Dear viewer, these subtitles were generated by a machine via the service YouTube and therefore are (very) buggy. If you are capable, please help us to create good quality subtitles: https://c3subtitles.de/talk/3039 Thanks!
[Music]
well uh welcome everyone uh thank you
for coming to my talk um today I want to
talk about devops which I'm sure most of
you all of you know what it is but um
for
artworks so
I want to begin with stating some facts
and the easier ones are that I believe
that hackers are artists and artists are
hackers um maybe not everyone feels like
an artist who is a hacker and surely not
every artist feels um the same way but
hacking is a creative process um
therefore all hackers also artists um
both of them hackers and artists use um
technology in a creative way uh I Al
always try to explain what a hacker does
by saying that a hacker can make coffee
with a
toaster um hackers and artists both
challenge their status quo so they're
not happy with what exists they want
discover new things they want to open up
technology uh discover new worlds
whatever you can imagine um and hackers
and artist both look at things in a
different way uh than most of the other
people do so
some people see just a broken website
other people see their next Congress
talk and some exploits that they can
find um artists see broken things they
see art so there um are quite some
similarities and I believe that um this
is also the reason why in the hacker
ethics that is one of the pillars of
CCC um uh you can create art and Beauty
on a computer is part of it um this is a
really important state statement I think
uh because it shows and it it was
published um
1984 that computers are more than just
calculating machines um are more than
just tools um computers can be uh
helpful for creating things and this is
I think a basic understanding that we
should have for this talk um so I would
like to start by asking the audience so
try to do a little bit interactive who
was in the museum in the past six month
month okay I'm impressed I had crowds
where like less people got their hands
up um who was more than once in the
museum in the last 6
months okay good I see why you're all
here very happy uh that you found the
right way uh so um I have some images in
the talk this is more like to give an
example um and uh the question is how
could it look if you can create art and
Beauty well um this would be one example
um maybe you know the graic anadol
machine hallucinations this was shown in
Berlin so this is the proof maybe we can
create art and Beauty on a computer but
um creating art and beauty is one thing
and this is maybe what we want to talk
about is can you also show art and
Beauty on a
computer um I think the answer is yes
but and this is what I want to talk
about now because it's not that easy um
we can create art with computers but but
um as you all know computers are weird
computers are complicated they break
they do whatever they want to do um and
uh therefore there there is a problem
that arises um there are a lot of media
art and art um technology related art uh
parts and art works I want to talk more
about software and computers and art um
so but it also could be applied to video
art sound art and media art in
general um the fast-paced development in
technology and the extreme short self uh
shelf life of components um is is truly
a challenge because you want to rely on
them you need them uh to present art uh
so therefore you need to find a way to
mingle with them um so that you all
understand my motivation right I like
art and computers I think both go hand
in hand as we've already said um I also
realize that artists talk more about
tech than um hackers talk about art so
maybe that's the question I would like
to ask because I want to talk more about
art with hackers since we are all
artists and all hackers are artists and
vice versa so
uh both artists and hackers use the same
tool set we we use software we use
computers we use Hardwares and uh
hackers and Engineers have solutions for
breaking computers for breaking software
for maintenance and so on and so forth
uh these kind of problem solving is not
uh has not fully arrived yet in art
world and um I would like to talk more
about that because I think that
solutions that you find for enterprise
software and the maintenance of any kind
of apps can be something that uh is also
useful in the artor
um the I'm going to explain uh three
concepts related to artworks um which is
presentation conservation and
restoration uh and this will be
important for later none none of them
involves the artist itself so we only
talk about the
artwork um explain me like I'm five so
maybe you know the Reddit uh subreddit
about that um what is conservation
conservation focuses on the preservation
of the original artwork um we uh we want
to keep it the way it is right so no
changes are made to the artwork you can
do things around it you can maybe uh uh
it has to stay the way it is right so
the first question that comes is what
does that actually mean so what what is
the artwork um maybe to give an example
a very simple one for
painting it would be more about that uh
you replace the varnish you control the
temperature and humidity to prevent any
kind of degradation of the artwork that
is quite straightforward but um let's
say you have a an app a website how do
you conserve it do you just hope that uh
um the internet archive scrapes it and
then you're done with it or do you save
it on the floppy drive on a USB stick
and this is or what what is the artwork
itself is it just the website is it the
computer with with the entire website so
that's already the the the first
questions that we um uh we have and then
what is most important a software
usually interacts with someone so
software itself is quite um useless it's
only useful if someone uses it uh so
actually the interaction with it the
environment of software also has a heavy
influence on how you handle it one
option could be that you could just buy
old computers and have a huge storage of
computers which is what people do but
that's uh doesn't always work and
doesn't always work for the future um so
we need some different strategies so
that's about
conservation um how does it look it's a
bit of an example this is uh the artwork
Bubbles and um maybe you see it on the
left side of the screen um it has a
power Ma G4 which is quite an old
computer uh an old video camera media
controller synthesizer and speakers and
it is the original um G4 Max so you
handle it with care you make sure that
it still works um uh and these kind of
things so this is would be an example of
artwork
conservation then we have the
presentation so art to be enjoyed has to
be presented um one very important part
that I think sometimes is underrated is
explaining the right context of art if
you look at um 3D generated art or any
kind of software art you could easily
say well that's boring I see that every
