Joshua Davis (web designer)

Joshua Davis (web designer)

Joshua Davis (born June 13, 1971) is an American web designer, author and artist in new media. He was an early pioneer in the use of Macromedia Flash. He is the author of "Flash to the Core" (2002) [cite book|last=Davis|first=Joshua|title=Flash to the Core: An Interactive Sketchbook|publisher=New Riders Publishing|year=2002-07-24|url=http://flashtothecore.praystation.com/|id=ISBN 0735712883] and was featured in the seminal book "New Masters of Flash" (2000). [cite book|last=Davis|first=Joshua|title=New Masters of Flash|version=1st edition|publisher=Friends of Ed|year=2000|id=ISBN 1-59059-209-3|url=http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=1590592093]

Biography

A proficient illustrator and painter with a passion for technology, Davis’ work brought an entirely new dimension to art. Utilizing randomization in controlled environments, or Chaos Theory, Davis established a new and unique perspective on visual communication and creative expression, pioneering an area previously unexplored in graphic design.

In January 2001, as part of issue #100 of K10k.net, Davis posted an autobiography — a revealing look at his personal life in the New York City art/club scene in the early 1990s, his drug addiction, and his ability to overcome it to pursue his goal of being a full-time artist. [cite web|title=Issue 100|url=http://www.k10k.net/issues/issuewarp.aspx?IssueID=100|publisher=K10k.net|issue=100|date=2001-01-01|accessdate=2006-07-07] Davis wrote that once he left the club scene, he aspired to be a writer and illustrator of children's books. It was at the Pratt Institute that Davis began to delve into writing HTML, working under Thomas Noller in 1995. Soon after, he began to experiment with Macromedia Flash and its early scripting language, and further with ActionScript programming.

Joshua Davis' work became a major influence in graphic and web design in the "Y2K" era of the Internet’s dot-com explosion. Davis himself was distinguished from other web designers by his many tattoos, leading to his reputation as being a web design "rockstar" — a label he dismisses.Fact|date=February 2007 From 1998 to 2001, he worked with the web production company Kioken. When Kioken folded, Davis became an independent web designer and artist, touring the world to speak at various graphic design conferences, such as SIGGRAPH, Flash Forward, BD4D, OFFF, Graphika Manila and others.

In 2003, he was asked by Tool's Adam Jones to take over their websites. The band's official site was replaced by an intro page designed by Davis, but has since been changed.cite web|title=TOOL "Swarm" intro|url=http://www.toolband.com/index2.html|accessdate=2006-07-10]

In 2002 he teamed up with developer Branden Hall to form The Department of Notation Studios, a media development studio. The company was disbanded in 2006 when Hall left to form [http://www.automatastudios.com Automata Studios Ltd.] with fellow developer Keenan Keeling. Despite the separation Davis and Hall continue to collaborate on various projects.

As of 2007, Davis lives in New York with his wife and daughter. He is a professor at New York’s School of Visual Arts, runs his own design studio, and continues to lecture and lead workshops in design conferences.

Influences

Davis was strongly influenced by Jackson Pollock, an abstract expressionist whose work came of age in the 1940s and 50s. Pollock splattered paint (as well as other items) across large canvases with the idea that his art was the process of its creation rather than the final product. Embracing the computer as a tool for generating his work, Davis wrote code that randomly distributed, arranged, and distorted his artwork, essentially creating new work as a final result. Other times he generated entire pieces practically completely at random. That is, the art is the code that produces the final result rather than the final randomly generated works themselves.

Davis was also influenced by his love of classic video games, including using a sprite of an alien from "Space Invaders" as his logo for Praystation.

Praystation

.

The second year of Praystation.com was compiled into a CD-ROM called "PrayStation Hardrive", which included source files, photos and miscellaneous items that Joshua Davis worked on during that time, distributed in limited quantities by IdN magazine. The disc included a 32-page booklet and was packaged in a plastic casing modeled after the PlayStation 2. [cite book|last=Davis|first=Joshua|title=Praystation Hardrive|publisher=Systems Designs, Ltd.|year=2001|id=ISBN 962-86177-1-0]

Dreamless

Dreamless.org was the site of a popular Internet forum, hosted by Joshua Davis from 1999 to 2001. Its minimal design, understated Web presence and hidden registration page all added to its intrigue, and for a while it was a gathering source of creativity for many graphic and web designers and programmers. "Photoshop Battles" were a popular activity among forum members, leading into the internet phenomenon now referred to as Photoshop tennis. The community of Dreamless traveled past the boundaries of the Internet — impromptu local meetings ("riots", as Davis called them) were arranged for Dreamless users to meet face-to-face and exchange ideas. The popular community-based designer tee shirt company, Threadless actually began as a thread on Dreamless - which is where the company actually derived the name Threadless.

