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Newstweek, mutant news

In a crowded restaurant a small plastic box attached to a power outlet goes unnoticed. The box conceals, in fact, a small computer mapping the traffic of the wireless network environment. Using a simple "search and replace" process, the online content viewed by users can be changed remotely as root in real time. Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev have used this device to edit the news published on the websites of popular newspapers. It's possible to see a simulation at Newstweek, a fake of the famous Newsweek: there are bizarre headlines at the limits of credibility (for example: "Milk and hormones: why your son has breasts?" or "Thomas Pynchon to wed Lady Gaga"). The main news details the story of a reporter who re-read one of her articles and found the weird changes to the text. With a quick phone call to her office she verified the changes were only to be found on the network of the coffee shop she was in. Is it only through rereading one’s own (modified) words that it is now possible to verify the reliability of news? > Chiara Ciociola

Highscreen, hacking public spaces with media archaeology

Net art already belongs to media archaeology as clearly stated by the Oslo 2003 "Written in Stone" exhibition. Exhibiting net art has always been all about commitment. But what happens if the act of exhibiting it, becomes an artwork in itself and the display area is the public space? In "Highscreen", Aram Bartholl showed us how public spaces can be hacked by a curatorial act of media archeology. He revived dumped CRT screens from the streets of Berlin and put them to use displaying internet art. He showed works like JODI’s '404' (1997), Evan Roth’s 'C.R.E.A.M.' (2010) and Cory Arcangel’s 'Super Mario Clouds' (2002). Most of the time, unaware pedestrians passed by without paying attention to the old devices and their swan songs. Bartholl questions the technologydriven society and the tension of public (on/offline) space. This project is not necessarily about contextual information about past media, but creates situations where you get into contact with media in its radical operability and temporality. > Valentina Culatti

FoodMatch, surfing the fridges

Simulen, funny electric control

The single portions of food at the supermarket are a strange business entity. The quantity of food is always slightly more than necessary, so they seem to represent the triumph of convenience but in reality function as a symbolic defiance of the loneliness of those who use them. The Secret Cooks Club of Singapore conspires against this reality. Through the project FoodMatch, exhibited at Enter 5 biennial in Prague, the group calls people to share their leftovers. Thanks to this facebook app, you can share information and upload pictures that describe the ingredients in the fridge. It's then possible to fix a place and a date for a real dinner. It’s a delicious initiative against waste and overproduction of food (the world produces almost 700 million tonnes of food annually but every year 80 million tonnes end up in landfills), and the project promotes a positive use of social networks. In this case it is no longer a means of socialization consumed in solitude for entertainment and distraction, but a virtual tool for sharing and meeting real people. > Chiara Ciociola

The genesis of "Simulen", a work by Congolese artist Jean Katambayi Mukendi exhibited at Pixelache 2011 festival in Helsinki, is very delicate. From the functional point of view it is a prototype for the automatic correction of electricity distribution trouble. The spark that triggered its creation is the absolute anarchy of the electrical infrastructure of the city where the artist lives, Lumbumbashi in Congo, which often experiences an annoyingly intermittent power system. Simulen, instead, is impeccable in its appearance. Revealing the technologies inside, the device’s shell is made entirely of paper and reassuring paperboard cubes, tinted with soothing pastel colors. Its slender frame is similar to the polychromatic ancient totems, and the knobs and the buttons are typical of a robot. Always exhibited with Simulen are some precious drawings that illustrate the inner workings with a remarkable attention to detail. This project shows how artists can help the members of their communities, using very lo-fi but brilliant technology. > Chiara Ciociola