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