The project The Conceptual Crisis of Private Property as a Crisis in
Practice makes it possible to conceal the entire text of a novel in
one single image. The work is comprised of a script (crisis.php), an
explanatory text (crisis.txt), and an image (crisis.png).
The .png image shows a desktop with various windows open in front of a
colourful background (including a window with a film still from the movie
Matrix that is being – most likely ‘illegally’ – copied; in
another window the source code of the script generating the ASCII version
of Neal Stephenson’s novel Cryptonomicon from a desktop image is
visible; a further window contains an instruction manual for running the
program). A series of logos strung together at the bottom edge of the image
yields the word ‘Cryptonomicon’ (Stephenson’s novel deals with
encryption).
While the screenshot of the desktop is the intellectual property of 'Robert
Luxemburg' and can be freely disseminated by him, the image when 'executed'
generates copyrighted material subject to stringent restrictions.