eCommons

 

Brucker-Cohen, Jonah

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Digital access to this material is pending artist's approval. Materials may be viewed onsite at the Goldsen Archive, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University.

My aim as an artist is to create work that challenges people's assumptions of what they perceive or take for granted, specifically examining the mass usage of computers and networks. My goal is to shift our daily experience with networks (from fixed to wireless) into new forms of meaning and interaction. As technology gains ubiquity, networks will continue to proliferate but what will differentiate them will be their specific context and use. My work interrogates how networks integrate into existing architecture and social patterns outside of traditional computer interfaces through bringing together people that might not have connected in physical space. By maintaining an online connection while allowing simultaneous presence in physical space I bring physical world interaction into online environments. By creating open systems that allow people to experience networks collectively and individually, I aim to encourage a unique understanding for each participant.

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    2008 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal
    Brucker-Cohen, Jonah (2009-06-08T15:47:31Z)
    "THWONK" is both a media artwork and a novel approach to designing online communication systems and communities. The idea for "THWONK" began with "BumpList" an email community art project I developed (along with Mike Bennett) while a Research Fellow at Media Lab Europe in Dublin, Ireland. BumpList launched in June 2003 as a gate page artwork for the Whitney Museum of American Art's "ArtPort" website (link: http://artport.whitney.org/gatepages/june03.shtml). Described as an ..email community for the determined," BumpList allowed a limited number of subscribers (only 6 people could subscribe to the list at any time) so that when the seventh person subscribed the first person in the queue was "bumped" or automatically unsubscribed from the list. Thus users would have to "re-subscribe" to re-join the list, in turn causing someone else to be unsubscribed, etc... This small, "musical chairs-like" exchange in the social rules and dynamics of online mailing lists created surprising results and experiences from users who went to great lengths to try to stay part of the community they were removed from so frequently. "THWONK" builds upon ideas introduced in BumpList by expanding the scope and domain of activity normally expected in online communication.