Rebuilding the Internet
What is the internet?
What are the key factors of the internet?
How does the internet play a role in our lives?
These are key questions we considered when putting together our piece. The fundamental characteristics of the internet are it’s ability to connect us all while it is constantly evolving into something greater. It is simple, yet sophisticated. It is organized, yet a mess.
These are the principles we wanted to show in our work. We decided to create our work on a white board in order to symbolize it’s ability to change into something new — something better — within seconds. The word “internet” is colored in order to look like the world because of the it’s ability to reach all around the globe. This enables us to connect with anyone and everyone from anywhere around the world. At first glance, the lines behind the word are a chaotic mess. But when one takes a look closer, the lines are sharp and have complex twists and turns. This conveys the complexity and precision of the internet. There still is a singular line below the word connecting a phone and a computer to display how to most of us, the internet doesn’t really seem that complex. It is so ingrained into our day to day life that everything is a push of a button — yet we don’t pay much attention to what it took to make that button in the first place.
Perhaps the most interesting part about our work is that without the internet, I could not have done it. I am in quarantine right now, without access to the materials needed to complete a project like this one. So, I collaborated with Cailyn Tripp on this project. We brainstormed and worked on design ideas over Facetime, which would not have been possible without the internet. As our piece suggests, the calls made in the creation of our piece seem so simple and easy, but they would not be possible without the intricate network that makes up the internet.
