I am excited to announce that I just received an Alternative Exposure Grant for a future iteration of Hacking for Artists! Hacking sessions will begin next spring and consist of weekly workshops for Bay Area artists who want to incorporate computer programming and electronics into their practices. Details will be announced soon.

I recently hacked together a program that produces slit-scans of users’ desktops. Custom software slowly scans across the screen, taking about four minutes to complete, creating still images which illustrate both the spatial arrangement of software windows and the temporal flows of users’ activities. I have been distributing it without telling people what it does and asking them to send me the results. They produce fascinating maps of how people use their computers as their private activity is laid bare. Here are a few low resolution examples (all reproduced here with consent from users):

Katie, artist, Minneapolis

Matt; curator, writer, artist; Oakland

Rachel, artist, New York

Mark, programmer, Oakland

And head over to the photo blog for some snapshots from October.