Workshop: The Network as Material

This workshop is part of the Subtle Technologies Festival 2011.

Saturday May 28 - Monday May 30, 9:00am to 5:30pm

We're proud to be co-presenting this workshop with DDiMIT.

In this workshop media artist Julian Oliver guides participants through an in depth study of the network as a medium for creating art. The workshop explores the many tools available for interrogating and manipulating data over both wired and wireless networks. Most of these tools are typically reserved for IT specialists, however this workshop puts them in the hands of artists. From sculpting data to turning network traffic into sound, poetry and images the participant will gain a deep appreciation for networks and the vast terrain they provide for artistic intervention and creation. (See detailed workshop outline below.)

NB: Each participant must bring their own laptop and blank USB key.

About the instructor: Julian Oliver is a New Zealand born media artist based in Berlin. He has presented papers and projects at many museums, international electronic-art events and conferences, including the Tate Modern, Transmediale, Ars Electronica and the Japan Media Arts Festival. His work has received several awards, ranging across technical excellence, artistic invention and interaction design. He has given numerous workshops and master classes in game-design, artistic game-development, object-oriented programming for artists, UNIX/Linux, virtual architecture, interface design, augmented reality and open source development practices worldwide.

About DDiMIT: DDiMIT stands for “Designing Digital Media for the Internet of Things.” Departing from the traditional model of the hackerspace, DDiMIT is an “organization of organizations,” a virtual and physical space where Ontario companies, academic institutions, and community organizations can leverage their joint knowledge and skills to explore, learn and create for the ‘Internet of Things.’ The DDiMIT partnership catalyzes development and research around how our data-connected world is increasingly moving off the screen and into the everyday world of objects, buildings and activities.

Workshop plan:

Day 1 (Saturday May 28, 9:00am - 5:00pm)

Hours 1 to 3: Introduction

                Network as landscape

                Network topologies

                Meteorology of a network

                Demonstrations using UNIX utilities

Hours 3 to 6: Data structures

                The OSI layers

                The Anatomy of a Network Packet

                Ports and protocols

                Network archaeology

                Demonstrations using UNIX utilities and Python Scapy 

Hours 6 to 8: Introduction to wireless networking

                Understanding WiFi as a radio device

                Tuning in: Monitoring third party traffic

Day 2 (Sunday May 29, 9:00am - 5:00pm)

Hours 1 to 3: Network packet capture and dissection

                Packet tracing

                Packet capture using libPCAP

                Packet analysis using Scapy 

Hours 3 to 4: Network states

                The content of a network

                Network as file-system

Hours 4 to 6: Packet Creation:

                Network packet poetry

                Network packet actions

                Network packet sculpture

                Demonstrations using UNIX utilities and Python Scapy 

Hours 6 to 8: Network as graphic material

                Drawing with networks

                Demonstrations using Python Scapy and several third party tools

Day 3 (Monday May 30, 9:00am - 5:00pm)

Hours 1 to 4: Packet capture and data reconstruction

                How to view any image another network user is resourcing

                How to view any webpage another network user is resourcing

                Sonification of network chat (Facebook, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo)

Hours 4 to 7: Ruling the network

                Man In The Middle interventions

                Manipulating network sessions of users

                                * DNS spoofing / URL redirection

                                * Realtime Image swapping

                                * Realtime chat text manipulation

Hours 7 to 8: Closing session

                The network as material