May 30 – June 3, 2018
Flexspace C, CICA Museum
Artistic reconnaissance
Statement
Reconnaissance is exploration carried out to gain information. Originally an exploratory military term to survey a territory, conducted first by scouts on the ground, later by airplanes, and today by satellites and drones. Network reconnaissance extends the terrain of exploration to include information technology infrastructures. In hacking context the terms active and passive reconnaissance refers to system information collection and gathering an individual’s personal data. In our artistic research we have co-opted these tactics to investigate internet fraud and the vulnerabilities of the ‘Internet of Things’.
KairUs is a collective of two artists Linda Kronman (Finland) and Andreas Zingerle (Austria). Currently based in Daejeon (Republic of Korea), they explore topics such as vulnerabilities in IoT devices, corporatization of city governance in Smart Cities and citizen sensitive projects in which technology is used to reclaim control of our living environments. Their practice based research is closely intertwined with their artistic production, adopting methodologies used by anthropologists and sociologist, their artworks are often informed by archival research, participation observations and field research. Besides the artworks they publish academic research papers and open access publications to contextualize their artworks to wider discourses such as data privacy & security, activism & hacking culture, disruptive art practices, electronic waste and materiality of the internet.
Between 2010-2016 KairUs has worked with the thematic of cyber crime (Internet fraud and online scams), constantly shifting focus approaching the theme from various perspectives: data security, ethics of vigilante communities, narratives of scam e-mails, scam & technologies. Subjects of the research has been online scammers, vigilante communities of scambaiters and their use of storytelling and technology.
In current projects; ‘Behind the Smart World’, ‘Internet of Other People’s Things’ and ‘Ruins of the Smart City’ they collaborate with a diverse group of artists, activists and researchers in both academic and non-academic contexts.
Contact:
Web: http://www.kairus.org
Email: we@kairus.org
Linda Kronman is a media artist and designer from Helsinki, Finland currently living in Daejeon, South Korea and working at Woosong University. Since 2000 she has worked as a digital media designer and engaged in several multidisciplinary research & design projects. In her artistic work she explores methods of interactive and transmedial storytelling, visualizing data and creative activism. She is currently interested in topics such as media archeology, archives, ruins, e-waste and new materiality, contrasting them to technotopias such as smart cities and IoT networks. She has organized several participatory workshops and attended international exhibitions and conferences including Moscow Young Arts Biennale, Siggraph ASIA, WRO Biennial, ISEA, ELO and Ars Electronica.
Andreas Zingerle is a media artist from Austria. He received his PhD from the University of Art and Design Linz (Austria) researching topics such as Internet crime, fraud and scam, vigilante counter-movements and anti-fraud activism. He implements social engineering strategies that emerge in his research into interactive narratives, artistic installations, data visualizations and creative media competence trainings. In the last years he worked on several installations exploring a creative misuse of technology and alternative ways of Human Computer Interaction. Since 2004 he takes part in international conferences and exhibitions, among others Ars Electronica, Siggraph, Japan Media Arts Festival, File, WRO Biennial.
KairUs Art+Research “Megacorp.” (2015)