JODY ZELLEN - Project Highlights
Please click on the images as they link to more information about each project
Grid City
2900 Airport Avenue
We Are Here / Here We Are Exhibition
May 16 - June 20, 2020
"Grid City," (2000/2020) is part of Durden and Ray's We Are Here / Here We Are, a Los Angeles County-wide exhibition of nearly 100 artists that explores the innate desire for connectivity through sensation. Due to the constraints of the COVID-19 lockdown, the artists in this exhibition have chosen public spaces to display their work -- from Santa Monica to the East Side and from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. The location of each piece is posted on a Google Map that allows the exhibition to be explored virtually or in real life.
The Unemployed
Los Angeles International Airport
Terminal 6, Depature Level
May - October, 2019
The Unemployed is a data visualization that illustrates worldwide unemployment. Using data culled from online sources that list unemployment rates by country, The Unemployed represents the jobless as animated figures. The number of unemployed varies from country to country ranging from a few thousand in sparsely populated places to many millions. As the software randomly cycles through the countries, the unemployed are depicted as figures moving in empty space. Passersby's movements are captured by a webcam and their silhouettes are projected onto the wall and transformed into an array of ambling figures. On the monitors, the figures move within the confines of their countries. The clusters of figures metaphorically become an available labor force, as well as the visible presence of the jobless.
The Human Touch
Los Angeles Convention Center
September 12-14, 2018
Augmented Reality installation for the Youth Mobile Festival (YOMO) presented at the Los Angeles Convention Center September 12-14, 2018. Each photograph is 47 x 47 inches. When seen through an augmented reality application the photographs are layered with animations.
Above the Fold
Los Angeles International Airport
Terminal 3 arrivals
May 2017- January 2018
Above the Fold refers to the image in the print newspaper which exists on the front page, literally above the creased fold of the paper. These images and accompanying headlines sell the papers and capture the reader's mind: the gouache paintings in this series are inspired by them. They are abstracted representations of our collective and mediated life. The installation presented 80 Gouache on paper paintings.
News Wheel, 2017
in collaboration with Daniel Rothman
Long Beach City College
February 9 - March 9, 2017
News Wheel at LBCC combined Jody Zellen's graphical interface with Daniel Rothman's audio installation, literally spinning the traditional newspaper and radio platforms for news reportage, through their web-based mediums.
Projected on the wall was a spinning pie accessing nine popular printed international news outlets. Gallery visitors touched an iPad screen in the center of the room to stop it, yielding their headlines in real time. The headlines could be rearrange to create a news haiku. Around the space were also small loudspeakers, from which news from eight radio stations could be heard.
Crenshaw-Imperial Branch Library
Inglewood, CA, 2016
Iconic Abstractions is a permanent installation of 11 stainless steel cut-outs that are abstractions of iconic architecture located in the city of Inglewood, CA.
Here and Gone, 2015
UCR Riverside, CA
Here and Gone is a single channel video installation, featuring a pixelated scene of social unrest scrolling leisurely in the background while anonymous and oblivious figures are drawn over/into the frame, implying gesture and division simultaneously. These figures are captured as they continue on their way-- on the go, heavily involved in their own world, ignoring the diverse humanity that circulates around them in the public sphere.
Time Jitters, 2014
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC
Time Jitters was an immersive experience consisting of four floor to ceiling projections. One wall contained a grid of twenty-five animations all of which looped at different rates becoming a cacophony of pulsing color and flickering imagery. Opposite this wall was a single channel 18 minute animation that combined drawn and appropriated imagery becoming a meditation on how the news media presents world events. The walls adjacent to these animations housed interactive visual and sonic elements. As people engaged with the installation, the interactive walls became a collage of overlapping images and sounds whose tones were constantly in flux.
stills and video documentation
Bike Rack, 2014
Ocean Park Boulevard and Second Street
Santa Monica, CA
I was one to two artists commissioned by the city of Santa Monica to create artist designed bike racks. I often chain my bike to trees so thought why not make a bright green tree shaped bike rack that would be a functional piece of sculpture.
