JODI (Joan Heemskerk & Dirk Paesmans) – DIGITAL ART (1960-2000)

title

wwwwwwwww.jodi.org

artist

JODI (Joan Heemskerk & Dirk Paesmans)

intro

wwwwwwwww.jodi.org is a web-based artwork by JODI, launched in 1995, in the early days of the World Wide Web. The work is typical for JODI, whose artistic practice is characterized by chaos and non-functional designs that reveal the fundamental characteristics of the net. wwwwwwwww.jodi.org is JODI's first website and probably their most famous, or infamous. The website consists of a maze of pages, written in HTML code, that are full of dead ends but also seem to be full of secrets. For example, the first page consists of unreadable green text (code) on a black background. Only when you see the source code of the page do the signs appear to form a diagram of a nuclear bomb. It is not strange that the website is regularly seen as the work of hackers. Through the chaos and confusion that JODI arouses with this website, they emphasize the dangers that the web can bring, what can be hidden in code, and how you can be misled.

biography artist

JODI is a collective of two artists, Joan Heemskerk (1968, Kaatsheuvel) and Dirk Paesmans (1965, Brussels), who pioneered web-based art in the mid-90s. After they met at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, where they studied photography and video, they moved to Silicon Valley (San Jose, California) to learn about digital media. It was in Silicon Valley that they became familiar with the internet. Since 1995 they have been working together as JODI, creating art on the World Wide Web. Although they are most famous for their web-based work, they also work in a wide variety of media and techniques like software, performances, installations, and exhibitions.

keywords

net art, net.art, internet art, hacktivism, medium specific, website

images

[caption id="attachment_394" align="alignnone" width="640"]

year

1995

website

wwwwwwwww.jodi.org

premiere

The work was published online in 1995. The website jodi.org (more accurately, the server that included their webpages) was first exhibited in 1997 at documenta X, where it was presented offline. This method of presentation was criticized by the artists as well as critics in the field.

software

HTML, domain name (+ browser)

functionality

The work is interactive in the way that the visitor can click on elements on the page and have new pages revealed. JODI’s work is often referred to as non-functional.

part of collection

production

hardware

Any device that can connect to the internet.

technical specs

The work is a website written in basic HTML code.

intention artistquote by artist

related work of artist

quote

With this work, JODI aims to reveal what is often invisible and expose the back side of the internet; its workings, dangers, and possibilities. Their work highlights the code that is behind everything on the web—treating the internet itself as the medium as well as the subject.The work is also about exploring digital aesthetics, poetics, and the characteristics of the medium. “We decided to put the work immediately on the screen, without our press releases and without our bio. We don't use our site to present information. We present screens and things that are happening in these screens. We avoid explanations. Look at any exhibition: People are sniffing on the information plates next to the art works, before they look at the work itself. They want to know who did a piece, before they have an opinion about it. As long as we can we try to avoid that.”¹ “We made the biggest basic code mistake on the first page of our very first website. We simply forgot to include a forward slash in the first command. If you forget this, you don’t get a nice drawing. Instead of being a properly spaced diagram, the drawing was all over the place on the screen. We first thought something was wrong with our computer, but ultimately decided that the effect was quite interesting. We published the mistake online, and, as it turned out, this meant that it was endlessly reproduced. Everyone saw the exact same mistake in his or her browser, which got us quite a few angry emails. By daring to make that mistake, we made the code the subject of the piece. When you subsequently requested to view the source of that webpage in your browser, the correct version of the drawing was revealed. [...] The work included instructions on how to make an atomic bomb.That hidden layer was a very interesting way to draw attention to the code, which is inevitably behind everything.” “Well, if I look at our work retrospectively, the basic idea might be to get a better insight into the ways a computer system functions, or rather, how you can tell stories through all kinds of symbolic tricks. Through manipulation, you can discover how the machine is constructed; how it is trying to have you believe that something cannot be done differently. We show that it can certainly be done differently!”²

