In the second decade of the twenty-first century, networks continue to be defined by their stable topology represented in an image or graph. Peer-to-peer technologies promised new arrangements absent centralized control, but they still rely on stationary devices. Mobile phones remain wedded to conventional network providers.

Instead, the combination of peer-to-peer with mobility enables a new concept of an information transfer infrastructure that relies on fluid, temporary, ad-hoc networks. People and devices are at once implicated as mobile nodes in this network (known in computer science as a sneakernet).

Fluid Nexus bypasses Internet intermediaries’ control over the identification and circulation of messages. This makes Fluid Nexus an important tool for activists. Access to the data stored by Fluid Nexus requires a search warrant for your own devices—or another device running the software. No identifying information regarding the sender is attached to a message, putting the sender in control. And in conjunction with other software such as ObscuraCam identities can be further obfuscated as desired or necessary.

In the event that information needs to reach a broad audience, we’ve added another feature called the Nexus. The Nexus is a space on this site for “public” messages to be automatically uploaded by any Fluid Nexus user. The Nexus includes text, audio, images, and video capabilities. The sender has control whether the message will become public or not.

For more information on Fluid Nexus, see the paper “Transnetworks and the Fluid Nexus Project”, forthcoming in Fall 2011 in the proceedings of dis/connecting/media 2009.

Föhnseher rises from the scrap heap of analog TV. Unlike other televisions, Föhnseher captures and displays images downloaded by people on surrounding local wireless networks.

Other people’s phones, laptops and tablet computers all become broadcast stations for this device, replacing the forgotten television towers of old.

The name föhnseher derives from fernseher, the German word for television, and the föhn, a strange warm wind known to the south of Germany. The words have a very similar pronunciation.

Föhnseher (Seer of Warm Winds) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

Related project, using radio as metaphor, wifio.

REMOTE NEWS ALTERATION: By using our new registration-free online service, a Newstweek device plugged into a wall at a cafe, library, school or elsewhere can now be controlled remotely using a simple browser interface. Any number of devices can be controlled in this manner.

OVERVIEW:

“Media is the nervous system of a democracy; if it’s not functioning well, the democracy can’t function.” - Jeff Cohen, Founding Director of the Park Center for Independent Media

While news is increasingly read digitally, it still follows a top-down distribution model and thus often falls victim to the same political and corporate interests that have always sought to manipulate public opinion.

Newstweek intervenes upon this model, providing opportunity for citizens to have their turn to manipulate the press; generating propaganda or simply ‘fixing facts’ as they pass across a wireless network. As such, Newstweek can be seen as a tactical device for altering reality on a per-network basis.

Newstweek also signals a word of caution, that a strictly media-defined reality is a vulnerable reality; that along the course of news distribution there are many hands at work, from ISP workers, numerous server administrators and wireless access point owners.

Moreso, with the increasing ubiquity of networks and their devices comes greater ignorance as to their function, offering a growing opportunity for manipulation of opinion, from source to destination.

Hotspots manipulable by Newstweek include cafes, libraries, hotels universities and city-wide wireless access points.

http://newstweek.com/overview
http://vimeo.com/23075736

As our last project video was deleted from video (for reasons we don’t know) we provide a backup version here.

RECENT PRESS:

“Newstweek [...] is one of the most elegantly conceived and executed network art projects in the past few years, if not in the brief history of computational art.” - Vague Terrain

http://vagueterrain.net/content/2011/01/newstweek-network-permeability-and-headline-hacking
http://www.imperica.com/features/newstweek
http://blogs.computerworld.com/1782/hackers_use_hidden_device_to_manipulate_news_at_wi_fi_hotspots
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/newstweek-hacks-free-public-wifi_n_826510.html

Immaterials: Light painting WiFi from Timo on Vimeo.

Newstweek: Network Permeability and Headline Hacking by Joshua Noble on Vague Terrain.

Newstweek: fixing the facts. from newstweek on Vimeo.

