Danja Vassiliev (RU) "m/e/m/e 2.0"
Participants (users) are invited to navigate through a maze of physical 'hard wired' pages of electro-mechanical website. The content of the pages is what we commonly know as the virtual platform of "Web 2.0". Because a user can find his or her way in a very physical sense, they begin to understand the interconnection of the hardware and the immaterial, because they have to operate this mechanical server through a regular Internet browser application and see it unfold in front of them. An interface allows someone at the click of a mouse to execute functions and processes that are well known to an Internet user. Such as: [submit] [click here] [agree] [commit] [buy]. M/e/m/e 2.0 makes transparent these labyrinthine processes at play, each time a user clicks- the machine exposes another layer of itself. The machine is built using misc computer parts, mostly CDROM drives (28), and represents an ultimate recycling effort in contemporary hardware art. Media industry gets to show us the guts of the technology it enslaves, be it physical or illusionary. M/e/m/e 2.0 mixes up the positions taken by the media devices - CDROMs become files, files turn into circuit boards - after the decade of web fetishism comes the age of postinteractive materializm. Travelling between venues and exhibitions m/e/m/e 2.0 changes its IP address and power source but the message it carries remains the same - bring machines into the world of people instead of living second lifes in the world of machines.
Drawers of CDROMs open and close being controlled via the self-contained interface laid out on the plates that are held inside the drives. Each plate is a unique "web page" parodying contemporary web 2.0 style with all its consumerist centered flavor. "buy", "agree", "submit", "get" and "buy" are the keywords of the Internet for masses, while in real represent completely virtual values or actions.
To browse m/e/m/e 2.0 plat-form :
http://meme20.k0a1a.net
Danja Vassiliev born in 1978 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. From the middle of 90s actively engaged with internet, computer and digital based visual and installation art, participated in “read_me” and “machinista” festivals held in Moscow. From 2002 lives and works in the Netherlands where also graduated from PietZwart Institute. Most of recent research and works are concentrated around topics of digital networking, internet and stereotypes of the digital age. Working with Opensource software and custom hardware using Linux/GNU environment as the point of departure.
