The Art of Hacking: An Art Exhibit

Running through November 26th at the Netherlands Media Art Institute. The above work is “Identity Bureau, Synthetic off-the-shelf (OTS) British natural person” which plays to a loophole in British law that allows a person to have multiple legal identities.

‘The Art of Hacking‘ focuses on the artistic side of hacking. The artists in this exhibition highlight the imperfections of our surroundings and daily lives. The projects subvert, improve on or circumnavigate ‘official’ systems and practices and offer alternatives. Superficially, hacking is often associated with spreading online viruses and other digital attacks.

Officially these criminal activities are not really known as hacking, but as ‘cracking’. The real practice of hacking is done based on far more positive and artistic motives. It’s a state of mind and there are elaborate ethical codes within the hacker community.

In short creative hacking combines artists’ technical skills with the optimism to solve problems and the urge to overcome artistic and creative limitations. The basis for these works lies in a technical, online methodology that spreads into the physical world through the tangibility of the artworks.

[Via We Make Money Not Art]