DVD Dead Drop

2012
permanent installation at MMI

Commissioned by the Museum of Moving Image NYC

For this new commissioned work, artist Aram Bartholl (Berlin, b. 1972) will embed an inconspicuous, slot-loading DVD burner into the side of the Museum, available to the public 24 hours a day. Visitors who find the Dead Drop and insert a blank DVD-R will receive a digital art exhibition, a collection of media, or other featured content curated on a monthly cycle by Bartholl or selected artists. DVD Dead Drop imbues the act of data transfer with a tangibility left behind in a world of cloud computing and appstores, using a medium—the digital versatile disc—that is quickly becoming another artifact of the past.

DVD Dead Drop is a continuation of Bartholl’s series of offline file-sharing networks in public spaces. The original Dead Drops cemented unauthorized USB thumb drives into walls, buildings, and curbs, encouraging a “read-write” information ecosystem. Here the “read-only” DVD Dead Drop serves as an automated platform for dispensing digital culture to the public at any time, day or night

Opening August 16, 2012

Made possible by the Harpo Foundation, with support from the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, New York.

credits:
Jason Eppink – production at MMI
Jonas Lund – technical support

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Vol.1
Inaugural Exhibition:

HOT
A group show about video that is not video
Curated by Aram Bartholl
August 16–September 15, 2012

Participating artists:

0100101110101101.org (Eva & Franco Mattes), Constant Dullaart, Curating YouTube (Robert Sakrowski), Joel Holmberg, JODI, JK Keller, Olia Lialina, Jonas Lund, Rosa Menkman, Katja Novitskova, Niko Princen, Casey Reas, Evan Roth, Andrew Salomone, Borna Sammak, UBERMORGEN.COM

Curator’s Statement:

“If it had been possible to distribute video online from day one, there would be no Web as we know it today. Instead, during the long wait for shareable online video, artists developed a distinctive language that we still value today, applying clever montages, modular visuals constructed form reusable, repeatable elements, and minimal activity…”—Olia Lialina (2010). “Early Experiments Online,” article published on ‚The Take,’ at Guggenheim.org

Technological developments over the last three decades have generated a vast range of production and distribution methods for the moving image that have significantly deconstructed the linearity of film and video. The rapidly changing landscape of the web, code, vectors, 2D, 3D, games, glitches, and GIFs has profoundly influenced the way we perceive video today. Works produced by these new processes and software tools often have very little in common with traditional video: some are closer to paintings, some loop in micro movies, and others exploit system faults. Many of these moving images are software processes that result in a wide range of visualizations, and a lot of them exist in single frames, code-generated vectors, manipulated computer games, or screencasts of operating systems.

The moving image has been hacked, transformed, and infiltrated from multiple directions and digital sources, but over the last ten years it also conquered the Internet. The show HOT represents a wide range of artistic positions analyzing, reinterpreting, and deconstructing the moving image. New and classic works from well-established digital artists will be served to a public hot on silver disc 24/7.

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Vol.2
INSERT DISC
Selected CD-ROM art of the 90’s on DVD

September 22 – October 27, 2012
at DVD Dead Drop, Museum of Moving Image NYC

curated by Aram Bartholl & Robert Sakrowski (curatingyoutube.com)

The second DVD Dead Drop volume INSERT DISC, features several classic art CD-ROMs from the mid-90s on DVD. While the web was still in its infancy, artists from a wide range of fields explored the possibilities of interactivity and multimedia on CD-ROMs, fancy new silver discs that held an unbelievable 650 megabytes of data. Today most of these pre-web multimedia works are no longer accessible because they require legacy operating systems and software to run. INSERT DISC offers the full experience of a cutting edge, mid-90s operating system packed with stunning multimedia art. Each DVD comes with a safe-to-install virtualized Ubuntu Linux operating system running an emulated Mac OS 7.6. In addition to the historic CD-ROM art, special features include historic browsers, link lists, and more, guaranteeing a true 1995 computer experience!

artist/projects:

Anti Rom
SASS Collective: Andy Allenson, Joel Baumann, Andy Cameron, Rob LeQuesne, Luke Pendrell, Sophie Pendrell, Andy Polaine, Anthony Rogers, Nik Roope, Tom Roope, Joe Stephenson, Jason Tame – CD-Rom, 1995

Manuscript
Eric Lanz, CD-Rom 1994

Cyberflesh Girlmonster
Linda Dement, CD-Rom 1995

User Unfriendly Interface
Josephine Starrs & Leon Cmielewski, first shown 1994, CD-Rom 1996

Extra 90’s specials:
Browser collection, ‘Einblicke ins Internet’ offline Internet CD-Rom, Bookmark easter eggs & more

credits:
Andreas Broeckmann, Sandra Fauconnier, nbk Berlin, ZKM Karlsruhe, Transmediale archive

full program at
arambartholl.com/blog/insert-disc/

Statement lesen

Statement verbergen

Making Off – Preperations at the MMI, July 2012

Studio prototype