网络游者
--握手之旅
2019-2021
网络游者是一个研究项目，其出发点在于探索中国互联网关键网关与运行这些网关的基础设施之间的联系。艺术家利用网络诊断工具追踪特定网关的IP地址及其地理位置。通过这种方式，艺术家勾勒了一幅中国互联网主权边界的防火墙代理地图。
中国防火墙的主要任务是延缓并审查跨境互联网数据，并阻断一些特定的网站。该项目研究了互联网边界是如何构建并用以保护网络主权的，以及此边界可以被如何观察与感知。艺术家通过查找并探访一部分运行防火墙长城的基建的地理位置，试图揭露中国互联网基础设施背后的技术、文化和意识形态的纠葛。
曾经人们将互联网设想为一个不受国界限制的乌托邦式全民空间。而在现实中，网络与现实世界的地域性交织在一起，正如艺术家以一个游客的身份，游览中国防火墙长城（GFW）的网络基础设施的难以捉摸的站点。在此装置中，用户成为虚拟的防火墙长城游客，当进入被GFW封锁的网站时，就会进入一个游戏并提交用户名。随后，一台特制的壁挂式CNC机器会将用户名和游戏分数连同GFW节点的IP地址一起刻在墙上，同时电脑屏幕会呈现艺术家探访防火墙长城基建的地理位置时所录制的影片。
此作品受Digital Earth 学术奖金项目委托完成
The Net Wanderer
- A tour of suspended handshakes
2019-ongoing
The Net Wanderer is a research project that explores the connection between the critical network gateways in China and the infrastructure running these gateways. Guo Cheng uses computer network diagnostic tools that track GFW nodes of the Chinese Internet to get their IP addresses and geographic locations. In this way, the artist creates a map of firewall proxies that block Chinese users from roaming the Internet freely.
Main tasks of the Chinese firewall are to slow down cross-border Internet traffic and to block some foreign websites. The project investigates how borders have been constructed to protect cyber sovereignty, and how it can be observed. By mapping the giant wall and physically visiting some of those geolocations, Guo Cheng seeks to expose the entanglement of technology, culture and ideology behind China's Internet infrastructure.
The utopian idea of the Internet was that of a universal space for all, unbound by borders. In reality, networks are intertwined with real-world territoriality, as the artist shows by taking on the role of a tourist visiting the elusive sites hosting the network infrastructures of the Great Firewall of China (GFW). The installation lets users become virtual firewall tourists, entering websites of choice that if blocked by the GFW, take them to a game that allows them to submit their usernames. A custom-made wall-mounted machine then engraves the names and scores along with the IP address of a GFW node, while footage shows Guo Cheng using geolocation data to track the physical location of the firewall’s network gateway.
The work was originally commissioned within the Digital Earth fellowship program.
For more info:
A Tour of Suspended Handshakes(an essay by GUO Cheng)
握手之旅项目自述
A Universal View From Nowhere: Tracing the Boundaries of Digital Space(an essay by Heba Y. Amin)
The Net Wanderer Installation View
The Net Wanderer film still
To view the The Net Wanderer online
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