Adam McFillin

Adam McFillin is an artist engaged in producing performance and installation works that investigate protocol, power and structure in communications networks. His works are often heavily sound-based and have focused on exposing the materiality of signal (Music for AT Musicians) and the abstraction of protocol (D:I:V:I:S:O:N, Loopback).

Adam also channels his enthusiasm for user-controlled networks into his CTRLYROWN project, which aims to engage the likeminded and curious in talks, workshops and online knowledge sharing.

Adam received an MFA from the Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo and a Bachelor of Information Technology from Queensland University of Technology.

Exhibiting

ETHER/OR: AN ETHERNET MOVIE

ETHER/OR: AN ETHERNET MOVIE uses Ethernet frames as if they were frames of celluloid film. That is, holders of single, self-contained images that when transmitted at the right speed create a moving image.

A pre-prepared set of Ethernet frames will be transmitted on to a physical network loop, to be forwarded endlessly. The frames will be transmitted at a rate as close as possible to 291.456 kbps, or 24 frames per second, the same speed at which 35mm film is recorded and played.

The continuously looping stream will be displayed to a monitor, split between a ‘raw’ tcpdump-esque view and a decoded view that displays the payload of each frame (an image crafted specifically to fit inside the frame).

ETHER/OR’s structural approach to network infrastructure aims to extend the use of networks beyond their utilitarian function, and by exposing both the frame’s contents and structural format, draw attention to the oft-unnoticed presence of protocol.