v 1.0.0 - June 2002
+++------- Synopsis
"All media are active metaphores in their power to translate experience into new forms"
- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding media -
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The basis of this work is the "Carnivore" engine, a software application wich listens to all internet traffic on a specific local network. Carnivore was created by RSG and has won Golden Nica at Ars Electronica and an honorable mention at read_me 1.2.
We use the data it gives us to work out visual compositions and a sound feedback.
The data we have used is the ip address. We made a script that gets the ip address ("aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd"), and breaks it down into four different groups of numbers ("aaa", "bbb","ccc", "ddd"). These elements are used as coordinates for 3D shapes and blending percentages ("x", "y", "z", "blend").
We chose the ip address because it's the main data that identifies an internet relationship. Users identify their interaction by requesting ip addresses, even if they're not aware of it. Each ip address flowing over the net could be thought of as a human action, a communication, or an experience.
We are not mainly interested in the medium content but rather in the data flow itself, as the basic cell of the net.
This piece of work, therefore, lets us see and hear the data flow, which is something that we normally can't perceive. This lets us see the net as a huge data field that is constantly moving, like a digital life-form that feeds itself with human interaction.
As far as the sound goes we used Pure-Data, an open source software written by Miller Puckette.
Though we're not musicians we worked out a PD patch that "sounds" the data flow. This patch should be thought of as an example for PD's advanced users to create more complex sound patches. We'll accept any patch and make them public in order to let you download them.
This work is mentioned as example at the course of Spatial Dataforming at Columbia University - Architecture Department.
>> View screenshots and Quick Time Movie
+++------- System requirements
- To make Active_Metaphor run you must have Carnivore PE on your machine or have it installed on one of your network machines. See below to download it.
- To get the sound feedback you must have Pure-Data on your machine or have it installed on one of your network machine. See below to download it. You need Pure-Data only to have the sound feedback, Active_Metaphor can run (in "silent" mode) even if you don't use it.
+++------- Download
[A_M.zip (2,3 Mb)] Pc version.
It runs either on localhost or giving it a different IP to connect to.
[A_M.sit (2,5 Mb)] Mac OS 9 version.
This version needs to have an ip address to connect to Carnivore and PD running on a Pc on your network.
[A_M_X.sit (2,5 Mb)] Mac OS X version.
This version needs to have carnivore for Os X running onto your machine.
[Step by step instructions]
About CARNIVORE PE and download it:
[Carnivore PE] PC and Os X
About PURE_DATA and download it:
[Pure-Data] Only for Pc
