one more banker to follow. But I have camera pictures of that one.

===== Tracks 3 4 5 6 7 =====

The recordings from the GHz frequency receiver are strange when listened to as "raw" files but there is even more weirdness hidden inside them. I tried to bring out this weirdness by some simple signal processing.

I especially like the EVP-like (see: electronic voice phenomena) effect that you get with heavy noise removal. I'm aware that it's just an artifact of processing, but it sounds exactly like I expect the "Maxwellian" or "Hertzian" space to sound like. Un-decodable but almost understandable messages from the aether.

Psychogeophysics summit:
http://www.psychogeophysics.org/
http://www.psychogeophysics.org/wiki/doku.php?id=summit:d

Audio File: 

10_Bitnik_following_bankers_HF_receiver_2.mp3