The Pirate Cinema extended until April 4 + Documentation

The Pirate Cinema by Nicolas Maigret 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 streaming 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.

 

In the next few days Link Art Center will publish an essay by Matteo Cremonesi accompanying the exhibition.

 

Below a video and some images documenting the exhibition.

 

 

This project is realized in the framework of Masters & Servers, 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) that was recently awarded with a Creative Europe 2014 / 2020 grant. For 24 months from now, 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.