day on my screen um but when you look at
the explanation you see well this was
something that was made 30 years ago
when these kind of Technologies were
absolutely not um widespread and uh the
use for artists also was not at all um
uh clear for everyone so the
presentation form is quite important um
imagine you have a software from the
'90s you could present it on like a
brand new laptop which would still work
but would also be a little bit weird
because it was developed on a very old
computer so you could say you have to
present it on an old computer on an old
screen CRT screens whatever so this is
this is part of the artwork itself
because it has some kind of um
appearance it has some kind of influence
on you as a as a viewer
um and the the tech that drives it is
part of it to give another example if
you have a painting that is um in a
museum on a wall you look at the
painting but you are influenced by the
space itself it's maybe uh the light is
dimmed the temperatur is cooler or uh
the the this is a wide Cube It's a big
room a small room there are many people
very few people inside so these are all
things that also influenced your
experience of uh the artwork and same
goes for for software so if it's a fast
old computer high resolution low
resolution this is all part of it um and
the last uh aspect of presentation is
give access without risk of wear and
tear for paintings is uh uh very simple
you dim the light you control the
climate you put a glass projection in
front so that no one puts tomato soup on
it uh for software well it's more
especially if you have old computers or
old Hardware you would make sure that it
for example doesn't run
24/7 um if you have interactive Parts
like uh controllers or buttons you make
sure that these are very reliable or you
change them uh to use newer parts so
that visitors will try whatever they do
with it they will press on it jump on it
uh so it has to be it has to have some
kind of
resistance um an example for example is
the work uh your code from Peter VI and
Ben lman um nothing much to see it is
presented It is Well organized uh it is
in a setup space with the lights uh so
yeah nothing special to see here the
last part uh
restoration is um I would say the most
difficult part because that's when maybe
your conservation has failed um and the
artwork is not in its desired State
anymore for example a screen is broken
um and you cannot replace it um or the
software is unavailable you don't have
the source code anymore the compiled
source code doesn't work you cannot you
cannot use it anymore so then the
strategy is to get as close as possible
to the initial appearance of function um
either by reproduction so for example
you could replace the screen um you
could replace something else a button or
a computer or in the worst case
reinterpretation where you take the idea
the initial intent of the artist and you
build a new artwork from scratch that
looks and feels very similar to the old
one but technically is not the same as
the old one um so to give to keep with
the example with a painting for a
painting to be that there is missing
paint on the canvas because it has
fallen apart or during handling it was
damaged so you would with a new material
apply paint again so then it would look
very close to the original painting for
software you can write it from scratch
one example is um for here licki
Columbus 2 this was a software that
initially was written in ja and then
didn't run anymore and anybody wanted
more features higher resolution so it
was completely um Rewritten from scratch
um but looks and feels like the initial
artwork this can be also very uh um very
important strategy if for some reason
something else breaks that you don't
have control over but that you need for
your artwork um we'll talk about that in
a little bit so we talked about
restoration conservation and um
presentation and now I want to put these
a little bit in in relationship to what
it means if you create art on a computer
art on a computer relies on a computer
said in the beginning you you all you
all here because computers are not maybe
easy to use I mean if they would be easy
to use and just do whatever we want to
do I don't know if there would be like
such an event uh so one thing that is
part of it is a software and the
software is hardware and then there's
data and
information
so the thing is that most of these
things are when you look at the computer
out of your own Control software you
have to buy it software can get
deprecated it can require Hardware
licenses and so on and so forth Hardware
can break down and in the worst case it
goes out of production um and cannot be
bought anymore but I think the the these
two point are quite um obvious I mean
who doesn't know the issue with you have
I don't know old um videos and you don't
find the right software or edited
project files and you software doesn't
exist anymore your old laptop is broken
and youve lost access to it or you have
done a lot of things in an expensive
software which gets even more expensive
and you don't have the funds anymore to
buy it then you L lose access this is
quite um obvious but um in the past
years and in my work I found a very
important part and that is the data and
information part
because uh suddenly we had artists or
I've seen artists building on top of the
Twitter API on top of Facebook
apis uh on top of many fun services that
suddenly went bankrupt or closed or
changed their um way of working and uh
suddenly the whole artwork was broken
even though Twitter was still there or
Facebook was still there and the data
even was still there but not anymore um
reachable for the artworks
um the other part that is quite
important is that uh the artwork if you
have produced it it exists and it stays
there but the environment for example
the legal environment around it changes
so we have seen the introduction of more
um uh detailed and also um more complex
data privacy laws in Germany with d for
but also in general um uh a lot of laws
around the topic of data data processing
are published and if you have an artwork
that actually suddenly does something
that is illegal because it was part of
the initial idea 20 years ago when less
people talked about privacy you have to
show it in a different way and maybe you
cannot even show it anymore in the
original way because suddenly its way of
operating becomes
illegal the other part that uh for art
and Beauty created on the computer is
that it actually relies on a human uh it
relies on a human operator which has to
use the computer and without him using
or taking a look at what it's it doesn't
really exist right um because many of
the works not all of them but many are
based on
interaction and if there is no
interaction the work is not complete um
which is also quite a an important fact
to maybe um keep in
mind so we talked about the
the three uh the three parts
presentation uh conservation and
