01.02.03 Opening of Jodi: INSTALL.EXE in Berlin

[anna balint]

From: BüroFriedrich <office at buerofriedrich.org>



  Opening: Saturday, February 1st, 2003, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
  Arch 54

  Computer crashes, error messages and viruses; computer programs dissolving
  into an endless labyrinth of lines and spaces: the nightmare of every
  computer user.  They push us to the border of our ability to use machines
  gone awry. 
  They transform into media no longer intelligible, a colorful screen full of
  cryptic characters. Exactly this horror is that with which Jodi confronts
  the viewer. Is this where machines have begun lives of their own?

  The Dutch-Belgian artist couple Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans, whose
  first names form Jodi, are among the pioneers of net-art. At first they
  presented their work exclusively in the Internet, and later, CDs came as
  supplemts to publications.  Through the CD-ROM, the immaterial took on a
  concrete form.With their work, Jodi has set measures and standards against
  which all other work in the genre is compared.  Incontestably, they are the
  central figures of net-art.

  The first 'real-space' work for the artistic duo, the exhibition-
  installation INSTALL.EXE finds itself in a more concrete setting -
  BüroFriedrich. In INSTALL.EXE, whose title reminds one of a general software
  installation command, the artistic term 'installation' is removed and
  replaced by a computing term.  Here, one sees recordings of regular 'desktop
  activities' and of irregular reactions by common desktop programs. The
  exhibition contains early computer games as well, also with the artists'
  manipulations. On laptop-computers in the exhibition room, the visitor can
  view the artist's work online.

  INSTALL.EXE includes two new works. One of them - JET SET WILLY Variations
  (2002) - is a throwback to the 48 K ZX Spectrum Computer of 1984, one of the
  first home computers, from the year to which Orwell projected his
  frightening future visions. With this original Spectrum Computer, which is
  connected to a 1980s TV and receives its data from an audiotape, the visitor
  can look at the project, which is based on an old video game. Thus, the user
  of the 21st century can take himself back to the Stone Age of great
  expectations one more time. This retroactive work was developed on a ZX
  Spectrum Emulator which has the same capacity of computers at the beginning
  of the 1980s, and can be seen on modern computers only with this emulator.
  JET SET WILLY Variations shows the gulf between a deserted digital medium
  and a simulation in the presence. The second work, INSTALL.EXE, "The First
  Time You Start Your Computer", consists of recordings of Jodi's screen which
  show irregular activities of everyday programs; the cursor is portrayed as
  the main protagonist.

  This Jodi exhibition deals with the relationship between modern digital
  technology in its historical dimension and the (in)ability of man to adapt
  to this; this can be experienced in their work visually, and sometimes also
  quite annoyingly. INSTALL.EXE is an important step out of the web-art
  crisis.

  Last year, the exhibition was seen at [plug in] in Basel, Switzerland, and 
  after its current stay in Berlin, will be traveling further.
  For the exhibitions at [plug in] and BüroFriedrich, the publication 
  INSTALL.EXE/Jodi, in cooperation with Tilman Baumgärtel, has been produced. 
  This is the first monography for the genre of web-art.


  --



  Jodi: INSTALL.EXE
  3.02.2003 - 8.03.2003


  Lebendige Archive
  7.12.2002 - 15.02.2003

  *********************
  BüroFriedrich
  Holzmarktstrasse 15 - 18
  S-Bahnbögen 53-54
  10179 Berlin
  Germany


  tel: +49 30 201 65115
  fax: +49 30 201 65114
  office at buerofriedrich.org

  url:www.buerofriedrich.org

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