jodi.org

What are the tools one needs to browse the world wide web? Amid the clutter of advertising banners, journalism, and novelty it is easy to forget to engage critical faculties, opting instead for a passivity on the part of the user. www.jodi.org has set the precedent for engaging web artwork. The contents of their ever changing site ranges from "form art" written in basic HTML, for early browsers, to skillfully programmed user responsive Javascript and C.G.I. artworks for the latest browser versions.

jodi's work is native to the web. It is composed of denouġd stylistic elements, functional systems, and computer iconic imagery. jodi puts those materials to previously unimaginable uses; for example, jodi uses (or misuses) a text scrolling Javascript to animate a cascading flood of images and icons, texts and textures. The dimensions of the screen, the semiotic and political structures of the web form much of their subject matter, and provide their ready-made materials.

Having spearheaded a stylistic movement on the web of functional cool: low resolution images, fast loading pages, their work is now eminently collectable. jodi's endless innovation within the limits of the computer-network/browser/user interface is an invaluable resource for those interested in exploring the web as a context for any endeavor, artistic or commercial.

location/index.html(www.jodi.org/location/index.html)

In this front page jodi buries drawings inside the source of the document. When the user chooses the "view document source" option in their browser, what initially appears in the browser window as unformatted ascii characters then takes on complex configurations making up diagrams and images. The graphic images in the "document source" appear to be instructional diagrams taken out of their functional context, and re-presented as artworks.

This method of describing technical drawings with ascii characters stems from the inventive use of early networks which could only transmit ascii text. On all hackers bulletin board servers ascii diagrams are used extensively to provide instructions for the building of all sorts of illicit equipment.

Jodi's source images undergo many transformations of appearance and significance.

Firstly their meaning is eradicated by the removal from their functional context as descriptive diagrams, then again by their dissolving into a stream of unformatted HTML text. The image is then re-assembled as document source, but broken down again when viewed in a different application. With this continual destruction and reconstitution of image and text jodi refers to all the other translations this document has come through: the image in the author's mind, the analogue signal coming down the modem, the binary, the ascii character making the image and finally the internalized meaning understood by the viewer.

This process is interactive in a way not usually understood as such, it requires the viewer to take positive, unprompted action. Unlike JavaScript, or simple links which provide a false sense of "interactivity" the action of uncovering layers and structures of meaning in this piece involves the viewer using their initiative and then mentally imagine the information flows and forms involved with using the web.

For any team, artistic or commercial working with computers, this piece is inspirational in imaging the transactions of information actually taking place over the world wide web.

(Saul Albert)

This work is now offered for sale (price,to be discussed)
go to ART.TELEPORTACIA office for details and contract