The artWarez Gallery will be a curated show of digital artists working with computers, networks, and topics of surveillance, security, and privacy in unconventional ways. The show will be organized by the pwnbrew club, a loose collective of Chicago-based artists, programmers, and amateur hackers.
We will curate work from 7-10 international artists to be on display for the duration of the conference. Our curation will preference interactive and real-time techno-political artwork that addresses themes of privacy and information security. The goal of the show is to introduce members of the cybersecurity community to artists who are working with similar ideas and technologies through a different lens and with different forms of creative output (See https://github.com/pwnbrewclub/thotcon-art-track for images of artwork in the style we will curate.)
Collectively, pwnbrew members have extensive experience organizing new-media shows and conferences, including GLI.TC/H, d.r.e.a.m., demoparty participation at Notacon, and many others. Many of us also have also been performing strange noisy and experimental electronic music and visuals at venues all over Chicago && beyond. If you are open to it, we would also be interested in being involved with the after party in some capacity.
Due to the somewhat unorthodox nature of this village proposal, as well as the unique demands that come with organizing an art show, it would likely be beneficial for Thotcon organizers to meet or further discuss details of the show specifically with pwnbrew members in the coming months. This will be our third year attending Thotcon and we are excited about the possibility of contributing to this year's conference. We are committed to the hard work required to organize a show like this and we believe that would could contribute a great deal to the Thotcon community and conference experience in 2018.
Level of Confidence, Rafael Lozano Hemmer
Harvest, wind energy used to mine cryptocurrency to fund climate research, Julian Oliver
Men in Grey, Julian Oliver && Danja Vasiliev
Networks of New York, Ingrid Burrington
Holypager, Brannon Dorsey (Pwbrew Organizer)
WebRoutes, Brannon Dorsey && Nick Briz (as Branger_Briz) (Pwnebrew Organizers)
ProbeKit, Brannon Dorsey && Nick Briz (as Branger_Briz) (Pwnbrew Organizers)
Pwnbrew Club is a very small monthly gathering of digital artists, programmers && amateur hackers. We share + collaborate on projects w/ one another relating to curious approaches to technology, "hacking" && homebrew/DIY tech. In addition to making/experimenting on projects, the members of the group have a long history in organizing digital art events in Chicago && around the world (individually && in various collaborative configurations). Below is a list of just some of these events:
- GLI.TC/H was an international festival/conference/gathering of glitch art practitioners held in 2010 (Chicago), 2011 (Chicago, Amsterdam, Birmingham UK) && 2012 (Chicago). u can read more about it's history here && view short video documentation here
- Notacon: The critical glitch art category
- d.r.e.a.m.: Data Rules Everything Around Me (d.r.e.a.m.) is a roughly-monthly series held in Chicago devoted to openly discussing the implications of living in a data-driven society. Featured writers, artists, developers, and other cultural producers are invited to share their research and perspectives on the data that fuels the systems that run our world.
- DiMoDA (The Digital Museum of Digital Art)
- Poxcon
- No-media
- MCA Dirty New Media Round Robin
- R4WB1T5