Just back from the half-day Wireless Cultures seminar at the Tate Modern gallery. It was an ambitious session, attempting to "explore the use of wireless communications in artistic and social contexts", so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that the afternoon just didn't work. Anyone looking for a pointer as to how art might creatively use wireless technologies left bitterly disappointed.
Indeed, among the assorted radio buffs and ubergeeky who asked questions and delivered their mini manifestos from the floor, there appeared barely a shared clue about how this technology might be used for the common good. Nothing about bringing this technology to people who cannot afford to join this little club, nothing about what might happen when you connect communities together.
Instead, we got the same old same old drones - conspiracy theories about regulation and big business intervention - and the suspicion of a demented determination among them that this world should be left only to those capable of building, from scratch, the equipment needed to access it.
Critically, the two speakers who perhaps should have had most to contribute - Pete Gomes, an artist and filmmaker, and Simon Worthington, co-editor of Mute magazine and a wireless enthusiast - were a disappointment. The less said about poor Simon Worthington's rambling presentation the better. His attempt to talk about a wireless project in East London was, in truth, a fiasco, and someone should have rescued him from his death in front of such a large audience long before they did.
At least Gomes made sense. He painted an engaging if unoriginal vision of the future, were WiFi serves up content based on where you are, and raised a few interesting questions about how best this be done. But he focused too heavily on his own work, and his claims it led to last year's short-lived Warchalking craze, to really give a big picture.
Critically, he - the whole event, in fact - failed to explain one central question, despite it being explicitly posed: what, exactly, can we do with all this technology?
Don't get me wrong - there were some interesting things said. Micz Flor, a German cultural theorist who chaired the event, kicked things off with a look back more than 100 years to put today's wireless efforts in context. For instance, in America's primitive early radio networks, set up to send the President's words across the country, we saw something very like today's emerging community wireless networks.
Our own Sean Dodson, who was one of the first journalists to write about community wireless, also shared some of his knowledge of the regulatory and technical environments in which these volunteer networks are setting up.
And Nancy Proctor, of Antenna Audio, gave a interesting talk towards the end on how her company had set up a wireless pilot in the Tate Modern, using WiFi and Bluetooth-equipped handhelds to enrich the art viewer's experience. She was the only person who properly discussed reaching out to the end users of this technology and engaging them in new and worthwhile ways.
It was just a shame a large proportion of the audience had walked out before she stood up to speak. Their spirits might have been raised by the knowledge some people out there know what they are talking about, even if they are employed by (oh, horror!) business.
