in networks:

"In the context of computer networking, a proxy (or proxy server) acts as an intermediary between a client requesting data and the server providing that data." "When a forward proxy server is set up, your computer knows the IP address of the proxy, and whenever you send a request to access a certain site on the internet, your request is routed to the proxy, instead of connecting you directly to the site you requested." "The next most common kind of proxy is the reverse proxy. A reverse proxy obscures the IP address of a server you’re trying to send a request to."

client 1
          \
           \
client 2 ---+---- Proxy Server ------ Internet
           /
          /
client 3

as intermediaries

"A proxy sits between two entities and performs a service. Roy Fielding designates them as intermediary components that 'act as both a client and server in order to forward, with possible translation, requests and responses'." "Proxies excel at IP masking and misdirection, anonymous web browsing, and managing or circumventing content restrictions based on location or other blocks." "In our context, a proxy is a manager empowered to perform actions on behalf of another manager."

as decoy/stand-in/surrogate:

"Proxies estrange us from our actions and their effects, complicating a simple, two-way dynamic of relation by embodying a continuum between one entity and another that often involves obfuscation." "Proxies create dependencies – coming in contact with the unknown, they extend the knowable by capturing what is not visible." "Proxies touch the unknown, facilitate indirect relations of exchange, and resist a singular definition, therefore allowing us to consider how representation can be surveillance and obscuring one’s visibility can be a way of reclaiming autonomy over one’s self."

thank you
Tom Igoe - Understanding Networks, World-Wide Web Proxies The Etymology of “Agent” and “Proxy” in Computer Networking Discourse Structure and Encapsulation in Distributed Systems: the Proxy Principle On Patterns and Proxies The Research Center for Proxy Politics Proxy Users, Use By Proxy: Mapping Forms of Intermediary Interaction Cyber Glossary: Proxy Server What is the difference between Load Balancer and Reverse Proxy? Etymology of the word proxy The Proxy and its Politics The User Condition: Computer Agency and Behavior Proxy Wikipedia Keywords in Transcultural English Studies: Opacité / Opacity (Édouard Glissant) Poetics of Relation RFC1090