Raging Bull and Deep ASCII by Vuk Cosic

Based on custom software he developed in 1996 and released in 1998, according to DAM, Ćosić’s Raging Bull and Deep ASCII were some of the first ASCII films, as all the visuals are reduced to green ASCII characters. Deep ASCII was first and with a running time of fifty-five minutes recreates the pornographic film with ASCII characters. Knowing this was likely a first, the work stands as punk nod to Ćosić’s net.art roots. The works also may have influenced the aesthetics for the Matrix and many other “hacker” portraying films of the time and their use animated binary code in green with a black background. The work asks questions about what is lost when we send messages within a digital context.