The Network Ensemble is a project by Oliver Smith and Francesco Tacchini, is a tool to sonically uncover and amplify the invisible territory of the networks that sit between our offline and online experiences. The networks that connect us also surround us, becoming a permanent layer in our everyday environment, a man-made natural force with its own nature and accompanying mystique. It is this force to which the Network Ensemble responds, converting the invisible, airborne communications infrastructure into a sonic experience. It positions the user as an explorer, a network clairvoyant, finding patterns, mapping the territory and experiencing an active, hidden world through sound.
The Network Ensemble collects the communications local to it, pulling in the raw packets, the blocks of information that devices send between themselves, and analysing them. It sorts them into six categories relating to the actions of the network (such as Gatekeeping, which collects any communications that have to do with authentication or denial of access) or the actions on the network (such as Data, which is the application layer information sent between devices). These categories correspond to the ports on the outside of the device, into which external peripherals can be plugged.
