Artist Post: Jody Zellen

Jody Zellen is a Los Angeles-based mixed media artist. She graduated with a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. She has created a very diverse range of art, ranging from websites to traditional drawings and public art installments, and has an active history of participating in art exhibitions. The theme of the urban environment is prominent in her works. Although she is such a diverse artist, for this art blog I will be focusing specifically on her All The News Thats Fit To Print interactive website.

http://allthenewsthatsfittoprint.net/frame.html

ATNTFTP is a multi-media, multi-sensory website that juxtaposes printed New York Times front pages with the full-color photos from the online version of the Times. In addition, an interactive flash application plays audio clips of news reports when moused over (multiple clips can begin playing at once if you move your mouse a lot) while a second flash image contains figures depicting everyday urban life and drawn versions of news photos that move back and forth. The background is composed of partially overlapping images of newspaper pages, with the images removed.

My first reaction to this website was a sense of being overwhelmed. I did not expect the audio component--a form of sensory input that is often overlooked in (non-musical) art. Once I started focusing on the non-animated part of the website, I was quite surprised at the sheer difference of the print versus electronic front page news. Some were silly, some were random, and others came off as insensitive or morbid.

This art website really made me reflect on the news and communication of today. News, and the depiction thereof, can vary widely based on the reporting agency. Even within the same newspaper, online vs offline editors find different topics to be worthy of the front page. There are so many news articles published every day that perhaps the most important ones are becoming drowned out, or dumbed down, by all the other articles available for consumption. In addition, it is sad to see what kind of trivial 'first world' news makes it onto the front page whilst people are walking armed through the streets or recovering from disaster elsewhere in the world.

Conceptually I think this is a very strong artwork. Zellen really gets a point across, while leaving the finer points up to viewer interpretation. The simple yet somewhat cluttered and overlapping website design combined with audio clips effectively represents the sensory overload that we experience in modern living.

Rhizome artbase entry
Visit Jody Zellen's site here.