Nicolas Maigret: The Pirate Cinema at Link Cabinet

The Link Art Center is proud to present The Pirate Cinema by Paris based artist Nicolas Maigret. The exhibition will be on show at Link Cabinet from March 4 to 28, 2015.

 

The Pirate Cinema is a live streaming of file sharing activities on networks using the BitTorrent protocol. In this project Nicolas Maigret depicts the restless hidden activity of file sharing online while giving shape to a visual representation of the peer-to-peer systems. The sharing activity of audio-visual materials is monitored in real time and transformed into an online stream that represents the way files are sent among users: every file is split into several small samples transferred randomly and re-assembled following the correct order only once the file reaches the final user.

 

 

The Pirate Cinema shows the precise moment in which the files are still in the process of being transferred, still messy and completely mixed up, giving birth to an hectic and glitchy file streaming. BitTorrent network users are thus transformed into unaware performers contributing to an endless audio-visual composition.

 

The Pirate Cinema has been presented as an installation, a live performance and more recently as a live online piece, originally commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices (UK), Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art (SLO) and Kunsthal Aarhus (DK) in the framework of the project Masters & Servers. At Link Cabinet the artist presents The Pirate Cinema | Act 3 a custom version of the online piece that focuses on the Metallica versus Napster case of the early 2000’s: the first law suit that involved artists suing a peer-to-peer file sharing software company that caused the eventual shut down of Napster. The audio streaming is based on the monitoring of users currently sharing Metallica albums.

 

 

Nicolas Maigret exposes the internal workings of media, through an exploration of their dysfunctions, limitations or failure thresholds which he develops as sensory and immersive audio visual experiences. As a curator, he initiated the disnovation.net research, a critique of the innovation propaganda. Nicolas teaches at Parsons Paris and cofounded the Art of Failure collective in 2006. His work has been presented in international exhibitions and festivals: Transmediale (Berlin), File (Sao Paulo), Museum of Art and Design (New York), 30th Chaos Communication Congress (Hamburg), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Gli.tc/h (Birmingham).

 

Link Cabinet is a single web page hosting solo shows where artists exhibit a single, site-specific artwork. Conceived as a white and neutral exhibition space with an essential interface, Link Cabinet is a blank space that will be transformed by the works on display. After the show, the projects won’t be available on the site anymore. Link Cabinet is a project by Matteo Cremonesifor the Link Art Center.

 

The Link Center for the Arts of the Information Age (Link Art Center) is a no-profit organization promoting artistic research with new technologies and critical reflections on the core issues of the information age: it organizes exhibitions, events, conferences and workshops, publishes books, forges partnerships with private and institutional partners and networks with similar organizations worldwide.

 

 

This project is part of Masters & Servers. Networked Culture in the Post-Digital Age, a joint project by Aksioma (SI), Drugo more (HR), Abandon Normal Devices (UK), Link Art Center (IT) and d-i-n-a / The Influencers (ES) awarded with a Creative Europe 2014 – 2020 grant. For 24 months, Masters & Servers will explore networked culture in the post-digital age.

 

 

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.