Arte Digital @ EBA

My Work & Projects #

This Portfolio Site #

• Live site: bbo.do
• Source: github.com/bodobraegger/bodobraegger.github.io
• Built with Vue.js, Vite, UnoCSS
• DrawablePen component lets visitors draw on pages - traces persist via localStorage

The portfolio functions as both documentation and artwork. It’s not a static CV but an evolving space where projects live alongside notes, experiments, and interactive elements. The DrawablePen component you see at the top of this page is an example: visitors can leave marks, scribbles, annotations. These can persist locally, turning the portfolio into a personal, marked-up document for each visitor. Getting these to persist and be shared is WIP.

Chatango Live Chat #

On most pages of bbo.do, there’s a small live chat widget in the corner powered by Chatango. This creates an always-on, (anonymous) communication channel between anyone browsing the site. It’s a nod to guestbooks, shoutboxes, IRC, graffiti.

The chat collapses into a minimal ticker by default, scrolling recent messages. Visitors can expand it to participate. There’s no login required, no data collection beyond the conversation itself. It’s a way to maintain presence and availability without the mediation of corporate social platforms.

This connects to broader questions in net art about liveness, presence, and the social dimension of websites; and false nostalgia towards a retrospective of a more open, inclusive and participatory internet.

bidi - bidirectional translator #

• Live: bbo.do/projects/bidi
• Crowd-sourced translation tool - type in either language box
• Community contributions shape the database over time

bidi treats translation as a collaborative act rather than a strictly technical problem to be solved. Unlike machine translation which aims for accuracy and consistency, bidi embraces the messiness of human-contributed translations. Unexpected meanings, jokes, cultural references, and occasional nonsense all become part of the emergent system.

rj-bd - rio beach water quality #

• Live: bbo.do/rj-bd
• Source: github.com/bodobraegger/rj-bd
• Auto-parses INEA PDF bulletins every Monday via GitHub Actions
• 25 beaches with color-coded status (Própria/Imprópria/Atenção)
• Vanilla JS + Leaflet.js, sub-50KB bundle

This project emerged from a practical need: INEA publishes beach water quality data, but only as PDF bulletins that aren’t easily searchable or comparable over time. rj-bd automates the extraction and presents the data as an interactive map.

The Real Walter (Der Wahre Walter) #

• Live: bbo.do/der-wahre-walter
• Source: github.com/bodobraegger/der-wahre-walter
• Web implementation of the Swiss card game by Urs Hostettler, based on the Fichenskandal!
• Pure HTML/CSS/JS, works offline via service worker
• Related: der wahre Wikinger (Wikipedia-based variant)

Slugs (MSc Thesis Project) #

• Live (barely playable): bbo.do/slugs
• Part of MSc Computer Science thesis work on gender differences in Computer Science under Prof. Manu Kapur.
• Experimental game/interactive experience with pedagogical roots, aimed to produce an environment for productive failure.

Visual Practice & CCTV #

Visuals & Live Feeds #

My digital visual practice spans photography, curation, and live-coded video synthesis. I work with found footage, satellite imagery, and live feeds from webcams and surveillance cameras. The outputs range from still images to real-time performances to recordings, installations and stills.

For live performances and events (including the Elektrosmog party series I organized with collaborators), I create visuals that incorporate:

• Live-coded Hydra sketches
• CCTV camera feeds from around the world
• Satellite imagery
• Found footage from documentaries and films
• Webcam streams

The temporal and geographical dimension of live feeds adds something that pre-recorded material can’t - you’re watching something happening now, somewhere else. There’s an intimacy and voyeurism to it, a connection across distance.

CCTV & Surveillance Camera Art #

I’ve been collecting and exploring publicly accessible surveillance cameras, webcams, and unsecured network devices. These searches reveal cameras left open - sometimes intentionally (public webcams), sometimes accidentally (misconfigured security systems). The resulting material is a kind of found footage archive of mundane life: offices, parking lots, baby monitors, chicken coops, astronomical observatories, alpine ski resorts, wind turbine control panels, fish tanks.

