us celebrate this five-year retrospective of FATLAB. Since the beginning of IBEAM, this whole
organization has had a focus on breaking technology open, cracking things, looking at the innards,
sharing those with the public and letting people and the culture at large actually make decisions
about how they want to use the technology, whether they want to embrace it, deflect it, or hack it.
And so FATLAB really embodies that spirit and embodies that ethos, which has been part of IBEAM
since the beginning. And it's just, it's an amazing thrill to have them back in the house
and to have them showing this work. I want to say a big thank you to Lindsay Howard for somehow,
that yes, for somehow hurting the proverbial cats and getting these people to talk together.
And then even more amazingly than talking to each other, but to have them show up in the
same place at the same time. It's a really, really, really special moment. And it's just,
it's our pleasure to have them here. It's also our great pleasure to have Christiana Paul join us
this evening as the moderator of the panel, as a curator at Whitney and as a theorist and writer.
She brings a very unique and strong perspective to the work of FATLAB and the media art field
as a whole. And I think I'm just going to leave it at that and go ahead and turn it over to her
as moderator of tonight's panel. And then I think everyone will come on stage. And I invite you all
to join in the Q&A at the end as well. This organization is about nothing if not open sharing
and critical feedback. So please feel free to participate throughout the panel. So thank you
again for coming. Okay. Thanks again for coming. And thanks for inviting me to moderate this panel.
So as you all know, I assume all of the artists who are here tonight presenting tonight are part
of FATLAB. So I'm not going to point that out in each and every one of their bios. And we're
going to start with everyone presenting for about 10 minutes. And then we'll have a discussion
amongst ourselves and with you. And the order in which people are going to present will be
Evan Roth, then Aram Bartol, Eddie Wagenknecht, Tobias Leingrober, and James Poudly. And I will
introduce each and every one of them very briefly before their talk. In general, I want to say a
few things about the issues we're going to discuss here. The panel is about hackers as artists or
artists as hackers. And I think we need to discuss a little bit more where the boundaries lie between
them. If we think about the popular definition about hacking, it usually means to most people,
I guess, still using computing skills, programming skills to maliciously intervene into systems,
hack into systems. Well, I think all of the participants in the panel tonight understand
hacking as something more of a cultural act and as a form of misuse, as a form of breaking or
intervening into systems. And they will also all talk about their specific understandings of
hacking. So what we're getting at tonight is a more cultural understanding of hacking. And we
will also discuss how the act of hacking intersects with artistic practice and what it means to the
art world or understanding systems of the art world. So thanks again. And I'll invite Evan
up on stage. So Evan Roth is one of the co-founders of the FED Lab. He is an American artist but
based in Paris. And Evan's work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has
exhibited widely at institutions including the Centre Pompidou, the Kunsthalle Vienna, the Tate,
the Fondation Cartier, and YouTube. In 2012, Evan was awarded the very prestigious Smithsonian
Cooper U at National Design Award. And again, he's one of the co-founders of FED Lab and also
together with James Poudly of the Graffiti Lab. Okay. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks everybody for
coming. It's been a really fun week to be back with everybody from that lab back here at Ibeam,
kind of where all of this generated. I'm sure we'll talk a bit about that tonight.
I thought I'd start by just talking a little about my own practice, which is an art practice
that's very much connected to this idea of hacking, this idea of misuse. I have kind of three places
that my work shows up primarily. Some is in more kind of traditional art modes of galleries with
white walls and exist in more traditional mediums like prints and sculptures. I have another strain
of work that shows up on the internet, work that's meant to be natively viewed within the browser.
This is from a series that's up at the Museum of Moving Image at the moment called Tribute to Heather.
And then I have a third part of my work that has to do with making art in public space,
has to do with making hacks in public space. Sometimes that means toolmaking a lot of that
work I did with Mr. Poudly here in the form of the Graffiti Research Lab, but it's hacking at an
urban scale thinking about how to make tools for people that are making work outside. This is from
a series called Propulsion Paintings. So they look very different, right? They're in different
formats, they're in different venues, they oftentimes have different audiences, and it looks
like a very kind of overly diverse body of work perhaps, but I see it as all being connected
through this idea of hack, the hack which we're going to be talking about today.