restoration and I want to present some
strategies uh just as an inspiration
also for all of you so the one U
strategy for a presentation is actually
um hack consumer Hardware what do I mean
by that is that if you think about
augmented reality and virtual reality
artists and museums mostly buy Hardware
from of the Shelf components they go to
Media Market or Z or wherever buy it
online and they buy VR glasses but those
VR glasses are built and designed for
operations at home that means that maybe
per day you use it two or three hours
and it's mostly one or two different
people that use it if you put it in a
public
space where many people suddenly use it
right you you will have 50 people that
use it at the same time they all have
different face configurations this needs
to be adjusted you need to explain it
um this is all not not well thought
through for these kind of devices
because if you have a VR headset you buy
it and you have two or three hours at
home to get used to it yeah you set it
up you play with it around and then you
start doing the fancy stuff if you go
into a museum you set it up and then you
have 5 Seconds to get used to it you
cannot stand for two hours there and
just enjoy the tech and getting to use
it and it's not very much designed for
it um this is kind of a problem or for
example
I've not directly but heard of that some
of the uh the the head mounted devices
crash after a certain amount of time
because normally you would operate them
battery powered and suddenly in the
museum they had a cable for power supply
and they would run from run for much
longer times that was never intended by
by the software Engineers so weird
things happen um and the other point uh
that's that is a huge problem is digital
Rights
Management um because suddenly
if we go back to the example of VR um
you cannot use them without an account
anymore you have to create an account it
has to be a special account sometimes
you even have to for some service
provide a credit card um which which is
one thing but on the other side in the
menu you for example cannot um forbid
the buying of of like uh packages and
some internal stores and I mean there's
not always someone standing from a guard
or some stuff from the museum next to
the um virtual reality glasses so you
could have the situation where some
visitor puts on the glasses and like oh
I can buy these apps or I can do that
fancy stuff and suddenly the Museum's
credit cards get charged um I didn't
hear that happen but uh I know that it
took a lot of work in the preparation to
check all these kind of things um and
and be sure that you cannot break it um
also for example if you to keep with the
example because it's quite clear
uh usually you enjoy your experience in
virtual reality augmented reality any
kind of interactive experience and then
you just leave and go see another
artwork but suddenly someone else will
come after it and he will find the the
software in a very weird State usually
it is it has a bug or it has crashed and
that's why someone left and didn't say
anything so this kind of handling of the
frequent change of a viewer and the
public spaces is quite
difficult so youve tried to find
solutions by actually hacking the
artwork itself uh to present it by uh
I've seen all kind of things Sero Sero
Motors uh pressing on buttons um using
kiosk mode to prevent kind of right
click and people printing stuff from the
artwork or people reading their emails
it's very weird I've seen people like
open Gmail on artworks and read their
own email like in the museum um because
people they they don't care they're like
oh it's a computer I've also seen and
I'm less happy about the hackers who
wanted to prove that they're hacks
hackers by installing Windows XP on some
old phone booth I was like yeah that's
nice but actually no one can enjoy it
anymore and I I don't know if there is
so much pride in that you can install
Windows XP as a
hacker and um uh how does it look I mean
in terms of relying on uh public
available Hardware that is for example
the connect from Microsoft Connect V2
um which is a a super camera because you
can use it for many things and it gives
you a lot of data but unfortunately it
has gone out of production because um I
believe Microsoft doesn't feel the need
to build it anymore because they don't
sell it anymore but suddenly let's
imagine you're an artist you all your
Works build on it suddenly all the
libraries stop working um you cannot buy
any spare parts and uh uh this this then
becomes quite a a problem also for the
presentation um to give an example with
these kind of cameras they have if we
had to build in different power supplies
because the the the ones that you get
shipped with work with the Xbox it's
super weird you start getting weird
issues where they crash for no reason um
so yeah this is kind of uh the
challenging part um maybe also less uh
less uh exciting but also important
strategies of conservation so obviously
you can archive the software with all of
all its dependencies that's quite easy
you just export it um at source Cod you
put it somewhere and then it's there um
but again the problem is if you pull it
out of storage you are confronted with
situations like different legal
requirements different Hardware
requirements different realities that um
that uh that you cannot foresee so just
archiving the software and just having a
backup of it is actually not uh not
enough you um build a storage of all
devices I don't know yeah what I meant
with that but mostly I think that
actually uh to cope with the idea of um
uh requiring old Tech is just just buy a
lot of old Tech so um you will see for
different shows Museum and curators
going on uh on on Craigslist on eBay on
wherever and buying all the CRT screens
they find or all the blue keyboards they
find um they will be buying 120 printers
in batch because then they don't need to
worry about printers anymore so very
weird things happen but um obviously you
also need to train staff to maintain
those devices um or start the production
of new old devices which is something
that um can be very interesting if for
example you say uh we need we have
artworks that use a needle printer and
well I can build one and then suddenly
you start selling needle printers to
artists that want to use the old Tech so
um kind of fun things happened there
strategies of restoration I've already
said it a little bit well one of it is
reverse engineering and uh reverse
engineering is one big problem because
actually
uh it becomes more and more difficult
over time uh software gets more complex
devices get more complex uh everything
is a black box um apis are black boxes
and you can actually uh you can maybe
restore the core artwork but everything
else around it is um super weird and you
have no idea how it works and therefore
you cannot restore it um you can also
rewrite and rebuild it from
scratch which I think is a it's
sometimes it feels like the easy way but
