网络游者
--握手之旅
2019-2021
《网络游者》（2019–2021）是一个的研究与创作项目。其围绕中国防火墙（GFW）展开，尝试在物理世界中寻找并描绘中国互联网主权边界。在本项目中，“边界”不是抽象的概念，而是由 GFW 在日常网络访问中所产生的具体效果与线索：跨境连接被延缓、被检查，部分境外网站无法访问。项目以此为入口，把网络中的“受限时刻”当作可追踪的起点，进一步追问这些限制在现实空间中如何落地、如何被维护、又如何与我们的日常环境并置在一起。
项目的方法从线上追踪开始：艺术家依据公开资料 通过网络诊断工具追踪 GFW 相关节点的 IP 地址及其地理位置线索，勾勒出一幅“防火墙网关”的工作地图；随后在多个城市进行实地走访、拍摄与记录。走访过程本身也构成作品的一部分：线索并不总能被直接验证——网络结构的不透明、定位信息的偏差、以及许多节点所在区域的不可进入或难以核实，都会让“寻找”不断偏离预期。同时，平台与数据系统之间的分割与竞争进一步加剧了“看见整体”的困难。结果是，那些被认为与边界有关的地点，往往并没有清晰可辨的标志，它们可能出现在机构区、园区、社区或道路旁，隐身在普通的城市景观之中。
在互动装置《网络游者——握手之旅》（2019）中，上述研究被转译为观众可参与的展场经验。观众通过一台专设电脑进行线上“漫游”；当进入被中国互联网封锁的网站时，会触发一个浏览器游戏，并要求用户在游玩结束后输入用户名。随后，一台壁挂式CNC雕刻装置会将该用户名与互动得分，连同数据库中随机关联的一条节点 IP 信息刻录在墙面；与此同时，浏览器会跳转播放艺术家依据相关线索探访该地点时所拍摄的影像片段。由此，原本无形的“墙”以墙面刻痕与影像并置的方式在展场中显形，使观众在一次次访问受限与信息跳转之间，直观感受到网络边界如何与现实空间发生关系，并由此激发讨论与思辨。
此作品受Digital Earth 学术奖金项目委托完成
2021年在德国卫生博物馆的委任支持之下，视频散文《网络游者》（2021）得以完成，并首展于“AI-学人做梦的机器”，德国卫生博物馆
The Net Wanderer
- A tour of suspended handshakes
2019-2021
The Net Wanderer (2019–2021) is a research-and-creation project centered on China’s Great Firewall (GFW). It attempts to search for and render, within the physical world, the boundary of China’s “internet sovereignty.” In this project, the “boundary” is not an abstract idea, but a set of concrete effects and traces produced in everyday online experience by the GFW: cross-border connections are delayed and inspected, and some overseas websites become inaccessible. Taking these moments of restriction as points of departure, the project treats them as trackable starting points and asks how such constraints are implemented in real space, how they are maintained, and how they coexist with ordinary environments.
The project begins with online tracing. Using publicly available information and network diagnostic tools, the artist tracks IP addresses of GFW-related nodes and their associated geographic clues, sketching a working map of “firewall gateways.” He then conducts on-the-ground visits, filming and documenting across multiple cities. The fieldwork itself becomes part of the work: leads cannot always be verified directly—opaque network structures, inaccuracies in location data, and the inaccessibility or unverifiability of many sites continually push the search off course. At the same time, the segmentation and competition among platforms and data systems further intensify the difficulty of grasping the whole picture. As a result, locations presumed to be connected to the boundary often carry no clear, identifiable markers. They may appear in institutional districts, industrial parks, residential neighborhoods, or along roadsides—embedded within the most ordinary urban scenery.
In the interactive installation The Net Wanderer —- A tour of suspended handshakes (2019), this research is translated into an exhibition experience in which the audience can participate. Viewers “wander” online through a dedicated computer; when they enter a website blocked within China’s internet environment, a browser-based game is triggered, and after the game ends the viewer is asked to enter a username. A wall-mounted CNC engraving device then carves the username and the viewer’s score—together with a randomly linked node IP address from the project’s database—directly onto the gallery wall. Meanwhile, the browser jumps to a video segment filmed by the artist during the corresponding site visit. In this way, the otherwise invisible “wall” becomes legible in the exhibition space through the juxtaposition of carved traces and moving images. Across repeated moments of restriction and sudden informational redirection, the work enables viewers to sense how a network boundary relates to physical space, prompting further discussion and reflection.
The work was originally commissioned within the Digital Earth fellowship program.
In 2021, with commission support from the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, the video essay The Net Wanderer (2021) was completed and premiered in the exhibition ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Machine Learning Human Dreams at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum.
For more info:
A Tour of Suspended Handshakes(an essay by GUO Cheng)
握手之旅项目自述
A Universal View From Nowhere: Tracing the Boundaries of Digital Space(an essay by Heba Y. Amin)
The Net Wanderer Installation View
The Net Wanderer Installation screenshot
The Net Wanderer film still
To view the The Net Wanderer online
Selected Archives
