coin-operated

Hi all, I’m moving this blog to a different server in the next few weeks and it will be completely redesigned and different, etc… so look for changes soon.. If you want to know what I’m up to, follow me on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/coinop29

This is a picture of what my mouse / trackpad does in a day. The spot on the left is the “check mail” button on my email client and the top left is the “File” menu where I go to open files in apps. I guess I’m pretty predictable. I made this by using the IO app which is cross platform.

This is what I was doing with my MouseTraces project from 2002, although mine was networked with other people so you could see what they were doing simultaneously and draw with them in the background. It would be cool to see this app networked as well!

I wrote this short story back in 2000 and never published it anywhere.. I think it’s pretty funny, making fun of the whole “Dot-Com” scene.. Here’s the story:

“I’m an Internet Guy” by Jonah Brucker-Cohen, 2000.

I’m an “Internet Guy”, I believe in the long boom, the inpenetrable bubble, hot stocks, net lingo, web surfing, and e-commerce. I guess you could say I’m one of the “digirati” a new breed, the kind of man who will only take out the trash if I can sync my chores to my Palm Pilot. The Net’s like a huge “force”, like an asteroid hurtling through space, destroying all old media in its path, taking no prisoners. I use the web for conveinience: I can pay my bills, rent my movies, order my gifts, and books, play the stock market, enter the lottery, organize my daily routine, check out listings, weather, sports, and more.

You see, I don’t know what I’d do without the “Net” and I forget the time before it. The Web, Internet, whatever you want to call it has opened my eyes to new horizons and possibilities. I love to “Interact”. You click here, there, everywhere, there’s a link and the pages magically appear. I don’t know anything about “commerce” but when it comes to “e-commerce” I know all the tricks of the trade.

I love shopping carts. They are so convenient and they even let you really “shop” like you are at a store. PC’s are fast, I don’t know much about Macs, but I’ve heard they’re “cute”. I can do my bills, answer emails, get pictures, I can even do my taxes online. To me the Internet is everything because it’s all about convenience. You can make your company logo move, like rotate in 3D and be on fire with “real flames” and you can find out how many hits your site has gotten.

It’s pretty remarkable. I’m an “Internet Guy”, yes that’s right.

Students in the class I teach, “New Media Research Studio” at New York University’s Steinhardt’s Department of Media, Culture, & Communication had the class build a paper version of FaceBook as an assigned in-class activity. The results were pretty chaotic as they would be in normal real life circumstances, but the output was a really nice reminder of how important social networking has become in the last 5 years. Above is a picture of what the class came up with!

Today’s my birthday, I turn –! pretty cool! nice to see another year go by and looking forward to this year!

Happy New Year Everyone! This is my first post of 2010! that means this blog has been around for 7 years.. Yikes! Looking forward to a great year!

I’m speaking about my work in a panel discussion at the Science, Fiction and the Visual Arts event this December 11th at 2pm
. It’s at the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in NYC / Chelsea. Cya there!

Hope everyone has a good thnxgiving! More to come!

I’m giving 3 talks in the next few weeks, hope you can make it out to one or all of them! Details:

1. Nov 7 @ Mobile Art and Code Symposium and Workshop, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

2. Nov 11 @ Digital + Media Lecture Series, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

3. Nov 14 @ User Labor: Creative Responses Panel, Digital Labor Conference (Internet as Playground and Factory), New School University, NYC.

Heading to Dublin next week to defend my PhD! Wish me luck!