Jonas Lund
I just stare at my computer waiting for something to happen, 28.04.2020
Intervening on the website of HEK, Swedish artist Jonas Lund produced a script for a period of seven days that reveals the presence of other users in real time. Each movement with the cursor left traces of this movements on the screen, in the form of graphics generated by an online community, reminiscent of the aesthetics of the nineties. Every website visitor could try out the digital work exclusively from 28.04. to 05.05.2020 at www.hek.ch.
Lund experiments with different formats of art production and distribution, playfully questioning the existing models related to the commercialization of art. In particular, he explored the emergence of new habits in the art world with the appearance of new digital tools. For example, he conceived the exhibition Critical Mass (2017) that evolves and changes over time, depending on an online survey that enables users to select their preferences regarding the exhibition design. He has also created 100,000 shares in the form of crypto currency tokens, allowing shareholders to have a say in his artistic career and future practice.
Statement by the artist:
"Since HEK first invited me to do
something on their website two weeks ago, I've been mulling it over,
finding it surprisingly difficult to find the right angle or approach.
Everything is at the moment naturally surrounding Covid-19, so making
work about anything else feels not too relevant, yet making work
specifically about Covid-19 feels like it's too early, too much. Most of
the days of the lockdown I just stare at my computer waiting for
something to happen. For people who are used to working at home, it
shouldn't be a big difference, but it feels completely different. I
wonder if more people feel this way, if we are all connected through
this moment, what if I could see you move when I move? Synchronised
serendipitous movements across space. In I just stare at my computer
waiting for something to happen every users trail is synchronised with
all the visitors to the website and you see everyone's cursor trail. The
cursor is chosen at random from the complete archive of cursors from
the RealWorld Graphics website,
and is unique to one person. Revealing the loneliness and the
togetherness at the same time through a serendipitous meeting at the HEK
website."