jonCates Online Interview for Columbia College CAA Blog by Tannar Veatch (2010)
Interview: jonCates A few moments online with multi-tasking, multi-mediated // jonCates — artist, teacher, curator, New Media Art historian and all-around computer wizard — before he helps to kick off this year’s CAA Conference in Chicago.
Right-click >> ‘New Tab’ the following links to check // jonCates’ personal site and various online-based projects:
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[[Tannar Veatch and // jonCates correspond via email]]
Tannar Veatch: Are you speaking on the panel for Distributing Ourselves? I couldn’t find it in the listings for Friday (or any day) on the CAA Conference Web site.
// jonCates: yes, i am speaking on the panel. the panel’s full title is: “Distributing Ourselves: New Media Art, Curating, Networks, and Collaborations” + it is in the “The Feminist Art Project” which is in the “Special Events” section of the program (which is why the listing isn’t in the “Sessions” section of the program). the panel is organized by a group called CRUMB from the University of Sunderland in the UK + in particular by Beryl Graham of CRUMB:
CRUMB has the wonderful name of Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss. they are focused on discussing the project of curating New Media Art. they asked me to talk about my research on openness for their panel, discussing how openness, Open Source + Free Culture movements impact the way New Media Art is collected, curated, exhibited, organized, shown, distributed, etc…
below is the description of the panel:
Friday, 12:30–2:00 PM The Feminist Art Project Distributing Ourselves: New Media Art, Curating, Networks, and Collaborations Soldier Field, Bronze Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Artists have led the way in using social media tools and online networks to create new ways of art working that include self-distribution, mass participation and collaboration. Modes where ‘the audience’ might become not only a participant, but also to an extent a curator, throw down obvious challenges and opportunities for arts organisers across the contemporary arts. Since 2000, the research centre CRUMB at the University of Sunderland in the UK, has aimed to help curators rethink their practices in this light. Three new books by the CRUMB team, including an MIT Press book, gather the wisdom from a wide range of curators such as Steve Dietz and Christiane Paul who have joined the CRUMB online debate. This panel is moderated by Hana Iverson, Visiting Scholar, Institute for Women and Art at Rutgers and led by CRUMB’s Beryl Graham with curatorial responses and discussion from School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Jon Cates, Bruce Jenkins, Abina Manning, and Adelheid Mers.
http://conference.collegeart.org/2010/events.php
TV: What’s the significance in the unusual capitalization/combining of your first and last names?
A: a number of years ago i was experimenting w/alot of different ways to write my name. back then (about 10 years ago) i was also using various names for different art projects. this was inspired by DJ culture (where a DJ takes a different name for each different genre of music she is working w/) + also by Digitial Culture (where people use various usernames or nicknames online). but eventually i just came to using this “// jonCates” or just “jonCates” as the variant that i preferred TV: Could you break down “computer witchcraft” for me and other people who aren’t so tech savvy?
jC: sure! i use the phrase “computer witchcraft” to refer to the way in which “majik” or “magic” can be understood or discussed as a technology or set of technologies. in other words, various magical traditions (in terms of ceremonial majick, pre-christian or wiccan practices, alchemy, stage magic, etc…) can be thought of as technologies. in the case of alchemy, the alchemical tradition is in many ways a direct precursor to contemporary science in general + can be compared to New Media Art in specific. Nina Wenhart has written about this aspect. other theorists + scholars of Media Art Histories such as Florian Cramer have also compared computer programming to spellcasting. Erik Davis has written a book called TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information which also explores these issues from the perspective of how people use magic as a way of thinking about + understanding contemporary digital technologies. all of this excites me as an artist, theorist + Media Art Histories scholar. also, calling yourself a computer witch is to take a position that questions the exclusively masculine-gendered metaphor of ‘computer wizards’. TV: When your work takes on the form of an installation, sculpture or otherwise 3D/4D manifestation, where are you drawing your inspiration from for the aesthetic of the work?
jC: the short answer is magic. a longer answer would be the histories of magics of various kinds, both in terms of stage magic + ceremonial majick. in Madrid, we focused on stage magic as a main influence + in Chicago we focused on ceremonial majick (using an alter, candles, smoke, etc). i think that the glowing cube was also initially a metaphor for the computer itself, abstracted + enchanted. other New Media artists also have developed cubes, so this is not an uncommon metaphor. the most recent version of the cube had plastic nipples + was presented in the context of a festival in Montreal which attempted to address the intersections of sexual desires + technologies. for that festival we approached the cube as a playful sex magic device. this was an aspect of the project that had been present from the beginning but became explicit in the most recent version. Q: How and when did H3X3N form? Is the collaboration still alive and kickin’? Is H3X3N currently conjuring any new spells (working on anything that you can speak of)?
