Security, 1999

CANTV Database, Hacking on paper
157,48 ” x 157,48 ”


CANTV is the largest Internet service provider of Venezuela. This company, until few years ago, kept the monopoly of telecommunications in Venezuela and still today is the biggest corporation of the country. In 1991, 40% of CANTV was acquired by GTE; now Verizon Communications, Inc.

In 1999, the database that contained the names, addresses, phone numbers, working places, and even checking accounts, credit cards, and expiration dates, was hacked and shown as a ‘public project’ called "Security" in the Iberoamerican Art Fair, which was sponsored by… CANTV

The data from the database was printed and displayed by juxtaposing the information from different angles, creating an image that shifts between geometry, mathematics, poetry, and concrete language.

Through this work it was developed a concept that I called datagram. In the computer lexicon, a datagram is the basic unit of information passed across the Internet. It contains a source and destination address along with data. Large messages are broken down into a sequence of IP datagrams. When they travel over the network, its arrival, arrival time, and content is not guaranteed. Similarly, but In the visual arts context, a datagram is a method to visualize information by displaying databases using a chaotic structure, showing them as wallpapers where printed pages are placed in different angles and interconnected by the subject of the data.

Despite the fact that CANTV is one of the most advanced companies in South America, supported by local and international security experts, what guarantees have the users regarding their electronic privacy/security when they give such sensitive information? Security moves around this question, revealing the fragility of the main private institution of Venezuela and showing how hacking can be a powerful tool to establish counter-corporate actions at the same time it expands the horizons of our culture.