Miscellaneous:
Writing
- Glitch Art [1.07MB] (2006) originally written for ninthletter.com but no longer located on that site.
- Searching for New Understanding in Computation: An Exploration of Language and Meaning in Encoded Artworks [3.33MB] (2005) my MFA thesis
Obligatory social network links
Past exhibitions
- iDEAs Exhibition, iDMAa+IMS Conference (Code: Human Systems/Digital Bodies), Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (April 2006)
- Calcul*rt (Math as Art Exhibition), Krannert Art Museum, UIUC (March 2006)
- Wet But Not Shrinking, Ispace gallery, Chicago, IL
(August 2005) - Master of Fine Arts Exhibition, Krannert Art Museum, UIUC (April 2005)
- COSIGN Conference on Computational Semiotics, University of Split, Croatia; Featured Artist (September 2004)
- Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, UIUC; Solo Exhibition (September 2004)
- Rhizome.org Artbase Selected Works (February 2004)
- 6th International Conference on Information Visualization, University of London, England
(July 2002) - StudioXX.org Maid In Cyberspace Festival and Digital Art Symposium, Montreal, Canada
(February 2002) - Digital Artists Interactive Network Featured Site (April 2002)
- Coded Spaces Exhibit, Peoria Art Guild at the Foster Arts Center, Peoria, Illinois (2001)
Hello, my name is Jonas.
I am an artist and web developer, and for several years I was a network/systems administrator.
I completed an MFA (New Media) in 2005, and a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics in 2001, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have exhibited work in various places around the world, but I created all of it in the midwest, USA.
Since 2006, I have increasingly focused on web design and development, which coincides with my Webmaster job at the Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Photon Source near Chicago.
Most of my occasional spare time is filled with endless house repairs, increasingly rare geocaching, the collecting of many things, cartoons, Wii, and listening to lots and lots and lots of music.
About the projects
I use computation to explore underlying relationships in social information, often involving language, philosophy and mathematics. I am interested in the ways in which communicative data can be re-interpreted, visualized, or differently coded. In this process I find that new signs and new connections may emerge, creating clarity in what is otherwise an escalating mass of textual and visual junk.
My work highlights ambiguities or flaws in social systems, which we often trust at face value. I hope to encourage the viewer to recognize his or her own participation in these systems, constructing an altered understanding or inspiring a similar process of questioning.
About the site
half-a-world-away.com began in 1997 as a goofball experiment in HTML code. The first iteration was written in the original version of Netscape Composer and featured <blink> tags. You’re viewing the 10th redesign, which upholds my self-imposed annual redesign schedule, and matches the site’s 10th birthday. Underneath the covers, it runs on the wonderful Textpattern.
Usage
My artwork and projects are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. However, the web site design and contents are not to be copied or redistributed without my permission. Contact me for more info.
