Vuk Cosic (Slovenia)

Vuk Cosic was born in Belgrade in 1966, and lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is a retired classic of net.art, co-founder of Nettime, Syndicate and Ljubljana Digital Media Lab (Ljudmila). Internationally acclaimed hero of online creativity. Lectures, publishes and exhibits frequently.

Most notable appearances: Biennale di Venezia; ICA, London; Beaubourg, Paris; Kapelica, Ljubljana; Kunstalle, Vienna; Gugenheim, Venezia; Walker, Minneapolis; Lux, London; Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; Microwave, Hong Kong; Digital Artlab, Tel Aviv; New Museum, NYC; Postmasters, NYC; MIT Medialab; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Artforum; Flash Art; Cahiers du cinema; Liberation; Guardian; and NYTimes.

Art and Society, 2006

Art and Society is a small satirical piece about simplifications.
Trafic counting sensors are mounted at the entrance of the Museum of Modern Art and at the side entrance of the US Embassy. Art & Society TM is interpreting the count of people entering these two buildings as an indicator of societal relations. The daily result is then sent to subscribers via text messages. The project was commissioned for the U3 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana and was executed only on that occassion.

credits
The artist: Vuk Cosic
SMS and systems programming: Ziga Hajdukovic
Sensors: Borja Jelic
Flash and HTML programming: Davor Bauk
Christine Van Assche from Pompidou who is a curator
Niko Kusar from Mobitel who was the key professional on that side
Luka Frelih from Ljudmila who fixed the domain
Spela Kucan from Ljudmila who helped a lot with serious bureaucracy
Bojana Piskur, Tomaz Kucer, Adela Zeleznik and Tamara Soban from Moderna Galerija have done their best to make the installation, the catalogue and PR happen.

'Pessimism is Easy'
a gentle critique of quick simplifications

In order to pronounce critique of the interface we need to gather data. If we are talking about the very broad and general system of state or corporate control there are two badly disturbing books that come to mind: "IBM and Holocaust" by Edwin Black and "Hitler's Willing Executioners" by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. Both of these volumes are providing us with an important and unglamorous lesson about the way black hat practices occur. So if we are to talk about ways state controls it's subjects let's talk with people that do it, if we're to criticize corporations let's have data first. Until then we are running the risk of looking stupid.  

As artists we obviously have a choice of symbolic acts but we should also try to avoid mankind such work that can be easily appropriated by the same enemy we're supposedly fighting. This is the moment when irony and humor seem like the only way out.

http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/