Human Entities 2016: !Mediengruppe Bitnik

Artists’ group !Mediengruppe Bitnik will present recent works exploring internet subculture, surveillance and bots. They will talk about their recently completed work Random Darknet Shopper which directly connected art spaces with the darknet via an automated online shopping bot. With a weekly budget of $100 in Bitcoins, the bot went shopping on the deep web where it randomly chose and purchased one item and had it mailed directly to the exhibition space, creating a landscape of traded goods from the darknet. Bitnik will also present Same Same – Watching Algorithms, a software bot which replaces all imagery on the website of the art space Cabaret Voltaire with algorithmically similar images.

!Mediengruppe Bitnik (read: not mediengruppe bitnik) live and work in Zurich/London. They are contemporary artists working on and with the internet. Their practice expands from the digital to affect physical spaces, often intentionally introducing a loss of control to challenge established structures and mechanisms. !Mediengruppe Bitnik’s works formulate fundamental questions concerning contemporary issues. In early 2013 !Mediengruppe Bitnik sent a parcel to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The parcel contained a camera which broadcast live on the internet its journey through the postal system. They describe Delivery for Mr. Assange as a SYSTEM_TEST and a Live Mail Art Piece. The art group are also known for sending a bot called Random Darknet Shopper on a shopping spree on the darknets where it randomly bought objects like ecstasy and had them sent directly to the gallery space. !Mediengruppe Bitnik are the artists Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo. Their accomplices are the London filmmaker and researcher Adnan Hadzi and the reporter Daniel Ryser.

Their works have been shown internationally including: Shanghai Minsheng 21st Century Museum, City Art Gallery Ljubljana, Kunsthaus Zürich, NiMk Amsterdam, Space Gallery London, Cabaret Voltaire Zurich, Beton7 Athens, Museum Folkwang Essen, Contemporary Art Center Vilnius, Beijing Get It Louder Contemporary Art Biennial, La Gaîté Lyrique Paris, Gallery EDEN 343 São Paulo and the Roaming Biennale Tehran.

They have received awards including: Swiss Art Award, Migros New Media Jubilee Award, Honorary Mention Prix Ars Electronica.

https://wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.bitnik.org

Audio recording Stress.fm