And so in thinking about kind of hacker culture and what all this means and where it comes from,
a lot of it for me is connected with open source and with people that came from the free
software movement, and it was that community of people that really formed the definition of the
hack as I like to think about it. This is Linus Torvald, the creator of Linux. His autobiography
is called Doing It for Fun, which I really like because I think this idea of fun, right? This
idea that this community of open source hackers, they have a sort of a different reason for the
reason, they have a different mode for making the work that they're doing, right? It's not driven
by profit, they're a kind of gift giving culture, right? So they're, this idea of fun, this idea
of play, I think it's a big part of a lot of the work that's in this exhibition, a lot of the work
that I think the FATLAB members are making. And in kind of researching different people's
definitions of the word hacker, this phrase kept coming up a lot of playful cleverness,
which is one that I really like, and it's one that like I see in a lot of the work of
my peers in the room. This is a piece by a Dutch artist named Helmut Schmitz.
And so this idea of play shows up in my work also. This is from a, this is a series called
Multi-Touch Paintings. This one is called Angry Birds Level 1-1. So I guess that laughter means
you get it. So this is, they're made very simply. I think a lot of the best hacks are very simple.
And so this is just putting pieces of tracing paper over these smartphones that we all have
in our pockets. And it's about kind of archiving these first sort of awkward moments where we're
all touching computers for the first time. And so it has to do with identity, but it also has to do
with how interface designers are sort of teaching us as human beings to make these gestures that
we've sort of never made ever before. And now we're doing this 100 times a day. So this one's
called username and password. This is an active account if anybody wants to try. So I was doing
that as an individual piece where you can kind of see how these gestures are working. And for me,
it was a lot about archiving. This is kind of a series where I was playing Angry Birds from
start to finish, right? So this is looking at, this is a bigger data set. So these are all the
winning levels. But more recently, I did a version that was every single attempted level. So this
is an installation that's up at the University of Maryland right now. And this is every level
of Angry Birds. And so for me, this is, this is a solo exhibition called Casual Computing. And so
for me, this idea is like, as we're entering into this new relationship with computers where we're
sort of stealing away seconds on the metro. And it's not necessarily about sitting in front of
the desk and working for 10 hours, but all these, all these little moments they add up. And so this
is kind of a visualization of that. I'm very influenced by graffiti, but I think, I love
graffiti because they're hackers, right? Like Mike and Ski were talking up here earlier when I
hear them talking about the work that they're making, like I hear hackers talking about the
work that they're making. It's the same design approach. And I think my love affair with graffiti
is really because they're hackers, not painters, right? And so my favorite tags is about where
they show up and not necessarily what color they are in or how beautifully they're rendered. So
even when I'm looking at something like this, it's not about the letters, it's about the system
it's hacking, right? It's like graffiti writers, they're hacking the subway system. And so graffiti
is a community of hackers. And I think when James and I were collaborating on the work for
Graffiti Research Lab with Theo and a lot of other people, projects like laser tag,
these were hacks that kind of an urban scale and thinking about making tools that would
sort of allow other people to experience this kind of, this hack, right? This moment of empowerment.
And so this idea of unintended use, right? Using lasers to write graffiti, duck taping knives onto
vacuum cleaners, right? Like this idea of unintended use, I think, is a lens which hackers tend to
look at the world around them and turn boring technologies into really exciting ones. This
is from an internet meme called the Doomba. And so there's a lot of thinking that comes from
the early hacker scenes that grew up with Linux. This is a phrase from Eric Raymond, but he's
talking about Linus Torwald again. He says his genius was being lazy like the fox, right? And
it's kind of about trying to find the quickest way between points A and point B. And so whenever
I'm spending too long on a project, I always kind of come back to this lazy like a fox mentality
and try to treat things the way hackers would treat them. This is a particularly lazy piece
that I did called how to keep motherfuckers from putting their seats back. It's a very short
performance piece that happens on an airplane. It's a single zip tie.
And so I'm much more fascinated in the philosophies that come from hacker communities
rather than the technologies, right? Because to me like a zip tie can be a really empowering,
interesting technology. I don't know, do I have volume up here? Oh, I do. Okay, I'll just show a
couple quick ones and then I'll pass the mic. This is a more recent piece called Free Speech.
This was in Vienna about six months ago. Also a very simple construct. It's just a van
with a large mobile telephone number, the word free, and then an arrow pointing to this loud
speaker on the roof. And there's no instructions, there's no input, there's no voice on the other
line. But when you would call in and you kind of sheepishly say hello, you'd hear your own name
kind of ringing out throughout the immediate proximity. So I'll show just 30 seconds of what
this looks like.
And so this piece was kind of about
introducing this moment of empowerment into a kind of unexpected situations, right? I think
like when James and I were doing a lot of laser tag events that we had that feeling too,
is like you're allowing people to say something on a scale that kind of weren't ever meant to have
control over. And so that idea of sort of hacks as empowerment is what I really am interested in.
