the 120 days of *buntu

We envision the operating system as a contemporary replacement of urban space. Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution worldwide, has been chosen for its ubiquitousness and its pre-configured nature - just like Windows and OSX. What differs, however, is that Ubuntu is an open source system, allowing its protagonists to adjust the system to ones own visions, conceptual thoughts and secret perversions. The 120days of *buntu is an OS intervention.

The project explores how breaking and altering the inherent rules of default systems can lead to new forms of user autonomy and creativity. It challenges users to consider how operating systems, much like social structures, can impose dogmas and limitations that shape subjectivity. By hacking and customizing Ubuntu it also questiones the orthodoxies of proprietary software and the paradoxes inherent in open-source development.

After a two-month residency in São Paulo, in collaboration with the Museu da Imagem e do Som, we organized a free software donation street performance. We distributed copies of their customized Ubuntu distributions on CDs to passersby on Rua Santa Ifigênia, a street famously known for its illegal software vendors. The performance aimed to subvert traditional modes of software distribution and challenge norms surrounding intellectual property. After about an hour, the police intervened, suspecting the CDs to be pirated material. Although the officers somewhat grasped the concept of free software and Linux, we were told to cease our activities.

Book

Order here a print-on-demand version of the book or download the PDF (free, 79MB)

Credits

The residency was supported by Funds BKVB Netherlands in partnership with MIS (Museu da Imagem e do Som de São Paulo)