JODI: OXO

, Lightbox Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

Computer simulation of Alexander S. Douglas, OXO (or Noughts and Crosses), 1952.

Lightbox Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

The Harvard Art Museums present a new installation by JODI, the pioneering artist collective formed in 1994 by Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans. One of the most influential artist duos working in the age of the Internet, JODI has produced a new project, OXO (2018), for the Lightbox Gallery, a collaborative space for digital projects on the museums’ uppermost level.

Based on the game tic-tac-toe, OXO is an interactive multichannel installation influenced by early computer games, including Noughts and Crosses or OXO, a game built in 1952 by Alexander S. Douglas. JODI’s installation responds to this early history of computing, war games, and artificial intelligence, thinking through the game tic-tac-toe as an important cultural artifact. Visit the Lightbox Gallery to play OXO throughout the installation.

The installation is organized by Mary Schneider Enriquez, Houghton Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Chris Molinski, Associate Research Curator for Digital Initiatives, at the Harvard Art Museums.

Presented in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today (February 7–May 20, 2018), which explores the extensive effects of the Internet on artistic practice and contemporary culture. Art in the Age of the Internet is organized by Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator, and Jeffrey De Blois, Curatorial Associate, at the ICA. Learn more at aiai.icaboston.org.

JODI: OXO at the Harvard Art Museums is supported in part by a grant from The Creative Industries Fund NL.

Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.