irational. Anarchaeology and Futurology of an Artserver

In 2010 art-server irational.org made an archived copy of itself, presenting a disk artefact with 18 years of historical data for archaeological translation. Before being disposed of, or interred for collection, any archaeological dig of this disk makes the owners of its data vulnerable and threatens the security of the living server as a data home for members and associates. Access must therefore be carefully managed via a ›secure access protocol‹. To access the living social server, attend the workshops and exhibition. To access the archived copy proceed using the Secure Access Protocol.

http://irational.org

Open Workspace and Book Project
»Zettels Traum«, Arno Schmidt’s famous book in which characters discuss the act of translation whilst walking on the Lüneburger Heide, is a reference point for this exhibition and book-making project. It approaches the irational disk as a text to be translated, modelled and performed. Models and scripts on display. Portrait of the irational art-server as a public park. Scripted dramaturgy for rehearsal, or for on screen performance. Set on Lüneburger Heide a series of scripts dramatise aspects of irational social organisation through various data objects, and motifs accessed from the server, creating characters that battle for control of the narrative about community, security and commons.

»Irational Anarchaeology: Secure Access Protocol«
Presentation and discussion on the implications for collectors and owners of archived artservers and databases.

»Properties Properties«
A journey to the boundaries of identity through objects (owned, found, borrowed, discarded and stolen). An examination of nearby objects, and the possible transformation their ownership relations could suffer on a trajectory to the urban outskirts. This workshop aims to question the notion of properties understood as identity and ownership, the relevance of archiving, data interpretation and the creation of meanings.

»Handling Data Protection Requests with Stone Age Tools«
We will implement a system by which persons can request data held on them by irational. To make this system robust and accessible it will make use of fundamental elements such as wood, fire, stone and air in its construction and maintenance. Bring a knife and thick socks.

»Hole Walk«
A hole-digging workshop to install a dry storage space for public access to irational fire making kits.

Irational.org’s server project is coordinated with Post-Media Lab and hosted by Kunstraum of Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

The project is curated by Josephine Berry Slater and Anthony Iles.

The Post-Media Lab is part of the Lüneburg Innovation Incubator, a major EU project within Leuphana University of Lüneburg, financed by the European Regional Development Fund and co-funded by the German federal state of Lower Saxony.