Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki: America's Got No Talent
2012
Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki, America’s Got No Talent, 2012 and 2018. Java app. Commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art for its artport website AP.2012.1
America's Got No Talent is a web-based software project by Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki that synthesizes and processes the steady stream of Twitter feeds for several American reality television shows such as American Idol, America's Got Talent, America's Next Top Model, and X Factor US, among others in this genre. The project highlights when and how these shows gain popularity through social media and followers. When tweets are sent, they are dynamically displayed along with the bias for each program which is based on retweets from followers as well as fans. The visualization takes the form of a horizontal bar graph in the shape of an American flag that updates dynamically. Each show's virtual presence grows in size based on the amount of attention it receives from social media users worldwide, creating a measurement meter that ranks popular media on their social exposure, rather than their credit as viable media sources.
Commissioned for the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2012 for Artport, with support provided by Jeremy Levine.
Jonah Brucker-Cohen. Ph.D., is an award winning researcher, artist, writer, and Associate Professor of Digital Media and Networked Culture in the department of Journalism and Media Studies at Lehman College, CUNY. He received his Ph.D. in the Disruptive Design Team of the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department of Trinity College Dublin. His work focuses on the theme of "Deconstructing Networks" and includes over 100 creative projects that critically challenge and subvert accepted perceptions of network interaction and experience. His work has been exhibited at venues such as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, MOMA New York, ICA London, Palais du Tokyo,Tate Modern, Ars Electronica, Whitney Museum of American Art, Transmediale, and others.
Websites: coin-operated.com, scrapyardchallenge.com
Twitter: twitter.com/coinop29
Katherine Moriwaki is an Assistant Professor of Media Design in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons School of Design in New York City. As faculty at Parsons Katherine’s focus is on interaction design and artistic practice. She teaches core curriculum classes in the M.F.A. Design + Technology Program where students engage a broad range of creative methodologies to realize new possibilities in interactive media. She is also currently completing a Ph.D. in the Networks and Telecommunications Research Group at Trinity College Dublin, which examines the intersection between fashion, technology, and creative practice.
Websites: kakirine.com, scrapyardchallenge.com
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