jC: i initiated the H3X3N collaborative project with Nina Wenhart in 2007. we formed an international Computer Witchcraft Club which crosses the borders of Mexico City, Chicago + Linz with Computer Witches such as ourselves, Mark Beasley, Sandra Rosas Ridolfi, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy + Alex Inglizian. our computer witchcraft projects have been shown in exhibitions, festivals + galleries in Madrid, Chicago, Montreal + online. we currently still have sum tricks up sum of our collective sleeves + still have sum computers to bewitch :) TV: You teach at SAIC in the Film, Video and New Media department. What have been a few awesome, all-star student/teacher moments that you’ve had in terms of experimental media research, and what, if any, was the hardware/software result?
jC: great question. + difficult to answer/condense into a short response… the criticalartware project that i did from 2002–2007 was a direct outgrowth of my classes:
http://criticalartware.net/was/
criticalartware was a collaborative media art histories research & artware development lab that involved myself, my students, my former students, as well as Video + New Media Artists from all over the world. we interviewed key theory-practitioners + people who made pathways into new areas of Media Art. we offered those interviews as freely available cultural resources online in an evolving archive. we also used this research to develop our own Software Art or Artware projects. these projects + our collective efforts were + still are recognized internationally + gave us multiple opportunities to travel our work all over the world. that was a very clear example of what you are asking about. but what i experience as ‘all-star student/teacher moments’ happen often in + outside of the classroom, in the experimental New Media Art communities that i work in + have been committed to developing. these can be small-scale moments of realization or micro-revolutionary awakenings within the classroom or simply experiencing a former students work which is now circulating in the larger discourse. there are a number of examples + i feel deeply honored as a teacher to experience those moments whenever/wherever they occur.
TV: If I could only take one New Media Caucus Panel during this year’s CAA Conference with me to a deserted island, which one would you recommend that I take, and why?
jC: LOL! i wouldnt take any panel w/me to a deserted island :) TV: In 2009 you attended the SLSA Conference in Atlanta; the Turn*On Festival in Montreal; the RE:LIVE Conference in Melbourne and this year you’re attending the CAA in Chicago with quite a lot of focus on the New Media Caucus. A few questions: first, why do you suppose these events all happen in physical locations around the world and not simply at a virtual round table in, say, SecondLife or Skype? Second, what has been (or including this year’s CAA Conference, do you think will be) the most comprehensive event you’ve attended that addresses New Media?
jC: another great set of questions… actually @ the RE:LIVE Conference in Melbourne a number of presenters dialed in via Skype or SecondLife. @ the SLSA Conference in Atlanta i came in via Skype but my collaborator Jake Elliott went in person. i appeared on his desktop + later people suggested that mayhaps i was fictional :) in any case, these virtual appearances @ physical conferences are often very underwhelming + disappointing. part of what is wonderful about these events is that people make the efforts to arrive in these locations. there are successful online versions, i.e. the -empyre- listserv could be thought of as an example:
there are also Machinima screenings + New Media Art performances such as the work of SecondFront or Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG.
these are projects which are intentionally conceived of for the virtual environments that they take place in. but this has been a topic of discussion in New Media + Digital Art circles for a long time now, i.e. what are the particular benefits of mtg in person + how should we develop new structures + organizations that integrate or facilitate communications + social technologies. the iDC (The Institute for Distributed Creativity) is working on these issues + are addressing them in ways that i think are particularly exciting + engaging:
http://distributedcreativity.org
TV: Now some shop talk: Mac or PC? What do you think about the iPad (is this old news)? Do you own a Kindle? You’re following more than 300 people on Twitter, have more than 1,200 friends on Facebook (including me) and manage a handful of blogs, how do you keep up, seriously?
jC: seriously, i suppose the best answer is to say that i take Digital Culture seriously by which i mean that New Media is a social artform in my understanding of the field. so i attempt to engage the field + the forms socially. my life, like many others, has changed since Social Software. i now primarily rely on Social Software, specifically Twitter + Facebook as you mention, in combination w/my RL (real life) connections, communications + events in order to stay in touch w/ppl + move projects fwd. i open about 4 tabs in my browser when i wake up: Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter + Facebook. then multiple tabs spawn from links in the previous 4. i dont follow too many blogs on a regular basis anymore + i dont read every post to any email list or forum anymore. i did before… in 2006 i relearned how to go offline + spend time w/less computers. i still do that from time to time. but yes, i spend lots of my time multi-mediated + multi-tasking + i balance multiple art + research projects simultaneously, moving between them + allowing them to inform 01 another. sum ppl are focused on a single task @ a time. others cant concentrate @ all. we all have to find thresholds + boundaries + navigate our digitalLives as best we can. i was born @ the end of the Analog Era. im not nostalgic for it but i still appreciate vinyl records, swimming in the cold Austrian lakes of the Salzkammergut region, reading physical books, + all the aspects of Digital Culture that i have committed myself to passionately as an artist, academic + scholar.
Posted by Tannar Veatch, BFA Candidate from the Art + Design Department
https://web.archive.org/web/20110909203332/http://cms.colum.edu/caa/2010/02/interview_joncates.php