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PrayStation

Joshua Davis: Net Vision/Net Excellence Jury Member

You are most famous for your site 'Praystation' and you are running sites like dreamless, once-upon-a-forest. What is the common impetus behind?

Davis: For 2002 I thought it would be interesting to have each of the websites converge into one combined art form - so by going to dreamless, once-upon-a-forest, cyphen, or praystation opens the same project. And in this new project are the craft and working from each of these websites combined.

So the driving force at the moment is to take the different sensibilities that each of the domains protected individually and have them work together into one contained entity.

You say in your introduction to Once-upon-a-forest, that you see yourself as a traditional artist, though you do not have control about what your programs output. You program the paints, brushes etc. but it is the machine that does the composition. What is the fascination about programming sites like this? What kind of experience is this for you? Somebody wrote your are 'programming secrets.'

Davis: I grew up knowing these few ideas ...

Thubten Chodron says on buddhism: 'Asking questions is healthy. It enables us to clarify doubts and gain new information. Life should be more about holding questions than finding answers. The act of seeking an answer, comes from a wish to make life, which is basically fluid - into something more certain and fixed. This often leads to rigidity, closed-mindedness, and intolerance. On the other hand, holding a question - exploring its many facets over time - puts us in touch with the mystery of life. Holding questions accustoms us to the ungraspable nature of life and enables us to understand things from a range of perspectives.'

It is more rewarding to explore than to reach conclusion; more satisfying to wonder than to know; and more exciting to search than to stay put.

I guess it's an issue of imagination - cloud watching, day dreaming, etc. I often find that the only true limitation to something absolute incredible is our own mental limitations. Yet if I can work out some of the parts, some of the ideas, some of the rules and boundaries, but if I leave the control to a never ending process. I might get a chance to see something I would have never thought of.

What about usability? Your sites are not very accessible ...

Davis: I disagree somewhat, my navigation is very usable - and herein lies the contradiction. I have created a navigation which is quite usable, yet contains text that most people cannot decipher. Upon clicking nondescript text you are then presented with even more abstract compositions and sounds - some passive, and some interactive.

Contradiction is quite powerful. For example in 'Machine 0800 (2000)' under 'machines . (2000)' the work at first presents itself as soft blowing grass and you might immediately relate this type of movement to a childhood memory and almost instantaneously associated with a soundtrack that might accompany the memory your having. yet as soon as 'OUR' soundtrack starts it's a horrible distortion that's almost unbearable to watch for too long.

The beauty in contradiction, the beauty in creating something that defies what the viewer expects ... confusion. So with that said, I believe my site to be quite usable and extremely accessible - but what I provide is confusion, contradiction - a moment in time within a very deep black hole. Love it or hate it. What I do invite you to do though is let the work take you places in your imagination, just as it does the same for me.

You have been senior design technologist at Kioken. How does your private interests and you business interests coincide?

Davis: The end of 2001 brought my departure from kioken. 2002 I have pretty much booked a worldwide tour, doing workshops and lectures nationally and internationally. So about 90% of my time is exploring my private interests and 10 % into applying the things I work on to projects for public consumption.

Things are currently changing on the Net. Where do you think will we be in five years from now?

Davis: If you have one foot in the past, and one foot in the future, you're pissing on today.

I try to stay in the moment. Why postpone what I think I'll be able to do in 5 years, when today is a great day to get started.

Last year you have won the Golden Nica. now you are on the Jury. What does a project need so that you may consider it worth a Nica?

Davis: Right above my head on the top shelf is my Golden Nica. I often look up at it and wonder how in the hell did I get it ? I hope that whoever wins this years Golden Nica will wonder the same thing. Because if they do, than I'll know that we as judges picked something that was created for the love of the work, and not because they thought it would win anything.

A good friend of mine - Tom Roope from Tomato - in London told me while judging a competition if Africa this year, winners simply have the passion and innovation to create an experience we wish we would have done ourselves.

New projects?

Davis: I have two books coming out - one this summer (2002) and one spring (2003). Which are both small extensions of a bigger picture of getting these captured moments in time into our physical world - some editions will be created on paper and other transferred to canvas.




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