That's kind of the piece I did over here with the Ted sign is kind of about that. It's like a
sculpture you can stand in front of and receive power. And for like there's been a crew of
fat lab members driving around the Google car over there. And if you've ever been behind the
wheel of the Google car, you know what power feels like. It's like these hacks, they sort of,
they lead to empowerment. So you can feel free to give your own Ted presentations over here.
And that's really the core of my interest in hacking. It's not about the technology, it's more
about how something as simple as a zip tie or like some painted red wood letters can sort of give
people this moment of empowerment. And so I'll leave with this image. This is one I keep coming
back to is like one of my favorite just art hacks of all time. This is a piece by William Lampson.
And it kind of has everything for me, right? It's playful, it's clever, anti authoritarian,
it's misuse, it's lazy, it's empowering, and it's just a balloon and a string and a piece of rock,
right? So to me, this is like the perfect, perfect hack, you know, it's the minimum amount of effort
for the maximum amount of impact. Okay, so with there, I want to pass the mic. Who do we have
coming up next? Mr. Barthol, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Aaron Barthol.
So thanks a lot, Evan. And yeah, please welcome Aram Barthol. Aram lives and works in Berlin.
His work deals with net politics, DIY movements, and internet development in general. His work has
been exhibited at MoMA here in New York, at Pace Gallery, and at DUM, the Digital Art Museum in
Berlin. So please welcome Aram. Yeah, thank you. I'm gonna talk about speed projects,
which is a label and sort of a certificate I came up with in 2009. At the beginning of 2009,
it became part of our FATLAB and it was a really good experience. The way of working how FATLAB
works and how people work in there was really a rich new whole field and also changed me a lot
how I work myself. And Evan already pointed out a lot of, yeah, very important qualities of a hack.
And one of those is like to doing things which are very effective in a very short time period.
And the speed project was sort of, yeah, it's just the stamp, but it's about, the idea is
make a project in a very short timeframe. Maximum is one day, so everything which is longer than one
day is not a speed project anymore. And yeah, you can see it here, five minutes, 10 minutes.
It's often been used for internet projects, but could be applied to any other project.
And of course, I mean, it's a certificate, but it's not really, well, you give the certificate
yourself, sort of self-approved. And it's about time and it's about how much time do I need to
make an art work. And there's an artist, I mean, I just chose this now because it's very obvious,
but I mean, there's art pieces out there and yeah, a lot of artists, a lot of time consuming and it
gains value by, oh my God, can you see this, how much time it has taken to make this. And of course,
this is legit, right? I mean, in painting or in many art forms, but at the same time, this is
something I learned a lot with that and looking at GRL and also at the hacker community to do
something very fast and yeah, conceptual, yeah, this is also one of the great hacks in art history.
So there's many examples and so I just chose to here to kind of, yeah, put out the idea and
there's also like a real stamp, but this is all like a series of projects which have been done by
FedLab members. So here's even like 10 seconds something, I think Evan did this, where was it?
Barcelona, right? So there's a spray can, GoNuts and then people, GoNuts, URL performance art,
this is also by Evan. And it's really like the way to work with the web or for the internet,
you make a project, maybe it's also very reacting to something, what just happened,
like the meteor comes down and then there's like memes going on, etc. So it's very much like
how the web's, yeah, kind of the drive of the web and to see projects compared to how much time
that it took to make them is, yeah, very important, right? So or at least it's like, gives you an idea,
oh, this was made in one hour and yeah, this is like a video interface, Jamie made. So
you type in a sentence and then you get all the videos with these topics.
The auto smiley by Theo was made in one hour, which is like a chat interface.
So you stick the, no, it's a face recognition and when you smile, your chat adds a smiley.
So yeah, there's all these projects and I think speed project and being fast and making these
things is, yeah, it's a very important part of the hacking culture and this talk was made in
five minutes. Okay, thank you very much. Our next presenter is Eddie Wagenknecht.
Eddie is an anti-disciplinary experimental researcher who works in the fields of emerging
media and open source pop culture and activist arts. Each of her pieces is always a clever conceit
with a narrative that becomes a commentary on aspiration and failure. She currently is the
MIT Open Hardware Summit Chair. She's a fellow at Eyebeam and Mozilla and a contributor to
Artifact of Code, so please welcome Eddie Wagenknecht. So, hey everyone, I just want to give you a
quick overview of my work and a little history beforehand. So my fascination with computers
really started when I was a kid with the Oregon Trail game. This was 1985 for those of you who
remember. From there, I really dove into something called kid pics and this is really the point
in my work where I first remember the idea that you could experiment with computers and it wasn't
just this read-only environment, but you could do something beyond just what was on the screen.
