The group's disappointment in having to scale back the work was obvious in a message to an electronic mailing list: ''Due to the ubiquitous paranoia and threat of getting sued, the museum and the curators made it very clear to us that we as artists are 100 percent alone and private in any legal dispute.'' In place of the name on the screen, one saw the phrase ''artistic self-censorship.'' After consulting with a lawyer, the group then encrypted the name of the organization being scanned because it was unsure if publishing the information was illegal.
At first, the group reviewed the 800 tools in the port-scanning program and removed 200 it deemed intrusive or malicious. By choosing to explore the computers of antiglobalization groups instead of Nike or Coca-Cola, Knowbotic is warning those groups that they are at risk of losing sensitive data.īut to present the work at the New Museum, Knowbotic had to defang it. Hübler said, ''because when I work with the border as an artist, I want to know at least what the border might be.''Įuropean digital artists are more politicized than their American counterparts, and ''Minds'' is designed to advance a social agenda. ''I wanted to know the situation I'm in,'' Mr. Hübler said the group changed the work after consulting with a lawyer who specializes in Internet law. Because the lines between public and private control of the Internet are not yet clearly defined, what artists want to do may be perfectly legal, but that does not mean they will be allowed do it.īefore the New Museum exhibition opened on May 3, Knowbotic Research had already decided to remove the most troublesome features of the port-scanning software. The dispute calls attention to one of the very points the piece is intended to make. Tehan said that the museum suggested a way to put the work back online but that Knowbotic rejected the proposal.
PORT IN PART LOGICWORKS SOFTWARE
On Saturday morning, Christian Hübler of Knowbotic Research said the group realized the port-scanning software had been disabled and decided to move the work's Web site to an Internet service provider in Germany. Tehan said the museum, at Logicworks' request, shut down the work after the museum closed on Friday evening. On Friday, Lauren Tehan, a museum spokeswoman, said the museum was seeking a creative technical solution to keep the work online. In turn, Logicworks notified the museum that port scanning violated its policies. Things get dicier, though, if what is seen is conveyed to a ne'er-do-well relative, who then breaks in somewhere, rearranges the furniture and makes off with a gem-encrusted putter.Īfter the Knowbotic work started its peeping, the Internet service provider for one of the targets of the scan complained to the museum's Internet service provider, Logicworks. Merely noticing where they are is no crime.
PORT IN PART LOGICWORKS WINDOWS
The software essentially strolls through the neighborhood in search of windows that have been left open.
The term actually refers to a technique for surveying how other computers are connected to the Internet. Port scanning sounds like a cruise-ship captain's task. Although the installation is still in place, and the work's Web site remains live, the port-scanning software that is its central feature was disabled Friday evening and was inactive yesterday afternoon. The work can be viewed as an installation in the museum's SoHo galleries or online at. The piece is part of ''Open Source Art Hack,'' an exhibition at the New Museum that runs through June 30. The work in question is ''Minds of Concern: Breaking News,'' created by Knowbotic Research, a group of digital artists in Switzerland. The shutdown also shows how cyberspace's gray areas can enshroud museums as they embrace the evolving medium. It is not clear yet who is responsible for the blacking out - the artists, the museum or its Internet service provider - but the action illuminates the work's central theme: the tension between public and private control of the Internet.
PORT IN PART LOGICWORKS OFFLINE
An Internet-based artwork in an exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art was taken offline on Friday because the work was conducting surveillance of outside computers.
0 kommentar(er)
