Julian Oliver
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Work from Remote Install
“A remote install in the media-arts world refers to the artist not being physically present at the gallery during the installation process. Rather, they send a link to download the software and work with a local team to set it up on hardware already provided.
Remote Install is a work of network-dependent Software Art that presents its own installation process as an artefact in itself.
Distributed as a stripped down, customized GNU/Linux Operating System, the gallery merely needs to copy a single file onto a USB stick, plug it into a computer on site and boot it on the day of the opening. Remote Install then analyses its network context and the amount of space given to it – the free space on the USB stick. It then logs into the artist’s server and creates a file of random binary data to exactly fill this space and proceeds to download it over the course of the entire exhibition. An algorithm ensures the last byte is downloaded on the last second of the exhibition.
Devices on the gallery network that use too much bandwidth are knocked off the network by the script, as they are a threat to the installation process. Detailed statistics relating to the process appear in several regions in the output, including a list of all the routers between the gallery and the artist’s server on the Internet.” –Julian Oliver