The Art of Hacking - Artist talks
ABOLI$H CAPITALI$M NOW! - Harmen de Hoop
The Art of Hacking: Heath Bunting, Harmen de Hoop and moddr_
Sunday 11 September 15 hrs, free entrance
"The art of Hacking’ focuses on the artistic side of hacking. The projects subvert, improve on or
circumnavigate ‘official’ systems and practices and offer alternatives with sometimes activist
elements. The artists Heath Bunting, Harmen de Hoop and the Rotterdam lab moddr_ present their
artistic practices in relation to hacking strategies.
Heath Bunting is a British artist whose work is based on creating open and democratic systems by
modifying communications technologies and social systems. In ´The Art of Hacking´ he shows his
´Identity Bureau´. Bunting gives insight into the networks at play that constitute an identity, like
banks, health care and education. By using these different networks the artist creates new synthetic
identities. http://irational.org/heath/
This project has been made possible in collaboration with SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain.
The works in Dutch artist Harmen de Hoop's oeuvre are characterized by anonymity, temporality
and illegality. His pieces invade public spaces (often temporarily) and are not officially recognized
as art. They are small, yet very direct actions that react to the manner in which urban public space
is used and the regulations that have been laid down for those who use it. At NIMk De Hoop invites
visitors to make copies of a flyer with the text 'ABOLI$H CAPITALI$M NOW!' and to start acting
as activists in the public arena themselves by spreading the flyers around town (illegally).
http://www.harmendehoop.com
The Rotterdam based lab moddr_ has hacked digital ´footprints´ with projects like ´Web 2.0 Suicide
Machine´ and continues to do so more recently with the `Bin Lover Project´, a new piece by moddr_
residence artist Philipp W. Teister. `Bin Lover´ gives trashed files a new lease of life. The piece
cleverly uses the apparent security of desktops and is shown in ´The Art of Hacking´ alongside a
number of related projects. http://moddr.net