Artist Response 9

The art group Ztohoven specializes in manipulating and reconstructing different digital mediums that people interact with in day to day life. One project they implement was changing symbols and characters of traffic lights in Prague. Instead of having a man walking for the "Walk" instructions, ztohoven will replace it with a guy laying down. This instillation is amusing but it is nowhere near as controversial as their piece, "Media Reality." The group hacked a weather broadcast and digitally inserted an atomic bomb explosion. During the broadcast the camera pans throughout a scenic landscape. Nothing is out of the ordinary until the camera goes through a patch of fog. Then, in the far distance, a bright mushroom cloud spurts out of nowhere. The camera quickly pans back to focus on it and subsequently the reception becomes worse and worse till it's replace with nothing but white noise. Considering the subject matter in the clip, this alteration did not cause widespread panic. The artist were convicted for distorting truthful information but the charges were then dropped.

Many people take news for granted so a project such as this would keep viewers on their toes. I believe that this project would have not been successful in America and would have put the artists in even more trouble than they would have in their country. This country would also take swifter action as well. One thing about digital artist that makes them so powerful is, they are working in a medium in which they could easily distort reality if they wanted to.