Gnutella is the famous peer-to-peer file sharing protocol. "Minitasking" attempts to visually show the relationships of the computers on that network. And does it very well. It is beautiful to look at and will bring out the most voyeuristic tendencies in the viewer as they watch the various search strings appear on their screens. A strangely engaging use of common internet technology.


„"Minitasking" is a visual software based on a standard Gnutella peer-to-peer system. "Minitasking" displays the features of dynamic and temporary networks visually, and so makes their instability and data transmission transparent. This program is essentially concerned with how computers work, with data processing and their visualization for applications in collective and dynamic environments. The creation of software enables one to define and design the diverse modalities which determine information access, and we hope to gain insights into the features which distinguish these (computer) processes and how they affect distributed systems, actions and objectives.

With a peer-to-peer protocol, a distinction is no longer made between the functions of a client and a server. This dynamically organized structure, which has been temporarily established, changes constantly. Such decentralized structures further neutralize the division made between the consumer and producer, and so cause a rise in the "production of information". Yet it is not so much a question of the volume or kind of information, as it is of the technological terms of use for file-sharing software. It is quite evident that protocols construct information: only that which meets the standards is transmitted and recognized – and so becomes part of the network.

"Minitasking" presents these processes visually, tracing new nodes and listing the number of accessible files. Thus file sharing is governed here by other criteria than it is with conventional clients. The network can be read as a dynamic cartography. Visual peculiarities also tend to provoke intuitive interventions in the network. One objective of this development is to enable the numerical components of a P2P network, e.g. the IP address, the link rate, file volume, etc., to be incorporated into its use. Thus technological elements determine a single and separate model of the network.

"Minitasking" uses the data as material for visualization. On the one hand it does so in order to show how computer processes and protocol dynamics work, on the other hand, to accentuate the moments of vagueness underlying computer processes and actions. The visual surface displays only one of many possible "experimental set-ups"; it is designed to both guide and beguile users into observing processes, as well as into selecting and exchanging data within the temporary structure so that they can discover or develop criteria for shaping access to information, as well as for its production and distribution.

Unlike with conventional Gnutella clients, with "Minitasking" it is the streams of data which generate the interface. As this occurs, the dynamics and temporality of such networks are made transparent to users, which in turn should affect use of the software itself.

"Minitasking" was created with the aid of texts by Craig Kroeger, (miniml.com), sounds by Christian Kleine (City Centre Offices) and sockets by Thomas Chille.


Links: http://www.minitasking.com

schoenerwissen (D), a collaboration between Anne Pascual and Marcus Hauer, has existed since 1997. Pascual and Hauer both studied and worked at the Art College for Media in Cologne, and now live in Berlin. Their projects operate on a matrix of computation, visualization and generation. They are also members of the editorial staff of *De:Bug*, a magazine for electronic aspects of life in Berlin.