EXtrace is an apparatus that 3D prints clay sculptures from the data emerging of the world’s biggest internet node. In contrast to ancient physical communication media, like clay tablets or books, today’s communication accelerated to nearly real-time. EXtrace reflects this change from quality to quantity in the history of communication as the printed sculptures themselves do not mirror the data they have been created from, still conserving this hidden data physically for centuries.

As an input EXtrace uses a 2 day chart of the collected data transfer that passes through the internet node De-Cix located in Frankfurt am Main. This rapid data flow easily breaks the 2500 Gigabit per second mark and represents nicely the widely connected, fast paced and ubiquitous network of today’s communication. This data input is then transformed and remapped into a physical clay sculpture.

[vimeo 99045715]