Joseph Nechvatal

Joseph Nechvatal (born 1951) is a post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses. He started this work in 1986.

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Life and work

Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago. He studied fine art and philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Cornell University and Columbia University, where he studied with Arthur Danto while serving as the archivist to the minimalist composer La Monte Young. From 1979, he exhibited his work in New York City, primarily at the Brooke Alexander Gallery and Universal Concepts Unlimited. He has also exhibited in Paris, Cologne, Alalst, Belgium, Lund and Munich.

His work in the early 1980s was graphite drawings. During that period he was associated with the artist group Colab and helped establish the non-profit cultural space ABC No Rio. In 1983 he co-founded the avant-garde electronic art music audio project Tellus. In 1984, Nechvatal began work on an opera called XS: The Opera Opus (1984-5) with the no wave musical composer Rhys Chatham.

He began using computers to make "paintings" in 1986 and later, in his signature work, began to employ computer viruses. These "collaborations" with viral systems positioned his work as an early contribution to what is increasingly referred to as a post-human aesthetic.

From 1991–1993 he was artist-in-residence at the Louis Pasteur Atelier in Arbois, France and at the Saline Royale/Ledoux Foundation's computer lab. There he worked on The Computer Virus Project, which was an artistic experiment with computer viruses and computer animation. He exhibited at Documenta 8 in 1987.

In 1999 Nechvatal obtained his Ph.D. in the philosophy of art and new technology concerning virtual reality at Roy Ascott's Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA), University of Wales College, Newport, UK (now the Planetary Collegium at the University of Plymouth). There he developed his concept of the "viractual", which strives "to create an interface between the biological and the technological."^[1] According to Nechvatal, this is a new topological space.

In 2002 he extended his experimentation into viral artificial life through a collaboration with the programmer Stephane Sikora of music2eye in a work called the Computer Virus Project II, inspired by the a-life work of John Horton Conway, particularly Conway's Game of Life, by the general cellular automata work of John von Neumann and by the genetic programming algorithms of John Koza.

In 2005 he exhibited Computer Virus Project II works (computer-robotic paintings, digital prints, a digital audio installation and two live electronic virus-attack installations) in a solo show called cOntaminatiOns at Le Chateau de Linardie in Senouillac, France.

In 2006 Nechvatal received a retrospective exhibition entitled Contaminations at the Butler Institute of American Art's Beecher Center. Nechvatal has also contributed to digital audio work with his viral symphOny, a collaborative musical symphony created by using his computer virus software at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University.

Nechvatal teaches art theories of the viractual at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (SVA) and at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Joe Lewis wrote:

References

• Donald Kuspit The Matrix of Sensations VI: Digital Artists and the New Creative Renaissance
• Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito The Edge of Art, Thames & Hudson Ltd, p. 213
• Christiane Paul Digital Art, Thames & Hudson Ltd, pp. 57-58
• Donald Kuspit Arte Digital y Videoarte, Circulo de Bellas Artes Madrid, pp. 33-35, color illustrations 2,3&4
• Robert C. Morgan Digital Hybrids, Art Press volume #255, pp. 75-76
• Frank Popper From Technological to Virtual Art, MIT Press, pp. 120-123
• Johanna Drucker "Joseph Nechvatal : Critical Pleasure
• Alan Liu The Laws of Cool, Chicago Press, pp. 331-336 & 485-486
• Robert C. Morgan Voluptuary: An algorithic hermaphornology, Tema Celeste Magazine, volume #93, p. 94
• Joe Lewis Joseph Nechvatal at Universal Concepts Unlimited, Art in America Magazine, March 2003, pp.123-124
• Bruce Wands Art of the Digital Age, London: Thames & Hudson, p. 65
• Margot Lovejoy Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age Routledge 2004
• Willoughby Sharp Joseph Nechvatal, Machine Language Books, 1984, 74 pages
• Brandon Taylor Collage Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2006, p. 221
• Wayne Enstice & Melody Peters, Drawing: Space, Form, & Expression, New Jersy: Prentice Hall, pp.312-313
• Robert C. Morgan Nechvatal’s Visionary Computer Virus in Gruson, L. ed. 1993. Joseph Nechvatal: Computer Virus Project. Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans: Fondation Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, pp. 8-15
• Frank Popper Ecrire sur l'art : De l'art optique a l'art virtuel, L'Harmattan 2007, pp. 222-223