Re: Art Bomb at the ROM

The work was never meant to affect the social network the way it did.
An accident occurred when the security guard saw a package with the message "This is not a bomb".
But the accident is now the work, whether predetermined or not. But in Virillio authorship takes a back seat to the event. And the event unfolded outside the artist's design. It was a product of a society living in fear of mostly imaginary threats. I'm not trying to make light of terrorist acts, but this just wasn't one of them. If I saw a bag with the same note, I would have laughed it off, or maybe explored it.
The Kurtz case points out similar flaws in the social network on a grander scale.
It is the accident that drew the wrath of the authorities, and the subsequent reaction from those who could have made it less ominous that sided with the media (with the exception of most of Toronto's Police force, who were reluctant to lay charges well after the event). But there's no going back once the commitment has been made by the authorities. They can't look foolish can they? They are empowered by the discovery of the exploit.
The event was portrayed in the media as attempt to subvert the fund raising event, which is far from the truth.
Just because we live in fear doesn't mean we can censor actions we misunderstand or
allow a hungry media to make news out of nothing.
The president of OCA should have said as much, and didn't. Shame on her.
there ya go…, on a cold day on the north shore of Lake Ontario.
A better question at this juncture is: "Who is the author of the exploit?"
Eric


—– Original Message —–
From: "Erika Lincoln" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2007 4:23:08 PM (GMT-0500) America/New_York
Subject: RHIZOME_DISCUSS: Re: Art Bomb at the ROM


hummm,
Eric, I see that your focus is on the school and their response.

'What was the problem? I am reading Galloway and Thacker's "Expoit" ( a fantastic book) right now and I have to beliieve this kid performed one and knew what he was doing. "
can you expand on what you mean here.

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