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A virtual work by Jeff Koons vandalized ... virtually

The artist Sebastian Errazuriz protests against a new feature of Snapchat.

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Should corporations be allowed to place what ever content y choose over our digital public space? Central Park belongs to city of NY. Why should corporations get to geo-tag its GPS coordinates for free? We know y will make money renting GPS spots to brands and bombard us with advertisement. They should pay rent, we should choose to approve what can be geo-tagged to our digital public and private space. #augmentedreality #jeffkoons #sebastianerrazuriz #crosslab #digitalpublicspace

A publication shared by Sebastian Errazuriz (@sebastianstudio) on Oct. 5. 2017 to 14 PDT

The wacky animated filters have made Snapchat, specializing in ephemeral photos and videos, most popular social network in under-25. In perpetual evolution, application launched a new feature on October 3: Art.snapchat.com. or an "arty" version of filters, since principle is to bring up works of art actually augmented in public space.

It was Jeff Koons who was chosen to be inaugural partner, with nine of his works to be found in parks all over world. By activating filters in targeted sites, user sees a sculpture integrated in decor on his screen. Before which he can take selfies, of course.

The first act of vandalism on a virtual work

The day after launch, a Chilean artist, Sebastian Errazuriz, burst into this adventure as smooth as metallic surface of pieces of Koons: in Tagant purely and simply Balloon Dog geolocated in Central Park. Certainly first act of vandalism on a virtual work.

"This is a symbolic stance against an imminent invasion of reality augmented by companies," artist reacted to Hyperallergic site. It is urgent to begin to wonder what part of our virtual public space we are willing to give. With time, (...) virtual world, where majority of our social interactions unfold, becomes our reality. As soon as we begin to experience world mainly through augmented reality, our public space will be dominated by corporate content designed for us (...) to control. From use of graffiti against pervasiveness of advertising ... as in real world.

Technically, it is not a hacking of application, but a duplicate of work, tagged, geolocated in same place, and accessed via an application created by artist. On site of his project, Snapchat allows artists to apply for ir works to be able to integrate application. Sebastian Errazuriz submitted his version.

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