“So the whole question comes down to this: Can the human mind master what the human mind has made?” - Paul Valery

Newstweek, the newest project from Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev, is one of the most elegantly conceived and executed network art projects in the past few years, if not in the brief history of computational art. It exists as a simple box, plugged into the wall in any public space that has a wifi access point, that executes what is called a man-in-the-middle attack, essentially, an undetected interception, injecting data into the communication between the wireless router and a client. A user accesses their favorite news site in a web browser and everything appears normal, logo and banners in the correct place, URL the same as always, but the headlines are outrageous, bizarre, and comical. A small hidden device that can be remotely accessed rewrites any selected text en route from the wireless router to your computer. The question quickly becomes: how much do we trust our news sources? When the BBC or the New York Times spouts drivel, how do we treat that drivel? What are the boundaries of this trust and how do you evaluate them in the face of absurdity?

In the networked age connectivity is infrastructure, a fundamental element in the structuring of space for both working and for relaxation, as key as seating, walls, and roofs. So ubiquitous are wireless networks and so automatic is our use of them to read and communicate that the mechanics disappear, leaving the illusion of an un-interrupted and un-moderated stream of information flowing to us through our laptop. The coffee-shop laptop has taken the ritualistic position of the morning newspaper, increasingly where we contact the organizations that inform our view of the world. So it presents the perfect opportunity for a functional intervention, in the situationist vein, to create an opportunity to see anew that which has become invisible through familiarity. It’s what great art is supposed to do. So many agencies, governments, and corporations already inject alterations that into the news that we read, the cynic asks: why not allow another? One wonders which is more dangerous: the illusion of the sacrosanct news source or the illusion of the impermeable network. As the Oliver and Vasiliev address and investigate both: “a strictly media informed reality is a vulnerable reality” and “part of our project is to signal an educational alert to this extent. A wireless card on a phone or computer is actually technically referred to as a ‘radio device’ for a reason. All one needs to know is how to ‘tune in’.” Indeed, the elements, site and network, become nakedly visible only when tweaked.

The device itself as well is nearly invisible when put in use. They explain: “This particular device was conceptualized during the Chaos Computer Club’s 27th congress, last year in Berlin. We installed an ‘invisible’ wall plug in the building, emitting a vast amount of wireless beacons, and found that it went physically unnoticed for days. We realized we were onto something, that an innocuous plug like this, with a tiny enough computer, could appear as part of the infrastructure, part of the building, commanding to be treated as such.” As the device itself vanishes into the infrastructure, it exposes the infrastructures upon which it acts. Most technology is visible and legible in the same measure as a iceberg: only the top floats above the water, visible. The rest is hidden to us, but just as real and relevant. Critical computational artworks derive their power and beauty from aestheticizing and making visible and comprehensible those invisible or unknown elements of the role that technology plays in our lives. In that it creates a fascinating relationship between art and infrastructure, Newstweek does this beautifully: pranking, questioning, and revealing. As a device, both a physical object and a node on a network, can be seen as a mediating object between art practice and engineering practice, just as a mediating object between client and network. The critical practice that Oliver and Vasiliev are engaged in, much like that of Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Heath Bunting, is equally an investigation into the psychological reality of networked culture and an eloquent art practice.

Ghumakkad Baaja is a demonstration of an open and unregulated way of doing audio transmissions along with discussions about transmissions, public networks and “selling air”.

* Can we be active broadcasters and not just passive consumers? * Can we create and share audio/video content in a widely accessible way? * Could there be a platform much like satellite T.V, but in an on-the-move outdoor friendly format without needing a multi-crore license?

We plan to use an amplified and meshed version of 2.4 ghz (Wi-fi) transmission. This micro-wave segment of spectrum is not radio-waves. We are doing this through high powered 4 Watt ERP transmitter-antennas, at city scale, to make unregulated open-to-air audio broadcasting. We are also developing a low-cost device which can receive these audio broadcasts on the move. Leveraging the potential of an open community of content creators, existing professionals, we will be populating multiple channels of community, local and entertainment content on this infrastructure.

