dimensions variable, duration infinite
OSS/**** (1998) is one of JODI’s better known software based works. It was originally released as a CD-ROM packaged with the Fall 1998 issue of Mediamatic, a Dutch magazine on media, art and television. OSS/**** explores the different physical elements of a personal computer – the screen, the mouse and the keyboard – through the different programs: **** ***, #Reset and %20. Collectively, these programs engaged the physical situation of the computer – subverting the illusion of the graphical user interface, and drawing awareness in the viewer to their engagement with their private desktop on their personal computer.
The version we show here, %20, features the keyboard and its relationship with what is happening on the screen: the program alters the desktop visually according to various parameters activated by the keys. The sound, and the changing, frequently stroboscopic rhythm with which the images move, create in the user a tension around the status of their own data, as much as an exploration of the key combinations offered by the artists.