Eva & Franco Mattes

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The K Thing (2001)

TheĀ Korea Web Art Festival commissioned us a new online work. We did a secret performance instead. Nobody, including the curator, knew our plans. The opening night we connected to the exhibition website and we exploited a small security flaw to switch the names of the artworks with one another.

 

thekthing screenshot

 

 

None of the works were modified. Whoever visited the exhibition, instead of seeing the chosen artwork, would get imperceptibly redirected to a different one. The modified version was visible for few hours, until the vulnerability was fixed, and the exhibition restored.

 

 

thekthing animation

 

 

The code transcript of the performance:

Eva & Franco Mattes, The K Thing

 

 

We were fascinated by the idea of performing online, but unfortunately the action had catastrophic consequences. The Korean Ministry of Culture took the drastic decision to lay off the curator and cancel the festival, and some of the artists felt deceived. A heated debate erupted online, touching on ownership, the potential of online art, censorship and identity.