influence

As pioneers in internet art, JODI has influenced many artists working in the online and digital field. wwwwwwwww.jodi.org was, according to themselves, the first artwork on the web. JODI is regularly seen as part of an international group of artists, including Vuk Cosic, Alexei Shulgin, and Olia Lialina, who pioneered art on the web, usually referred to as net.art. In contrast to working in the institutionalized art world, they chose to work on the net because it gave freedom. The internet was a free space to experiment and communicate. This network of artists influenced each other and communicated using mailing lists such as Rhizome and Nettime (which was founded by Dutch media theorist Geert Lovink). JODI's work is featured in most art historical volumes about digital art, media art, and net art, and has been exhibited widely at venues such as documenta X, Kassel; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; Bonner Kunstverein and Artothek, Bonn; InterCommunication Center, Tokyo; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Center for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Eyebeam, New York; and Museum of the Moving Image, New York, among many others. They received a 1999 Webby Award in the category Net Art. In 2014, JODI was awarded the inaugural Prix Net Art Award by Rhizome, a leading art organization dedicated to born-digital art and culture affiliated with the New Museum in New York. The influence of the work can not only be seen in the art world, but in internet culture too: the work is spoken about on forums of hacker sites and on YouTube many videos can be found reviewing, explaining, and researching wwwwwwwww.jodi.org with titles such as “weirdest website of all time” and “wwwwwwwww.jodi.org: secrets?”.

context

JODI is often compared with the avant-garde both because of their experimental work and their critical attitude towards established art institutes. JODI's work takes the internet as medium, subject, and material. Therefore, their work often has the aesthetics of the net.

LITERATURE

Archive of all reviews and articles about JODI: Joid, joid.org/archive. They are mentioned in almost every publication about internet art. “Announcing the Inaugural Prix Net Art Awardees: JODI & Kari Altmann.” Rhizome, 30 Oct. 2014, rhizome.org. Baumgärtel, Tilman, et al. INSTALL.EXE JODI. Merian, 2002. Baumgärtel, Tilman. “Interview with Jodi.” Heise, 6 Oct. 1997, heise.de. Bosma, Josephine. “Kunst Tussen Taal En Teken: Jodi.” Josephine Bosma, 14 June 2010, josephinebosma.com. Bosma, Josephine. Nettitudes: Let's Talk Net Art. Nai 010 Publishers , 2011. Chiaverina, John. “'You Can Still Make Websites Nowadays': A Talk with the Pioneering Internet Art Collective JODI.” ARTnews, 18 July 2018, artnews.com. Dreher, Thomas. “History of Computer Art.” IASLonline, iasl.uni-muenchen.de. Mirapaul, Matthew. “ARTS ONLINE; Deliberately Distorting the Digital Mechanism.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2003, nytimes.com. Quaranta, Domenico. “The First Life of Net Art: UBERMORGEN, JODI, Vuk Cosic, Olia Lialina.” Spike Art Magazine, 20 Oct. 2016, spikeartmagazine.com. van Altena, Robert. “Springvossen 5 November | JODI.” AmsterdamFM, 5 Nov. 2018, amsterdamfm.nl. Van Tomme, Niels. “From Readymade to Readybought: An Ongoing History of Computer Art, JODI in conversation with Niels Van Tomme.” Art Papers Magazine, vol. 35, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2011. Yang, Zhou. “Research Critique: Jodi.org by Dirk Paesmans & Joan Heemskerk.” Open Source Studio , oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg.

part of active discussion

JODI believes that art created for the web should only be presented on the internet, the only true context for this type of work.³

scene artists institutes

net.art, nettime mailing list, hacker culture, ZKM, Documenta, MoMA, Rhizome, Prix Net Art, Webby Award

footnote

¹Tilman Baumgärtel, “Interview with Jodi.” Heise , 6 Oct. 1997, heise.de.

²Niels Van Tomme, “From Readymade to Readybought: An Ongoing History of Computer Art, JODI in conversation with Niels Van Tomme.” Art Papers Magazine, vol. 35, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2011, pp.30.

³Josephine Bosma, Nettitudes: Let's Talk Net Art. Nai 010 Publishers , 2011. pp.96

« Bas van Koolwijk

Edward Ihnatowicz »

1 Tilman Baumgärtel, “Interview with Jodi.” Heise , 6 Oct. 1997, heise.de.

2 Niels Van Tomme, “From Readymade to Readybought: An Ongoing History of Computer Art, JODI in conversation with Niels Van Tomme.” Art Papers Magazine, vol. 35, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2011, pp.30.

3 Josephine Bosma, Nettitudes: Let's Talk Net Art. Nai 010 Publishers , 2011. pp.96

¹Tilman Baumgärtel, “Interview with Jodi.” Heise , 6 Oct. 1997, heise.de.

²Niels Van Tomme, “From Readymade to Readybought: An Ongoing History of Computer Art, JODI in conversation with Niels Van Tomme.” Art Papers Magazine, vol. 35, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2011, pp.30.

³Josephine Bosma, Nettitudes: Let's Talk Net Art. Nai 010 Publishers , 2011. pp.96