The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) was rather surprised last week
to find ourselves criticized in the pages of ArtByte for an event that
never took place. In a piece entitled "Scritti Politti," an anonymous
writer reported that our GraffitiWriter robot was "set loose on Austrian
television during an interview with the sci-fi novelist" Neal
Stephenson. "Unfortunately," the piece continues, "all it wrote on the
studio floor was "Ars Electronica", a missed opportunity for splattery
subversion."

While we appreciate his appetite for alliteration, we are deeply
disappointed in the author's facility with fact. The events described
are a complete fabrication, the GraffitiWriter did not "speed from the
wings" to disrupt Stephenson's interview. Nor did it print the message
the writer alludes to on the floor of the studio.

Instead, the IAA used its involvement with the Prix Ars Electronica
broadcast for a much-needed political intervention. While accepting an
award of distinction, IAA operatives roundly criticized Austrian
anti-free speech policies and drew particular attention to
public_netbase, a longtime home for Austrian dissident speech that has
been the subject of funding cuts, evictions, lawsuits, and government
harassment. These operatives also announced our intention to donate our
award to public_netbase to help this organization carry out its
important work. During this intervention, the GraffitiWriter was
employed to spraypaint public_netbase's URL on the stage in fluorescent
orange paint. This message remained visible for the remainder of the
hour-long television program, providing public_netbase with
international publicity. Photo documentation of the Prix Ars Electronica
action is available at the IAA's website (www.appliedautonomy.com).

Since this intervention, public_netbase has used the IAA prize to
sponsor an Austrian Web Resistance Award highlighting three projects of
cultural electronic resistance in Austria. Additional information about
this award may be found at public_netbase's website,
http://free.netbase.org.

Of course, ArtByte readers would never know this had taken place. Nor,
for that matter, would they know much of anything that happened outside
the conveniently scandalous confines of the Next Sex exhibition.
Throughout the week attempts were made to inject the proceeding with
political content, from our action, to Golden Nica winner Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer's references to fascism and media control during his
acceptance speech, to the well-attended forum organized by
Lozano-Hemmer, Konrad Becker, and others. And while Crawford correctly
notes that these efforts generated much less media attention than the
"technosexy events and artworks," as a journalist he is certainly in a
position to shed "heat and light" on these proceedings. His failure to
do so strikes us as a "missed opportunity" indeed.

Sincerely,

The Institute for Applied Autonomy