Ports Proposal, as submitted to Scan as application for the Ninepin residency.

ports - an investigation into virtual and real ports

real ports - harbour cities, and the connections they establish for travel and transport, but also the histories of local communities that have formed under the influence of the ports activities and their infrastructures. keywords - migration, borders, minorities, languages, monuments, installations

virtual ports - a method used by the internet protocoll to provide names for different communication processes.(*). port numbers are recorded in log files of internet hosts. analysis of log files allows conclusions about patterns of usage. keywords - file sharing, chatting, monitoring, privacy

mapping virtual and real ports

RDF - resource description framework, is a new meta-language for websites that allows to describe any entity in a formally structured way. RDF applications therefore have also been called "semantic web". information collected in real ports and virtual ports can be combined with/mapped onto each other.

mobile writing

exploring the city, making observations, engaging in conversations, writing notes

the kit

a small mobile computer, like a compaq ipac or the smallest vaio, a radio network card and a gps

like a writer sitting in a cafe and making notes, just that this notebook is a little bit different. besides text it can record audio and images (video also possible but considered unnecessary overhead for this project). it also records the exact location where each note is written. the written notes can be attached to visual representations - virtual maps on the net. the radio network card sniffs the air for wireless network signals. if a connection can be made, the identity of the host computer and its ports are logged.

Using RDF a map is getting created that contains stories, sounds, images which are interlinked with spatial information and virtual research results.

my motivation

the project draws from a number of earlier ideas and research that i have done over the last 12 months. During Dutch Electronic Arts Festival DEAF, Rotterdam 2003 a simple log-files analysis project was created (http://log.v2.nl/). recently i have written a non-fiction book about free (wireless) networks. research done for the book has given me some clues and ideas about digital cartography. last not least i am a writer. i like going to places and find out things, get to know stories, people. the mobile writing kit would enable me to do that in a much more effective way. embedding my notes and records into a rdf-semantic web landscape is the most experimental and challenging aspect.

if the method proofs to be feasable it can be extended to a number of applications. groups - local communities - could be equipped with similar gear and write mobile community logs in a semantic web environment aggregating their content into collective resources.

'ports' is looking into traffic of goods, information and people, trying to map out their relations and transitions. as a research residency, this would be an ideal opportunity to evaluate the ideas and the technology, make field research and start with a few exploratory journies in ports around the south of England.

practicalities

i am thinking of coming to 2 or 3 port cities, Portsmouth, Southampton and Poole for a duration of between 2 and 5 days each. at the start of each stay it would be good to have a small event at the host institution where i can explain the project and the methodology in order to find collaborators, get background information about places, etc..