[NetBehaviour] Trouble at Transmediale 2014, artists threatened with arrest

[marc garrett]

Statement from Oliver and Vasiliev, Transmediale 2014.

Source - http://pastebin.com/dVsjQr1x

We, the creators of 'PRISM: The Beacon Frame', wish to express our
disappointment at the disabling of a crucial element of this work at
Transmediale 2014, with the threat of reporting us to the German Federal 
Police.

As such we've agreed that it is not in our interests to maintain the 
work in its
original form.

It was our intention to provide an opportunity for public to critically 
engage
precisely the same methods of cellular communications interception used by
certain governments against their own people and people in sovereign 
states. It
was not, in any way, our intention to harm anyone and nor did we.

We note that the German Parliament, right next door, has suffered 
directly by
way of such violations.

It is vital that technology-based art remain a frame with which we can 
develop
critical discourses about the world we live in, from the engineered to the
cultural and political. Sometimes that requires that we are not limited by
exaggerated fears and legal definition, but that we act proportionally 
and with
conscience in our efforts to understand the power struggles and tensions 
in our
(technically mediated) environment.

Sometimes this means taking risks, risks without intention to harm but to
engender wider critical insights.

We wish to thank the Festival Director and the Curatorial Team from 
ArtHackDay
and LEAP for representing us to the best of their ability.

"The Critical Engineer considers the exploit to be the most desirable 
form of
     exposure."

Julian Oliver and Daniil Vasiliev
http://criticalengineering.org