uh it also feels like letting go of
something because you say well the old
thing dies and I want to do the new one
obviously you can start emulating
Hardware um so a lot of simulators of uh
old Apple machines or Old Computers to
run I don't know Windows 95 or Mac OS 9
on it so you get the software running
that is one uh strategy
or obviously build mockup interfaces so
if the some API is gone you just build a
web service that delivers the kind of
same uh
data
okay
well there is actually you all know it
and it's in the title of the talk
there's something that is called devops
that in my opinion is something that you
you can use to challenge all these kind
of problems right if if your Hardware
changes if the software changes the
requirement changes you go into this
kind of loop and you look at everything
and and and everything is Happy everyone
is happy and and and there is no drama
um but usually that only works because
all this kind of process is done by one
team hopefully in one location on one
product and everybody understands all
the part of the steps uh if we take that
and look at it um from the artwork uh
parts and I got a very good suggestion
that this would be the arts art life
cycle I've put life cycle in in quotes
because um you will see what I mean is
obviously you start by a plan which
would be your idea then you write a
software and you build it um
congratulation you're an
artist and what an artist does is
actually he does an artwork which can be
released then so now we have already the
first step the artist has an idea codes
it builds it releases it and that's when
it gets more interesting so you want to
deploy and operate
it and obviously Monitor and test it
what does monitor and test mean for an
artwork I don't know monitor probably
that visitors will complain that it's
broken and uh test is just you sit next
to it and watch how people react but
that's that's already when it becomes a
bit undefined um the part deploy and
operate is something that is done by the
museum mostly Monitor and testing it
depends some some do it others don't do
it there is no clear rule for that and
then you could say well perfect if like
the museum has an issue it monitors
tests it and then we can plan and build
and release again the problem is that's
not how it
works usually you will have very weird
um Loops so the museums try to operate
the artwork because it's not their
artwork so they cannot like start making
changes to it so they have to do
maintenance but they cannot uh influence
the artwork so they will try to change
everything around it uh sometimes Museum
give feedbacks to artists I don't know
if all of them do maybe you have artists
that work in the museum because they're
guest artists or resident artists um
these kind of things but that's not also
the rule um then you also have we said
the conservation part which is also mly
mainly deploy operate Monitor and test
because you would take it out of your
storage look if it still works
check if it's broken and if yeah then
you fix it but you don't change it
anymore and the problem with this is
that actually most of the time uh on the
right side of the graph you can it moves
very fast in many Loops um if something
breaks in museum stuff will come and fix
it switch it off switch it on read the
documentation but the bigger problem is
that actually rarely you move backwards
to the artwork because the artwork is
something um that is there and that
exists yeah so these are the thoughts
and issues about that is that you surely
know the term is that
sorry artworks often are seen as
immutable objects right this is
something the artist has produced it has
this creative process Tada artwork's
there and then others look at it but you
don't change it anymore because the
artist has done it with a certain intent
and that's part of this artwork it's a
finished part of it right
then you have the exhibition which is a
immutable collection of immutable
objects because you have a curator which
designs the exhibition he selects the
work he carefully puts them in a certain
Arrangement he writes descriptions
there's a topic um there is a red uh how
you say um you go through the exhibition
and you you there's a story and these
kind of things and if you would change
the function of an artwork it will
probably also break with the curated
exhibition so that's the problem and
that's a bit of a conflict with the
expectation of reliable operation
deployment because it
um in some artists do do a lot of
testing and their Works work pretty well
and reliably then you have zero issues
but that's not all of
them um
especially when you take artworks you
put them into different museums and
suddenly the environments are completely
different you will have slow internet
fast internet uh sometimes the computer
will be in in some box with no
ventilation or it will be placed 20 M
away from the screen but HDMI can only
cope with 15 M so you get like these
kind of weird issues that nobody has
ever planned for and then the moment you
want to set it up uh you cannot change
it anymore and so a lot of uh uh uh
problem solving goes into attempting to
control the environment into I've seen
people trying to buy more expensive HDMI
cables because maybe then 20 metros
works so sometime it does some TW it
doesn't or um you buy different data
Sims because it's faster than the
network connectivity of the museum all
of this are near impossible attempts to
control something that's actually not in
your um scope of of what you could
control um the other issues come to the
artwork itself is that I said artists
are also hackers and the problem is that
they will buy hardware and be like oh
that's fun I can hack it and make an
artwork out of it which means that you
actually need to maintain hacks and hack
even more hacks to maintain the hacks
that have been hacked previously um so
yeah there is no like there's no manual
for it if you are lucky the artist wrote
a manual on how he hacked the stuff so
you can continue hacking it um but
mostly you don't know stuff is more and
more
complex uh and uh more and more
interconnected and this also becomes um
a problem because suddenly you have
unforeseen consequences so um just to
give an example we had a work that was
um there was a webbased artwork which
was super nice and and you could um
interact with it and with other people
and so on and so forth and uh
suddenly uh while checking it before
showing it we found out that obviously
for the multiplayer because it interacts
with other people it uses a servers
based in the US because someone has
included it in some subunity package and
building it the artist was not aware
that the work um was actually
transmitting personal
data uh to Service uh abroad and
suddenly we had to slash the whole thing
and tell him like by the way you need to
fix this because we cannot show it and
the artist was like yeah but I'm just an
artist I have no idea how to fix it and