The Blackest Spot, 2008
Fringe Exhibitions, LA
The Blackest Spot was an interactive installation that used Elias Canetti's seminal text "Crowds and Power" as its point of departure. Canetti speaks of crowds as a mysterious and universal phenomenon whose density creates the 'blackest spot'. Using images of crowds culled from the daily newspaper, The Blackest Spot explored the representation of crowds and the myriad of reasons for public gatherings. Using animated imagery, fragments of sounds from well know speeches throughout history, and drawing, this installation transformed the gallery space at Fringe Exhibitions in Los Angeles' Chinatown into an arena placing the viewer in the role of audience or speaker. As viewers interacted with triggers strategically placed on the floor of the space, they choreographed their own experience. Alternating between contemplative quiet and a cacophony of cheers, the many facets of public gatherings were explored.
stills
unemployment.world, 2020
unemployment.world is a data visualization that illustrates worldwide unemployment. Using data culled from online sources that list unemployment rates by country, the webesite represents the jobless as animated wandering figures. The number of unemployed varies from country to country, ranging from a few thousand in sparsely populated places to many millions. These figures move within the confines of their countries borders. The clusters of figures metaphorically become an available labor force, as well as the visible presence of the jobless.
Art during Covid-19: Avenue S, 2020
"Avenue S" a new addition to "Ghost City," 1998-2020. It is meditation on isolation using poetic fragments. It feels like a ghost town everywhere these days: the streets are empty; the beaches and parks are closed. As we stay at home or walk alone wearing masks, I wanted to provide an alternative experience. I have enjoyed a return making net art: exploring image text relationships, unstructured narratives, rollovers, gifs and pop up windows.
The Unemployed, 2019
The Unemployed is a data visualization that illustrates worldwide unemployment. Using data culled from online sources that list unemployment rates by country, The Unemployed represents the jobless as animated figures. The number of unemployed varies from country to country ranging from a few thousand in sparsely populated places to many millions. In the app, the figures move within the confines of their countries. The clusters of figures metaphorically becoming an available labor force, as well as the visible presence of the jobless. Click on the image for more information. Click here to download the free iOS app.
News Wheel, 2015
News Wheel is an app that explores the poetics of ever changing news headlines. It begins as a spinning disk divided into nine sections each representing a different news source. This playful interface invites users to start and stop the wheel eventually filling the screen with a collage of current headlines. Individual words can be deleted and repositioned so users can create their own poems from this content. In addition, dragging one's finger across the screen creates an animated chain of text derived from today's headline news. Click on the image for a video excerpt. Click here to download the free iOS app.
Time Jitters, 2014
Time Jitters is an app where animated clips, connected to random sounds (created by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis and Seth Stoudenmier) can be scaled and repositioned creating a collage of overlapping visual and sonic elements. Click on the image for a video excerpt. Click here to download the free iOS app.
Episodic, 2013
Episodic is an app that allows users to scale and reposition twelve short animations to create new narratives and explore relationships between them. Click on the image for a video excerpt. Click here to download the free iOS app.
4 Square, 2012
4 Square randomly juxtaposes fragments from my drawings and digital collages with 3 words and the 256 web safe colors. Tapping each square changes the images. Dragging the squares changes their positions. Click on the image for a video excerpt. Click here to download the free iOS app.
Urban Rhythms, 2011
Urban Rhythms, is an artwork that functions as a metaphor for how people navigate in and through urban space. It is a creative interpretation of the paths people travel when they wander through the city. Using animated stick-like figures as a stand in for urban inhabitants, Urban Rhythms is a code-based exploration of how people move in urban spaces. Click on the image for a video excerpt. Sadly this app was not able to be updated for the latest iOS.
Spine Sonnet, 2011
Spine Sonnet is an automatic poem generator in the tradition of found poetry that randomly composes 14 line sonnets derived from an archive of over 2500 art and architectural theory and criticism book titles. Rather than present scan of the book spines, I typed all the titles into a database that is housed in the app. Each tap of the screen reveals a new poem. Click on the image for a video excerpt. Click here to download the free iOS app.
Ghostcity, 1997-present
www.ghostcity.com
Ghost City is an ever changing website. It is a virtual city that has become an archive of changing web technologies. Ghost city has no physical space or real time beyond the space and time of the viewer's interaction with the screen. Ghost City focuses on the representation of the city by the mass media. It uses the space of the web as a sculptural space, allowing viewers to interact with animated graphics to delve deeper and deeper into an imaginary city. Ghostcity is also a repository that archives all my net art projects.
