Teleklettergarten – Bitnik and FOK

This performance took place on a humongous keyboard installed on the side of the art university in Linz, Austria. The keyboard doubled as a climbing wall, and climbers doubled as computer programmers. Over the course of a week, climbers collaboratively “typed” codes and scripts. I think the contradiction of doing something so fundamentally digital in such a physically challenging and analog way makes for a very interesting perspective on computer programming, transforming the very action of programming into a definitive art piece. However, I think the artists’ main message, which was a statement against patents for basic software, was somewhat lost and personally less interesting than the rest of the piece.

Jeff Koons Must Die!!! – Huner Jonakin

“Jeff Koons Must Die!!!” is an arcade-style video game set in a Jeff Koons exhibition. Armed with a missile launcher, the player (you) has the choice to either enjoy or obliterate Koons’ artwork. If you choose the more destructive route, then Jeff Koons himself confronts you and sends guards to kill you. If you survive the guards, then you are plagued by curators, lawyers, and gallerists until you are dead. This game is a humorous commentary on the art market, the museum system, the commercialization of art, and Koons’ undue praise. I particularly like this piece because of its accessibility; it allows someone to take something as sacred and untouchable as an expensive work of art and be able to personally engage with it.

Kiss Transmission Device -Nobuhiro Takahashi

“Send a kiss over the internet with the kiss transmission device” Although not technically an art piece, I still find it to be an incredibly interesting piece of technology. Using a strange gadget connected to a computer, one can supposedly send a kiss by stimulating a bendy-straw-looking-type-thing, whose movement is replicated in another gadget belonging to the person being kissed. This is interesting because it really makes one question how far technology can go and how deeply integrated into human life it can possibly become, even replacing very human acts like kissing. What sort of problems will arise if machines start realistically imitating human behavior?

Another question that comes up is if this particular machine actually feels like kissing, or if it just feels like a straw spinning in your mouth.