you you there there's a lot of sadness
because you have you have prepared
something and you're super happy to show
it and suddenly there's like some guy
who comes is like no it's not data
privacy compliant go fix it so there's a
lot of friction um there and that is
also because you use Tech that you uh
well you don't understand the other
issues for example we had a artist using
uh USB camera which had USBC but for
some reason his software only used the
USB 2 mode and uh this is maybe too far
from my knowledge but as far as I know
USBC cables if you use it in legacy mode
have actually Direction so you can they
they behave differently the way you plug
it um
and uh the person didn't understand what
why a USBC cable would work differently
if you plugged it in another way around
because you used a weird driver mode and
so it gets more and more complex and
then you start seeing little dots and
pictures and it's like you have to plug
it this way around and there's then some
unrelated technician who's like that's
stupid because USBC goes in both
directions and then they fight so there
a lot of things that that that happen
there um so well uh there are some
strategies about how you could go on
with it um short and Midterm ones we
start with that and that is actually the
something that is already happening is
involve artists in restoration and
conservation processes this can be
artists but actually I should have
written artist and
hackers um this means that if you as an
artist build an artwork and gets
collected they will contact you
immediately and ask you documentation
and not only when it's broken right so
and you put in contracts you make
agreements that you do maintenance that
when you buy an artwork you start
planning money for uh uh making work
like so there's a lot a lot of planning
process to already mitigate like the
more basic
issues um the other um part and that's
where I think most of us hackers also
come in in action is to um oh sorry yeah
to gain control over hardware and
software development because we if if I
mean I mean if you don't want to buy a
software you can just write it yourself
right if uh um if you want different
Hardware you can just build it yourself
and actually museums and and and and
Collections and artists can also do that
um so there are a lot of projects that
um are uh have the goal to develop
Hardware um that is has no vendor login
that is free from any kind of DRM um the
one motivation can be that you don't
have to buy it you can just use it but
the other motivation is that you prevent
these kind of issues that um a museum
would have into showing it or having to
buy
licenses um and build Al um Alternatives
um and mocks to escape the vendor lockin
and this is I think uh this is quite an
important part because that's where
hackers and artists can get very can can
can get very close to each other and
work together on many things um because
they they they use the same tool right
if uh any kind of software that is
developed veled um sometimes for
scientific purposes is then used by
artists and so there are many
collaborations and corporations that can
be done um and especially also I think
uh museums and art institutions can um
be part of that they have uh artists and
residencies museums can actually hire
software engineers and um drive that
development long-term
strategies uh actually is a lot of
discussions and decisions because one
part would be to talk about the expected
shelf life of
artworks um if you were lived 40,000
years ago and you were painting things
on some cave so some caveman uh you
didn't care about it and your artwork is
still there and that's fine you can say
I I build it for future Generations but
if you build some uh um app that runs on
your iPhone then you can it will be
difficult to expect that it runs for the
next Thousand Years so maybe one
solution of that is to say well if I
produce an artwork that requires a
certain technical environment I um
wanted to live as long as that
environment lives um why would it be
something would it be maybe weird if you
have uh something that use an API of a
social media Network and the moment the
social media Network dies you try to
emulate and copy it but maybe 20 years
later who will understand what Myspace
is right you would say I build a fancy
Myspace artwork but instead of
explaining the artwork you first need to
explain what Myspace was um so that that
is something that um artists have to
individually decide uh what they want
and there are many ranges from artists
who say that's not I don't care someone
else has to figure that out other
artists say um my artwork is not an
immutable artwork as long as my intent
uh exists I'm happy as long as it runs
it can be a 50in screen 75 5 in screen
can be black and white color I don't
care as long as my idea is there um it's
uh it's still uh it's still
valid um the other part is Education and
Training and that's something that uh
that I realized often is that a good
idea would be to make software and
Hardware engineering part of the
artistic curriculum so that you have and
I think some some art universities
already do it uh that you have um
software engineering classes that you
get an understanding of how software
engineering Works how these processes
are and especially what the challenges
are for software Engineers so that you
can properly talk to them and not that
it get some weird misunderstanding at
the end the same way uh any the other
way around is that um I think it would
benefit a lot of Engineers to get
actually more art as part of their
scientific and Engineering
curriculum um when I was in school I
think art I mean it was nice but it was
the first thing that I dropped and I
realized that my personal art education
has stopped very early and later on I
got confronted with artists and I
thought oh that's all stupid uh but it
turns out that actually I was just not
well educated on that topic um and uh
the more I I I read about it and the
better understanding I got it I still
thinks that I still think that some uh
stuff is stupid but I understand why
it's stupid now that's the
difference um at the end I brought some
fun stories uh to just to to show a
little bit what kind of issues I was
confronted with um so one software we
have uh um I've deployed was VR software
suddenly had parts of the 3D files
tinted in Red so there was like
particles flying around and some of them
suddenly were all
red and uh nobody had an idea what it
was and how it worked actually if you
said windows from German to English then
the color goes back to
normal
and I I believe someone actually uh used
some kind of path building to access the
files and must have not used like a
software library but manually built the
path to access it and then probably uh
it tried to par something in German and
uh then it failed and then the red color
was missing I have no idea my
expectation would have been that the
software was
