Outside the network

About Statement Publications Gallery 4WCOP Walking with data
Painter Portrait Machine The mind of Arp Arp's Shapes World's shortest derive The Deptford Project Sounds of Dublin Outside the Network Digital Frottages Blake in Lambeth Pixologics The Huddersfield Yards chatGPT sings Huddersfield

A work in progress, documenting the materiality of networks. Physically, in London, networks are all around us: when we travel by tube or sit in buildings or walk down the street. They my be our own internet, or London Underground's signalling and control network. And without them we would not have internet access, and the trains would not run on time, or even at all. As Richard Brautigan said, perhaps we are

'...all watched over

by machines of loving grace.'

wiring network on wall
Somebody, somewhere, knows which of these wires does what. King's College, London

We could not understand or contextualise the raw data travelling along them, even if we could access it. So there is logic in excluding us.At the same time, it goes against the grain to feel excluded.

London Underground Network
As you look at these London Underground wires, are they reporting where you are?

Interior networks feel better, because they are under your control, or that of someone you might know.

wiring in a cupboard
Wires in the server cupboard at a UK charity where I volunteered. Nobody had any idea what they were for.

The outside of networks is often very different to the clean, clinical and precisely formatted data travelling on them. Cables are dirty, vulnerable, forgotten and ignored, left to lie among weeds or rubbish. Their inside and outside are two different worlds, existing side by side.

network on the ground
A network lying amongst weeds and rubbish