A network performance as live memorial to those who have died trying to make it into Fortress Europe.
The "network neighborhood", a functionality built in to all common operating systems, shows you available local network resources. Often the computers are named after whoever uses them, so you can see who is at work (and which of your colleagues is late).
The machines on the network become a kind of placeholder for the people that use them. They're present, and at the same time they're not. It's this 'place', both intimate and abstract, that I would like to populate with the people that have died trying to make it into Europe. As a small, symbolic gesture, the memorial invites those that are not around anymore into these very specific "neighborhoods".
Even though it's not the only such trail in the world, the route into Europe is the most deadly. By its nature, the exact number of incidents will remain forever unknown. I'm using the list of refugee deaths composed by the Dutch NGO UNITED for Intercultural Action http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/, which seems to be the most reliable database. To date, it consists of 33.305 documented incidents.
Installation in exhibition context
The script should occupy the host institution's local network(s).
How it works
A simple shell script parses through the list of deaths and advertises each line as a hostname, using Avahi/Zeroconf (Bonjour on Apple's OS). Every minute a new name is set. At this rate it'll take 59 hours to show the entire list of incidents.
Artwork installation requirements
Raspberry Pi board or similar, connected to local Ethernet and Wifi networks. It's configured to automatically start and ready to be plugged in. The script is published under an Open Source license.
The presence of the memorial should be made known to the participants of the festival.
Artist Bio
Christian Sievers is a German artist based in Cologne, Germany. He studied Fine Art and Performance in Braunschweig and at the Royal College of Art in London, and has worked as a systems administrator besides exhibiting nationally and internationally. He is interested in contributing to new narratives about the tech-driven transformations of society. Previous art work has dealt with the relationship between humans and machines and proposes alternative ways for them to interact. The material for art seems to be in the various possible relations between the work and the audience. Christian Sievers currently teaches Surveillant Architectures at the Academy of Media Art, Cologne.
Network Memorial (working title)
Name : Christian Sievers Location : Cologne, Germany Email : mail@christiansievers.info Twitter : @chrsiev GitHub : christiansievers Url(s) : christiansievers.info / hop3.de
Type of proposal
Network performance / artwork
Description
A network performance as live memorial to those who have died trying to make it into Fortress Europe.
The "network neighborhood", a functionality built in to all common operating systems, shows you available local network resources. Often the computers are named after whoever uses them, so you can see who is at work (and which of your colleagues is late).
The machines on the network become a kind of placeholder for the people that use them. They're present, and at the same time they're not. It's this 'place', both intimate and abstract, that I would like to populate with the people that have died trying to make it into Europe. As a small, symbolic gesture, the memorial invites those that are not around anymore into these very specific "neighborhoods".
Even though it's not the only such trail in the world, the route into Europe is the most deadly. By its nature, the exact number of incidents will remain forever unknown. I'm using the list of refugee deaths composed by the Dutch NGO UNITED for Intercultural Action http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/, which seems to be the most reliable database. To date, it consists of 33.305 documented incidents.
Installation in exhibition context
The script should occupy the host institution's local network(s).
How it works
A simple shell script parses through the list of deaths and advertises each line as a hostname, using Avahi/Zeroconf (Bonjour on Apple's OS). Every minute a new name is set. At this rate it'll take 59 hours to show the entire list of incidents.
Artwork installation requirements
Raspberry Pi board or similar, connected to local Ethernet and Wifi networks. It's configured to automatically start and ready to be plugged in. The script is published under an Open Source license. The presence of the memorial should be made known to the participants of the festival.
Artist Bio
Christian Sievers is a German artist based in Cologne, Germany. He studied Fine Art and Performance in Braunschweig and at the Royal College of Art in London, and has worked as a systems administrator besides exhibiting nationally and internationally. He is interested in contributing to new narratives about the tech-driven transformations of society. Previous art work has dealt with the relationship between humans and machines and proposes alternative ways for them to interact. The material for art seems to be in the various possible relations between the work and the audience. Christian Sievers currently teaches Surveillant Architectures at the Academy of Media Art, Cologne.