A group of artists known as Knowrobotic Research developed the above project entitled Minds of Concern::Breaking News as part of an exhibit commenting on art and internet hacking. The project involved an interactive online space in which the user could sample clips pulled off the internet by "port sourcing. Ultimately, this body of work was meant to comment on the ease of hacking on the internet and to remind people of the "big brother" aspect of using such a public source of information.
There is an element of this project that I felt related to our self-portrait project. Because it is so easy to track our use of the internet, hacking and projects of this style could create a sort of objective self-portrait of sorts based on websites visited and other internet activity. However, if unknown to the viewer, the results could be embarassing. Networking websites, such as Myspace and Facebook, create a much more subjective portrait of their users on the internet because you can choose whatever you post and say about yourself.
The Minds of Concern site was eventually shut down because internet service providers claimed it violated their use policies. I think in this case we can all agree that the website was shut down because it was actually making a very valid point about internet security. I found this piece important because it reminds us that as artists we have the right to create whatever we want, but when it comes to public domain and the web there are that many more censors and critics to deal with.
No comments:
Post a Comment