Wetnerk:
an invitation to engage with
local
computer networks through sound
Nicole
Carlsson
Interaction Design
Master’s Programme (One-year)
15 credits
Spring 2017
ABSTRACT
This paper presents Wetnerk, a Research through Design portable local computer network sonification
artifact designed with a Reflective Design approach. Wetnerkexplores how we might sonically engage
with local computer network characteristics. The aim is to reveal hidden qualities of a local computer
network, normally undetectable by human senses. Specifically Wetnerkattempts to invite people to
engage in novel ways with their local area network. It does so by probing the network ports, analyzing
the result from an information security perspective and subsequently sonifying the results. A preliminary
pilot study indicates that people are so unaware of local computer network characteristics that they
have trouble perceiving any of its qualities beyond its mere existence. Wetnerkshows promise in
supporting people to critically reflect on and question this low awareness. In some cases curiosity is
ignited sparking a desire to further engage with qualities of a local network in more novel ways than the
current norm.
Keywords
Transparency, critical reflection, digital literacy, reflective design, tangible interaction, portable local
1. INTRODUCTION: AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1
2. BACKGROUND 2
2.1 Invisible computing 3
2.2 Reflective Design 3
2.3 Local area network data as design material 4
2.4 Sonification 7 2.5 Sound generation 8 2.6 Related work 9 3. METHODOLOGY 12 3.1 Project plan 13 4. DESIGN PROCESS 13 4.1 Exploration 14
4.2 Conceptual Discovery | Portable 17
4.3 Conceptual discovery | Data to sound mapping 18
4.4 Synthesis | Integration 19
4.5 Exploratory study | Wetnerking 21
5. MAIN RESULTS AND FINAL DESIGN 23
6. REFLECTION / DISCUSSION 25 6.1 Wetnerk 25 6.2 Design process 27 7. CONCLUSION 27 7.1 Perspective 27 8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 27 REFERENCES 28 APPENDIX A 31 APPENDIX B 33
1. INTRODUCTION: AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In western contemporary society, computer networks surround us in our daily lives. Despite this, our
direct interactions with these networks are limited. Mainly we enter a WiFi password to gain Internet
access with a set-and-forget mentality and leave it at that. These networks and the data in flux are for
the most part physically invisible and an abstract concept to us humans. Considering the impact these
computer networks have, (e.g. socially, economically and politically) most of us know little about them.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the worldwide web, voiced concern regarding its current state. He
identified three worrying trends: “(1) We’ve lost control of our personal data (2) It’s too easy for
misinformation to spread on the web (3) Political advertising online needs transparency and
understanding” (Berners-Lee, 2017). Knowing more matters. Information is power. There is a knowledge
gap leading to power imbalance. Companies are collecting our digital traces for commercial purposes
while obscuring us from perceiving and understanding the underlying structures of how and when this
data collection is done (Christl and Spiekermann, 2016).
Regulation and accountability have not kept up with the advent of new technologies driven by economic
considerations. One could argue that the rights of the public have been neglected. Baldini et. al (2016)
argue that “even though public awareness about privacy risks in the Internet is increasing, in the
evolution of the Internet to the Internet of Things these risks are likely to become more relevant due to
the large amount of data collected and processed by the Things”. Additionally there is a digital divide to
contend with. Not everyone is at the required level of technical skill or knowledge to develop an
informed opinion on the matter. Moreover, there are psychological bias issues where we have a hard
time making decisions based on long term goals versus current immediate needs and therefore agree to
share our data for free services without considering the long-term effects (ibid.).
In light of the fast pace of the computerization of all facets of life (e.g. banking, cars, healthcare and
warfare etc), information security guru Bruce Schneier argues that the time has come for everyone of us
to collectively care about and begin to tackle complex issues such as: privacy, freedom, fairness and
liberty. He asks “Why do we allow for-profit corporations to create our technological future in ways that
are optimized for their profits and anathema to our own interests?“ (Schneier, 2017).
