Dirk Paesmans (Belgian, b. 1965) is a net art pioneer who, with Joan Heemskerk, has worked since 1994 as the duo JODI, subverting the code and interfaces of websites, software and video games. He studied under Nam June Paik at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf before meeting Heemskerk at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, where they studied photography and video.
In 1995, following an 18-month residency at the CADRE electronic arts lab at San Jose State University, JODI launched jodi.org, a cryptic combination of text and image that only fully makes sense once its HTML code is inspected.The site blended the web page itself with the code used to build it, folding the normally hidden programming into the viewer's experience,and was featured in the net art section of documenta X in Kassel in 1997.
From 1999 JODI began modifying existing video games, starting with SOD, which reduces Wolfenstein 3D to an abstract environment while keeping its original gameplay, and followed by reworkings of Quake, Jet Set Willy and, in 2004, Max Payne Cheats Only.Described by a critic as part of a “screen grab” period,this body of work also includes My%Desktop (2002-2007), which records the artists' computer monitor as they work, play games or write code.
Later projects turned to newer platforms: GeoGoo (2008-2021) treats Google Maps as a canvas for generative compositions, and Thumbing (2010) is a series of video performances made on YouTube. JODI's work has entered the collections of MoMA, SFMoMA and the Stedelijk Museum, and received the inaugural Prix Net Art Award from Rhizome in 2014.
