Decius wrote:

] ] would be cool if it did, but otherwise this does not really
] ] say "hacker con" in any way.
]
] Its subtle. You missed it. She is rail sliding down a phone
] cable over a barbed wire fence.

My interpretation of the artwork, and the reason why it was chosen this year, is pretty much what you said. She is stuck in Nashville, a conservative large town/small city. This has become her prison, signified by the barbed wire. She is able to escape her prison by riding the communications lines to who knows where? PhreakNIC is the answer to that - at least, that's the marketing message. Yeah, it's very subtle. The font and colors and the way the sun are drawn are also subtle in their representation of communist red (oppression) and the influence of Asia (Rising Sun of Japan). Most people won't pick up on all of these things, but I'm sure that 90% will pick up at least one of the concepts.

] Those big breasted, scantily clad (if at all), totally
] objectified "cyberbabes" that have adorned various forms of
] hacker art including our conference are a big turn off for
] most of the women that are in our scene. If you're at a party
] with 50 guys and 3 girls, the fastest way to get the 3 girls
] to leave is to tack up a Playboy centerfold. The women in the
] hacker scene are intelligent and they want to be thought of as
] contributing to the culture, not as sexual objects. They are
] (in general) just as uncomfortable hanging out at a screening
] of "HaXXXor" as you and I would be hanging out at a screening
] of various films from gaymagix.com...

That was a requirement of the art this year when people bothered to ask - no Lara Croft type hacker chicks. Though the same actress did play a hacker and Lara Croft... hrmmm... anyway, women aren't the only people who have voiced a desire for less pornographic t-shirts.

Dolemite

RE: PhreakNIC Pictures :: PN8 :: hack_or_die_final