Type: Interactive Installation
Role: Concept, Design & Fabrication
Former US Senator Ted Stevens was once ridiculed for referring the Internet a "series of tubes". But could this idea actually help us better understand the Internet? Or was this really just an over ambitious fever dream project to see how much shit I could hang from the ceiling of the lab?
History may never know, but the Internet of Tubes is a functional messaging system that relies on air pressure and pneumatic tubes to transmit 16 character messages (constructed from labelled ping-pong balls) between three distinct spaces of the ATLAS BTU Lab.
Senders use a colored "address" ball that is read by a color sensor on a sorting mechanism in the center of the network, which triggers a series of gates that direct the message to its final destination. In the event that a message is addressed incorrectly, the balls shoot out all over the room.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/561614ba-1632-4c84-9d85-d8af9d9a3aff/dc3cfd01-0bbb-4ba1-bfdf-bb1846379414_rw_3840.jpeg?h=2bac0fd2a194e3941b4314efb0a5dda7)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/561614ba-1632-4c84-9d85-d8af9d9a3aff/b522fd69-c8e4-4d8d-abd3-3f8ad562883b_rw_1920.jpeg?h=143f7b9c05505255bf255632b20390e9)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/561614ba-1632-4c84-9d85-d8af9d9a3aff/fb564231-12f4-4c51-974b-45bb9c95727b_rw_3840.jpeg?h=0e45e2658408d95f25cefdb89c584597)