April 1, 2004
Turbulence Commission: "Infecter" by Shannon Kennedy
http://turbulence.org/works/kennedy
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Shannon Kennedy–well known as a photographer and video artist–has
created her first work for the web. Kennedy has long been interested in
revealing the organic and psychological menaces hidden in architectural
structures. She used an endoscopic camera in "Building Project" to
collect video footage of chemical by-products and organic growths
accumulating within air ducts, drainage systems, around heating vents,
and behind walls. Kennedy's work offers the experience of architecture
as if it were an organism that lives, breathes, grows and decays.

With "Infecter" Kennedy and programmer, Shaque, have created abstract
visual interpretations of computer virus source code.

Taking the virus MyDoom as a starting point, the source code has been
mapped out and then systematically "infected" with sections of source
code from other prominent computer virii creating a series of moving and
shifting visual relationships. Based on the principles of genetic
engineeringwhich attempt to turn off or on specific biological
behaviors by inserting new genes or deleting sections of old
ones"Infecter" puts into motion an experiment with no hypothesis. The
visual properties that emerge are based not on what we program them to
do but on the interactions of language itself.

"Infecter's" visual system is based on the gridded structures that
scientists use to map out and read genetic sequences in biological
organisms. "Infecter" turns a string of seemingly incomprehensible
characters and letters into a viewable and dynamic visual analog. Thus,
"Infecter" operates as a type of digital mapping that is, in effect, the
opposite of the biological scientific process, which begins with images
and culminates in a type of abstracted chemical language that presents a
way to "read" a biological organism.

"Infecter" is a 2003 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.
(aka Ether-Ore). It was made possible with funds from the City of New
York Department of Cultural Affairs and the Jerome Foundation.

BIOGRAPHY

Shannon Kennedy was born in 1967 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has worked
as an artist since the early 1990s. Kennedy's photographs and videos
have been shown in the United States in solo exhibitions at Thomson
Gallery, Minneapolis (1996), Montgomery Glasoe Fine Art, Minneapolis
(1997), the St. Louis Art Museum (1997), the New York Hall of Science,
Queens (1999), Dee/Glasoe, New York (2000), and in group exhibitions at
Metronom Foundation for Contemporary Art, Barcelona (1993), The Walker
Art Center, Minneapolis (1996), the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts
(1997), The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis (1998), and
Dee/Glasoe, New York (2000). In addition, Kennedy has received numerous
fellowships and awards including grants from the Jerome Foundation
(1991, 1993, 2000) and McKnight Foundation (1991, 1996), the Minnesota
State Arts Board (1994, 2000), and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
Biennial Award (1999). Kennedy's Creative Capital project was presented
at Consolidated Works (Seattle) in 2001 and at the Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts (San Francisco) in 2002.

For more information about Turbulence, please visit http://turbulence.org