Danja Vasiliev (D)
| m/e/m/e 2.0, interactive installation parodying web 2.0 2008 In het Web 2.0 tijdperk leven mensen hun tweede existenties is het zogeheten metaversum. Ontwikkeld als een afstudeer project voor Media Design aan het Piet Zwart Instituut, bestaat de installatie uit een mechanisch apparaat met 28 CD/DVD-stations, die openen en sluiten via een webinterface, met commando’s zoals [submit] [click here] [agree] [commit] [buy], een parodie op de hedendaagse web 2.0 stijl waar de focus steeds meer ligt op commerciële handelingen ". m/e/m/e 2.0, interactive installation parodying web 2.0 It is a matter of fact that in the Web 2.0 era people live their second existences diving into the so-called metaverse, the meta-universe populated by avatars as described by Neal Stephenson (1992). However, the progressive phenomenon of cyborgisation happens when people use prosthetic technology indiscriminately. What Danja Vassiliev has done with m/e/m/e 2.0 is to revert this trend bringing the machines into the world of humans. Developed as graduation project for the Media Design course at Piet Zwart Institute, the installation consists of a mechanical device made of 28 CD/DVD drives, which open and close via a web interface. A camera attached to the device sends pictures of the open trays back to the browser. In each tray there is a disc made of circuit board material and etched with various UI buttons. The pictures of these discs become image maps in the browser windows. As Vassiliev writes "Each plate is a unique "web page" parodying contemporary web 2.0 style with all its consumerist centered flavor". The purpose the artwork is to make the users aware of the interconnection of the hardware and the immaterial by operating a mechanical server through an Internet browser application and seeing it unfold in front of them. As Andrew Yeaman (1994) argues "When a person gives self-control over to a computer and accepts the default options without question, that person has become a cyborg". Critical of pervasive cyborgisation while working with same technologies, Vassiliev understands the necessity of diving into the machine in order to avoid the selfish mimicry of the cultural genes. http://www.neural.it/art/2008/12/post_1.phtml m/e/m/e 2.0 Participants (users) are invited to navigate through a maze of physical 'hard wired' pages of electromechanical website. The content of the pages is what we commonly know as the virtual platform of "Web 2.0". Because a user can find his or her way in a very physical sense, they begin to understand the interconnection of the hardware and the immaterial, because they have to operate this mechanical server through a regular Internet browser application and see it unfold in front of them. An interface allows someone at the click of a mouse to execute functions and processes that are well known to an Internet user. Such as: [submit] [click here] [agree] [commit] [buy]. M/e/m/e 2.0 makes transparent these labyrinthine processes at play, each time a user clicks- the machine exposes another layer of itself. The machine is built using misc computer parts, mostly CDROM drives (28), and represents an ultimate recycling effort in contemporary hardware art. Media industry gets to show us the guts of the technology it enslaves, be it physical or illusionary. M/e/m/e 2.0 mixes up the positions taken by the media devices - CDROMs become files, files turn into circuit boards - after the decade of web fetishism comes the age of postinteractive materializm. Travelling between venues and exhibitions m/e/ m/e 2.0 changes its IP address and power source but the message it carries remains the same - bring machines into the world of people instead of living second lifes in the world of machines. Drawers of CDROMs open and close being controlled via the self-contained interface laid out on the plates that are held inside the drives. Each plate is a unique "web page" parodying contemporary web 2.0 style with all its consumerist centered flavor. "buy", "agree", "submit", "get" and "buy" are the keywords of the Internet for masses, while in real represent completely virtual values or actions. http://k0a1a.net/meme20 |
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