Swimming in the Net draws on ancient Egyptian funerary imagery and contemporary digital culture to explore systems of capture, connection, and control. Inspired by Spell 153 of The Book of the Dead, in which the deceased must navigate and escape the net, Smith reimagines this ancient image through the lens of the internet. The net becomes both spiritual and technological: a structure that connects, stores, and contains.

At the centre of the work is the heart, formed from the scan and pixel code of An Artefact of Ambiguous Character. A fish form emerges from it, recalling souls caught in the ancient net while also suggesting data moving through online systems. The work asks whether today’s digital networks, controlled by powerful technological structures, connect us freely or hold parts of us captive.