Netsound
The Sounds of Traffic in the World Wide Web

1999

Sensorium Group (JP)

Two small loudspeakers positioned facing one another; two tiny flags on them—one Japanese, one Austrian; and between them, the visitor, into whose ear canals two ethereal tonal streams flow.

"Netsound" transmits the "noise level" made by the traffic cruising the data highway. The frequencies and intensities of the data being sent back and forth are translated into tones, whereby different file formats and data packets produce contrasting sounds. The right loudspeaker puts out message traffic from the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s data processing network; the net sounds of the Ars Electronica Center are beamed forth from the left one.

Prix Ars Electronica 1997: Golden Nica in the category .net