Poetics of Encryption explores how artists picture our relationship with inscrutable tech, through three thematic frames. Black Site, Black Box, and Black Hole. These metaphors address the way encrypted objects are negotiated in the course of everyday life, and the way they order concepts of embodimentmodels for where an intelligent human is placed vis a vis the realm of digital secrets and/or hidden mechanisms.

Result #1

Poetics of Encryption explores how artists picture our relationship with inscrutable tech, through three thematic frames. Black Site, Black Box, and Black Hole. These metaphors address the way encrypted objects are negotiated in the course of everyday life, and the way they order concepts of embodimentmodels for where an intelligent human is placed vis a vis the realm of digital secrets and/or hidden mechanisms. So that in a world ruled by the datacenter and the hologram, which is a kind of digital equivalent of a hard drive, the cybernetic subject matter is not only associated with the Internet, but also with technologies that allow information to travel across the medium. In the digital age, one of the most significant qualities of a picture is the way it becomes a metaphor for the world. Thus, the cyborgs and futurists propose that the future will be one of machines that operate in the realm of cyberspace, and that we will have to adapt to a future that is ever more saturated in information and in cyberspace. In the end, however, such future is a fiction, and we are simply the means by which it is discovered, and in this sense we are already engaged in an inextricable web of technological and cultural transformations.Cryptography is a tool that allows us to transmit information over an encrypted network. In the cyberspace of our moment, the secure, secure, secure: these words convey a system of relations in which everything is encoded and transmitted, not only in the form of encryption but also in the form of codes, such as those used in computer systems. The cyberspace of our moment is not only a place where encrypted information can be transmitted, but also a space where the data can be stored, stored, and transmitted. With this new reality, the cyberspace of our epoch, everything is encrypted.In the cyberspace of the present, the cyberspace of the future, everything is encrypted. But the cyberspace of the present is not the cyberspace of the future; instead, it is the cyberspace of the past. It is not merely a place where encrypted information can be transmitted, but also a space where the data can be stored, stored, and transmitted.

Result #2

Poetics of Encryption explores how artists picture our relationship with inscrutable tech, through three thematic frames. Black Site, Black Box, and Black Hole. These metaphors address the way encrypted objects are negotiated in the course of everyday life, and the way they order concepts of embodimentmodels for where an intelligent human is placed vis a vis the realm of digital secrets and/or hidden mechanisms. This exhibition, which was co-organized with the artists digital-culture collective, Black Site, demonstrates that these themes are not mutually exclusive, but can be subdivided into more than one. The title of the show, Hacker, is taken from a 1952 computer game by the same name, and its settings are Black-Box, Black Hole, and Hacker. Each of these is an encrypted system that can be accessed by the uninitiated, but with many possible permutations, ranging from algorithms that determine how a piece of information should be represented to a list of words, or ideas, that could be used to implement a cipher. The show also featured a series of large-scale digital sculptures that were created for the show, which offer viewers the opportunity to decipher the workings of these systems. The most engaging works in the show, such as The Signal and the Noise, 1998, a pair of graphically printed maps of the locations of Black Sites, Black Boxes, and Black Holes, 1998, and The Challenge, 1999, were executed in graphite, providing a visual study of the real-time nature of cryptology and the technical complexity of the networks that shape them.Among the less interesting pieces in the show were two of the most beautiful, in terms of technical sophistication: The Signal and the Noise and The Challenge. The former is a photographic set of black-and-white photographs of the world, showing the world from the vantage point of a computer, and the world from the vantage point of a human. The first shows a spot of blue sky in the middle of a blackish gray field; the second a city in the distance; the third a city in the foreground. The world in these images is constructed in a way that seems to unfold like an infinitely recursive dance of symbols and logic, but the artist, in keeping with his practice, does not necessarily know what he is drawing on.

Result #3

Poetics of Encryption explores how artists picture our relationship with inscrutable tech, through three thematic frames. Black Site, Black Box, and Black Hole. These metaphors address the way encrypted objects are negotiated in the course of everyday life, and the way they order concepts of embodimentmodels for where an intelligent human is placed vis a vis the realm of digital secrets and/or hidden mechanisms. [E]xtreme Geometric Form and Its Application, 1991, combines three units of mathematical algebra, which, if combined, would form the pattern of a black box, with a circle, a rectangle, and a cube. This work, an enciphering device, looks like a box that could contain a coded message. It is the cryptologic aspect of the message that would be revealed.The metaphor of the box as a box is not new, but how might we read it in a new way? This exhibition examines the options for making a box that can contain a coded message. For example, in three distinct layers of the exhibition, the gallery space is divided into three compartments; each of these compartments is composed of three rows of mathematical symbols, with each symbol holding its own hand. The most widely used of these symbols is the ABCDEFGHI, which is the alphabet for binary, and this is represented by a cluster of three digits, from 01 to 03. The next layer is a set of adjacent squares in the same order. The colors of the squares are derived from the alphabet and the two last levels are in the same color scheme. The last layer is composed of six blocks, from 01 to 05, and each contains a different letter, from 00 to 01.The cryptological part of the work is the concealing of the image of the box as a box, which also plays a role in the show. This work is composed of four different types of compartments, each containing a different set of digits: black boxes, which are used to conceal coded messages; encrypted boxes; and black boxes with locks. In each case, the code is hidden and the key to deciphering the code is supplied by the boxes. The last layer of the exhibition is composed of ten cube-shaped compartments and each compartments contains a different set of numbers, from 01 to 05. The images of the boxes are also contained in these compartments.

Result #4

Poetics of Encryption explores how artists picture our relationship with inscrutable tech, through three thematic frames. Black Site, Black Box, and Black Hole. These metaphors address the way encrypted objects are negotiated in the course of everyday life, and the way they order concepts of embodimentmodels for where an intelligent human is placed vis a vis the realm of digital secrets and/or hidden mechanisms. At a time when encryption is often portrayed as being threatened by the threat of the unbreakable, the image of a black box conveys a sense of agency in the act of decoding, and one that is more essential than accidental. Encrypted images can be created only after careful decoding of secret codes, which, by definition, are not available to the average human. In the case of black boxes, the inner workings of the device are seen as being hidden from the outside world.Black Box, Black Hole. The first image shows a black box with an attached display unit, its contents displayed in a darkened room. In the next image, a black box with a curved display screen appears in the center of a dark room. The third image shows a black box with a monitor plugged into the back, its contents displayed on the screen. Here, the image of a black box is revealed to be a reflection of a black box. The fourth image shows a black box with an antenna plugged into the top of the box, its contents displayed on the screen. The fifth image shows a black box with a camera plugged into the front of the box, its contents displayed on the screen. The sixth image shows a black box with a microphone plugged into the bottom of the box, its contents displayed on the screen. The seventh image shows a black box with a microprocessor attached to the top of the box, its contents displayed on the screen. The eighth image shows a black box with an antenna plugged into the bottom of the box, its contents displayed on the screen. The ninth image shows a black box with a camera attached to the back of the box, its contents displayed on the screen. The tenth image shows a black box with an antenna plugged into the top of the box, its contents displayed on the screen. The eleventh image shows a black box with a microprocessor attached to the bottom of the box, its contents displayed on the screen.

Result #5

____________Huge thanks to Andrew McConnell, Carl Sørensen, and Carsten Höfberg for their invaluable help with the research and design of the show. Excerpts from the exhibition were also included in the show.Translated from the Danish by R. Gilman.