Joseph Nechvatal

Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago.^[1]: 1176 He studied fine art and philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Cornell University and Columbia University.^[1]: 1176 He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy of Art and Technology at the Planetary Collegium at University of Wales, Newport^[3] and has taught art theory and art history at the School of Visual Arts.^[3] He has had many solo exhibitions, including one in Berlin^[4]

His work in the early 1980s chiefly consisted of postminimalist gray graphite drawings that were often photomechanically enlarged.^[5] Beginning in 1979 he became associated with the artist group Colab, organized the Public Arts International/Free Speech series, and helped established the non-profit group ABC No Rio.^[6] In 1983 he co-founded the avant-garde electronic art music audio project Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine.^[7] In 1984, Nechvatal began work on an opera called XS: The Opera Opus (1984-6)^[8] with the no wave musical composer Rhys Chatham.^[9]

He began using computers and robotics to make post-conceptual paintings in 1986 ^[10] and later, in his signature work, began to employ self-created computer viruses.^[11][12] From 1991 to 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, his first artistic experiment with computer viruses and computer virus animation.^[13] He exhibited computer-robotic paintings at Documenta 8 in 1987.^[14][15]

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.^[16]

Nechvatal has also created a noise music work called viral symphOny, a collaborative sound symphony created by using his computer virus software at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University.^[17][18][19] In 2021 Pentiments released Nechvatal's retrospective audio cassette called Selected Sound Works (1981-2021) and in 2022 his The Viral Tempest, a double vinyl LP of new audio work.^[20]

From 1999 to 2013, Nechvatal taught art theories of immersive virtual reality and the viractual at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (SVA). A book of his collected essays entitled Towards an Immersive Intelligence: Essays on the Work of Art in the Age of Computer Technology and Virtual Reality (1993–2006) was published by Edgewise Press in 2009. Also in 2009, his book Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances was published.^[21] In 2011, his book Immersion Into Noise was published by Open Humanities Press in conjunction with the University of Michigan Library's Scholarly Publishing Office.^[22]

Viractualism

Viractualism is an art theory concept developed by Nechvatal in 1999^[23][24] from Ph.D. research ^[25] Nechvatal conducted at the University of Wales College. There he developed his concept of the viractual, which strives to create an interface between the actual and the virtual.^[26]

• John Johnston, The Allure of Machinic Life: Cybernetics, Artificial Life, and the New AI, MIT Press, 2008, cover
• 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
• Frank Popper, From Technological to Virtual Art, MIT Press, pp. 120–123
• Johanna Drucker, [3] Joseph Nechvatal : Critical Pleasure
• Robert C. Morgan, Voluptuary: An algorithic hermaphornology, Tema Celeste Magazine, volume #93, p. 94
• Bruce Wands, Art of the Digital Age, London: Thames & Hudson, p. 65
• Robert C. Morgan, Laminations of the Soul, Editions Antoine Candau, 1990, pp. 23–30
• Margot Lovejoy, Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age Routledge 2004
• Joseph Nechvatal, Immersive Excess in the Apse of Lascaux, Technonoetic Arts 3, no3. 2005
• Joseph Nechvatal. Immersion Into Noise. Open Humanities Press in conjunction with the University of Michigan Library's Scholarly Publishing Office. Ann Arbor. 2011
• Johanna Drucker, Joseph Nechvatal : Critical Pleasure, Redaktion Frank Berndt, 1996, pp. 10–13
• Mario Costa, Phenomenology of New Tech Arts, Artmedia, Salerno, 2005, p. 6 & pp. 36 – 38
• Dominique Moulon, L'art numerique: spectateur-acteuret vie artificielle, Les images numeriques #47-48, 2004, pp. 124–125
• Christine Buci-Glucksmann, L'art à l'époque virtuel, in Frontières esthétiques de l'art, Arts 8, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004
• Brandon Taylor, Collage, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2006, p. 221
• Dominique Moulon, [4] Archived 2009-06-17 at the Wayback Machine Conférence Report : Media Art in France, Un Point d'Actu, L'Art Numerique, pp. 124–125
• Edmond Couchot, Des Images, du temps et des machines, édité Actes Sud, 2007, pp. 263–264
• Fred Forest, Art et Internet, Editions Cercle D'Art / Imaginaire Mode d'Emploi, pp. 48 –51
• Wayne Enstice & Melody Peters, Drawing: Space, Form, & Expression, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp. 312–313
• Ellen K. Levy, Synthetic Lighting: Complex Simulations of Nature, Photography Quarterly (#88) 2004, pp. 7–9
• Marie-Paule Nègre, Des artistes en leur monde, volume 2, la Gazette de l'Hotel Drout, 2008, pp. 82–83
• Corrado Levi, È andata così: Cronaca e critica dell'arte 1970-2008, Joseph Nechvatal intervistato nel suo studio a New York (1985–86), pp. 130–135
• Donald Kuspit, Del Atre Analogico al Arte Digital in Arte Digital Y Videoarte, Kuspit, D. ed., Consorcio del Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, pp. 33–34 & pp. 210 – 212
• 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
• Sarah J. Rogers (ed), Body Mécanique: Artistic Explorations of Digital Realms, Columbus, Ohio, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University
• Edward A. Shanken, Art and Electronic Media. London: Phaidon, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7148-4782-5, pp. 42, 285, 160

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