The Project Formerly Known As Kindle Forkbomb
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The Project Formerly Known as Kindle Forkbomb is a work done by the Swiss-Austrian-American duo known as Ubermorgen. The artists are known for their creative use of digital media, combined with other means such as performance and various offline medium to convey their ideas. The project is showcased on Ubermorgen's website[1] and was initially shown at Kunsthal Aarhus in the Show "Systemics #2: As we may think (or, the next world library)"[2] and at DAM Gallery Berlin, both in 2013.[3]
The project's name: "The Project Formerly Known as Kindle Forkbomb" can be broken down to better understand the meaning behind the work. Forkbomb is a term used in computing, describing an attack in which a computer process continuously self-replicates until the machine's resources are depleted or the system crashes.[4]
Process Outline
The art project depicts a machine process that strips comments from YouTube, then uses an algorithm to compile the comments and finally titling the work under video title and respective uploader to make a book. This book is then uploaded to the Kindle Publishing service[5] and placed on the Kindle Store. After, the machine monitors the books making sure that enough sales are made to keep them alive on the store. If they aren't thriving on the store the machine is directed to purchase copies, thus prolonging their shelf-life.[6]
Purpose
Using this process the artists' message and intent was to show how easily they could clog the store with their rapidly multiplying number of books (hence Kindle Forkbomb). This is an example of critique on the digital world and the problems it poses. While it was merely a demonstration, it makes it easier to visualize the world we live in.[7]
