Biography
Dirk Paesmans (1965, Brussels) is a Dutch contemporary artist, who in recent years has cultivated an independent artistic practice centred around the internet and the digitalised world.
His body of work includes websites, performances, prints, videos and more.
Paesmans studied under Nam June Paik at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf before attending CADRE, the electronic arts laboratory at San Jose State University in California. He started his career as a video artist, and since 1994 has been working together with Joan Heemskerk. Both form the artist collective JODI, which pioneered within web-based art in the mid-1990s.
Leading the way in exploring the possibilities of digital art, Paesmans and JODI challenge and subvert conventional norms of the internet by examining the visual aesthetics, interface elements, codes, errors and viruses of these systems. They provoke new perspectives on the relationship between technology and users and subvert expectations and conventions.
JODI's pioneering contributions to digital and media art have been widely recognized. Their work has been exhibited at institutions such as MoMA, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, ZKM Karlsruhe, ICC, Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou, Eyebeam, Rhizome and many more.