Seeds of technological change. (Ai Wei Wei)

Oh, a carpet?

Turbine Hall, Tate Modern (own image)

Nope. It's actually over 100,000 porcelain sunflower seeds. An installation by artist Ai Wei Wei as part of the gallery's annual Unilever series.

(Photo Courtesy of Tate Photography)

   

Aside from being slightly breathtaking (and raising the question 'why?') the installation caught my interest for another reason. The inscription on the side describes:


"Each piece is a part of the whole, a poignant commentary on the relationship between the individual and the masses. There are over one hundred million seeds. Five times the number of Beijing's population and nearly a quarter of China's internet users."

Since when did the amount of internet users become a way to measure vast numbers? Is it a figure everyone understands? Also, the proximity to the statement about the individual versus the masses is intriguing - certainly we feel insignificant as one seed, or internet user, but together we can effect global awareness, change and even revolution (ahem Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria?).

 Or am I reading way too much into an interesting statistic chosen by a researcher? You decide :) 

Internet 'Kill Switches' and the Egyptian Protests

Today, during my morning Twitter check, I found an astounding blog by James Cowie of renesys.com. Apparently, while I was sleeping, the internet was switched off in Egypt. 

Like this:

Image courtesy of renesys.com

After shutting down mobile phone and text messaging (SMS) services, it seems the Egyptian government has also ordered the big four ISPs  (Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr) to halt internet provision as well. With the telling exception of Noor.net, which has these high profile clients.


What were the government hoping to achieve by this? Some would have us believe that they wanted to stem communication between the protestors to help quell the riots. Others would have us believe that they wanted to suppress communication with the international media, so that they could deal with the rioters out of their gaze. It is rumoured that the Egyptian internet went down shortly after a video of a protestor being shot by a sniper was circulated by the Associated Press.


Whatever the cause, can this act, which denied internet access to over 80 million people, be justified? Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are recognised rights of citizens of democracies, but with the internet as a conduit of press freedom and popular expression should we be trying to protect this too?