[This is the English translation of the original-length German
interview, part 1 of 2; copyleft and publication data is given at the
end of part 2. -FC]

Hacking the art operating system

Cornelia Sollfrank interviewed by Florian Cramer, December 28th, 2001,
during the annual congress of the Chaos Computer Club (German Hacker's
Club) in Berlin.

FC: I have questions on various thematic complexes which in your work
seem to be continually referring to each other: hacking and art,
computer generated, or more specifically, generative art, cyberfeminism,
or the questions that your new work entitled 'Improvised Tele-vision'
throw up. And of course the thematic complex plagiarism and
appropriation - as well as what can be seen as an appendix to that, art
and code, code art and code aesthetics.

CS: Surely code art and code aesthetics are more your themes than mine.
I think I should be the one asking the questions here. (laughter)

FC: …no, this refers very specifically to statements made by you, for
example in your Telepolis interview with 0100101110111001.org, which I
found excellent because of its rather sceptical undertones. If that
really is more my area though, then by all means we can bracket it out
of the interview.

CS: No, no. I didn't mean it like that. Quite the opposite in fact.
However that is what is so interesting and difficult about the
relationship between these complexes - and which I often find myself
arguing about. A lot of things appear to run parallel, or better put,
one invests more in one area for a particular period of time, then
returns back to something else. To keep an eye on how these various
activities link together is not easy.

FC: When I look at your work, I notice that on the one hand you are a
very important net artist, on the other hand - what nevertheless seems
closely related to the this - you work as a critical journalist for
among others, Telepolis, and frequently write about hacker culture: for
example, you've written about an Italian hacker congress and interviewed
the Chaos-Computer-Club spokesperson Andy M