Disarming Corruptor

In a time of prolific online surveillance, crackdowns on file-sharing, and a growing concern for the 3D printing of illegal items and copyright protected artefacts, DC is a free software application that helps people to circumvent these issues. Inspired by encryption rotor machines such as the infamous Enigma Machine, the application runs an algorithm that is used to both corrupt STL files into a visually-illegible state by glitching and rotating the 3D mesh, and to allow a recipient to reverse the effect to restore it back to its original form. The file recipient would need both the application and the unique seven digit settings used by the sender, entering the incorrect settings would only damage the file further.

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Disarming Corruptor is a software artwork developed in 2013 for encrypting and sharing 3D-printable files. Created in Processing, the application applies a sequence of transformations to STL geometry, scrambling the mesh into a visually illegible form. A recipient can restore the original file by using the same software and entering the correct seven-digit settings; incorrect settings further distort the geometry.

The project responds to contemporary concerns around online surveillance, restrictions on file sharing, copyright and the emerging circulation of downloadable objects through 3D printing. Inspired by mechanical encryption devices such as rotor machines, it translates the logic of encryption into the geometry of the object itself rather than concealing the file through conventional cryptography. In doing so, the software makes processes of restriction, obfuscation and recovery materially visible through the changing form of the 3D model.

The project attracted international media attention on its release in 2013, including coverage by Andy Greenberg for Forbes and Liat Clark for Wired UK, and a podcast interview with Aleks Krotoski for The Guardian. Disarming Corruptor received an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica in 2014 and was subsequently exhibited in CyberArts at Ars Electronica. In 2017 the work was included in Imprimer le monde at Centre Pompidou, Paris, and was acquired that year for the permanent collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou. The sequence of media coverage, award, exhibition and acquisition provides a documented record of sustained external recognition of the work.

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• https://arstechnica.com/information-tech...