Perpetual Self Dis/Infecting Machines
Eva and Franco Mattes
2000 / 70 x 50 × 13cm
Hand assembled computer, Biennale.py virus, Windows 2000, anti virus software, plexiglass
Biennale.py is a computer virus we created—with hackers group Epidemic—for the 49th Venice Biennale. Released on the night of the opening, it quickly spread around the world.
Immaterial and self-replicating, when the virus enters a computer it stays there, hidden, trying to survive for as long as possible.
Source: 0100101110101101.org
As an Internet archivist/researcher, my work involves the pre-web era (1980–94). The archives that exist for that are mostly text-based with Usenet being the motherlode along with supplements from others (FidoNet, Gopher, isolated BBS archives, etc). It’s far from a complete record and yet it provides great insight—the ability to zero on specific cultural events and glimpse how Internet users were reacting as they happened.
I often get asked about what should be preserved from today’s Internet. I lean towards something omnivorous and there are numerous groups (Internet Archive, Archive Team, Rhizome) capturing what they can. It’s a loaded question that affects all of us [and how our history is perceived after we’re gone]—Jenna Wortham does an excellent job of digging in.
In his 1990 movie, Graffiti Bridge, Prince used a Macintosh SE to work on the track “Can’t Stop This Feeling I Got.”
A perfect, minute-long survey of 1980s/90s computer animation created by Brummbaer for SIGGRAPH ‘95.
The groundbreaking computer animator and artist Brummbaer has left us today (1945–2016). His diverse practice started in the 1960s with pavement painting, psychedelic poster design, and light shows for Amon Düül II, Frank Zappa, Tangerine Dream, etc. By the 1970s, he was running an underground comix company and had translated/edited Robert Crumb’s first book into German.
With the 1980s, he discovered his most expressive medium—the computer. He was a prolific computer artist with innumerable animations as well as digital paintings (a master of Deluxe Paint). He also created SFX for Johnny Mnemonic and a CG history retrospective for SIGGRAPH ‘95. Several health battles came with the 2000s but he continued to create and publish two autobiographical books.
In describing Brummbaer during a 1992 interview:
Ever modest with regard to the magic that he spins, Brummbaer says that his philosophy of creativity stems from his notion that an artist is but a humble window washer. His computer screen, he claims, is simply a window that allows him to see through into other worlds, and all he does is polish the screen so that we can see through to the other side.