A wider stakeholder spectrum needs to join in the shaping of our technological future. This requires a
holistically raised level of digital literacy. One small step toward such digital literacy could be raised
transparency and awareness of our everyday immediate local computer networks. Why not make
computer networks in our daily surroundings more perceivable? Why not provide a way to explore their
immateriality and reflect on their mere existence? Why not reflect on who has access to what? What
happens if currently invisible computer networks surrounding us are made more transparent enabling us
This notion could be explored through a variety of modalities. Visualization is an obvious option, but we
are already so bombarded with visual impressions. Sound is, however, an often neglected modality,
which can offer “novel phenomenological and social experiences with and through interactive
technology … Sonic Interaction Design (SID) works with emergent research topics related to
multisensory, performative, and tactile aspects of sonic experience. Yet, it builds on existing knowledge
and themes that have been at the heart of sound discourses for decades, such as the relationship
between sound and location, issues of privacy and power, and the ability of a sounding artifact to
communicate information“ (Serafin & Franinovic, 2013). The development of SID follows the trends of
the so-called third wave of human-computer interaction, where culture, emotion and experience, rather
than solely function and efficiency, are included in the interaction between humans and machines
(Hermann, Hunt, & Neuhoff, 2011).
Based on the discussion above, this thesis will explore the following research questions:
a) How might we sonically engage with local computer networks, which humans cannot normally sense?
b) Does the result of (a) challenge our perceptions of local computer networks?
The aim of this paper is to explore how a wider stakeholder spectrum can engage with local computer
networks through tangible interaction and the modality of sound. The intention is to create an open
invitation to all local network users to engage. This work seeks to provide an alternate way to interact
with and critically reflect on hidden characteristics of a local computer network (LAN). Prototypes will
be designed iteratively and exposed to a real-world home setting in an explorative pilot study. This
study is meant as a first step in supporting critical reflection, for both users and designers, in regards
to privacy and security risks related to an everyday life LAN. The focus is on creating a design space
for reflection-in-use rather than efficiency, i.e. the focus is not on producing an efficient tool or a course
in computer networking.
With a 10 week project and one researcher available, the sound exploration will be confined to general
MIDI format and existing MIDI resources. Composing new MIDI music and designing new sounds is out
of scope for this study. The exploratory pilot user study will not be as in depth as a longer timeframe
would have provided for.
The rest of this thesis is structured as follows. Section 2 provides the background necessary
to understand the research domain. Next, in section 3 the research methodology is discussed.
section 4 presents prototypes along with an exploratory pilot study. The final design concept
is presented in section 5 of which section 6 offers a discussion. Lastly, in section 7 this work
concludes and recommendations for future work are provided.
2. BACKGROUND
This section provides the theoretical frameworks and academic state of the art relating to this thesis
on the topics of hidden aspects of surrounding computer networks and interactive sonification.
2.1 Invisible computing
Computers surround us in western society today. Arnall (2014) observed:
“computing is now truly ‘post-disciplinary’, central to, and re-articulated through the
rhetorics of culture, economics, and politics. However, contemporary visions of technological
development increasingly focus on invisibility and ‘seamlessness’. Invisibility is now often
framed as both an inevitable and desirable quality of interface technology.”
Systems are typically designed to not have an interface, to relieve people from unnecessary cognitive
load. As early as 1991, Weiser stated:
“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the
fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it“.
But as Ratto pointed out (2007), these invisible interfaces bring agency, control and trust issues which
remain unresolved. Already ten years earlier Bellotti (Agre et al., 1997, p. 66 ) highlighted the irony of
invisible computing by noting:
“Ubiquitous computing implies embedding technology unobtrusively within all manner of
everyday objects so that they can potentially transmit and receive information to and from
other objects. The aims are not only to reduce the visibility of the technology but also to
empower its users with more flexible and portable applications to support the capture,
communication, recall, organization, and reuse of diverse information. The irony is that the
unobtrusiveness of such technology both obscures and contributes to its potential for
supporting invasive applications, particularly as users may not even recognize when they are
online in such an environment. Designers must therefore consider carefully how services that
capitalize on such powerful technology can be designed without compromising the privacy of
their users”.
It can be argued that the statements from both Ratto and Bellotti from respectively 10 and 20 years ago,
still ring true. As such, much work indeed still remains on how to tackle agency, control and trust issues
associated with invisible interfaces.
2.2 Reflective Design
Reflective Design, as introduced by Sengers et al. (2005), appears appropriate in providing a framework
for a first step towards the type of design space this project is attempting to open up. Their definition
of reflection is grounded in critical theory, which they state can support new awareness and freedom
for users. Their stance that “technology design practices should support both designers and users in
ongoing critical reflection about technology and its relationship to human life” aligns with this project.
