new media center_kuda.org

"I love you [rev.eng = reverse engineering]" is the first international exhibition devoted to the phenomenon of computer viruses. A unique feature of this exhibition is the idea of a wide range of possible meanings of computer viruses - from purely computer-related entities through inspiration to the means of artistic creative work. As part of the "I love you [rev.eng]" exhibition, various inquiries into this matter are divided into historical, political, cultural and technical segments. The focal points are controversial relationships between computer security experts and hackers, net artists and programmers, literary experts and "poets" of the computer code.

Nowadays computer viruses are an integral part of our computerized everyday life. The damage to national economies caused by the more than 90,000 viruses that have already appeared worldwide runs into many billions. The independent US research institute Computer Economics puts the damage in the case of virus "I love you" in 2001 alone at 8.75 billion US $. But not all computer viruses are harmful. Computer viruses can also result from experimentation with (programming) language. “I love you [rev.eng]” is the first exhibition worldwide dedicated to the phenomena of computer security and computer viruses, and takes up both these aspects to carry out a controversial experiment with a contemporary culture that goes far beyond current vehement debates on hacking.

“I love you [rev.eng]” is divided into political, technical and historical areas of investigation and focuses on the controversial positions of security experts and hackers, of net artists and programmers, of literature experts and code poets. What actually is a computer virus? Who creates them, and why? What sort of world is hiding behind these everyday phenomena? The exhibition provides background information, presents artworks, and reveals the role of computer viruses as a destructive force and economic threat as well as an inspiration for creating art. "I love you [rev.eng]“ is conceived and presented by the cultural organization digitalcraft.org based in Frankfurt, Germany.

The exhibition has been presented in Novi Sad and in Belgrade, June/July 2006.

Producer of the exhibition in Serbia:
New Media Center_kuda.org, Novi Sad

www.kuda.org/iloveyou
www.digitalcraft.org/iloveyou

Coproducers of the exhibition in Serbia::
BELEF 06: www.belef.org
Museum of Contemporary Art Novi Sad: www.msluns.org.yu
Museum of Contemporary Arti Beograd: www.msub.org.yu

The idea of the TV documentary OPEN BARRACKS is directed to the process of demilitarization of the city of Novi Sad by changing the purpose into public, of former military infrastructure. The necessity of demilitarization of Novi Sad is comparatively put into the context of former Yugoslavia social and alternative centers of Metelkova in Ljubljana and Rojc in Pula.

OPEN BARRACKS, 27 min.
production: Center_kuda.org & cooperators
journalist: Dragan Gmizić
cameraman: Szilard Kovacs and Orfeas Skutelis
editing: Csaba Polgar
music: Vladimir Rašković
architects: Daniela Dimitrovska and Aleksandar Bede

TV documentary OPEN BARRACKS is realized within a three-years-long regional project "Individual Utopia", in which Center_kuda.org cooperates with Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art - T.I.C.A. and Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art - SCCA/pro.ba (http://www.pro.ba/utopia/).

Within the project "Individual Utopia", TV documentary received support from:
Swiss Program for Culture Western Balkan
Ministry for Culture and Media Province of Vojvodina
ECF - European Cultural Foundation
ERSTE Stiftung