HYPERTHREAD explores the hidden infrastructure that makes our digital connections feel seamless.
It seems impossible to comprehend that a key press from your keyboard sends a signal that travels through the sea, into space and back down again to the smartphone in the pocket of your friend, colleague, lover, boss, or internet forum nemesis.
In 2006, US Senator Ted Stevens used the term 'a series of tubes' to describe the internet when opposing network neutrality (the idea that internet service providers should not charge companies for faster speeds).
This term was ridiculed as an outdated and incorrect metaphor for the internet.
'Red thread of fate' is a belief from Chinese mythology that two destined lovers are forever connected by a red thread that runs from the finger of one to another. This explanation of love is about as apt as describing the internet as 'a series of tubes.'
As the internet serves as a conduit through which almost any message can be sent, HYPERTHREAD tells the story of these messages sent and received. Whether we think of the internet as a series of tubes or as a network of red threads that connect us all.
https://ncm.org.au/exhibitions/hyperthread
