BumpNet is a public wireless network that only supports a maximum number of connected clients. When a new person joins the network, the first person on the queue is “bumped” or dissallowed access to the connection and network. Like Jonah Brucker-Cohen‘s previous work, BumpList, the focus of the project is to determine if by attaching simple rules to communication infrastructures, the method and manner of connectivity and behaviors of people connecting will change over time.

“BumpNet is meant to accentuate the social atmosphere and contexts of where this connectivity occurs by creating a “spatial” and “time-based” connection model. Not only will users who arrive within network range first gain access, but they will also lose this access as the space gains saturation with other people and devices wanting to connect. Thus the more people connected to “BumpNet”, the less access each of them will have and they will have to compete for “airtime” by rejoining the network. This is meant to accentuate the subtleties of public interaction with an increasingly technological social atmosphere.”

Via Coin-operated and Networked_Performance.