colloquium /KIT collaboration

Infrasense: How We Learnt to Love the Virus

Recurring assumptions, connotations and common perceptions accompany any entity, organism or string of code that deserves the label of virus. One of the most popular and wide-spread beliefs in today’s society portrays viruses as parasitical offenders that randomly invade passive, powerless and innocent hosts. However, this relation between host and virus is idiosyncratic and needs to be reassessed. Not only can the relation of virus / host be easily inverted and reassembled, but also, the identity of the host can be changed into that of a proactive agent. Rather than being a mere receiver, such a newly empowered individual can purposely use the virus’ features or its very structure as an extension of her agency. Using a number of creative tactics, the host is able to select and appropriate features that characterize the virus and turn them to her advantage. A number of well-documented cases magnify how effective the utilization of viruses can be. Examples include but are not certainly limited to:

1. The virus’ distributed behavior has been appropriated by commercial enterprises to launch effective viral marketing campaigns

2. Franchise enterprises have spread across the globe, as a result of a systemic shift in the current capitalist structure

3. The viruses' phenomenology and structure have been employed by activists, Hacktivists and tactical media practitioners as a countercultural tool against the above capitalist restructuring

4. A nineteen-year-old German boy created and propagated the Sasser virus, “which crippled hospitals, closed banks, grounded planes and trains, and even delayed the Taiwanese post” (the Guardian).

5. The stockpiling of viruses by governments’ agencies for the purpose of experimentation, manipulation and propagation in the event of war.

6. Hip-hop culture has appropriated Burrough’s notion that language is a virus. Invented words and expressions have spread among fans worldwide as a way of demarcating group identity (i.e. Snoop Dog’s “Don't twizzle on my schnizzle, fo' shizzle”).

With the Infrasense project, KIT is not interested in trying to give ‘viruses’ a good name. Rather, the group wishes to redress and question the cultural balance, which portrays viruses in a pejorative fashion, by exploring new cultural dynamics created by the utilization of viral methods, models, codes or structures.

The artists from the KIT collaboration will also be talking about their work with two other collaborations they work with called Battery Operated and C0C0S0L1DC1T1. For more information, please visit:
http://www.batteryoperated.net
http://www.batteryoperated.net/spirawl
http://www.cocosolidciti.com

Bio

KIT is a fluxing collaboration of artists, architects, programmers and writers. Working together since 1995, we have produced interactive robotic, sound, video and photographic installations, projects for architectural competitions and curated touring exhibitions. KIT projects have been realised in galleries, museums, festivals and off-site spaces across Europe, North America and Asia. Reflecting the format of the group, the word ‘KIT’ means an assembly of many parts. As a non-gender specific name it allows for all sexes to identify and work within it. Utilizing a wide range of skills and techniques, the group examines the spatial, temporal and socio-political roles of mechanical and digital technologies within contemporary society.
http://www.infrasense.net
http://www.kitcollaboration.net