Cyber-attacks have become an everyday occurrence, with several high-profile hacks targeting the private information of millions of Australians. Yet the ‘space’ of cyberspace is difficult for the public to understand. Metaphors such as ‘the cloud’ obscure the massive infrastructure, physicality and materiality of the digital systems we all rely on. Cybercrime itself, whilst often devastating for victims, often operates in extraordinarily banal ways – a text message, an email, a phone call.
This artwork develops a new visual and spatial language to understand cyber security through passwords, cyber attack data and biometrics, displayed on a large LED wall at Kambri, ANU.
Dr Baden Pailthorpe is a contemporary artist who works with emerging and experimental technologies. He is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University School of Art & Design, Canberra. Baden’s artistic practice examines the relationship between aesthetics and power, interrogating the politics of technological and economic structures across Sport, Finance and the Military-Industrial Complex. Since 2011, Baden’s practice has integrated performance and installation alongside screen-based interventions.
Examples include: a commissioned performance at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); video work depicting a hacked military simulator at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); documentation of a video game performance exhibited at the Triennale di Milano, Milan (2016); a ‘start-up as artwork’ at Sullivan+Strumpf (2017); and an experimental data visualisation of AFL player GPS data at UTS Art, Sydney (2017). Significant exhibitions include: SWARM, Science Gallery, University of Melbourne (2022); Invisibility, Museum of Discovery (MOD), UniSA, Adelaide (2022); Clanger, UTS Art Gallery, Sydney (2018); Pitch Deck, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney & Singapore (2017); GAME ART/VIDEO, 21st Triennale di Milano, Milan (2016); Spatial Operations, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle (2015); Guarding the Home Front, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney (2015); On Return and What Remains, Artspace, Sydney (2014) & CACSA, Adelaide (2015); Students of War, Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Cadence, Westspace (2014); Moving_Image 10, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris (2013); and Rencontres Internationales, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012). Baden’s work is held in significant private and public collections, including ACMI, Artbank, Australia; Australian Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra; Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle; The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; The Australian War Memorial, Canberra; The Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk), Amsterdam; The National Library of Australia, Canberra; UTS Art, Sydney; and UQ Art Museum, Brisbane.
Something you know, something you have, something you are (2023)
Digital animation, 5m x 5m LED wall
Commissioned by the ACT Government for Uncharted Territory, 7 – 16 July, 2023