WithoutATrace, 2008-present
WithoutATrace
Without a Trace juxtaposes a comic image devoid of text, three words from the original strip, a drawing made by hand tracing a news image with a live news headline and a computer tracing from a daily world news photograph from the New York Times. As news is fluid during a given day the headlines change creating new juxtapositions and uncanny and apt relationships.
For more Net Art projects please visit: www.jodyzellen.com/netart.html
The Human Touch, 2020
Augmented Reality Installation
Cerritos College
February 24 - March 6, 2020
The Human Touch is an augmented reality project where each photographic images is mapped to a unique animation when viewed through an Augmented Reality application.
Shadow Trees, 2019
Shadow Trees is an artist's book with an augmented reality cover. When viewed through an Augmented Reality application the cover becomes animated.
Daily Photography Projects
2013-2020
Since 2013, (I skipped 2014) I shot a photograph to represent each day of the year and presented them on a single webpage.
In 2019 I posted the daily image to Instagram but also created a webpage for the images. I have also sequenced the 365 images from 2019 into a film.
For 2018, I shot two pictures; one with a word and one of street art-- graffiti or faces or something unusual I happened upon during my walks, art outings and travels.
View the years of daily images below:
2019_one_a_day
2019_one_a_day-faces and a faces film
2018_one_a_day
2018_one_a_day_words
2017_one_a_day
2016_one_a_day
2015_one_a_day
2013_one_a_day
Lenticular Images
I created series of 8 lenticular images using images and headlines from my News Wheel app. Click the image above to see them as animated gifs.
Selected Animations
The Human Touch, 2018
Click on the image for a video excerpt.
Time Jitters, 2014
Click on the image for a video excerpt of the two channel version. Click here for single channel version.
Life Fragments, 2014
Click on the image for a video excerpt.
Selected Press
2019
Meet An Artist Monday: Jody Zellen by Shana Nys Dambrot in the L.A. Weekly.
VoyageLA interview... Meet Jody Zellen.
2018
Davis, Genie. "Mis (Missing) Information: Jody Zellen and Brian Moss Curate the Media." Diversions LA.
Ollman, Leah."One bed photo per day, for years and years: Mesmerizing moments from an art show about daily life", L.A. Times, April 9, 2018
Wood, Eve. "Practice, Practice Every (ongoing) Day." Art and Cake, April 3, 2018.
2017
Fenstermaker, Will. "Phone Apps As Art: 10 Truly Mobile Artist Projects You Can Download From the App Store," Artspace, May 2, 2017.
Desjardins, Marie-Laure. "De l'art mobile au Mobile Art," ArtsHebdo Media March, 2017.
Walters, Sydney. "Review of News Wheel at Long Beach City College," Art and Cake,PDF.
2016
ARTiculAction Art Review Interview.
Click here for PDF
2015
Interview by Stigmart VideoFocus. Click here to see the interview.
2014
Goldner, Liz. "Created in California." Coast Magazine, p. 138-139, June 2014, (PDF)
Weiskopf, Dan. "Bodies at Play, Bodies at Work: Bob Trotman and Jody Zellen," BurnAway.org, March 4, 2014. (PDF)
Gotts, Isadora. CisternYard Media, February 10, 2014. (PDF)
Rhyne, Leah. "Now You See It: Artist Jody Zellen puts viewers in charge of her art." Charleston City Paper, January 29, 2014 (PDF)
2013
"Computers and Lit #2: Spine Sonnets, Apps, and Beyond" Interview with Jody Zellen by Josh Medsker, Twenty-four hours blog, June 1, 2013. (PDF)
Shaw, Tate. "Immersion: A Conversation with Emily McVarish, Jody Zellen and Janet Zweig." Journal of Artists' Books, Spring 2013 (PDF).
2012
Nys Dambrot, Shana. "Original Works Of Art Composed For Your Smartphone?" KCET Artbound, August 8, 2012 (PDF)
Xiao, An. "LACMA Lets You Play Exquisite Corpse On Your iPhone." Hyperallergic, February 15, 2012 (PDF)
CONTACT INFORMATION
Jody Zellen
jzellen@gmail.com
Full website: www.jodyzellen.com