Additionally their definition of “reflection as criticalreflection, or bringing unconscious aspects of
experience to conscious awareness, thereby making them available for conscious choice” (ibid.)
Reflective Design draws upon core principles of Participatory Design but makes a different commitment
in that is also chooses to examine values unconsciously shared between users and designers. This
approach focuses on a practice that opens up for new cultural possibilities. Designers may need to
introduce values and issues which initially do not interest users or may even make them uncomfortable.
This is done by drawing on a list of other critically informed technology design practices such as
Value-Sensitive Design, Critical Design, Ludic Design, Critical Technical Practice and Reflection-in-Action
(Sengers et al., 2005).
This approach relates to local area network issues in that users are generally unaware of its risks,
because of its invisibility and the currently low level of direct interaction most people have with them.
This low level of awareness makes it difficult, if not impossible, to base initial design on user studies.
2.3 Local area network data as design material
In order to work with local computer network data as a design material, a review of network data
characteristics was needed. Network tools to access and analyze the data were also essential.
The Internet and local area networks
In a home environment home users typically buy connectivity from an Internet Service provider (ISP),
which provides access to the Internet. Home users must use a router that acts as a bridge between the
local area network (LAN) and the wide area network (WAN), in this case also the Internet, see fig. 1. The
router will manage the LAN Internet Protocol (IP) address range while the WAN IP (Internet) is managed
by the ISP. These IP addresses are not the same.
Figure 1. Example of a local area network in relation to wide area network
LAN IP addresses
To communicate in a network devices need to locate each other. IP addresses serve this purpose.
A local network environment is confined to the following number of available IP addresses:
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
Ports (software vs. physical)
One should not confuse software ports with physical ports. Physical ports are sockets into which you can
plug a cable. Software ports, however, are a division of an IP address. An analogy would be a hotel
address with a street name, street number and room number. E.g. IP address --> 10.0.0.5:80
10.0.0 --> street
5 --> street number
80 --> port (room number)
Open ports listen for connecting clients.
Services and ports
Different services are associated with a standard port number. Insecure web traffic (HTTP) is usually
accessed by port 80, secure web traffic (HTTPS) by port 443, file transfers (FTP) by port 21 and secure
shell (SSH) by 22. Some ports utilize insecure protocols with unencrypted clear text messages. When
such ports are open they are a security risk and vulnerable to privacy invasion and unauthorized access
by miscreants.
2.3.1 Packets, metadata and payload
When computers communicate via networks, messages are broken up into smaller parts, called packets.
There are mainly two protocols handling this. Firstly, the Transport Communication Protocol (TCP),
handles the process of first disassembling a message into packets and later assembling packets back into
a complete message, upon arrival at the final destination. Secondly, the Internet Protocol (IP) handles
routing to the correct IP address destination. Besides the actual content or "payload" of the message,
TCP/IP packets contain "header data", necessary for successful routing. Fig. 2, shows the wide variety of
data a TCP/IP packet carries. The data inside a packet can be used as a basis for designing a sound
mapping engine that sonically represents a network's unique properties.
A common misconception is that encryption is the "silver bullet" solution to security and privacy
concerns. Network traffic that utilizes secure, i.e. encrypted, protocols may not have the payload, the
actual message, exposed in cleartext. However, the metadata in the packets are still in cleartext and
allows attackers to perform analysis on e.g. which IP addresses are communicating, the frequency of the
communication and geo-location data. Often the metadata is more valuable than the payload data,
which is why spy agencies, such as the NSA, are mostly interested in metadata (Schneier, 2015, p.27).
Packets traveling across networks using insecure cleartext protocols have the payloads exposed. This
means that anyone who can intercept the packets can read the contents of the payloads.
2.3.2 Tools to access the data
TCPdump is a common open-source command-line tool for monitoring (sniffing) network traffic.
It works by capturing and displaying packet headers and can output the result into a text file, see fig. 3.
This allows display of TCP/IP and other packets being transmitted or received over the network to which
the computer is attached. TCPdump sniffs on a network interface, which means that only the packets
that travel through that interface are captured. In order to target victims and sniff their packets, various
man-in-the-middle techniques, such as Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing, can be used to
impersonate a network gateway and reroute traffic via an attacker. However, man-in-the-middle
techniques are not the focus of this project.
