Web 2.0 meets Marxist (Foucaultian?) economic theory in the latest video hijinks from Austrian subversive art collective monochrom. Meet an online porn monster ("iPhone? noooom nom nom nom") and learn how Google-y eyed neo-liberalism screws over the proletariat in "Kiki, Bubu, and the Shift."

Update: monochrom has the longer-form, uncut director's version up on their site.

Previously:

* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical
* Monochrom: Campfire at Will
* Monochrom: Falco Stairs
* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial
* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor
* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

Xeni visits the first-ever "Cable Untangling Championships" at Machine Project in Los Angeles, where knottiness abounds and speedy-fingered sysadmins pwn the world.

"Cabling" is a new sport founded by Steven Schkolne in which competitors must race to detangle bundles of CAT-5 ethernet cables. The person who unravels their wire bundle the fastest at this particular meet wins a spaghetti dinner (hm, perhaps it's all a front for Pastafarianism).

Cabling enthusiasts are not fooling around: there are detailed rules about the types of wire permitted:

CAT-5 Ethernet cables are to be used. Contestants may use any cable they wish, as long as it is capable of carrying 100Mb/s prior to competition. During competition, the colors red, blue, and yellow are used for the 7, 15, and 25 foot cables resepectively.

Even the manner in which bundles become knotted is regulated:

During official competition bundling may only be performed by certified bundlers. The first step in bundling is the establishment of the figure-8. The set is stretched out, with the cables unentwined and approximately colinear. One set of ends is grabbed in one hand. With the other, the cables are smoothed and a figure-8 of one meter in length is formed.

The second step is the tangling process, which is performed at a laundromat or similar facility. The figure-8 structure is placed into a dryer, on high heat setting, for exactly three minutes. When performed correctly, the set becomes denser and more entangled.

What happens when a young elven hero goes on a hellacious drug binge and high tails it out into the desert? Today's installment of Boing Boing tv's 8-Bit Cinema provides a possible answer, melding the three worlds of Rad Racer, Legend of Zelda, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. RIP, Dr. Thompson.

In part two of today's episode, "Sometimes I Feel Like This:", an animated short by Eric Henry.

Xeni visits the home of Kinetic Steam Works, a group of retro-tech industrial artisans who "repurpose the artifacts of clockwork modernity," and bring new life to very old steam engines. In doing so, they preserve what many consider a dying form of technology. From the group's description of its work:

What we found were machines, simple and intricate, that blurred the line between art and industry, kinetic masterpieces created during an era of diabolical innovation and gleeful invention. The steam engine embodied the ideologies, desires and dreams of its era, of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, a bright and shining future where technology was built by hand. They were the aspirational finned cars and rockets of their day. Most recently, steam's fantastic has been represented by romantic industrial arts and the literary movements of retro sci-fi, steampunk, and gothic neo-Victorianism. The arch modernity of the steam driven Industrial Revolution is a powerful metaphor that explores our present and future through the nostalgic and dystopic past.

Special thanks to Josh Keppel for additional footage of these steampunk machine beauties in action.