Helping Dr. Boom | linatheodorou

"Don't try this at home" is part of the project 'Helping Dr. Boom': see don't try this at home (self running, contains animated images of max. 200 Kbyte, requires 1024x768 screen resolution)

HELPING DR. BOOM, 1999.

My work aims to explore the dark side of the Internet and is based on the collection of information from the anarchists working within the web, a particular group of which, supply the network with instructions for making explosives ranging from simple devices to bombs capable of blowing up an entire block.

Dr. Booms bears, 1999, 122x144 cm, digital print

Following the instructions of someone going by the name of Dr.Boom I started to mentally construct bombs for personal use, and I am gradually becoming initiated into the secrets of booby-trapping buildings.

Big bang orang-outang, 1999, 117x144 cm, digital print

One thing that impressed me is that many bombs can be made using ordinary materials one can find in any supermarket.
What I am interested in is conveying this sense of threat through the creation of a booby-trapped installation.
I act on the basis of information acquired that lies beyond the limits of legality and puts our personal safety in danger.
Any kind of such information may looks ostentatious, funny or weird until it finds itself in the hands of a real maniac, in which case it can turn into a terrorist, threat or a weapon.

Holly sprit, 1999, 114x136 cm, digital print

What interests me most is the point at which viewers begin to suspect that they may have been trapped by the actions of such a person and there is no way out.
The information in itself may act as a mental trap which can turn any ordinary human being into a terrorist, accomplice or victim, or alternatively may warn us or "protect us".

Explosive cod-fish, 1999, 125x150 cm, digital print

The almost unlimited scope for information exchange through the Internet challenges the limits between knowledge or ignorance, use or nonuse, profit or power, passion or boredom.
I am not giving an opinion as to whether the knowledge for building a weapon is an indication of freedom or a political matter, but Dr.Boom is without doubt an apparently dangerous, paranoid expert on destruction who is playing around with my adrenaline and is turning me into his accomplice.