Figure 3. Sample Tcpdump capture
This project focuses on network discovery. Nmap (nmap.org) is an open-source utility for network
discovery. It scans the network for attached devices and determines what active hosts (devices) are
available on the network, what ports are open, what services (application name and version) are
running on each port, what operating systems (and OS versions) hosts are running and many other host
characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks. Scan results can be saved to a text file,
showing ports states (open, closed, filtered), active hosts and services running, see fig. 4. Ports that may
be of special interest are ports with cleartext protocols, such as HTTP, Telnet and FTP. Since these are
not secure, they are vulnerable to eavesdropping and often brute-force attacks. I.e. the attacker
Often such services are insecurely configured with default passwords, which can be easily guessed or
found online.
FIgure 4. A sample Nmap scan
Created by Gordon Lyon in 1997, Nmap has stood the test of time and has now been featured even in
pop culture, e.g. Hollywood depiction of hacking, The Matrix Reloaded, see fig. 5 and more recently in
Oliver Stone’s 2016 film Snowden.
Figure 5. In The Matrix Reloaded, Trinity hacks the city power grid after
using Nmap to find a vulnerable SSH server source: nmap.org
2.4 Sonification
Sonification is a subcategory of the more broadly defined Auditory Display, which is any display that
uses sound to communicate information. Sonification can be described as the rendering of data sets
as sound and is not as well known or commonly practiced as other forms of visualizing data. It is an
interdisciplinary field at the junction of human-computer interaction, psychoacoustics, engineering
design, human factors and ergonomics, assistive technology, and cognitive sciences. Historically it is
rooted in scientists and engineers realizing the ability of the ear to easily discern changes is large data
sets. As an example, it is easy for even a layman to detect if the drummer is off beat at a concert. A
The Sonification Handbook (2013) lists five main sonification techniques. Audification is the direct
playback of data streams as soundwaves. Auditory Icons involve associating short environmental sounds
with discrete sounds. Earcons are similar to auditory icons but are instead entirely synthetic with no
prior metaphorical value. Parameter Mapping consists of mapping data dimensions with auditory
dimensions. Lastly, Model-based Sonification demands the creation of processes, involving data, that are
capable of evolving over time to generate an acoustic signal.
There has been a push for sonification to take a more aesthetic turn. Access to large amounts of data
has opened the door for designers and visual artists to enter the field. As Barrass (2012) put it, sound is
“a naturally affective, aesthetic and cultural medium” and a “ design approach can facilitate an aesthetic
turn in sonification that integrates aesthetics and functionality by dissolving divisions between scientific
and artistic methods”(ibid.).
Interactive Sonification systems transform data into sound (modulated and controlled by human
gestures) for the purposes of data analysis . They differ from musical instruments in that they do not
transform human gestures into sound for the purposes of expression.
In Sonification, the responsibility of at least part of the work is delegated to the chosen data. Therefore
the choice of data to be used is fundamental and usually serves as a conceptual backbone of the piece.
There is the option to work with real-time or stored data sets. As Sinclair (2012) points out “a distinction
appears here between the use of recorded, often recuperated, scientific or technical data sets and the
use of real-time data ... the case of the real-time sonification, however, implies a conscious decision to
insert the artwork into a present situation ... This is reflected in works that use the real-time, in situ data,
to mediate hidden aspects of the environment in which the piece is playing”.
Sound is evocative and more abstract than visuals. Sinclair (2012) speaks of how “data can also be
transported from phenomena that are distant in time and/or space, thus extending our spatial/temporal
perception. While projected moving image is strongly localized and appears to us as a window through
which we observe, sound is enveloping, we can enter a sound environment, or sound can enter ours
from elsewhere, creating interpenetrating spaces.”
The field of Sonification comes with its unique set of problems. After conducting a systematic review of
mapping strategies for the Sonification of Physical Quantities, Dubus & Bresin (2013) identified a lack of
evaluation methods, which is echoed by the Sonification Handbook (Hermann et al., 2013, p. 107).
2.5 Sound generation
This project used MIDI protocol messages and computer generated speech to generate sound.
