You might not realize it, but there are thousands of invisible signals bouncing around us all the time. These pictures done by visualizer extraordinaire Nickolay Lamm reveal just how pretty (and trippy) the world would be if these cell phone signals were illuminated.



Here's New York City, with its myriad rooftop transmitters:

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Hollywood, with a monolithic, long-distance tower:

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As for why these pictures look like one giant honeycomb rave, experts Danilo Erricolo and Fran Harackiewicz, who consulted on the psychedelic project explain below:
A regular, hexagonal grid of cellular base-station sites is conceptualized for Chicago [above], with stations at the corners of the hexagons. The area within each sector antenna radiation pattern has different users being assigned different frequencies and their signals combine to form a single perceived color in that instant. Different channel combinations from sector to sector are indicated by different colors. The channel combinations shown are not static, but rather change rapidly in time as different users are assigned different channels. But, if you were to take a photo of these rapid changes, you'd likely see a wide array of colors as seen in the illustration. Near the downtown area more users are likely to be found and the hexagonal cells are smaller to serve approximately the same numbers of users found in larger cells elsewhere. Antenna signals extending beyond the original cells provide coverage over part of Lake Michigan.
While there's no denying that these images are stunning, we couldn't imagine what life would be like if this was real life.