India has a heavily regulated and censored radio-spectrum use policy for broadcasters. There are no ways for people to create and share audio content in a widely-accessible way. Internet-radio is not localized due to bandwidth access. Community radio is very restrictive, low power and does not allow news and political content.

The radio industry is dominated by commercial music syndicates and public bodies which restricts the kind of content possibilities. In comparison, other media (like TV, print, Internet) has much more diversity to offer. Audio platforms have remained mostly one-way, and have not exploited opportunities of p2p broadcasting networks.

A meshed Wi-fi local network (wireless ethernet) offering audio content on a low cost device, so that news, local content and entertainment in audio form can be accessed widely. The use of amplified wi-fi bandwidth delivers high speed, interactive audio content city-wide.

Our solution will provide a platform much like satellite TV, but on audio and in a on-the-move, outdoor-friendly format. The solution will inherently be capable of being used for p2p data exchange and audio streaming. This will enable people to be active broadcasters and not just passive consumers of information.

City as Studio: EXB 10.03 is showing works by:

Prayas Abhinav
Shamsher Ali
Love Anand
Hemant Babu
Konrad Bayer
Ram Bhat
Nabina Das
Neelofer
Gaigongmei Gangmei
Goutam Ghosh
Deepankar Gohain
Niha Masih
Suraj Rai
Ish S
Nishant Sharma

Realised by Iram Ghufran, Amitabh Kumar
Produced at Sarai Media Lab, Sarai- CSDS
June 2010

Exhibition Timings:
11 am to 5 pm
Monday to Friday from June 18 to July 14, 2010

For details on the works, go here.

The workshop aims to discover and unveil the non-static and invisible border lines in a productive and critical manner. Workshop participants are (media) artists, but also concerned citizen from the Ruhr area, invited through an open call. In addition public lectures on Saturday July 30th from 4pm to 8pm by artists and researchers my provide substantial insight into current developments. To address the dynamics of the current situation, the workshops’ outcome will be published later on in a software based project.

CONTEXT: In everyday reality borders appear through mapping, but also through the use of signs and labels. They are always a realization of power relations, sometimes brutal and visible, sometimes more subtle but still effective.

Through her research the American theoretician Prof. Lisa Parks – professor of film and media studies at the University of Santa Barbara, California – dealt with satellite footprints and more generally with wireless media infrastructure. [1] A footprint is that area, where a certain satellite can be received. According to Lisa Parks an important but invisible demarcation is created by the area where a certain satellite TV-program can be received, especially important for migrants who rely on information accessibility from their country of region of origin.

Lisa Parks, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara, where she is also an affiliate of the Departments of Art and Feminist Studies. Her research explores different uses of satellite, computer and television technologies in a transnational context. She is the author of Cultures in Orbit: Satellites and the Televisual (Duke University Press 2005) and co-editor of Planet TV: A Global Television Reader (NYU Press 2003)

[1] Parks, Lisa: Cultures in Orbit. Duke University Press, London, 2005]

The workshop continues a series of workshops at HMKV aiming to educate artists and an interested public: How I learned to love RFID (2006) and Satellite Voyeurism (2007), curated by Francis Hunger.

The workshop Satellite/Border/Footprint is funded by Ruhr.2010 in the frame of Grenzgebiet Ruhr, the LAG Soziokultur NRW and by the Cultural Office of the City of Dortmund. Organized by Hartware MedienKunstVerein in the frame of GrenzGebietRuhr.

Artwork Locations:

• Jeremy Bailey: Artwork appears when you attempt to recover your Wireless Toronto account password
• Brian Joseph Davis: The Burger Bar, Harbourfront Centre, Alternative Grounds, Woody’s, Cafe Taste
• Dave Dyment: Teriyaki Experience restaurants: Brampton, Heartland Town Centre, Meadowvale, RioCan Marketplace, Scarborough (Eglinton), Scarborough Town Centre, Smartcentres Morninguard, Smartcentres Vaughan, Dixie Auto Campus
• Willy Le Maitre: 401 Richmond – Roastery Cafe
• Fedora Romita: Dundas Square
• Swintak: St. Lawrence Market

YZO produces, distributes and curates electronic media art through networked exhibitions and site-specific public art projects.