MIDI: Developed in 1982, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a protocol allowing electronic
instruments and tools to communicate with each other. It does not contain sounds itself, but rather
sends MIDI messages such as ‘note on’, ‘note off’, ‘note/pitch’ which are then interpreted by a hardware
is suitable for embedded systems where computing power, storage space and high performance
requirements are an issue. The protocol allows for 127 instruments to be played in 127 different
channels and features various message types to allow performance parameters, such as after touch for
keyboard players. MIDI events are stored in files that can be played and edited by software sequencers,
used by musicians to record and play songs.
Text to Speech: Talking computers have been featured in pop culture in films such as Stanley Kubrick’s
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey, where a super computer named HAL 9000 rebels against the
main human character Dave with phrases such as “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”. Later on in
the 1980s there was a talking computer boom with the movie WarGames featuring a talking computer
named Joshua and the TV show Knight Rider featuring a talking car KITT. Today we have a new explosion
of voice enabled devices. The smallest of today’s computers have the ability to output speech, including
the Raspberry Pi 3. Speech synthesis makes it possible to output text as a voice. Flite is a light version
speech synthesis software engine, especially built for embedded systems. It has commands that are easy
to run on the command-line and offers a variety of voices to choose from in American English, British
English and Spanish.
2.6 Related work
Below is a selection of previous work situated in adjacent design spaces touching on computer network
traffic sensing, agency and/or sonification.
Figure 6. FeltRadio source: Grönvall, Fritsch, & Vallgårda, 2016
FeltRadio (Grönvall, Fritsch, & Vallgårda, 2016), see fig. 6, is a portable and wireless technology artifact
that combines Electrical Muscle Stimulation with Wi-Fi signal strength detection. The artifact lets us feel
the strength of a Wi-Fi signal directly on our skin. Two exploratory studies focused on people’s
experience of being able to suddenly sense and make sense of wireless traffic. Although this
experimental piece of engineering is using a different modality to translate the wifi signal it shares the
Figure 7. Light painting WiFi source: Arnall, 2010
Immaterials: Light painting WiFi (Arnall, 2010), see fig. 7, explores the invisible terrain of WiFi
networks in urban spaces by light-painting signal strength through long-exposure photography. The
modality here is obviously visual in nature. The work is also a broadcast and not a personal experience.
Additionally, it can only be experienced after the fact, because of its long-exposure photography process
and is therefore not immediate.
Figure 8. The Hypertension Singing Bowl source: Barrass, 2016
The Hypertension Singing Bowl (Barrass, 2016) is a Research through Design project in the design space
of acoustic sonification, see fig. 8. A digitally fabricated bowl shaped from a year of the author’s blood
pressure readings, sings when rubbed by a ‘puja’ stick. This personal data set gives the bowl a unique
sound. A singing bowl has a meditative and reflective quality, through the sound it produces when
rubbed. The repetitiveness of the motion used with the stick also has a meditative quality. It shares the
post experiential quality of the light painting Wifi project in terms of the data relationship. However, the
interactive quality is immediate and sonically shared with the surroundings.
Netson (Worrall, 2015) is a system providing realtime sonification and visualisation of computer network
metadata, see fig. 9. This project was developed to reveal temporal aspects of the computer network
data flows in a large-scale organization, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits located in
Germany. Furthermore, a configurable graphical plot assists the user in identifying patterns and
features.
Figure 10. Poetic Router source: Datta, 2016
Poetic Router (Datta, 2016) is a system that creates spoken word poetry by gathering textual data from
server pages and transforming it into a poem broadcast, see fig. 10. Here Datta has built a ‘middleman’
router, using an Arduino Yun, functioning as an Access point for other devices to connect to. Thereby
Datta gives this router functions beyond the usual networking and routing tasks. With the capabilities of
a single chip computer it now monitors traffic to connected devices and scrapes information which it
broadcasts via a speech engine through a USB audio channel to an FM transmitter. This work surfaces a
concern for Internet of Things (IoT) platform security vulnerabilities and does so poetically using the
sound modality.
Sonnet (Wolf & Fiebrink, 2013) is a compositional software tool aimed at lowering the practical barriers
to experimenting and composing with network data. This paper presents design and implementation of
the tool. Additionally it discusses a pilot evaluation with computer music composers as well as
compositional applications along with an example composition. Similarly, TresnaNet (Ustarroz, 2011) is
software tool, which focuses on generating musical expressions based on information transfer over a
local computer network.
