INTERVIEW WITH JONAH BRUCKNER-COHEN
[Personal site: http://www.coin-operated.com
Projects and Work: http://www.coin-operated.com/projects ]
BY AUGUST HIGLAND
[Literary Projects: http://www.litob.com
Editorial Project: http://www.muse-apprentice-guild.com ]
August Highland:
When were you first introduced to the internet?
Jonah Bruckner-Cohen:
Before I started using the internet, I did peer to peer chatting with
friends in high school through a Mac SE where I used my computer to call up
their computers and we would chat. My first entry to the internet was with
email, newsgroups, and chat when I started college at McGill University in
Montreal in 1993. All new students got an email address which allowed them
access to the campus internal network and the growing Internet. I mainly
used email to communicate and chat with friends at school and people I knew
who were attending other colleges with access. I also subscribed to some
newsgroups and frequently posted music and show reviews. In the early days I
was interested in the internet mostly as a communication and information
gathering medium rather than and artistic one.
AH:
How long after your introduction to the net did you begin thinking about
the net as a subject for your to interact with and explore in the digital
art medium?
JBC
Probably the biggest change to my perception of using computers as an
artistic medium came when I took a class on Photoshop. People were talking
about making graphics for "homepages" and I had no idea what they were
talking about. I had just bought a new computer and was loading it with tons
of software, everything I could get my hands on, even if I didn't need it.
The first website I saw (using Mosaic) was about one of my favorite bands at
the time and put together very haphazardly. When I saw it I wanted to learn
how to build it myself, so I spent a few weeks in the computer lab teaching
myself HTML. After that I created a web-zine as a project for a class,
bought a PowerMac, and everything kind of snowballed from there.
AH:
What were you doing prior to this? for example were you practicing art in
another medium? were you studying art?
JBC:
I've been involved in art creation pretty much my whole life. From drawing
comics in elementary school to creating Lego sculptures to designing posters
for rock shows to playing drums in bands to creative writing, my focus has
always been on creativity.
In college I studied Cultural Studies in the English Dept at McGill (which
used to be the film and communication department) where I created several
narrative video projects and later began focusing on creative applications
of computers from designing for print to the web to video games. Although I
don't have formal art training, growing up in Washington, D.C. around free
museums and the fact that my mom and sister practiced art, allowed me to
self-school myself in the art that I found most fascinating. I also took a
few art history courses in college on video art and film. In my work, I
always tended to focus on practical applications of technology despite the
medium I was working with.
AH:
Was there a moment that you can remember that triggered your desire to work
with networked digital art?
JBC:
Attending grad school at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU
was a real eye opener for me. It challenged me to think beyond what I
already knew and use computers not as a means to an end but as a tool to
manifest creative ideas and as an artistic artifact in itself. I was less
interested in using computers to create media (video, graphics, etc) and
more concerned with exploring the creative potential of computers and their
inherent properties. Networking and the viral nature of online communities
and virtual spaces inspired me to create websites and design and program
games, but I was focused on how we go about adding new characteristics to
things we perceive as truly virtual. After learning basic electronics in
school, I wanted to integrate physical devices to networked interfaces to
try to bring these relationships out to the physical world. This is what led
me towards my "Physical Web Interfaces" theme.
AH:
How would you describe yourself without using the umbrella definition
"digital artist"?
JBC:
I like to think my work is on the border of art and research. Although I'm
not adverse at being called a digital artist, I think categorizations of art
often fall flat since artists may be working within a medium but still tied
to others. The classification is more exact when artists try to
fundamentally change the way people experience and think about the medium in
which they work. This is my focus with digital media. My focus is to shift
how we interact with and perceive computers, the Internet, networks, and
digital information. Compared to the traditional art world, this would also
fall into the category of subverting media, places, objects to make them
mean something else than their original intention.
AH:
What are you currently working on?
JBC:
I'm currently working on more projects that deal with shifting focus from
the digital to the analog. Since my MouseMiles project, which networks and
collects people's mouse movements and outputs them to power a physical
object, the idea of collecting individual activities on a global scale and
outputting the data into something physical and in a public space has
prompted me to iterate on the idea. I just rounded out my Desktop
Subversibles suite with "Clicks", a networked project that collects people's
mouse clicks and creates a sound environment based on IP addresses and
clicks of connected clients. I'm also working on a few mobile phone
applications that allowed for shared participation in site-specific
contexts.
AH:
What has really fascinated you recently which you think you might pursue in
a future project?
JBC:
Hmm - I guess I've always been interested in lo-tech solutions to
potentially hi-tech problems. My focus would be on finding simple ways of
doing complicated things to show that meaningful experiences can be minimal.
Recently, I've been interested more in wireless networks and location-based
experiences that allow for information to be local but also shared.
AH:
What do you want people to know about the objectives behind your work and
what do you want people to appreciate most about your work?
JBC:
I would want people to know that my work exists as a series of questions
about how we experience digital media, networks, and interactivity. In this
sense, my work isn't really "finished", it's only a starting point for
people to start thinking about these relationships and how they shift our
perception of what is possible with computers and interaction design. The
strength of computer networks is their ability to bring people together that
might not have connected in physical space. My aim is to maintain this
connection while allowing it to simultaneously exist in physical space or
bring real-world interaction into virtual spaces through networked devices
and experiences. My work is never a closed system. It's nature allows people
to experience it collectively and add their own perspective and interaction
to create a unique relationship for each participant.
AH:
What do you consider to be the most important contribution you are making
to the history of art? or what is the contribution that you are striving to
achieve?
JBC:
My aim as an artist and researcher is to make work that makes people
challenge their own assumptions of what they perceive or take for granted.
Whether that's in their use of computers and networks, or the way they go
about their everyday lives, my goal is to shift the relationships we
experience everyday into new forms of meaning and interaction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonah Brucker-Cohen | Media Lab Europe
Research Fellow | Sugar House Lane
Human Connectedness | Bellevue, Dublin 8,
| Ireland
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(h) +353 1 4760375 (w) +353 1 4742853 (m) +353 1 (0)87 7990004
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http://www.coin-operated.com/projects
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August Highland | Culture Animal
Writer | 3680 Moultrie Ave
Editor | San Diego California
92117 USA
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(h) 1-858-483-0876 (f) 1-858-483-0847 (edress) augie@muse-apprentice-guild
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INTERVIEW WITH JONAH BRUCKNER-COHEN
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Type: discussion