Wearable Antennas

Inspiration for this project came from crystal radio sets and early radio experiments where many of the electronic components at the time were raw or hand crafted. These very basic radios and antennas can receive (without battery) radio signals.

I was also very inspired from the Shipibo Conobo tribe from the Amazonian forest where their embroidery patterns become a sort of path for the shaman to enter in the "invisible world". I wanted in a similar way to create a textile that could sense invisible and inaudible data that surrounds us.

I discovered that some electromagnetic frequencies and natural radio signals can be amplified using a loop antenna and a amplifier without needing demodulation. Using sound as the output, we can hear the electromagnetic frequencies of our environment us which sources are mainly power lines, electronic appliance, led, neons, motors etc..

One of the main characteristics which defines an electromagnetic field
(EMF) is its frequency or its corresponding wavelength. Fields of different
frequencies interact with the body in different ways. One can imagine
electromagnetic waves as series of very regular waves that travel at an
enormous speed, the speed of light. The frequency simply describes the
number of oscillations or cycles per second, while the term wavelength
describes the distance between one wave and the next. Hence
wavelength and frequency are inseparably intertwined: the higher the
frequency the shorter the wavelength.

The time-varying electromagnetic fields produced by electrical
appliances are an example of extremely low frequency (ELF) fields.
ELF fields generally have frequencies up to 300 Hz. Other technologies
produce intermediate frequency (IF) fields with frequencies from 300
Hz to 10 MHz and radiofrequency (RF) fields with frequencies of 10
MHz to 300 GHz. T

Antennas

Antenna’s come in various forms and sizes in order to recieve different wave lengths. For low frequencys, the antennas are basically a coil made of copper spool creating an electro magnetic field. I started to try experiment different knitting techniques to create knitted coils

Different variations and parameters were tested such as:

• gauge
• tension
• different type of structures (rib, tubular, slip, stocking..etc.)
• different type of patterns

Yarn :

• Enamelled copper magnet wire (0.3 and 0.2) from https://www.wires.co.uk/acatalog/cu_enam.html
• Karl Grimm copper thread High Flex 3981 7×1
• wool, cotton, acrylic ..

Coils:

Fractal Antennas:

Fractal embroidery technique used by the Kutch tribe in India:

I also used some embroidery techniques to test fractal antennas systems where the fractal pattern allows to receive a wider frequency range using less space.

Amplify:

Electrical fields are produced due to presence of charged particles (electrons). Magnetic fields are produced du to the motion of charged particles. A moving charge creates a magnetic AND electric field around it.

The EM energy we sense with our antennas is amplified and translated "raw" into audio frequencies. They need a strong amplification for us to hear them (no demodulation).

An inductive effect happens when with these types of loop antennas come near an electronic device. When a conducting loop is exposed to a charging magnetic fields an EMF is generated around the loop. (Maxwell theory)

After a lot of electronic experiments i made a (cheap) very high gain amplifier based on the LM386 which gave the best results. The control unit connected to the antennas amplifies the EM signal and translates it into sound.

PCB layout and electronic specs here

EMF amp 2026 here

Wearable Antennas:

Occult Dowsing

Ressources:

http://etextile-summercamp.org/2016/emf/

PDF Hand Made electronic Music http://www.nicolascollins.com/texts/originalhackingmanual.pdf

http://apo33.org/electropix4/?p=265 (portable EM detector)

http://www.techlib.com/electronics/vlfwhistle.htm

http://www.instructables.com/id/EMF-Detector-Kit/

http://portal.groupkos.com/index.php?title=Electromagnetic_Coils

http://www.essentialtech.co.nz/content/crystal_sets

http://phys.org/news/2014-02-fractal-wire-patterns-stretchability-electronic.html

http://www.gizmag.com/scavenging-ambient-electromagnetic-energy/19163/

http://www.vlf.it/

Artistique references

https://christinakubisch.de/works/installations

https://afroditipsarra.com/

https://bellacomsom.com/

https://www.haineshinterding.net/category/hinterding/

https://www.shortwavecollective.net/

https://www.florencedelphineroux.com/arts

https://elisabalmaceda.xyz/

https://ooooo.be/panpanpan/