For my final writing assignment in Digital Media 245, I picked
artists Justin Kemp and Joe Mckay. Both use a variety of digital mediums that
include photography, digital screenshots, video, and digital collages. Other
more traditional mediums include sculpture, performance art, installation,
games, and assemblage. Although traditional mediums are used by both these
artists, they almost always have technology and internet based themes.
My first artist, Justin Kemp, was born in 1982 making him
to be about 32 or 33 years old. He currently resides in Northampton, Massachusetts
and works as an artist assistant "for a guy named Tom." Outside from
working "for Tom", Kemp makes his own art. He claim to be known to
most as 'the chillest bro in the valley'. His works include a number of
different media such as
Most of his works have general themes revolving around
the concept of the internet. He even claims to keep his desk extremely tidy so
that there is more room for the internet, "where everything is within
reach". When asked what is one piece of gear that he could not live
without in an interview, Kemp replied simply, "The Internet".
Unfortunately, in regards to technological preferences, Kemp
prefers Macs over PCs. He also says his that Chrome and iTunes help him get the
job done and in the future he wishes to learn how to use basic programs such as
Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, Word, etc. I'm not entirely sure how much of
that is sarcasm.
My second artist, Joe Mckay, is a professor at Purchase
College in Purchase, New York. He teaches a variety of subjects including intro
to physical computer, hacking the everyday, digital media studio, webdocs, and
senior seminar. His work has been featured in numerous shows such as The New
Museums, Postmasters Gallery, ICA, San Jose, Berkeley Art Museum, and many
more. His works, like Kemp, feature a variety of different media. These include
photo, websites, performance, sculpture, video, games, and installations.
The two works that I want to feature from these artists
are, "Adding to the Internet" from Justin Kemp and "How to Avoid
Gmail's Sponsored Links" from Joe McKay. In "Adding to the
Internet", Kemp uses the search engine Google to search for very specific
scenarios. For example, one of the phrases Kemp searches for is "2010
swimsuit edition tucked inside the art of happiness". After searches for
these phrases and finding no results, Kemp proceeds to stage these scenarios or
objects and take a photo with them. So with the search exampled above, Kemp
provides both the proof that the phrase, "2010 swimsuit edition tucked
inside the art of happiness" yielded no results with a screenshot, but
also of a photograph of an issue of 2010 swimsuit edition tucked into a hard
cover version of The Art of Happiness
on top of a wooden table.
For Joe Mckay's work, "How to Avoid Gmail's
Sponsored Links", he provides many screenshots of his project. The first
of the screenshots is simply a "before" picture of how his email
usually looks and it features an email that isn't anything other than what one
would say normal. He then takes another screenshot and titles it as
"After". What's different in this screenshot is that McKay has added
words such suicide, death, 9/11 and murder to the end of his email. He also
shows that the ads to the right of the email that appeared in the
"before" picture are no longer there. He then further delves into his
experiment. "If the message runs long Google turns the ads back on,
however, if you add another 'sensitive' word they go off again. After extensive
testing I've discovered you need 1 catastrophic event or tragedy for every 167
words in the rest of the email. I usually toss in a couple extra for good
measure." (McKay)
These two works are both similar and different in many
ways. I will first discuss the similarities and then move on to discuss the
differences. First of all, both of these pieces of work are of the same medium.
Both pieces include or entirely consist of screenshots taken directly from the
internet. They are also presented on the internet rather than in galleries,
exhibits, or in the general public. Their subject matter is also similar in the
sense that they both have to do something with the internet.
While both of these physically look similar they have
many, many difference. Some of these differences touch upon approach, where
other differences are a lot more deep. For example, both of these pieces from
different artists use the same medium, but one artist, Kemp, decides to take it
further by including another form of media into his overall presentation. Not
only does Kemp provide screenshots, but he also provides photographs of
different sculptures or staged scenarios to compliment his work. Without these
photographs, the work would have completely different meaning and might not be
as powerful as the work is now. This difference is completely physical in the
sense that Kemp has provided something extra in order to deliver the point of
his piece across where McKay doesn't need to go the extra mile. On the other
hand, McKay's work has a deeper meaning and concept than Kemp's. Kemp's plays
out to be more than a gag rather than something that's supposed to make a statement.
McKay's talks about his work on the page it's feature on saying, "Here's
the question: are these ads really removed to protect the readers, or are they
removed to protect the advertisers from having their products associated with
these words?"(Mckay) This means that McKay's manipulation of Google is
actually a critique on advertisements and how they relate to the general
consumer. When coming across this piece, one might think it's just another hack
that's going around the internet, when really it's about addresses serious
issues such as capitalism, how business treat their costumers, and how
consumers view the business that aid them in obtaining basic essentials need to
live. Not only does this provoke thought and discussion but it may spark a
lifestyle change in an individual who views this particular piece. Apparently,
many viewers questioned whether this was to be considered art or not when
coming upon the piece. One viewer's comment was noticed by McKay who decided to
include it on the page for this project. The comment read, " It's
not only about 'getting rid of ads' This is about the purest
form of 'hacking'. Exploiting the workings of a system in ways it's creators
never intended it to work. It's not about efficiency or need, it's about style."(Mckay)
Mckay expressed, "With all the blog traffic and all the comments there's
finally been one person that gets it."(Mckay) This means that McKay had
agreed with this point of view as the artist. Hence, that the work not only
brings about serious topics of discussion like those mentioned about, but also
has a double meaning. A double meaning that also has some very serious and
thought provoking context behind it. So, not only does McKay's work have a deep
concept, but it has a second underlying meaning to boot. This is a very crucial
difference between the pranks and "one-liners" of Kemp's work versus
the harsh statements and criticisms of Mckay's.
Another difference between the two is that Mckay's piece
is relating to the internet but Kemp's piece is about the internet. In Mckay's " How to Avoid Gmail's
Sponsored Links", he addresses a specific portion of the internet and how
it's altered when you input something else into another portion of the
internet. With Kemps, "Adding to the Internet" it's about the
internet as a whole and how it's lacking certain things. What we know about
Kemp is that he loves the internet, so it would only be natural for him to want
it to be a more complete place by uploading pictures of things that don't
already exist on this said place. It makes for a good joke overall because it's
ridiculous that Kemp would want to complete this part of the internet
considering the absurdly specific things he searches for and then provides images
of.
Overall, the similarities and difference between these
two artists show exactly how digital media can be the same but different. Each
artists uses extremely similar forms of media, yet provide two entirely
different tones to their work along with a good argument on how the internet is
our greatest tool as digital media artists. Despite this, both artists and
their pieces are entertaining to look at and provide numerous topics of
discussion.
Works
Cited
Kemp, Justin . "." Justin
Kemp - hey whats up. Justin Kemp, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://justinkemp.com/Justin-Kemp>.
McKay, Joe. "." Joe McKay. Joe McKay, n.d.
Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://joemckaystudio.com/>.
"Justin Kemp." Setups and Spaces. N.p., 10 June
2010. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://setupsandspaces.com/post/676849095/justin-kemp>.
"Joe McKay." Purchase College. Purchase College,
n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://www.purchase.edu/departments/academicprograms/faculty/joe%20mckay/joemck ay.aspx>.
McKay, Joe. "How to avoid Gmail's Sponsored Links." How
to avoid Gmail's Sponsored Links. Joe Mckay, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
<http://joemckaystudio.com/gmail.html>.
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