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.
