SFPC_Malware_Anthology.zip

On January 26, Rhizome hosted the launch event for SFPC_Malware_Anthology.zip, a collection of work created during An Artist’s History of Computer Viruses and Malware, an online class at  School For Poetic Computation taught by Todd Anderson and Herdimas Anggara. The event took place as a part of Office Hours, a weekly casual program where we cycle through different areas of interest within Rhizome. Anderson hosted the event and was joined by participating artists who presented their projects in the anthology. Video documentation is available.

Congratulations! You are the 111,111th visitor to this page which means you are eligible for a unique opportunity to learn more about SFPC_Malware_Anthology.zip. This collection of boundary-pushing software art gathers projects created by participants in An Artist’s History of Computer Viruses and Malware.

In this class we looked at the history of “malicious software” from the first viruses of the 1970s, to the graphical MS-DOS trojans of the 1980s and’90s, to the experimental ransomware of today with an eye toward projects that felt more motivated by creativity than profit or vandalism. We also brought in a number of digital artworks that felt dangerous or broke outside of their expected boundaries. Our goal was to understand the unique aesthetics of malware and apply them to our own software art practices. In what ways could a computer virus be considered a work of art? How can malware interrogate our desire for absolute control over our machines? And most importantly: how can a viewer engage with such pieces safely and with informed consent?

To create this anthology, we learned a number of techniques from the playbook of malware and hacking: terminal scripting and SSH connections into remote machines, encryption and decryption (as employed by ransomware), and the creation of browser extensions as a cross-platform way to manipulate the operating system of the internet. 

SFPC_Malware_Anthology.zip contains projects from eleven participants in the class. Inside you will find a browser extension that covers unsecure webpages with Furbies, a demon that possesses a folder, a worm that eats files off of your desktop, a rare opportunity to explore the web on foot, and more. However, none of these programs will do anything unless you explicitly install them. Each project comes with a README.txt file containing detailed installation and removal instructions, and what access the program will have to the rest of your computer. Our goal is to provide a slightly riskier and more invasive art-viewing experience, but with enough information for each viewer to make an informed decision as to whether they want to participate. 

A detailed list of projects is included below:

spamawake by Antonela De

This PHP spam server allows you to plug in an email address which will then receive a short poem in the subject lines of a flurry of emails sent over the next few seconds. Perfect for friends and enemies!

First Person Browser by Rush Johnstone

Have you ever wanted to explore a web page on foot? First Person Browser is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to walk around the internet and click on links by shooting them with your finger gun.

__Political Bias__ by Josephina Kirkland

Designed for article-sharing extended families, this Google Chrome extension changes the text color of news outlets with a strong political bias.

Rearview by Mitch Kucia

Rearview is a Google Chrome extension that lets you explore your browsing history in new ways. See 100 websites you visited on this day last month or last year. Like an old journal, prepare to be shocked and ashamed at the way your mind actually works.

esoteric newtab by Audrey Lindemann

This chrome extension takes over the default Google search page that shows up when you open a new tab and instead shows you a number of mystical texts and images including a tarot, a poem for the day of the way, and an I Ching hexagram reading.

Titivillus by Mariana Marangoni

Titivillus, the patron demon of scribes, is a Bash scriptn that will possess a sacrificial folder and rewrite its contents in demonic script.

Desktop Worm by Terkel Gjervig Nielsen

In the proud tradition of ambiguously malicious desktop assistants like BonziBuddy, Desktop Worm is here to help keep your desktop tidy by crawling around and eating (deleting) any files it finds. Careful, if you don’t feed it regularly it will die!

Unsay by Jessica Stringham

Unsay is a Google Chrome extension that works on Gmail. It takes the text you delete from emails as you’re writing them and makes those unsaid thoughts appear elsewhere in the Gmail interface.

Pegajosa by Alejandra Trejo

This PC-only AutoHotkey malware plays on the idea of ‘“earworm” songs by having iconic audio clips play whenever you type certain words, whether in a Microsoft Word document, an email, or search engine. Try “poker,” “vip,” and “juicy.” 

Furbies Everywhere by Yararasita

Famed for their cybersecurity knowledge, these Furbies are here to protect you from unsafe browsing by taking over any webpage you visit without HTTPS in this Google Chrome Extension.

Malendar: The Calendar Guardian by Yufeng Zhao

Malendar is a helpful web service that replaces those sketchy video call links in Google Calendar with secure redirect links that safely bring your attendees to the meeting, after they’ve signed up for Malendar of course.