patched uh but the result was that it
was heavily documented that Windows must
be set to English and that that there we
are in the the the the the the schematic
I had before that actually you move at
the step after the artwork where you try
to find all the explanations why
suddenly the language of Windows has an
influence on your
artwork uh the other part is also quite
important um exhibition was suddenly
offline nobody knew all the remote
access was was unavailable the artworks
were not working um was there easy the
Cyber department and this happen several
times just just cut the Uplink and
didn't notify anyone because they
thought that some data was leaking
because in the description it says that
the data the artwork receives data but
it turns out that it actually sent data
well I mean then you have to explain how
TCP IP
Works uh but they were like no this is
not compliant or they were like uh what
if the the artwork hacks the internet
and I was like that's just a Raspberry
Pi that like that runs some graphics and
I like no that's a security thre and you
can contact this person but the guy is
on leave for many weeks so actually
nothing moves um so I would have
expected to discuss and get free
internet the solution was to use a
mobile data stick and a SIM
card um and this is uh this is maybe uh
I mean these are more extreme uh most of
the venues I've been worked super fine I
got even my own SSID with the network
for putting the artworks in but it
actually shows that you can build very
complex artworks um and then you put it
into your Museum and they have little to
no experience with complex media art um
and that's when we come to the
maintenance part is that often they will
have a technician during the setup
because they don't have not hired him
they got him as a freelancer and
everything is set up and then the guy
leaves on the day of the opening and a
week later the artwork breaks down but
there's no more technical staff at the
Museum because why would it break it's
immutable right it's there it doesn't
change anymore
and then they put a sign in front of it
says it's broken if you are lucky they
will contact you and ask you to fix it
but some also just don't say anything
and it stays broken for weeks um which
I'm not blaming anyone it's just a a a
different understanding about how Tech
Works um and these kind of things and
the last story I don't want to be
tracked I think that's my the the
personal best one um is uh there was an
artwork that collects data from Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi access it's active scanning I
don't know if all of you aware of it but
your um iPhone or whatever smartphone
you use broadcasts the SS IDs it knows
so it doesn't have to look for all of
them it says I know that I I know the
network 37 C3 and then the access point
replies yes I'm here you can connect if
um you're a hacker or artist you can be
like oh yeah I can actually extract the
SS IDs that someone sends out and map
them on a map and then find out where
this person was
you obviously do not store the Mac
because you don't care about any kind of
AR archive it is but suddenly you have a
device where you stand in front of it
and you open your phone and on the
screen shortly afterwards you see a map
of all the locations you have visited
and it looks pretty scared and actually
it's it's nothing I I I believe it's not
illegal because it's all information
that you have voluntarily shared um and
this was shown in a high security
location frequenc by
lawyers
and uh then the discussion started they
would this can't be legal and uh so you
explain them and they're like no but why
do how does it no where it went and you
explain even more and you write reports
and then the solution is that at some
point they get a brain meltdown and they
decide to put up a sign that you just
shut off your Wi-Fi and then the problem
is solved but that that that comes back
to what I said before is the
presentation is very important because
you start um explaining you have to
explain TCH you have to explain how it
works uh if you use many some or many
artworks already use um AI or machine
learning computer vision to detect the
age of the visitor standing in front of
it and then there is a lot of training
that is done in in Europe and you ship
it to Asia and you forget to set the the
network to Asia and suddenly everyone
has a weird age
or I don't know people with mask have
beards and this is this is quite fun but
some visitors get a bit upset when the
computer says that they they look 25
years older than they actually are so
you you and they don't understand where
this comes from yeah they think it's
it's the truth because the machine says
it so there's a lot of explanation that
needs to be done um and that I think
often is um underrated because if you
want people to enjoy your work and not
get angry at it then you have to
properly explain it um I'll finish with
an Outlook um more feedb looks are
necessary I think this is quite
important um include the different team
include all the persons who are involved
in the process artist curators
conservators restorators and also um
visitors because they're uh I don't want
to say they're the testing part of your
artwork but um they actually are part of
it because they interact with it
and there has to be a better
understanding for each other's
professions between art and
Tech uh I'm I'm a bit sick of hearing uh
artists be like oh all these nerds they
do fancy stuff they're all magic and on
the other side um uh technicians be like
oh art is so stupid I want to do any I
want to have anything to do with it um
which is wrong because both of them as I
said artists are hackers and hackers are
artists and um that was my talk thank
you very
[Applause]
much yes thank you very much as well
obix in a truly artist IC fashion uh he
hacked my introduction to his talk but
we now have a Time 50 minutes to be
precise for questions and I already see
someone standing let's start with Mike
one I
believe
hey hey yes I hear you okay good um what
about using some of the qualities that
digital artworks and software has when
when coming to conservation and
restoration rather than treating them
like uh normal artworks so for example
recently I rented an audio book from my
from my library and they only have a
certain amount of that audio book but in
reality you can have infinite amount of
audio book or infinite amount of Picasso
or rbrand or
whatever uh how do you feel about that
can you repeat the first part
again uh what how do you feel about
treating artwork that is based on
software more like software
unless than like art well um the
question was I think I have to repeat it
um was more about why not treat software
based artwork like software and
therefore solve the problem I think that
was one of the main motivations of my
talk because actually I would want to do
that um and I believe that for many
issues that artists or
entities and outw have there is a a
