Shared Frequencies
By Ray McClure
Interactive simulation where communicating agents shift their signal frequencies to avoid interference, inspired by how animals adapt their calls within crowded environments. Experience Shared Frequencies Artist [Ray McClure](/artists/ray-mcclure) | Creative Programmer This project began with a conversation in a crowded room where a friend proposed speaking in a higher pitch to cut through the noise. That moment sparked a line of thinking about how animals already adapt their communication in similar situations. Many species dynamically shift the frequency of their calls depending on environmental noise, competing signals, or changing conditions. Humans also compete for communication bandwidth, but in very different ways. Large portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are carefully regulated and allocated to specific technologies such as radio, Wi-Fi, and cellular networks like 5G. These frequencies are valuable infrastructure, tightly managed and often owned or licensed by governments and telecommunications companies. This contrast raised an interesting question: while animals fluidly adapt their signals within shared acoustic environments, human communication channels are often fixed and controlled. As our environments become increasingly saturated with devices, sensors, and intelligent systems, could our own forms of communication begin to adapt more dynamically as well? Shared Frequencies explores this idea through a simulated communication ecosystem. The prototype is a browser-based WebGL environment where simple agents communicate through call-and-response signals. Visitors can introduce their own voice through a microphone, disrupting the system and forcing the agents to scatter and shift their signals across the frequency spectrum. The piece uses this playful interaction as a speculative lens on how communication might evolve in environments increasingly populated by machines, sensors, and digital companions. Shared Frequencies imagines communication as an adaptive ecology rather than a fixed channel. Many forms of intelligence already inhabit the same communication environments. The work brings this shared spectrum into focus and asks how individuals might become more capable participants within it. I am exploring how a simple audiovisual system can make the dynamics of communication and frequency adaptation tangible. Rather than explaining how animals shift their signals to avoid interference, the project allows visitors to experience these behaviors directly as signals collide, scatter, and migrate across the spectrum.