In the last six weeks, a few of the artists’ programs have been making their way to the Web. More will be shown when "Carnivore" makes its public premiere at an exhibition of surveillance art opening later this month at Princeton University.

"I wanted to make art that really deals with technology at a core level, art that uses data in its most raw form -- instead of using technology as just a tool to do the same old things," said Alex Galloway, a director at the new media arts group Rhizome that's spearheading the Carnivore project.

In other words, if "Carnivore" was a painting, the data would be the canvas and the oils, not just some new-fangled brush.

The Carnivore project is built on the backs of two widely distributed open source applications. The server uses the TCPdump application to sniff packets traveling over the local area network on which it’s installed -- currently it’s being used at the Rhizome offices. The packet-sniffer reveals everyone who is sending or receiving information on the network. It also reveals the type of data being sent and the content of the data itself.

Once the packets are analyzed, they’re sent through an IRC serving-program to an IRC chat room. The artists’ client programs then translate this ongoing data diatribe into colors, shapes and sounds.

"Amalgamatmosphere," the program designed by Davis (who was called "the best Web designer in the world" by Shift magazine) creates a circular "node" for each person active on the network. The circles change color depending on what the person is doing.

For example, using AOL turns the circle forest green; receiving e-mail, teal; browsing the Web, indigo. The more active the user, the bigger the nodes get and the more gravity they take on, drawing the other circles closer to them. The result is a swirling kaleidoscope that is weirdly hypnotic.

"There’s a rhythm and tone to every activity. You can almost monitor the network base just on what it looks and sounds like. It’s almost like the life force of what is happening on the network," Davis said.

"Amalgamatmosphere" is part of a larger movement by Davis and other Internet artists to create works that are "generative" -- where the artist sets certain parameters and rules to the piece, and then the piece grows on its own, on based on those guidelines.

"Ordinary (art) is like engineering, where everything’s built according to a plan, and it’s the same every time," said Brian Eno, the electronic music pioneer. "Generative music is more like gardening -- you plant a seed, and it grows different every time you plant."