(THE EMAIL TRACING IS CURRENTLY NOT WORKING IN REALTIME AND SHOWING ONLY TEST-TRACINGS)
To find out more about the digital connection between the two cities I programmed an specialized email server that is located in Bremen. Whenever it receives an email, it that traces the path of the data packages and automatically sends a report about the route of the received mail back to the original address.
Most of the digital communication passes through the submarine internet cable SEACOM which was only established in 2009 and since than connects mayor parts of Southern and Eastern Africa to the global Internet network. The over 9000km long cable costed around 600 million Dollar and was fully privately funded. Even if it can carry over 12 Terabits per second the part of the optic fiber cable part that carries the information has not even the diameter of a millimeter.
I decided to use the SEACOM cable and it’s connected physical infrastructure, digital connectivity and social implications as a leitmotif for my research travel. During the travel I used the act of sending emails to the email server in Bremen as a tool of technical measurement and trigger for social interaction at the same time.