Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans, collectively known as
JODI, are rightfully venerated for their countless contributions to art and
technology, working as an artistic duo since the mid-90’s. Generally referred
to as pioneers of “net.art,” that oft-misunderstood “movement” combining the
efforts of artists using the internet as a medium circa 1994, JODI is revered not
only for their artistic meditations on the increasing presence of new technology
in our daily lives, but also for their fuck-if-I-care attitude toward both the
establishments of the technology and art worlds. JODI’s famous five-word
“acceptance” speech—if you could call it that—for their 1999 Webby Award in
art, simply read, “Ugly commercial sons of bitches.”
Unlike an overwhelming majority of artists, and especially
those in art and tech, JODI has managed to sustain a successful career for over
15 years, mounting exhibitions internationally. February 2011 saw the duo
literally blow its audience in the face with bomb-like cans of oxygen at Foxy
Production, accounting for one of the best performances of the year.
Yet, their recently launched exhibition at the Museum of the Moving
Image (MoMI) finds a flashy, overly simplistic exhibition that
fails to represent the deeply important perspective that JODI has come to
represent over the last two decades. Comprising work made from 1999 to the
present, “Street Digital” extends JODI’s focus from the desktop computer to
hardware’s broader, more public landscape including cellular phones, LED signs,
and iPods. A projection split into four channels, YTCT (Folksomy) (2008/2010),
combines Youtube videos of “people doing weird things with hardware,” or more
specifically, the video features mostly-teenage boys destroying old iPods,
cameras, laptops, etc., by throwing, bashing, or hammering them. Periodically,
a legitimately strange occurrence replaces the usual simple, hormonally charged
violent acting-out of an enfants terrible ...
MORE »
Gloria Sutton