One notorious forum on Dreamless was "08 - Meaningless and Shallow", a topical free-for-all which lead to numerous flame wars, post floods and user-led CSS vandalism. After several "meltdowns" and member disputes, Davis closed Dreamless in July 2001. Since then, many other web designer-based forums arose in its stead, most notably [http://www.yayhooray.com YayHooray.com] , [http://www.humhum.be Humhum.be] , [http://yauyhooray.com yAUyhooray.com] and [http://butt3rscotch.org butt3rscotch.org] .

elected Works

Books

*
*

Multimedia

*

Websites

* [http://www.joshuadavis.com/ Joshua Davis Studios]
* [http://www.once-upon-a-forest.com/ Once Upon A Forest]
* [http://ps2.praystation.com/pound/v4/ PrayStation.com] - Year 2, version 4 archive

Lectures/Workshops

Awards & Accolades

Joshua Davis was the winner of the 2001 Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in the category “Net Excellence” and has exhibited his works at the Tate Modern (London), the Ars Electronica (Austria), the Design Museum (London), le Centre Pompidou (France), the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), PS.1 MoMA (New York), among others. PraystationIn December 2006, His work will be inducted into the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s "National Design Triennial: Design Life Now" exhibit.cite web|title=National Design Triennial: Design Life Now|url=http://www.cooperhewitt.org/exhibitions/triennial/design_life_now.asp|accessdate=2006-07-07]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.joshuadavis.com/ Joshua Davis Studios]
** [http://diary.joshuadavis.com/ Joshua Davis' weblog]
** [http://www.praystation.com/ Praystation] , [http://www.cyphen.com/ Cyphen] , [http://www.dreamless.org/ Dreamless] and [http://www.antiweb-chaos.com/ Antiweb-Chaos] are defunct; each URL redirects to joshuadavis.com.
* [http://www.once-upon-a-forest.com/ Once Upon A Forest]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Joshua Davis — is the name of: Joshua Davis (web designer) (born 1971), web designer and founder of Praystation.com Josh Davis (swimmer) (born 1972), 3 time Olympic Gold medalist swimmer DJ Shadow (born 1972), disc jockey whose real name is Joshua Davis Joshua… …   Wikipedia

  • Dj web radio — Paris One DJ Webradio Création 29 juillet 2003 Propriétaire Association Paris One Slogan « The Next Deejayneration » Langue Français Pays …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Pratt Institute — Infobox University name = Pratt Institute motto = Be True To Your Work And Your Work Will be True To You established = 1887 type = Private faculty = 899 head label = President head = President Thomas F. Schutte undergrad = 3,070 postgrad = 1,607… …   Wikipedia

  • Muid Latif — Born Abdul Muid Abdul Latif February 24, 1979 George Town, Penang, Malaysia Occupation Digital Artist, Web designer …   Wikipedia

  • The Young and the Restless minor characters — The following are characters from the American soap opera The Young and the Restless who are notable for their actions or relationships, but who do not warrant their own articles. Contents 1 Current Characters 1.1 Genevieve …   Wikipedia

  • Mark Vanco — (born October 13, 1968) is an American designer and artist in new media. He was an influential artist of the cyberpunk aesthetic and an early proponent of the transition towards digital lifestyle. He is the creator of Rotor Clothing. Contents …   Wikipedia

  • MinnPost.com — Type Non Profit Newspaper, Monday through Friday Format Web Publisher Joel Kramer Editor Ro …   Wikipedia

  • List of Young Global Leaders — Contents 1 2005 1.1 Business 1.2 Political 1.3 Societal 1.4 Intellectual …   Wikipedia

  • performing arts — arts or skills that require public performance, as acting, singing, or dancing. [1945 50] * * * ▪ 2009 Introduction Music Classical.       The last vestiges of the Cold War seemed to thaw for a moment on Feb. 26, 2008, when the unfamiliar strains …   Universalium

  • Joueurs De Tennis Numéros 1 Mondiaux — est une liste annuelle des joueurs qui ont été généralement considérés, par les journalistes de tennis ou les promoteurs ou les dirigeants ou encore par les joueurs eux mêmes, comme les meilleurs sur l ensemble de l année considérée. Ce… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”