The exhibition Art Com Software Digital Concepts and Expressions,, which began in 1988 at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, was held in 1969 at ARS Electronica, a leading European festival for art and technology in Linz, Austria. This year, the theme was "In the Networks of Systems". Because bulky 1980's computers were difficult to send to Austria, ARS Electronica staff borrowed computers. Running on multiple machines, where artist-created software was also installed, these works were accessed by dialing from Austria to a VAX in the offices of the Whole Earth Catalog, located at the head of a houseboat pier in Sausalito.

September 13 - 16, when this Festival was held in 1989, was exactly the time when against a backdrop of Hungary opening its Austrian border to East German tourists, East Germans poured into Austria; the fall of the Berlin Wall was imminent. At the Brucknerhaus, Carl Loeffler and Fred Truck checked the equipment, tested the works in the exhibition. and then returned to their hotel room.

That night in Linz was chaotic. There was dancing in the streets, but there was no security at the the Brucknerhaus, except for a retired policeman. And the next morning, when they returned to the Brucknerhaus, all of the computers -- even the cords -- had been stolen, “Amazingly, the Ars Electronica staff found replacement computers. And we re-installed the works and the necessary communications software. "Much beer for lunch”, Carl wrote by email.
 arrow