TimeOut
New York Jan 30 - Feb 6, 2003 issue 383   

   Perry Hoberman thinks differently aout the digital realm than you or I do. Need proof? SInce 1998, Hoberman has saved every bit of spam he`s received, creating an archive of more than 6000 junk e-mails. And those "I Accept" messages that appear whenever you douwnload software or sign up for an online service? Most people click the "accept" option without reading the long-winged agreements; Hoberman has anayzed the text and revised it for EULA (End User License Agreement) (2003), one of the works in this show,
   While in the early days of the Internet there was much hand-wringing about encryption and privacy, most folks now happily part with detailed personal information in exchange for goods and services. (Never mind that the data is often processed by felon-employes over at your friendly local state penitentiary.) Hoberman remains aware of these privacy-and-civil-liberty issues, but opts for humor rather than fear-mongering or finger-pointing.
    EULA, for instance, allows viewers to see an image only after accepting a "LIMITED, NON-EXCLUSIVE LICENSE to remember this material for a term not to exceed 30 (thirty) days," after which time they're required to forget it. Digital prints from the "OK/Cancel" series offer spoofs on interactivity: One Says "Click OK to agree to something you don't really understand"; another tells you that "automated profile analysis software had determined that your present behaviour is consistent [with that of] known terrorists."
   Home "security" (or surveilance) is further alluded to in Total Information Awareness I, a pair of huge glass eyes embedded in the wall that follow the movement of viewers aroud the gallery. And all that collected spam? It appears in the back gallery in a series of prints called "My Life in Spam," in which the messages are reduced to blurry lines of noninformation.  
   Where artists in the past used found objects to make their work, Hoberman extends that courtesy to the digital domain. Images you`re confronted with daily on your computer screen serve as fodder for his art - only here, they`re reconfigured into clever reminers of what we five up or agree to, even unconsciously, every time we turn on a computer or go online. - Martha Schwendener

Village Voice
February 5-11, 2003

Perry Hoberman

A pioneer of new media and old effects makes use of stereoscopy, spam, cancel boxes, licensing agreements, and all-seeing eyeballs in a show satirizing online attempts to profit from intellectual property. Silly on the surface, it's serious underneath.    (Kim Levin)