With analogies to spam, this work questions the use of public data for intrusions into private realms by collecting names and addresses of random individuals extracted from the web, and using the data to contact them privately with intimate, hand-written letters. The communication is then presented on a website – returning the physical documentation to the virtual sphere. On the website, I entered the names of each person contacted, the date a letter was mailed to them, and a summary of the letter. With a click, viewers are able to see photographs of the letters before they were posted, a map of the receiver’s home, and an aerial view of the location. The recipients entered the communication 'contract' by opening the envelopes they received, and by visiting the web address mailed to them a year later. Using a physical, personal and perhaps obsolete medium, the Magnussons connects the virtual stream of information to real space and people. The work questions the uses of our virtual designations, who has power over those designations, and how such designations define us in the real world.

award “La Paz”of the International Art Biennial SIART Bolivia 2007

Selected exhibitions
Transmediale.08 Conspire…, Berlin, 2008. Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Cultures, Madrid, 2008, Ministry of Culture of Spain
Latin-American Biennial on Video & Digital Art Inquieta Imagen V, 2008, Contemporary Art and Design Museum (MADC), Costa Rica