Findings/ Summary
There has been extensive work on expressing computer network qualities through different
modalities, including sonification, with a variety of approaches involving sensemaking, digital
fabrication, materializing the immaterial, network monitoring, critical design and musical
expression. However, little work has been encountered on a PortableSonificationComputer
NetworkArtifact. The majority of work is audio-visual and tends to result in desktop computer
interfaces. Netson explores the temporal aspects of a network situated in a work environment.
Additionally, with the exception of Poeticrouter, related works have mainly handled computer
network characteristics through signal strength. This thesis argues that it would be interesting to
from an information security perspective. Qualities such as overall ‘openness’ or ‘vulnerability’
relate the the power imbalance discussed in section 1. This work will explore the quality of
openness, by looking at whether ports are exposed on the network i.e. what ports are open for
miscreants to probe and attack. Most people have no or little awareness of what is exposed
even on their own home networks where smart phones, routers, smart TVs, gaming consoles,
computers etc are connected with various exposed ports and services (some of which may use
an insecure protocol or be insecurely configured with default or easy to guess passwords) that
attackers can target and exploit.
3. METHODOLOGY
This Research through Design (Gaver, 2012) process will involve a design experimentation approach
of a probingnature,see fig. 11, as described by Krogh et al. (2015). This will allow for exploration of
ideas as they emerge through design work. Drifting through probing, is according to Krogh et al. meant
to be “illogical, artistic and impact oriented”. Furthermore Krogh et al. (2015) claim that probing
contributions have a chance to “foster curiosity for the field itself and its neighbouring areas” .
Figure 11. Drifting through probing source: Krogh et al. 2015
This work is differentiated from scientific research as described by Bruce Archer (1979) when stating
“there exists a designerly way of thinking and communicating that is both different from scientific and
scholarly ways of thinking and communicating, and as powerful as scientific and scholarly methods of
enquiry when applied to its own kinds of problems”.
Here the process itself is as important as the resulting artifact. As Nigel Cross (2001) explains, “some of it
is knowledge inherent in the processes of manufacturing the artifacts, gained through making and
reflecting upon the making of those artifacts. And some of each of these forms of knowledge also can be
gained through instruction in them” .
What is being prototyped is not self-explanatory, especially when engaging in transdisciplinary work.
The Houde & Hill (1997) model, see fig. 12, supports clarity on what is being prototyped during this
project. It defines three dimensions essential to every interactive artifact. The tilt in the triangle signifies
that neither dimension is more important than the other. Each dimension represents a class of
useful to them. Look and feel signals questions about sensory experience and what the user feels, looks
at and hears while using the artifact. Implementation refers to questions about the techniques and
components used, the nuts and bolts of how the artifact actually works, how it performs its function.
Integration is where all three dimensions have been considered and most accurately represents a final
artifact. It is the most time consuming and difficult prototype to build.
Figure 12. What do prototypes prototype? source: Houde & HIll, 1997
An exploratory informal study will collect qualitative material on people’s experiences of interacting
with the artifact, with the aim of collecting their insights and reflections to better articulate the design
potential in making a portable computer network sonification artifact. A design space will be carved out
through an annotated portfolio (Gaver, 2012)(Löwgren, 2013)
3.1 Project plan
A literature review provided a theoretical framework to ground the design process. Different aspects of
an artifact were prototyped iteratively, using the Houde & Hill model, in different phases, each building
and reflecting on the findings of the previous phases, see fig 13. During the last phase, an integrated
prototype was the object of an exploratory pilot study.
Figure 13. Project plan overview
4. DESIGN PROCESS
The design process involved engaging with context, developing a design space and exploring materials
and prototyping. As described in fig. 13 above, the work was divided into different stages, which are
4.1 Exploration
The first phase was exploratory and involved a literature review, defining the design space, exploring
different sounds and evaluating suitable hardware and software.
Prototype 1 | Role | Overview
In summary, a computer network will be probed for data using common network tools. Focus will be on
mapping network characteristics, normally invisible to us humans, into a sonic experience. The resulting
datafile will be input for mappingof MIDI control messages sent to an audio generating device. A sound
palette will be chosen to reflect the dataset. Previously hidden information will now be detectable by
human hearing. The resulting tangible artifact, see fig, 14, will be prototyped using existing protocols,
off-the-shelf tools and components and/or digital fabrication.
