ICC
OPEN SPACE 2009
"My%20Desktop OSX10.4"
2007
JODI
My%20Desktop OSX10.4 photo: KIOKU Keizo
The images changing with bewildering speed on the Macintosh computer desktop projected on the big screen make it look as though something is broken. Folders and files reduplicate endlessly. Each click of the mouse opens a series of windows. Error messages fill the screen. The constant beeping and frequent voice comments from the speech synthesizer add to the impression that this is a recording of a computer run amuck.

Bugs and errors mean that computers are always prone to having something go wrong. If, for example, the hard disk crashes. This work, however, reflects a new aesthetic sensibility that sees beauty in errors. It adopts a positive attitude toward what happens when a hard disk crash, for example, causes the screen to go crazy and draws our attention to the noise that "glitches" in digital processing cause in computer music. All of JODI's works celebrate the aesthetics of failure. In this case, however, the random actions of the computer, which might be mistaken for computer-generated errors, are in fact the result of a human hand moving the cursor, clicking and dragging. We are seeing an extraordinary performance in which the desktop is played by a talented Video Jockey (VJ).
JODI JODI is an art unit formed by two artists, Joan HEEMSKERK and Dirk PAESMANS. Since the unit was formed in 1995, it has produced an endless stream of innovative works, some of which are displayed on its website (jodi.org), making JODI famous as a pioneer in Internet art. By treating the computer and the Internet themselves as media and using them in ways heretofore unthinkable, they reveal the social infrastructure on which digital art depends. In recent years, these artists have also produced work that is not for the Internet, such as software art and video game MODs (modifications). Past Exhibition / Event