Stefan Tiefengraber – User Generated Server Destruction
Stefan Tiefengrabers’ works range from performances to interactive installations to experimental video and documentaries.
In ‘User Generated Server Destruction’ visitors of the website www.ugsd.net can trigger six hammers and drop them onto a server that is located in the exhibition. This server hosts the website, which also shows a video stream to follow what’s happening with the piece. The website, which seems to appear from out of nowhere, consists out of data, zeros and ones compiling an image, a text or a video. It is tempting to think that there is no physical connection to any hardware. The installation visualizes very directly that behind the virtuality that we attribute to the data on the Internet, there is a tangible reality. The installation ends when the server is destroyed and thus can not host the website anymore. The Internet is a continually growing network of servers spread all over the world. On the one hand are the users and on the other hand the providers, supplying the network. Usually, it is just possible for computer viruses and very qualified users to attack and destroy highly protected servers that are locked in well-secured places. With ‘User Generated Server Destruction’ every user has the possibility to erase one of this servers and thereby shrink the worldwide network for a short moment.
Tiefengraber studied at University of Art and Design Linz and at the K’ARTS University Seoul. His works have been exhibited in Ars Electronica Center, Gallery 175 and Piksel Festival.
Stefan Tiefengraber’s work will be on display as part of the exhibition ‘the fluidity aspect’, which runs from the 25th of September until the 5th of October. Find more information about the exhibition here.