software if you solution if you just
treat it as software but for that you
have to also acknowledge that it's not
magic uh because if you think it's magic
and it's complicated and software is
something that hackers do then then you
get stuck with this kind of things and
um it's kind of new and the development
is very fast and I think difficult to
grasp for someone who is not a hacker
and is not used to this kind of
fast-paced development because I think
all of us are quite used to the fact
that at some Point software breaks down
but if you let's say you're an artist
and you invest in technology and you
let's say you pay a lot of money or you
do a lot of education on some special
Tech and two years later it goes out of
service then you'll be like no I want to
I want to keep that because you had a
huge personal investment and the more
this understanding happens the more you
can actually do this kind of problem
solving so I I think this is the way to
go because um if it's software then you
solve it like you solve software
problems
okay thank you um we have a question on
Mike too please yes thank you for the
talk and so you mentioned the artwork by
Peter wber where used the connect sensor
right I guess the sensor has been used
for a lot of artworks around the globe
and I wonder if there are any
institutions on the glob that somehow
you know start to collect and store this
kind of Hardware which you know might be
getting used in 20 30 years or so
because would you say that the internet
is then the storage place or are there
any institutions and a little comment um
basically or recently I just went you
know to a lot of media art installations
and I think at the moment we still
facing the issue that even the people
working in these museums doesn't or they
don't know that these artwork sometimes
broken or not and then you see a Windows
screen and you tell them hey look
actually this piece is not working at
all you know yeah um to to answer the
question about how do you know if an
artw worker is broken or if it is just
art um that's not yeah uh that's not so
easy if you if you have like some some
fancy uh dithering and and and or we
have seen artists work with jpeg
compression so it constantly looks
broken and um but there are like some
some some coping uh some solutions for
that for for artworks that I have um
co-produced I usually uh put a small
pixel on the side of the screen that
would blink and so you could tell the
stuff as long as this kind of stuff
blinks everything else works fine even
though it looks completely broken um and
about buying all Hardware this is um
this is what museums are actually
already doing but it's it's a solution
that only works for the midterm right
because even if you buy 100 connects um
at some point you also have to buy 100
computers with usb2 connectors because
or you have to buy the adapter cables uh
suddenly also the framework goes out of
service because the moment the hardware
is stopped to be sold also the
development of all the related things
completely stops and uh you can just buy
100 connects but then maybe they become
unusable 5 years later because I don't
know it has to run Debian 6 but some
other package has to run something else
and then you have to write ask someone
to adapt the driver and then you know it
becomes this kind of dependency hell so
it's only it works for short term and
for a certain presentation but um
there's no solution to that so you just
have to hope that it works as long
enough um and then try to to build with
others so the I think the connect is a
very interesting case because it works
as a um as a depth sensor so it has this
depth sensor cam with the time of flight
sensor and this is something that is
maybe if someone has more information
can say is built less and less because
this kind of depth information can be
extracted visually by computer vision
now so why would you build a complicated
time of flight camera if you can just
take a trained uh uh Network and
actually analyze the camera but the
artists are using different kind of data
they need to kind of raw data so they
they they they're less about the actual
function but and more about the raw data
and that's where also you need to find a
solution to make your artwork work if
you don't have access to the raw data
independent of what kind of camera you
buy because the whole technology goes
out of uh
production okay thanks uh again Mike one
please hi uh thank you for that a lot of
that was incredibly
relatable um and
like it's especially this part about the
fact that like normal software
development paradigms often kind of like
break down in artistic creative contexts
and that's often got me wondering and
the people who do work in the space tend
to be kind of hackers or people who just
have learned exhaustively through
experience um and it's often made me
wonder like what would a
professionalization of creative coders
or creative technologists look like and
how could people better share
information somehow or share knowledge
um well one one good way that I found is
actually to have someone in- house
working on it um because if you are um
an institution or an entity or an artist
and each time you need tech advice you
rent it in terms of uh hiring a
freelancer you you just get help but you
don't get knowledge and um uh the the
institutions that that that differ that
I visited the ones were pretty far went
were those who had artists in Residence
hackers and residence who hosted
hackathons uh other kind of hacking
events and we just were in part of the
community right because otherwise if
you're not part of it you're just
ordering stuff and if you just order
stuff you can only buy stuff that's
being sold that's being and and so you
you have to be part of the ecosystem and
I don't know how it will look if you
professionalize it um and I mean you
could ask the same question about open
source software development I mean it
just runs because everyone is part of it
and the museum just has to also be part
of it or the artist and then I think I
think this solves nine out of 10
problems and then we can then then
something else will come but most of
those just get solved by
participation okay thank you on Mike to
the next question hi um I'm too small um
so um let me think uh first of all
you're very welcome in the Netherland
because I'm working in the cultural in
cultural Ed working on New Media so
please come come with us um my question
would be like when we work on um digital
Bond corlection and complex correction
um I think you very much highlighted the
fact that um we have a a shift from
simple Works to extremely complex
digital works and one of the issue that
we are facing is obviously the
Preparatory software and I wonder how do
you address this in term of preservation
because obviously when it's open source
and you can reopen it and then you can
preserve it better but how at this
moment we have so many people that are
