SPACE

PORTA2030

24 April – 1 May 2006 A project by TAKE2030 YOU ARE THE NET! YOU ARE PORTA-PORTER! PORTA2030 is a performative urgency-relay network exercises set within a Broadway Market public wifi net-zone. Towards building a portable, sustainable and responsive social network by year 2030, PORTA2030 engages community members as porta-porters for an urgency scenario enactment. PORTA2030 deploys porta-pack, a mobile network unit that builds on a wifi harddrive (WL-HDD2.5) for multi-faceted transmission. Installed with a 1GB flashcard and programmed in open source codes, the porta-pack functions as a portable data sensing-storage-tranmission unit.  A webcam streams images live while an LCD mini-terminal with four click action push buttons serves as basic communicative device. The urgency signals triggered by the sensors set in public space further prompt porta-porters' collective action. Broadway Market (E8, London), known as the Market Porters' path for porting produce into the city, is currently under rapid development affected by Hackney Council's regeneration plan. For last two years, the physical Porters' Path has implemented wireless extensions provided by the OFF Broadway gallery. PORTA2030 locates Broadway Market as its public performance site with setup of extra access nodes. PORTA2030 updates the porter's path with mobile network porting of communal audio/visual data. A weeklong performance started on 24 April with a porta-pack dispatch workshop at SPACE Media Arts. During the week, ten porta-porters engaged in networked communication. 29 April, Broadway market, Porta2030 relay bingo play. 1 May, May Day, public screening session with open-air projection: Porta-porters' week and Broadway market related documentaries. More information at http://www.porta2030.net .