“The Hacking Monopolism Trilogy” presented by Ludovico and Cirio

Symposium:


Session Title:
  • Political Resistance

Presentation Title:
  • The Hacking Monopolism Trilogy

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Abstract:

  • The three artworks of the Hacking Monopolism Trilogy are “Face to Facebook”, “Amazon Noir” and “GWEI-Google Will Eat Itself”. These works have much in common in terms of both methodologies and strategies. They all use custom programmed software to exploit three of the biggest online corporations, deploying conceptual hacks that generate unexpected holes in their well-oiled marketing and economic system. All three projects were ‘Media Hack Performances’ that exploited security vulnerabilities of the internet giants’ platforms to raise media attention about their abuse of power. These performances were staged through the global mass media for millions of spectators worldwide. The processes of the projects are always illustrated diagrams that show the main directions and processes under which the software has been developed to execute the performances. Finally, all the installations we exhibited did not use computers or networks, focusing more on the display of the processes than on the technologies.

    ISEA2013, in collaboration with Vivid Ideas, presents a keynote address from Italian media critics and hacktivists Alessandro Ludovico and Paolo Cirio, whose infamous online project Face to Facebook involved stealing 1 million Facebook profiles, filtering them with face-recognition software, and then posting them on a custom-made dating website. Conceptually hacking big online corporations has proven to be a symbolic, dangerous and revealing artistic process, challenging funding principles of the digital economy and of digital communication at large. Face to Facebook work is the third part in the Hacking Monopolism Trilogy which also includes hactivist projects centred around Google (Google will Eat Itself) and Amazon (Amazon Noir).

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