working on Works which on which are
based on properity software we don't
even know if the society are going to be
the companies are going to be there in
30 years so how do you approach this I
think it's important to educate also
about the possibilities that such a
commercial software offer because often
they allow exporting in different
formats let's say you can export it as a
PDF or as VG or you can export raw files
from it so maybe you lose the ability of
editing it the moment the software
breaks down but not necessarily you lose
in terms of quality um so this is
something you have to think I think from
the beginning um that is my personal
strategy of if I use a software that um
has a vendor lockin that has to be
bought it has to be licensed I try to be
aware of what what does it mean for for
for my final artwork right if I
completely base it on some old software
that is then out of surface
then I'm not surprised anymore and I can
also communicate it to technicians if
someone would collect my artwork I can
go to the arch and say by the way there
is an issue here please have a look on
it maybe you have the idea I think
communicating this kind of things is
quite important because as you say the
artworks get more and more complex you
have no idea what kind of module is
there worst case the artist has um
commissioned some software engineer to
do it who has asked his friend who did
something and you know at the end you
have a finished product but you don't
know where it came from so this kind of
understanding where does it came from
can I export it um can I maybe use an
alternative so some maybe artists will
say oh I always use the software it's
super fancy and I'm totally used to it
and you can say well maybe do you want
to use this alternative you can get the
same result but for us it would be very
helpful so take a look at this and
maybe change your artwork for the sake
of having easier conservation I think
this is the the the discussion that you
need to have and this is where the whole
life cycle then goes back that maybe an
artist should also work in a
conservation department so that they
understand at some point what it means
to uh cope with those
challenges okay thanks um we only have
five minutes left so I would like to ask
to keep your questions a bit shorter
please on M too one hey uh thank you
very much for the talk um I was
wondering so you you're on the one hand
have like hackers and artists and um I
think I from what I understood it's
thought about let's meet and I was I I
wonder where should we meet so um how
can I get in touch how can I get
involved and this is coming from I feel
more like a visitor to both the Hecker
Community as well as the art community
so um well this can work through events
um
this this depends a lot on the on the
institution and the way they function
because you have from from art
institutions and you have everything
from private entities to governmental
huge companies and uh you this works
very differently in in all cases but in
my experience the best way is through
events through common understanding
through artists going to hacker baces
hacker spaces going to Artistic spaces
um meeting at I would say at the same
eye level so uh if if you would have a
hacker space and the museum I think the
most important would be that you say the
museum staff should go to the hacker
space and the other way around so that
you don't have this kind of sometimes
weird situation where it feels like
hackers are rendering some service for
someone else who just consumes it and I
think the the the open source in the
community is an ecosystem where you have
to equally contribute to get something
out of it but as an individual it can be
easier to contribute than if you are a
institutional and this is this needs a
lot of education and saying also that
contributing to a community from an
institution can can be mean very small
steps doesn't have to be the big ones um
can be from hosting a a round table
hosting a community Meetup um this is
where it usually starts so start with
small things and then it will evolve
thank you yeah okay we now I I think we
have time for one more question yeah
okay so Mike too please thank you
um there there seems to be a big shift
uh at least I assume between for a
museum between buying a painting and
showing it and uh hosting some work of
complex digital art because it's seems
to be harder to estimate the cost of uh
keeping the the artwork running so to
say and I was
wondering um that did it ever happened
at a museum or for an exhibition they
decided not to show some uh work because
it was too expensive the estimation for
running it was too expensive or it was
too complex or that happens all all the
time okay uh on a daily basis um to give
a good example about the maintenance
part I've seen artworks where you would
have small robots running around and uh
but suddenly and it was everything
planned it was set up and uh then the
maintenance crew realized that actually
they have to change the batteries every
3 hours for an exhibition that runs for
9 months and there was as far as I know
there was no discussion it was
immediately slashed right um and and it
it was sad because also this is
something that you maybe don't realize
if you build the artwork in in in your
in your artwork space and you for you
it's fine to change the battery every
two hours for um for staff that needs to
take care of hundreds of artworks it's
not and um I must uh I must uh confess
that I made that experience as Artist as
myself where I develop things and I was
like that's no problem like I can just
do it it's like fine and then actually I
I I had to make the painful experience
that um that others don't think the same
way that I do and they believe that uh
having to do 2 minutes of Maintenance
per day on my artwork is too much
because for me it was fine but they said
well we have 100 artworks if you need to
do 2 minutes of maintenance for each
artwork and this is the kind of thought
process um because maybe if you create
an artwork as an artist you don't think
about all this you have like an idea
like yeah I want to make a toaster that
makes coffee right and then you put it
in a museum and they be like oh that's
not that's a fire hazard and suddenly
you're like whole idea and emotion
crumbles because like it's slashed
because of some weird regulation so it's
good to to think about that but yeah
that happens on a regular basis that
things due to cost uh anything from due
to energy consumption cost there are
slash everything happens there is no
limit to that thank you and beautiful
t-shirt thank
you beautiful t-shirt speaking of yeah
I'm sorry we're running out of time for
more questions but I believe Obelix will
be here and we can uh see who you are
based on the T-shirt again sorry for
cutting the introduction short uh this
is why we need to come up with another
warm Round of Applause for
[Applause]
[Music]
oix