IMBÉCIL
Digital works, CD-ROM, RSS feed, installations.
2002-present
Various authors.
URL

IMBÉCIL is ALKU's sideproject for useless, obfuscated, surreal, pointless computing and data cooking. It started in 2002 as a website where about 20 artists, friends, programmers and musicians were invited to contribute their own idea on "imbecil computing". Then it became an ALKU release as a CD-ROM (Alku, 31) containing those submissions and other material, and later on transformed itself into an RSS feed about more or less the same idea: surreal things -both analogue and digital.

The CD-ROM contents are available for download as a cross-platform ISO image that will work on almost any Linux, Unix, Mac and Windows machine (although the code inside is mostly for Mac and Unix computers). It contains a compilation of Imbecil-related scripts and applications by various authors. The CD-ROM with the original cardboard sleeve (pictured below) is still available from ALKU.

The CD-ROM/URL included digital works by:
Adrian Ward
Alku
Andre Pahl
Boring.ch
Casey Reas
Charlie Ferrari
Dave Sabine
Deprogramming.us
Douglas Irving Repetto
Dxlab
Hellascript
Inz'kt
Maro
Moocow
Nullpointer
Really Early Morning Software
Retroyou
Ruben Feffer
Tom Erbe

IMBÉCIL has been featured in exhibitions and one-off presentations in:
Centre d'Art Santa Mňnica, Barcelona, Spain. 19.11.03
Plug-in medialab, Basel, Switzerland. 12.02.04
Shedhalle, Zürich, Switzerland. 13.02.04 - 04.04.04
Readme festival, Aarhus, Denmark. 27.07.04
Sónar a la Carta. Sónar festival, Barcelona, Spain 16.06.05 - 18.06.05
AARA Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand. 25.06.05 - 25.8.05
Garage festival. Stralsund, Germany. 22.07.05 - 13.08.05
Lab30, Augsburg, Germany. 03.11.05 - 05.11.05
Facultat de Belles Arts, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. 10.11.05
DIEM - Danish Institute of Electronic Music, Aarhus, Denmark. 31.01.06
Krabbesholm Hřjskole, Skive, Denmark. 02.02.06

From shell scripts like Deprogramming.us's "exwhite.pl" (a perl script that keeps "erasing" whatever you type into your terminal) or Alku's "Gangsta Shell" (a resource file to replace the most common Unix commands with gangsta-rap jargon), to full throttle useless applications like Maro's "Rainbow" (a light app that displays the rainbow colors in the white apple of an iBook) or Retroyou's infamous user-non-friendly videogame, Imbecil covers the most ludicrous areas of computing for Mac, Unix and Windows systems. Looking for an English-Morse translator? You got it (by Ruben Feffer). Want to play Rock, Paper, Scissors vs. your computer? Sure thing (by Really Early Morning Software). You need to write a suicide note? No problem, here's "Suicide Letter Wizard for Microsoft Word" (by DXLab). Always wanted to have a text editor + earthquake simulator? Here you go.

Images:

Talk/presentation of the Ghost in the Shell project curated by IMBÉCIL at Centre d'Art Santa Mňnica, Barcelona, 16.06.05. Photo by Javier Tles.

IMBÉCIL CD-ROM (ALKU 31, 2003) original cardboard sleeve:

See also: Ghost in the Shell