NEW YORK.- The New Museum of Contemporary Art presents Open_Source_Art_Hack, a group exhibition that explores hacking practices, open source ethics, and cultural production, from May 3 - June 30, 2002 in the Zenith Media Lounge. The exhibition and related public programs will include a performance and walking tours by the Surveillance Camera Players; an installation by Knowbotic Research; a Free Radio Linux broadcast by r a d i o q u a l i a; a databody cloning project by LAN; a DVD by Harun Farocki; an anti-war game by futurefarmers’ Josh On; a packet-sniffing application by RSG; an "ad-busting" project by Cue P. Doll; and a streaming media workshop with Superflex and Tenantspin.

Open_Source_Art_Hack features artists and collectives who explore the free access to, and distribution of, software code known as Open Source. In addition to a shared culture, the artists in this show use common tools-such as search engines, web browsers, identification systems, sound interfaces, and Internet protocols-that enable their work to be distributed, and, in some cases, adapted by other users.

Though hacking has many, mostly negative, connotations in mainstream culture, the artists in Open_Source_Art_Hack approach hacking as a creative electronic tool to examine institutional, governmental, and corporate influence on identity and privacy in contemporary culture.

Open_Source_Art_Hack was organized by Steve Dietz, Curator of New Media, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and Jenny Marketou, a New York-based new media artist, in collaboration with Anne Barlow, Curator of Education and Media Programs, New Museum of Contemporary Art.