User:Pleun/rwrs/Project Outline

Projects

1. ISP: LAN
2. PPC
3. Group project: Making It Public

Internet Switching Policies: LAN

Tentative Title

Internet Switching Policies: LAN (working title)

Introduction

My focus these first months is learning new software and technology, like Python, e-publishing and 3D techniques. And later Javascript and Processing. I'm trying to create projects that are helpful with this process.

I have a recurring interest in the geopolitics and influence of the network of all networks: the internet. There a few subtopics I'm particularly interested in right now. I'm not hoping to address them all, but It's good to keep them in mind.

1. Right after it's invention, it was free and open playground where people could connect to share knowledge and content. That period didn't last long though. The ideology and autonomy is gone. It became a tool for governments and corporations used for control. I'm interested in this powerplay and how I'm (not) supposed to react to it.
   
   
2. Technology progresses so fast these days that people can't keep up. One way to deal with things people can't explain is to search for it within nature, supernatural or religion. New definitions for terms like 'clouds' and 'virusses' are examples of this. Some of these technologies, like the cloud, become so massively complicated in it's structure that it takes a big amount of abstraction to grasp it. They somehow seem to have this intrinsic power, while being completely created and managed by people. I'm very interested in this mystification. How far can this separation between man and machine go. Does the internet have some form of corporate personhood? Where can we see this internet as it's own entity? How does 's/he' behave?
   
   
3. The development around this subject: Net neutrality will be history in Europe soon. What does that implement and how do we deal with this? And America is trying to pass laws to prohibit people from making your own wifi-hotspot or tinkering with routers.

I realise this is a much brought up subject though and I'm still wondering if I'm able to add anything relevant to this discussion. I should narrow it down.

What do you want it to be?

Part of my research for my graduation project was creating my own local file-sharing network with a little TP-link router. I was planning on visualising the traffic on the network and using the network to store parts of information I gathered. I'd like to continue on with the network, with partly a different content and focus.

The new focus will be the power play online that in my opinion uses the technological mystification of the internet to control it's users. I want to address this within a self-contained network, which gives the users some independence from the world wide web and makes them see that power play. Maybe play themselves. Shift power, increase power, delete power.

I would also like it to be a place where I could tinker with my new-born Python knowledge and I would be interested in the influence and potential anarchy formed by other students who can acces it.

What are you working on now?

I am starting my self-directed research by recreating the local WiFi network with the router and getting to know the language it responds to again. I'm planning on doing some tests with python to maybe do any kind of visualisation if that works out.

Until now I managed to destroy the router completely... So I know now what not to do.

How do you plan to make it?

Through a combination of learning new relevant coding languages and applying them, reading books/essays about network (culture) for instance and a lot of testing.

Literature:
Black Transparency - Metahaven
--> 'NSA digital parenthood', 'Alexander (former head of NSA) is a pseudo-amiable human incarnation of neo-Stalinism'

--> Hard power + soft power. New: Network power.

Understanding Cyberspace Cartographies - Martin Dodge
A Prehistory of the Cloud - Tung-Hui Hu ......more

Why do you want to make it?

I feel this urge to be more independent of the web, mainly because I feel big corporations and governments have more and more influence over it, till there is nothing left but a new control mechanism. I see technology become some form of the telescreen George Orwell described in 1948. I guess I'm also searching for a way to be in total control of the network protocols and my own privacy within the network I use.

Who can help you and how?

For the coding parts I think Michael, Aymeric and André have lots of knowledge I could use to help me get started or figure out parts I'm not familiar with, but also talk about the protocols of the network. I would also really like to talk to Annet for example about the ways the network could be a library, a database or a documentation.

I think I can use help of anyone to keep me on track and to figure out what it is that I really want to show, because I get distracted by all kinds of interesting subtopics quite easily and tend to make my subject even bigger.

Relation to previous practice

As I described before, this really is the continuation of a side-project I tried to do before and dropped. I think in a lot of my work I am constantly trying to figure out who has what power and why. And is this justified or not? Can and/or should we escape from this?

Relation to a larger context

(working on this)

References

Algoritmic Citizenship: www.citizen-ex.com

Piratebox: www.piratebox.cc

Deaddrops: www.deaddrops.com

Autonomy Cube - Trevor Paglen, Jacob Appelbaum

http://phantomterrains.com

....more

And lastly my own project (Internet Switching Policies): http://pleungremmen.nl/#

# PPC (Post Pop Culture)

Introduction

This is a collaboration with a DJ and a filmmaker / VJ who want to create a new series of events in Arnhem that are supposed to be a combination of a digital art exposition and a dance party. They created or work for successful events like the recurring Dagschotel and De nacht van Brigant. They asked me to do the graphic design and I will hopefully try to do some VJing in the future. The focus will be to create a new scene in Arnhem around digital interactive media.

What are you working on now?

I'm developing the identity and exploring what 'post pop culture' could mean. I for example wrote a quick piece about it. I'm learning about 3D techniques right now, because I want to involve this in the imagery of the project.

PPC