Readme
My final project will be a physical book titled “Readme,” which will compile readme files from a wide spectrum of torrent downloads. Each page of the book will be a new readme from a different torrent. For the unaware, torrents are typically accompanied by a txt file titled “readme” (or something along those lines). These files vary in content, but generally contain information about the file that has been downloaded, along with some type of credit for the person who created the torrent.
Additionally, readme files sometimes have interesting statements about art and politics, or occasionally contain intricate ASCII art, all of which I want to represent in this work. In pursuing this project, I partly wish to demonstrate the variety of content that is available online, from pedestrian camera databases to expensive applications. Furthermore, I think there is something (though I’m not sure what, yet) to be said for taking a file that is typically either not downloaded by users, or simply thrown away, and then elevating it to the status of art. This project is also very much a memento of a rapidly dying age of piracy (go call your congress peeps about net neutrality). I am (sporadically) searching for more layers that this project may undertake, but that is the basic gist of my project which will hopefully take on a more theoretical underpinning as the idea matures in the week ahead.