The cutting off access to The Pirate Bay by BT in the UK is just another sign of the beginning of the end. The fact that the Great Firewall of China exists signals that the internet is already obsolete and that the Great Firewall of the US is just around the corner. While moves against net neutrality began years ago and have been fought, nasty laws such as HR4437 and the Total Information Awareness program have a way of coming into existence later in the future, slightly modified, under different names. The internet as we know it, as a place for free exchange of information, as the center of what has been called a second 17th century with new ideas, creativity and innovation emerging daily, is rapidly coming to an end. We must use these last gasps of freedom to route around the disaster and create a truly free network.

How? Advances in wireless technology such as ubiquitous wireless routers, community mesh networks which are easily expandable and self-healing as well as long range wireless efforts such as HPWREN indicate a possible future for a community based internet free of the centralized control of telephone corporations and governments. While this is definitely a fork, more forks are to come and we can only hope that a few networks will emerge which can be broad enough to span most of the globe.

Major questions remain to be solved, such as speed issues, routing issues, DNS control, splits and neutrality. The Autonet, or Autonomous Internet project seems to begin to address this rapidly changing situation, where today Germany has installed internet filtering as well and more countries are to come. While today those cut off are defying copyright laws, tomorrow any other political issue may be the cause for being denied access to global networks. While today the FBI is content to steal servers from information providers like Indymedia, perhaps tomorrow they will not be happy until Indymedia is completely cut off of the network, or other open sources of information such as blogs, twitter accounts and social networks of dissident groups.

The popular revolt in Iran and subsequent disruption of network access by the Iranian government is only a glimpse of what is to come in the US and around the world, where the first line of attack against political resistance is to cut off network access. By establishing a community based, wireless, global network we can allow groups of individuals, not corporations, to maintain freedom of communication; We can create out right to communicate instead of asking for it, and continue to route around obsolete intellectual property laws which restrict our dreams and our creativity. Join this effort by going to http://alt-bit.org and contributing to this research, lets start outlining the problems, finding the technical solutions and work out the issues, collectively, as a Free Software / Open Hardware project, using open licensing.

Another urgent reason for Autonet is one that has motivated Free Software hackers for so long: Technological progress without a reliance on corporate support. Given the current financial and economic crises, how long can we expect dinosaurs like phone companies to survive? If one of these crises turns into disaster, the consequence is likely to be the disruption or collapse of the global networks on which we rely. I am not ready to give up what has been gained from these networks, including a worldwide communication between political actors empowered through fast information flows. We must start this long, difficult project today so that we may be ready for unexpected dangers which threaten our capability to communicate as a multitude, globally.

To add to the project, go to http://trac.alt-bit.org/wiki/projects/autonet

To sign up to participate, go to http://trac.alt-bit.org/register

-djlotu5

-chead

Initial Thoughts

“Was discussing pirate radio things with Micha, and I was wondering how hard it would be to create a viable, high-speed, wireless Darknet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_internet). For a few hundred dollars you can buy off-the-shelf gear to create an omni-directional WiFi signal that should go a few miles over relatively flat terrain. To create a proper “Darknet” obviously there would have to be at least one DNS server, etc. RadioLabs (http://radiolabs.com) seems to be the best when it comes to consumer-grade high-gain, omni-directional antennas and amps. Another set-up would be point-to-point long-range links between nodes and omni-directional access-points (so users could hop on the network without running a node). The idea being that there would be NO connection to the commercial Internet (that is, it would not be tied into any ISP). And obviously the more nodes there are, the less terrain becomes an issue, so if this sort of thing took off, it could be amazing, even just on the local level.”

-chead

Features

• Omni-directional and point-to-point 802.11b links
• Unmodified TCP stack
• LAMP nodes
• Not directly linked to the commercial internet?
• Distributed DNS?

Resources

Radiolabs.com: 802.11b antennas, amps

Wikipedia: “Dark Internet”

Distributed DNS project

Related Projects

HPWREN