The Interconnected Object: Are You at Home in a Network?

Abstract

Interconnected devices and objects pervade our everyday lives with an increasing trend. These digital objects, connected through wireless and cable networks, exchange information in various levels, producing diverse types of interactions between them and their users. The paper explores the aspect of interconnectivity as a key-attribute of the contemporary digital artefacts that populate our everyday environments. It explores the notion of home, place and network by focusing on the effects of digital interconnectivity in the way we perceive private and public space. In this context, “HOME network”, a collaborative project, is presented. The project is a portable, netless (without an Internet connection) Wi-Fi network, a free access unlocked digital platform, transmitting within the urban environment of various cities during a series of specific time periods and events. The artists carry the network through space and time, as an unrevealed, private, performative act within the realm of the public urban space, leaving only temporary transmitted digital traces/data within the vicinity of the transmission range, thus producing interactions and exploring the boundaries between the private and the public, the physical and the digital space and challenging the notion of surveillance in urban environments. New action patterns are introduced, which look into new ways of performing the physicality of the body within a digital nomadism. At the same time the artists address themes and invite the visitors of the network to engage, participate in and reflect on commonly shared experiences and contemporary questions regarding our sense of belonging in both the private and the public sphere.