reviews, features & interviews
Words, art, computer games! Australia checks in.
By libby
February 6, 2010 · 3 Comments
In the annals of self-promotion of a good kind, this info came in from a reader named Jason Nelson, who’s a digital art professor in Australia. He is the author of a number of internet games–at which I am rather inept, it taking me about seven tries to figure out how to get out of a hole and then a similar number of tries to figure out that I can use a similar maneuver to get on an elevator–that are also art. The one I tried has a Mark Lombardi conspiracy theory quality, with spidery lines and crazy text, all related to following the money.
i made this. you play this. we are enemies, a game by Jason Nelson. The still image doesn't begin to capture the animation and noise!
Nelson’s originally from Oklahoma, is a poet, and has a variety of what he calls “art games.” They are word heavy, frenetic and hilarious–with an anti-high tech, DIY look that deceives as it charms. He also has poems, songs and stories that have fun with the interactive quality of internet technology. It’s a perfect way to waste a snowy afternoon.
Tags: australia, jason nelson, poems, video games
Readers Comments (3)
This stuff is great… Spent a bunch of time on his website today. The way he recycles commercial web detritus reminds me of they way Ryan Trecartin uses his slogans – as a sort of lost or jumbled product placement… I’m inspired!!! There is an “anything goes” feeling coming from his work which i really respond to.
When you finish a “level” you are rewarded with a short web video in which he recites stream of concousness observations (poetry?) based on found objects that he is holding up in front of the camera. (a collection of old matchbooks, an assorted collection of doll/barbie hands, a handfull of dog food, etc) Really funny stuff.
Hey, Bobby, I’m so glad someone got past my first impressions and still loved it–loved it even more. I love how there’s pencil scratchy stuff in such a techno medium, and it sounds like there are lots of layers behind the first level that make a lot of sense. I’m also impressed by the merger of poetry, words, drawing and technology. This is the anti-Myst in its aesthetic and appeal.
Your right! Who says that the hand-made and the digital need occupy mutually exclusive worlds? This work is “hot” in an Eva Hessa way. Really neat.