KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN!

( That's what you get for using the computer! )

KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN!

Kakakompyuter Mo Yan (Filipino for "that's what you get for using a computer!") is an exhibition and platform for Filipino internet art, highlighting a story on the other end of the internet. Its 24 pieces (and growing) are presented on a pisonet terminal and videoke machine, acting as a a neverending karaoke party of new media.

Against dominant narratives of net art as rooted in institutional access and technological novelty, KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN proposes an alternate genealogy—one built from pirated software, sultry dial-up romances, Catholic fan fiction borne from the living room. Colonial technologies are repurposed and made intimate as people carve out a home and identity in infrastructures not built for them. The karaoke interface brings us to a gathering place, where the internet was a communal space that blends public-private, bringing us to sing together.

2023–25 Internet art Karaoke machine, pisonet

View the website ↗ View the playlist of art pieces online ↗

Its 24 works span a shrine to ILOVEYOU virus creator Onel de Guzman, a generative poem drawn from Filipino abortion forums, a simulated torrent client downloading the Philippine archipelago, an elegy intertwining Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz with St. Peter the Apostle, a playable pisonet classroom, and a 24-hour vlog documenting life in the margins of Manila. The exhibition has been shown at transmediale (Berlin), Art Fair Philippines, Tai Kwun (Hong Kong), DEMO2024 with Rhizome & the New Museum (New York), Space63 at Comuna (Makati), and Gray Area Festival (San Francisco).

Agustin Crisostomo, Angeline Marie Michael Meitzler, Anton Romero, Bao, Beatris Cabana, Carmine and Fabi, Chia Amisola, Czyka Tumaliuan, Elise Ofilada, Emmanuel Fabella, Gab Brioso, Isola Tong, Jared Jonathan Luna, Jord Earving Gadingan, Kiana Fernandez, Kwago, Kuya Marlon (deepweb dumaguete), Leon Leube, Mac Andre Arboleda, Nikita Sacha, No Core (Silke Talastas & Daniella Jabines), Tàtam & Ijah, Waki Badz

Presented as a karaoke party, the exhibition is available online forever, but also travels offline. Every piece is translated in two forms: pisonet (mouse & keyboard) and karaoke (microphone & remote).

Exhibitions

KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN is a traveling exhibition! We currently have four pisonet units and a karaoke set in the Philippines, and a karaoke set in San Francisco. Please reach out if you'd like to host a machine — either for an exhibition, or in your community space: [email protected]
KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN! — exhibition at Comuna KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN! — exhibition at Comuna KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN! — exhibition at Comuna KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN! — exhibition at Comuna

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