KINDLEGLITCHER - BENJAMIN GAULON AKA RECYCLISM

Benjamin Gaulon often engages his practice with the metaphorical and aesthetic malfunction of technologies, either accidental or deliberate. Although this part of his work has been ascribed to the realm of the so-called « glitch art » (visual art generated by software errors), he has gone beyond the usual software-only based strategies, involving custom hardware and symbolic acts.

Stemming from some of his previous works (including « Corrupt.video » the voluntary deterioration of a personal digital movie and « KindleGlitched » a series of ultimately crashed Kindles), « KindleGlitcher » purposely partial damages e-books.
It’s an online tool allowing anybody to upload his own e-books and having then a shared visually damaged copy. The type of information, which is randomly (and not entirely) destroyed, is a specific one. It’s a « flowing » text, which can be changed in size anytime, and what is then destroyed is one of the content possible renderings (not really « universal » in its form as a printed page, but ultimately becoming similarly unchangeable).

This is a new artwork commissioned by Jeu de Paume especially for this online exhibition.

Benjamin Gaulon is a French artist but also researcher, lecturer and art consultant living in Dublin. He is currently leading D.A.T.A. (Dublin Art and Technology Association), he is a member of the Graffiti Research Lab France, co-founder of the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art and lecturer at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. In 2011 he has created the Recyclism Hacklab where he leads regular Mentoring Session to support the Hacklab members in their research. Benjamin Gaulon’s research focuses on the limits and failures of information and communication technologies, on planned obsolescence, consumerism and disposable society, through the exploration of détournement, hacking and recycling. Since 2005 he has been leading workshops and giving lectures on these themes.
http://www.recyclism.com/