Jodi derived from combining two of its members name,  Joan Heemskerk & Dirk Paesmans.

In a nutshell, jodi.org is a website. But in actuality, it’s more than just a website. Here, you guys got to check it out! Do not worry if you feel like your browser is getting out of control, it is art! Glitch Art!

Jodi.org  starts on a black background with green gibberish computer language words written on the top. This certainly, invites people to click on it and to me, that is where the adventure of the unknown world of the world wide web begin. 

 “We explore the computer from inside, and mirror this on the net. When a viewer looks at our work, we are inside his computer.

-Jodi.org

A little background about the artist. They started out by modifying old video games and deconstruct the whole world and putting it in a different layers and ways. They were creating glitch art before the genre even have a name yet. Their intent was to find the accidental disturbances of the machine and its language: to subvert the expectations. I like the statement they make I shared above. Sometimes, we are too engross on what’s happening on our computer screen that we forgot that the computer do have a brain and an inside. Like human being, our skin is what being shown above, but deep inside our organs, are intricate veins and vessels that is very important to make us live normal lives. Similarly, the computer share the same sentiment as us.

So by showing what is on the inside of the computer, as quoted as Jodi, and present it as a work of art on the net, this work explores the medium of the internet and question the audience whether are we aware on what is going on behind all the beautiful layout of Facebook and Twitter. Matter of fact, these ‘codes’ are actually beautiful. That is what Jodi.org wishes to show us.

By introducing glitch aesthetics onto the internet as a medium, they perceived the net as the theatrical space where performance and glitch can be appreciate and viewed on a large scale. If the net is Madison Square Garden, then the codes are the main event. Having these codes as visual experience rather than its functional qualities, this pushes the boundary of the medium when this was introduce to the world in 1995, which was still early age of the Internet. 

Reading Rosa Menkman’s Glitch Moment(um) actually helps me to understand the definition of glitch art. She actually break down glitch into different parts and sets the tone of how glitch art can also be used as a message technically, socially and metaphorically.

“…theorists need to be more clear about the relationship between technical and metaphorical or cultural dimensions of glitch culture. Focusing on the glitch within this broader perspective makes it possible to think through some of the more interesting political and social uses of the glitch within the field of digital art.”

Menkman, R. (2011) “Glitch Moment(um),” Institute of Network Cultures

As Rosa Menkman mention, Glitch Art can be used more than just aesthetically but also to send a message metaphorically. This reminds me of Jon Cates’s Bold3RRR, where he uses his desktop screen as glitch art to talk about the digital window on how we live our lives using the internet. The fact that Rosa Menkman was introduce to Glitch Art and inspired by Jodi.org was amazing and it shows that Jodi was an originator of this genre called Glitch Art. 

Looking back at Jodi.org, it does not necessarily break the order of how one uses the internet and more specifically, how one surf a website. We can still press buttons and there are cursors that lead us to the next follow glitch pages. With each subsequent page, the glitch gets more daring and the results is really beautiful.  It does however, break the flow of information when one expect to gain information when surfing the net.