Bordercheck
Bordercheck was a mapping project which showed how your data moves across the internet’s infrastructure while you surf the web. It showed you through which countries and networks you surf to illustrate the physical and political realities of the internet’s infrastructure.
As one surfs the net, data packets are sent from the user’s computer to the target server. These data packets go on a journey hopping from server to server, potentially crossing multiple countries, until the packets reach the desired website. In each of the countries that are passed different laws and practices can apply to the data, influencing whether or not authorities can inspect, store or modify that data.
The project is no longer maintained but the code is still available at: https://github.com/rscmbbng/Border-Check
Video documentation:
Here is an interview by Régine Debatty (we-make-money-not-art.com) about the project: https://we-make-money-not-art.com/border_check/
This project was realised during Summer Sessions 2013 with with the support of V2_ Institute For The Unstable Media. Programming was done by Epsylon and design by Bart van Haren.