So as a kid, I started experimenting with kid pics and I became very interested in this idea of
creating art with computers. In high school, it was the time of my life when the internet
became a reality. So I got my dial-up modem and my computer and at some point in high school,
I have a memory of my dad disconnecting my modem so that I would go out on a date.
So I want to talk a little bit about my creative process and kind of what I consider a hack versus
art. When you Google hack, you get a lot of skulls, a matrixy code and kind of this idea of like
a guy in a black hoodie with a skull shirt on, which is cool, but it's not really how I identify
with myself. And when I look into art, it's kind of this Bob Ross thing. My reference for art was
Bob Ross. Like growing up, I'd watch PBS with my grandma. Shout out to grandma if you're here.
So I didn't have a lot to go from and I've always been into kind of this idea of doing
things all at once, but I think the interesting thing about hacking is like art, there's not
really a wrong hack. So right now, I'm thinking a lot about what is hacking. I define hacking as
it's something that's not necessarily about dismantling, but the realization that whatever it
is you're wanting to dismantle has already been dismantled. So right now, I'm thinking about
hacking as political hacks, as life hacks, art hacks, social hacks. We're in a time in society
where with Occupy and Anonymous, that hacking isn't just this niche thing. So we've gone from
10% or 5% to the 99%. And we're at a point where our grandparents and our parents and
mainstream media is starting to recognize hacking as really a mainstream accepted movement. I don't
feel like it's a niche anymore. So it's a very interesting time to be considered a hacker.
Sorry, I'll go back really quick. So this is really, this work specifically is in the show
right now. It's webcam Venus. This is really what I consider kind of a social hack. And this idea
of morphine and playing with community. So with this project, unfortunately, I don't have a video,
but it's right there if you want to see it. The idea with this project is that we went on to
cam sites and we played with getting people to pose like iconic works of art. I'm also really
interested in kind of the female aspect of hacking or what would you do as a female? So I've been
playing with like nipple blocking algorithms. And also on the fat list, we had a discussion about
why is there a lack of women in open source and what is this lack of women in hardware? And I don't,
and even hacking for that matter. So I don't think it's necessarily again, the green
matrix code in the skulls. But I started thinking about that process and I was interested in kind
of playing with that. So I took Pyro Bay and I thought, what would Pyro Bay look like if it had
been developed by high school girls? I turned up pink. I got some like sparkly text. I renamed it
Princess Bay. I switched out all the ads with David Beckham instead of porn and the spring
wardrobe sale from Refinery29. I'm also playing a lot with hardware hacking. So one of the projects
here is Wi-Fi Tiger. It's basically a router that allows you to put four lines of 32 characters each.
So the idea is really tagging space. It's taking this idea of hacking and art out of the gallery
and even one step further off the internet and the idea that you can create and enable yourself to
change something. It's really about this idea of empowerment of not only yourself,
but of the hardware so that you're not scared to break it. You can open it up and play it and
kind of make it your own. This is another tech hack. It's called Optimization of Parenthood.
So the idea is that it's a robot arm that actually reacts to a baby crying. I think there's quite
a monotony around parenthood and I think a lot of the repetitive tasks are very robotic in nature.
So I wanted to play with that idea and create kind of a robotic babysitter. Shout out to the parent
over there. And finally, my last kind of tech hack that I'm working on is LaserSore. It's an
open source laser cutter that I've been developing the last few years with stuff on Heshenberger.
We have about a thousand of them in the wild right now, everywhere from Carnegie Mellon to
New York University to hacker spaces. And it's really this idea of empowering people and allowing
people to have access to equipment and materials that they wouldn't necessarily have access to
or be able to afford without doing it themselves. It's not a commercial or non-commercial movement.
It's really, I think, what embodies open source is this idea of increasing accessibility and
proliferation of a machine or something that you're passionate about.
This project I find kind of interesting because it overlaps a lot with what GRL was doing when I
first was introduced to it. It's kind of this urban poetry project I started doing when I was at
ITP for my masters in 2006-2007. So I went around New York and I took pictures of a lot of advertising,
loaded them to Flickr, used the Flickr API, and actually used a laser pointer to let you tag
and create haikus using the words pulled out of ads and kind of playing with this idea of ubiquity
of advertising and then again allowing you to embrace it and change it yourself.
So that kind of concludes my quick artist overview. I'll pass the mic off.
