International Forum on Artistic Research
17th Conference of the Society for Artistic Research (SAR)
Submission Number: 306
Submission ID: 371
Submission UUID: cf325256-9fb7-40e0-9d3f-d80b2365984e

Created: Sun, 1 Mar 2026 - 11:28
Completed: Mon, 2 Mar 2026 - 15:06
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 08:44

Remote IP address: 84.203.226.251
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Current page: webform_confirmation

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Given name Paul
Surname O' Neill
Email paul.oneill@universityofgalway.ie
I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'. Yes
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Title The WhoIs Protocol as Critical and Creative Practice
Format Project presentation
Main language English
Abstract Beginning with a “ghost” internet protocol address once registered to an American tech company based in Ireland, this presentation focuses on ongoing artistic research into the WhoIs protocol as public directory and archive, incorporating outcomes from a residency at the Media Archaeology Lab (University of Colorado Boulder). WhoIs refers to the protocols, services and data types associated with Internet naming and numbering resources (icann.org, 2024).It contains hundreds of millions of entries including domain name registration and expiry dates, details of technical administrators, IP addresses of name servers, and other technical information (Muller, 2002).

However, WhoIs has limitations. The information it offers contains inaccuracies and inconsistencies (Gañán, 2016), and recent supranational privacy legislation, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has restricted the availability of personal registration data. In 2015, ICANN introduced the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) as a replacement for WhoIs, designed to provide more secure access, increased standardisation, improved usability, and greater support for internationalisation (icann.org, 2024). As such, the WhoIs Protocol can be considered an endangered conceptual world within our current algorithmic era.

Critical internet resources such as IP addresses and domain names carry significant “technical, economic, and political implications” (DeNardis, 2009), raising concerns regarding governance, accessibility, and distribution among institutions, nation-states, and commercial actors. The allocation and documentation of these resources within WhoIs provide insight into the global infrastructure of the internet, past and present, while also recalling the “rigidly defined hierarchies” around which networked systems are structured (Galloway, 2004). This presentation outlines creative and critical methods to engage and preserve the WhoIs protocol.
Link to the Exposition https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=4226827
Image WhoIs Ireland.png
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Paul O’ Neill is an artist and lecturer at the Huston School of Film & Digital Media, University of Galway. His work is concerned with our collective dependency on networked technologies and infrastructures. His research has been featured in publications from the Institute of Network Cultures and ANNEX - Irelands representative at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. He has exhibited and presented at galleries including the Science Gallery (Ireland), Ars Electronica (Austria), NeMe (Cyprus), Onassis Stegi (Greece) and SAW (Canada) and has undertaken residencies at the Media Archaeology Lab (University of Colorado) and as part of the European Media Art Platform (EMAP) Programme.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research Archiving Care Symposium, NeMe Media Arts Centre, Limassol, Cyprus (September 2024)
https://www.neme.org/projects/toolkit-of-care/archiving-care
Additional information Powerpoint
Spatial and technical requirements Projector and audio
Potential risks or ethical concerns N/A
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