Nancy Mauro-Flude
vvichvvave designer, co covener and co curator, artist

The Theatre of /dev/mem
Medium:IBM Computer / code abstraction -

Destabilising the traditional operating paradigm of a computer, this work highlights profusion, play and ivresse. It points to how the symbolic formulae of computing machines and performance of language have historically co-constituted one another or have been integrated in what was formally considered techné. Computers are often received as closed systems, I prefer to present them as theatre machines and show them in performative manner from which they descend.In this artwork the accumulated data of the machine is scanned and output; the veracity of the /dev/mem veracity is rendered as digital audio and video. /dev/mem is a character device file that provides access to an image of the physical memory of the computer. In a traditional computing scenario it may be accessed, for example to examine the contents of the active operating system and running processes. The line of executable code that instructs the computer to scan its /dev/mem and output this veracity as a video on an infinite loop is #gst-launch-0.10 filesrc location=/dev/mem ! videoparse ! xvimagesink


Dr Nancy Mauro-Flude is an artist whose research is driven by the demystification of technology, and the ‘mystification’ that lie in and through the performance of the machinic assemblage. Systems experimentation form the basis of her work, where the computer is approached as a theatre machine. Gray magics, hijackings, driftings and seizures of power the sensitive and subversive subterfuges by
which she urges, twists and explores the aesthetic politic of the open source spirit. Founder of Despoinas Critical Media Coven home brewed since 2008 in Tasmania, Nancy coordinates the Emerging Digital Cultures, HCI and Aesthetics studio, School of Design, RMIT University.