Garnet Hertz
Born
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Known forArtist, Designer, Writer
TitleCanada Research Chair of Design and Media Art
AwardsFulbright 2003, Oscar Signorini 2008, Canada Research Chair 2013, Canada Research Chair 2019
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Saskatchewan
Alma materUniversity of California Irvine
Doctoral advisorMark Poster
Other advisorsSimon Penny
Academic work
Institutions
Notable ideascritical making
Websitehttps://conceptlab.com/

Garnet Hertz (born 1973) is a Canadian artist, designer and academic.[1] Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Art and is known for his electronic artworks and for his research in the areas of critical making and DIY culture.[2][3]

Work

Hertz is known for robotic artworks that are a synthesis of living insects and electronic machinery. His Cockroach Controlled Mobile Robot (2007) uses a giant Madagascan cockroach to control a robot that moves through the gallery space.[4][5][6][7] In his 2001 work Fly with Implanted Web Server, viewers of a specific URL browsed web pages served from inside a biological organism.[8][9]

Several of his works involve the repurposing of obsolete media technologies.[10][11] His work OutRun turned an arcade video game cabinet into a street-driveable vehicle.[12][13] As the vehicle is driven, it converts the a camera view of the real street into an 8-bit video screen view that the driver uses to navigate.[14][15][16]

Hertz's publishing works are generally focused on alternative electronic culture in design and art, and include a 10-booklet zine series titled Critical Making,[17] a booklet titled Disobedient Electronics,[18] and a media archaeology book titled A Collection of Many Problems.[19] With Jussi Parikka, Hertz co-authored a paper entitled "Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method," which was nominated for the 2011 Transmediale Vilem Flusser media theory award.[20]

He is also author of the academic monograph titled Art + DIY Electronics by MIT Press in the Leonardo series in 2023.[21] The project is described by curator Tina Rivers Ryan as follows: "In this groundbreaking study, Hertz argues that the DIY electronic artists who 'kludge' their own technologies constitute an important artistic countercultural practice that is an urgent response to the escalating failures of our technological infrastructures."[22]

In 2024, Hertz taught a university course at Emily Carr University titled "How To Appreciate Graffiti". The course featured several guests, including Smokey D, a well-respected Vancouver graffiti artist.[23]

Academic career

Hertz is the Canada Research Chair in Design + Media Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.[24] Hertz was previously Research Scientist and Artist in Residence in the Department of Informatics at the University of California Irvine and was also Faculty in the Media Design Program at the Art Center College of Design.[2] He has also worked at the University of Regina.[25]

Awards

In 2003, Hertz won a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Award to pursue graduate studies at the University of California Irvine in an interdisciplinary program in art, computer science and engineering.[26] In 2008, Hertz won the Oscar Signorini prize for robotic art.[27] In 2013, Hertz was awarded a Canada Research Chair as Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts.[28] In 2019, Hertz was awarded a second term as Canada Research Chair as Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts.[29]

References

  1. ^ "Artist/Maker Name "Hertz, Garnet"". Canadian Heritage Information Network. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Critical Making". We Make Money not Art. 11 January 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  3. ^ Gunn, Ali. "FutureEverything 2014: Tools for the Unknown Future". The Skinny. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  4. ^ Jeffrey A. Lockwood (22 July 2010). Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War. Oxford University Press. pp. 289–. ISBN 978-0-19-973353-8.
  5. ^ Andrew Pickering (15 April 2010). The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future. University of Chicago Press. pp. 241–. ISBN 978-0-226-66792-8.
  6. ^ Matthias Rauterberg; Marco Combetto (1 October 2006). Entertainment Computing - ICEC 2006: 5th International Conference, Cambridge, UK, September 20-22, 2006, Proceedings. Springer. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-3-540-45261-4.
  7. ^ Cecilia Di Chio; Alexandros Agapitos; Stefano Cagnoni (24 March 2012). Applications of Evolutionary Computation: EvoApplications 2012: Málaga, Spain, April 11-13, 2012, Proceedings. Springer. pp. 218–. ISBN 978-3-642-29178-4.
  8. ^ Corrado Federici; Leslie Anne Boldt-Irons; Ernesto Virgulti (2005). Images and Imagery: Frames, Borders, Limits : Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Peter Lang. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-0-8204-7423-6.
  9. ^ Susan Schreibman; Ray Siemens; John Unsworth (26 January 2016). A New Companion to Digital Humanities. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 48–. ISBN 978-1-118-68059-9.
  10. ^ Jussi Parikka (23 April 2013). What is Media Archaeology?. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-0-7456-6139-1.
  11. ^ Gary Hall (22 April 2016). Pirate Philosophy: For a Digital Posthumanities. MIT Press. pp. 209–. ISBN 978-0-262-03440-1.
  12. ^ Sterling, Bruce. "Design Fiction: OutRun by Garnet Hertz". Wired. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  13. ^ Mark Frauenfelder (15 April 2011). Roll Your Own. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". pp. 50–. ISBN 978-1-4493-9759-3.
  14. ^ Huffman, John Pearley. "Game Boy: How a Sega OutRun Game Cabinet Became a Car". Car and Driver. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  15. ^ Jansson, Mathias. "Videogame Appropriation in Contemporary Art: Racing Games". Furtherfield. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  16. ^ Mone, Gregory (7 February 2012). "Building a Drivable OutRun Arcade Cabinet". Popular Science. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  17. ^ Debatty, Regine (2013-01-11). "Critical Making (We Make Money Not Art Review)". We Make Money Not Art. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  18. ^ Sterling, Bruce. "Garnet Hertz lecturing on disobedient electronics". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  19. ^ Hubeek, Laurent (18 September 2010). "'A Collection of Many Problems' by Garnet Hertz – A Review". University of Amsterdam.
  20. ^ "Zombie Media Talk: Garnet Hertz (ca) and Jussi Parikka (fi) present their "Zombie Media" project | transmediale". Transmediale.de. 2011-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  21. ^ Hertz, Garnet. "Art + DIY Electronics (MIT Press)". MIT Press. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  22. ^ Rivers Ryan, Tina. "Review, Art + DIY Electronics". MIT Press, Art + DIY Electronics. MIT Press. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  23. ^ Kulkarni, Akshay. "Vancouver art students to learn about graffiti from one of the city's masters". CBC News Vancouver. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  24. ^ "Discover: First Canada Research Chairs Appointed at Emily Carr". Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  25. ^ "LinkedIn: Garnet Hertz". LinkedIn. Retrieved 31 Dec 2023.
  26. ^ "U of S Ag Professor and Fine Arts Alumnus Receive Prestigious Canada-U.S. Fulbright Awards". University of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  27. ^ Parikka, Jussi. "CTheory Interview Archaeologies of Media Art". Ctheory. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  28. ^ "Canada Research Chairs October 2014 Recipients List". Government of Canada. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  29. ^ "Canada Research Chairs Spring 2019 Recipients List". Government of Canada. Retrieved 29 November 2019.

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