Figure 14. Portable sonification artifact, overview
At this point it might be worthwhile to stress that this project is not concerned with looking at payloads.
The artifact does not employ a man-in-the-middle technique, as described in section 2.3.2. I.e. it is not
meant to eavesdrop on local network activity. Instead what is of interest are the power relationships
related to the openness of the network in question. Consequently, the artifact is not connected directly
to the Internet and instead is meant to perform local network discovery by probing ports, see fig. 15.
Prototype 2 | Role | Design space
Based on the literature review and related works a design space of portable local computer network
sonification artifact was carved out.
Urban interface /opportunity for reflection: In a sense, the aim is to design an urban interface of sorts
that would provide different readings of familiar settings. Dunne & Raby’s analysis of the original Sony
Walkman: “it offered people a new kind of relationship to urban space. It allowed the wearer to create
their own portable micro-environment... It functioned as an urban interface”(2001).
Portable: There appears to be little work done in the area of a portable sonification network devices. For
this project the interest lies in creating an experience where a person can walk around and engage
sonically with surrounding computer networks through a portable device. The aim is to design for a
person to get a sense of the computer network’s mere existence in the space and perhaps some hint of
its ‘personality’. The artifact will have a built in battery power supply to make it portable and allow the
user to connect to different networks and make it easy carry around.
An invitation/entry point: In contrast to the Sony Walkman the aim is not to provide a soundtrack for
travel, but instead to extend an invitation to engage in a sonic moment conveying currently hidden
computer network qualities. It also differs in that a person would be more on the receiving end of a
signal driven by the surrounding environment, whereas with a Sony Walkman the person brings their
own chosen signal to enjoy in combination with chosen environment.
User empowerment / agency: Resource constraints for this project limits the scope of the tangible
interface to involve off the shelf components such as buttons and sliders. But the artifact should have
some type of button, knob or dial for a person to choose to interact with. It should not be a purely
passive listening experience.
Transparency / awareness: This artifact is meant to provide awareness of computer network qualities
currently hidden to the human senses. The aim is to allow a person to tune into a hidden dimension of
their immediate surroundings normally currently undetectable to humans.
Prototype 3 | Implementation | Hardware sketch
A quick sketch provided an overview of what what technical components would be needed. See
Appendix A for an account of the process for selecting these components.
Prototype 4 | Implementation | Sounds explorations
This prototype involved finding a way to get network data activity transferred into sound. Tcpdump
Tunes,a python script, on Github (Pegg, 2014) offered a starting point.
Drawing on the notion of Ludic design of people as playful creatures mentioned in section 2.2, a MIDI
SoundFont called Famicom was chosen. Famicom is comprised of sounds from an 8-bit computer and
quality has promise to ‘promote engagement in the exploration and production of meaning, providing
for curiosity, exploration and reflection’ (Sengers et al., 2005).
Summary /Findings
This exploratory stage involved considering and experimenting with different materials,
both digital and physical. We situated the artifact within the local network to clarify which
data will be worked with in regards to examining the openness of the network. We further
defined the design space of Portable Computer Network Sonification Artifact by sketching
out qualities/values such as: urban interface, opportunity for reflection, portable, an
invitation/entrypoint, user empowerment/agency, transparency/awareness. We selected playful
MIDI sounds drawing from Ludic Design as it has shown to promote engagement and reflection.
4.2 Conceptual Discovery | Portable
The second phase involved taking the learnings from phase one and working towards a designing a
portable artifact.
Prototype 5 | Role | Define use context
This could take place in any daily environment with a computer network to connect to: on the train,
at school, at work, at the library, at a shopping center etc. As a starting point the artifact will be studied
in a home environment. Taking the Reflective Design approach drawn from critical technical practice
approach mentioned in section 2.2, we thereby invert the current norm and metaphor of how we
normally connect with a computer network. Instead of a set-it-and-forget-it manner with this artifact,
you will deliberately look for, select and engage with a computer network sonically and thereby
experience a network in a different way than the norm. This new perspective could support new
user awareness regarding information security aspects of a local computer network.
Prototype 6 | Look and feel | Case
A cardboard case was designed in illustrator to hold a microcontroller, see fig. 16 (right) in the interest
of making the artifact portable. With the goal of aesthetically signaling a sounding object, it had a
speaker pattern heavily influenced by Braun speakers designed by Dieter Rams.
