NETworking 

Net Art From the Computer Fine Arts Collection   

Yoshi Sodeoka 

www.computerfinearts.com/collection/sodeoka/ascii_rock/

Yoshi Sodeoka - an American artist, designer and musician - uses the encoding language known as ASCII, which first came into use in 1963. This language is composed of a series of numbers that are equivalent to letters and symbols, thus enabling different computer systems to communicate by means of texts. Early computers, which lacked graphic cabilities, frequently employed ASCII to create visual imagery out of letters and numbers. Sodeoka combined this encoding language with MIDI software (launched in 1983) in order to create a graphic template that "translates" televised segments such as a speech given by President Bush, or - in this case - video images of a rock concert. Much like Nam June Paik, the pioneering video artist who gave new form to electronic images by using a magnet, Sodeoka replaces photographed images with a flow of visual data that "converts" mass cultural figures into a stream of data; in this manner, he casts the online world into visual form.

Born in New York, 1967; lives and works in New York