Some interesting finds:

Image backup discoveries - sometimes search engines index unprotected file directories containing photo backups:

• Arctic research expedition photos
• Mediterranean vacation archives
• Random personal collections

Webcam collections:

• insecam.org - aggregator of open cameras by country
• Shodan - search engine for internet-connected devices

This practice connects directly to the surveillance artists mentioned later - Xu Bing, Manu Luksch, !Mediengruppe Bitnik. The difference is that I’m not (yet) constructing narratives or films from this material, but using it as raw input for live visual performances and as a research archive exploring what’s visible and accessible on the open internet.

Events & Parties: Elektrosmog, Braui, Regula, … #

I organized and provided visuals for different series of events. These were underground electronic music events where I performed live visuals, music, often incorporating CCTV feeds, live-coded Hydra sketches, and processed found footage.

The event context changes how visual work functions - it becomes environmental, immersive, responsive to music and crowd energy. The work isn’t precious or archival, ephemera.

Samples & Source Material #

My approach to both audio and visual work centers on found material:

• Documentaries - primary source for both music sampling and visual work
• Films - commercial and art cinema, used as raw material
• YouTube - especially archival footage, using queries like before:2006-01-01 zurich to find early uploads
• Live feeds - webcams, CCTV, satellite imagery for temporal/geographical specificity
• Interesting YouTube archaeology: walzr.com/IMG_0001 - collection of the first videos people uploaded

Modular Synthesis #

As my music practice evolved from software-based production, I got into hardware - specifically eurorack modular synthesizers. The modular approach mirrors some of the same principles as live coding: signal flow, patching, real-time manipulation, happy accidents. The difference is physical - cables, knobs, voltage. There’s an inherent quality to tactile interfaces.

Activism & Physical Work #

Beyond digital work, I’ve been involved in activism and physical interventions - documentation exists in my personal archive from 2021. This work operates in a different register than the digital projects: bodies in space, risk, collective action. The documentation is photographic, not meant for public circulation.

At Furka in 2024, we created a temporary canvas installation by a creek. When lit at night, the flowing water created moving reflections on the surface; … meshwork quilting with the environment.

Music & Live Coding #

My Music Production #

• Recordings: Dropbox folder
• Started 2012 with Cubase
• Journey through sampling, hip hop, experimental electronic, modular synths, live coding, live performance

My production practice often works within conceptual constraints - limiting source material to see what emerges from restriction.

Live Coding Notes & Hydra Sketches #

• Notes page: bbo.do/notes/2025-04-26_livecoding_examples
• Collection of Hydra sketches with direct links to run in browser
• Each sketch includes the code and a link to open it directly in the Hydra editor

Live coding as a practice collapses the distinction between composing and performing. You write code in real-time, in front of an audience, and the output is immediate. Mistakes are visible. The process is the performance.

Hydra - Live Coding Visuals #

What is Hydra? #

Hydra is a browser-based environment for live coding video synthesis, created by Olivia Jack. You write JavaScript-like code, and it generates real-time visuals - no compilation, no waiting. Change a number and the visual changes instantly.

The system is built around a small set of sources (oscillators, noise, shapes, gradients, webcam input) that you can transform (rotate, scale, pixelate, kaleidoscope) and combine (blend, multiply, modulate). The modular, chainable syntax means complex visuals emerge from simple operations.

