Upload/Download is a university assignment where I need to immerse myself in digital cultures such as text art, creative commons, glitch art and others.
When I was presented with the theme of upload-download, I remembered how I imagine the internet as a highway. We sent out a messenger from our computer to the complex routes of the internet. It made its way to its destination and sends a messenger with what we asked for, and we filter it through our toll booth, our firewall, security application and our own intuition, before it reaches our little city, our device. To add more context that the GIF is taking place in our device, we can see electric capacitors and RAM sticks as if we are in its motherboard. The highway in the GIF downloaded an image, entering the toll booth and uploaded an image, exiting the toll booth.
In a fast world where everything is easily obtainable, we need to remember the risks that comes with it. There are more cases where people innocently downloaded malicious files or access undesirable links which compromises their devices. This undesirable files or links are symbolized by this cat image. Despite being a wholesome image, its glitched, as if someone has hidden something malicious in it. It rushes with high speed towards the toll and we let it pass through the toll as we innocently assume it is simply an image.
The malicious code soon run rampant and caused errors in the device. Imagery of cats started to appear and soon took “actual existence” in the system. The error afterwards caused the system to fail and it soon started an emergency boot. But it was too late and the device has become prey to the malicious Cat OS plague. Be wary of what you download but also upload. Do remember the impact of the files that you upload to others, like what happened to this unfortunate device.
*Note, the cat image used in the animation is by Jungmann J. This GIF is in no way trying to imply that this real cat photograph is glitched or corrupted...
Jungmann J. (2013). Apartment Cat [image online]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/92253640@N03/13831046844 [accessed on October 17 2022]
This GIF has a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Creative Commons License, effective since October 19 2022 - 1:30 PM Irish Time. Previously, it had Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons License.
