Realtime: The Imperial Architecture of Now is a two-channel interactive video installation. Running live in the gallery as a web-based application, the work reconstructs key episodes and techniques in the imperial history of realtime computation.
Technique 1: Realtime Route
This technique performs a live traceroute from a Mac Mini mounted in the gallery ceiling to pm.gov.au, the official website of the Prime Minister of Australia.
As the traceroute runs, data packets move hop by hop through routers, backbone networks, and security filters. Each hop is enriched with WHOIS records, organizational ownership, ASN registration, and IP geolocation data, revealing the institutional and geopolitical actors shaping global digital infrastructure.
The final hop returns an IP geolocated to Rehovot, Israel, based on WHOIS and IP metadata. While latency suggests a closer physical server, this discrepancy points to the ways routing protocols, security layers, and corporate intermediaries obscure the true paths of state network traffic.
Echoing the logic of colonial telegraphy, Realtime Route reveals how modern digital communication relies on physical and bureaucratic systems designed to manage speed, access, and authority.
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Realtime: The Imperial Architecture of Now
Farzin Lotfi-Jam
Two-channel interactive video installation, web-based application, five cameras, one server, custom software, realtime simulation and 3D visualization.
35 minutes, continuous loop, with sound.
Research and 3D Modeling Assistants:
Jun Hu, Evan Harris Levy, Shujie Young Lui, Anh Shavindya Seneviratne Do, Keygan Sinclair, Yi Xu
With thanks to Simon Maisch
Shown as part of Deep Time Real Time, RMIT Design Hub Gallery, Carlton.
Creative direction by Fleur Watson. Co-curated by André Bonnice, Anna Jankovic, and Fleur Watson.
Exhibition design by Simulaa. Graphic design by Stuart Geddes and Žiga Testen.
Access consultancy by Access Lab & Library (ALL).
Produced by RMIT Culture in partnership with the RMIT School of Architecture & Urban Design and with the assistance of The Swayn Gallery of Australian Design.
Today is Wednesday 14 May 2025.
‘Deep Time Real Time’ closes in 63 hours.
Final day this Saturday 17 May at Design Hub Gallery, coinciding with the opening weekend of MDW @ngvmelbourne
Please join us for the celebratory closing events:
12:15 – 1:00PM
Guided exhibition tour with us
1:00 – 2:00PM
Workshop with Access Lab & Library (ALL) @accesslabandlibrary exploring image description as a practice of quiet noticing, and an antidote to restlessness.
2:00 – 3:00PM
'Orders of Magnitude' talk with Stuart Geddes and Žiga Testen , and moderated by us, discussing some of the ideas that underpinned the design of the show.
3:00 – 5:00PM
Informal closing celebration with drinks.
Images 1-12, scanned room sheet designed by @stuartgeddes and @testen.studio
‘𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝: 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐦𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞’ has been published through the @alastairswaynfoundation (link in bio).
The report surveys exemplar projects and practices, divided into three categories - Energy, Waste, and Materials - from across Northern Europe (in member-countries of the European Union) where decarbonisation initiatives are being funded and implemented at different scales and time-frames to that of Australia.
Though there is a plethora of information talking around ’sustainability’, little of this directly addresses how alternative technologies and practices can be effectively implemented. Risk is often assigned to the viability and implementation of non-standard technologies and techniques, even in cases where these have been effectively applied in other contexts. As architects we are acutely aware of the risk-averse decision-making underpinning our industry, whereby we (the profession as a collective) still conceive of projects within prevailing conventions and standards of designing, constructing, and inhabiting the built environment.
𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬-𝐚𝐬-𝐮𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭.
Through this study our aim is to show how particular strategies may affect the architectural industry here in Australia. In the hope that there is space for practitioners to take more ‘risks’ so we are better placed to advance architecture, to be an agent for good, and to reckon with decarbonisation of the built environment.
This report is part of a research project undertaken by Simulaa and @rmitarchitecture , with support from the Alastair Swayn Foundation.