Key Links #

Other Live Coding Tools #

• Strudel - live coding music in the browser: strudel.cc
• TidalCycles - Haskell-based music live coding: tidalcycles.org
• Sonic Pi - live coding music for education and performance: sonic-pi.net
• SuperCollider - audio synthesis and algorithmic composition: supercollider.github.io
• TOPLAP - live coding community and resources: toplap.org

Reference Artists & Works #

Surveillance, Vision, Control #

Xu Bing - Dragonfly Eyes (2017)

• Feature film constructed entirely from surveillance camera footage found online
• Narrative fiction assembled from non-fiction fragments
• Authorship, privacy, and the omnipresence of recording
• Trailer on YouTube

!Mediengruppe Bitnik - bitnik.org

• Swiss art collective working with hacking, surveillance, and network interventions
• Random Darknet Shopper (2014) - Bot given $100/week to buy random items from darknet markets. Purchased ecstasy, counterfeit goods, a Hungarian passport. Raises questions about agency, legality, and algorithmic action.
• CCTV - A Trail of Images - Interventions with surveillance cameras, making visible the infrastructure of watching
• Download Finished - Exploring digital distribution, piracy, and the circulation of cultural goods online

Manu Luksch - Faceless (2007)

• Science fiction film made entirely from CCTV footage
• Luksch obtained the footage through UK data protection law (Subject Access Requests), where citizens have the right to request footage of themselves
• Faces of others are blurred by law, creating an eerie, anonymous visual language
• Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers - Guidelines for making films from surveillance footage

Jill Magid - Evidence Locker (2004)

• 31-day performance using Liverpool’s citywide CCTV network
• Magid wrote love letters to the police, asking them to record her with the cameras
• The footage became a film, the letters became a book
• Intimacy and surveillance, seduction and control
• jillmagid.com/projects/evidence-locker

Julia Scher - Security by Julia

• Pioneer of surveillance art since the 1980s
• Installations that put viewers under surveillance, making them aware of being watched
• Maximum Security Society - Interrogating the normalization of surveillance
• Artforum article

Hito Steyerl - How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File (2013)

• Video essay on visibility, invisibility, and image resolution
• Satirical tutorial on disappearing from surveillance systems
• Explores the politics of representation in the age of digital imaging
• MoMA Docs

Ai Weiwei

• WeiweiCam (2012) - After being placed under house arrest, Ai set up 24/7 webcams streaming from his studio. Turning surveillance back on itself - if you’re going to watch me, everyone can watch.
• Hansel & Gretel (2017) - Installation with Herzog & de Meuron at Park Avenue Armory. Visitors were tracked by drones and thermal cameras, their images displayed on screens. Made visible the invisible infrastructure of tracking.

Networks, Webrings, Independent Web #

Devine Lu Linvega - XXIIVV

• wiki.xxiivv.com - Personal wiki documenting tools, projects, philosophy
• webring.xxiivv.com - Webring connecting independent artists, developers, and researchers
• github.com/XXIIVV
• Part of the Merveilles community - a collective interested in sustainability, craftsmanship, and independent technology
• Represents an alternative vision of the web: personal, handmade, interconnected but not centralized

The webring format is a throwback to early web culture, preceding search engines, where sites linked to each other in loops, creating discovery paths outside of search engines and algorithms. XXIIVV’s webring connects sites that share certain values: independence, craft, sustainability, experimentation.

Fiction I like! #

Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974)

• Philosophical novel about a motorcycle journey and an inquiry into "Quality"
• Reconciling rational, technical thinking with intuitive, aesthetic understanding
• For anyone working at the intersection of technology and art - how do we evaluate what we make? What makes something good?

William Gibson - Pattern Recognition (2003)

• Novel about Cayce Pollard, a "coolhunter" with an allergic sensitivity to branding
• She becomes obsessed with mysterious film footage appearing anonymously online
• Prescient about viral media, online communities, digital obsession, and the way images circulate in networks
• Gibson’s earlier work - Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986) - coined "cyberspace", cyberpunk

Both books are useful, even if polemic, for thinking about the relationship between humans and technology, the search for meaning in mediated environments, and the aesthetics of systems.

Links Summary #

My Projects #

CCTV & Surveillance Resources #

Hydra & Live Coding #

Reference Artists & Works #