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Gallery Entry

HACKEA — Malfunctioning by Design

By Gilad Edelstein · IL

HACKEA is an interactive artwork that turns automated production into a machine for making objects that look useful but cannot function. A visitor presses a single button, prompting the system to generate a convincing, catalogue-style image of a domestic product. Each object contains a structural contradiction that makes it unusable. The generated image is printed and added to an expanding archive of “almost-products.” Borrowing the polished visual language of consumer catalogues, HACKEA examines overproduction, the promise of convenience, and the gap between an object’s appearance and its actual use. AI is not simply a tool for making images here; automated generation is part of the work’s subject and structure. The system repeats the logic of consumer production while removing its usual promise of utility. My contribution includes the concept, the system’s rules and constraints, the visual language, the logic of malfunction, and the selection and presentation of the generated outputs. The audience encounters the work through the button, the printed images, and the growing archive.

Category
CONCEPTS MIXED MEDIA
Approved
12 October 2026