Go to www.jodi.org and you will experience a non-site, an impressionistic commentary on information overload. Page after page of scrap data, code, ASCII art, links to error messages and scrolling reports force the user to relinquish any navigational or structural expectations inherited from run-of-the-Pagemill sites. Jodi.org is really quite effective and, in a sense, beautiful. There is not a word of explanation anywhere to be found on the site, and quite a few of its reviewers over the past couple of years seem mystified as to who created it.

After digging through pages turned up in an AltaVista search for "jodi.org", I have gathered that the site’s origin is Dutch, and that it was featured at a gallery in Tribeca (New York City) called Open Interactive Media. The show, "The Wave: Digital Process as its own Direction" opened on May 19, 1998, and ran through the end of June. In a press release dated March 31, the show’s curator Ben Coopersmith states the show’s premise:

"The exhibition will feature artworks which utilize digital and new media technologies to give them a distinctive voice among other art media. With the recent expansion and development of these technologies, the computer has grown from a production tool, producing a voice of its own; allowing communication at a level previously confined to science fiction. To artists, these new technological capabilities expand their own creative process, giving them an open-ended and dynamic means of expression."

I called Mr. Coopersmith and found that this great idea for a show never took place, due to "a flood." "Literally?" I asked. "Quite literally. We had to unplug all the art," he replied. He added that he is actively trying to reschedule the show, and that it will probably take place before the end of the year. He told me that the site’s creators are a Dutch couple who now live in Barcelona, and are part of a group of European artists intent on revealing the inner being of the web. He told me that if I’d email the couple who created (and continue to create) the site, they might bless me with an information-laden reply, but that they "might not; I’m not sure how important anonymity is to them."

So I emailed the creators of jodi.org a routine journalistic inquiry. Here’s their reply (with my words in italics):

So now we know that this is the third anniversary of jodi.org; its creators are probably celebrating its longevity in a tavern in Barcelona – speaking with one another in short, enigmatic bursts, punctuated by shots of espresso. And we also know from whence the odd name JODI comes, that it is a combination of the first two letters of each of the two artists’ first names.

If you go to the sites Joan and Dirk identify under "WHY," you will find a handful of eloquent essays on what new media critic Alex Galloway calls "browser.art." Invented by the Dutch couple themselves back in 1994, browser.art’s original purpose was to use the Web as a medium in its own right, rather than a conduit for other forms of art. This style, also referred to as "net.art," strips away the glamor of the Internet (and of computers in general) and immerses the user in the well of data which resides behind the surface. Or, more correctly, in an image of what that well must look like. Although none of its data is useful, browser.art is arguably a very substantial and meaningful form.

It becomes most meaningful to people like myself, people who are products of the TV/computer era, on parts of jodi.org which are reminiscent of an Atari Dig Dug or Combat interface, or which look like a cheap software (http://www.jodi.org/goodtimes/alpha/index.html) supposedly "checking" or "scanning" your computer. Collages of computer icons (http://www.jodi.org/100/cache/index2.html) and the occasional chirps of a touch-tone phone truly summon the zeitgeist of a plugged-in world. Of course, the user who appreciates jodi.org will also have a general understanding of art; if you smirk at Mondrians, or just don’t get Duchamp’s "Fountain," you will not enjoy the jodi.org experience.

It is interesting that when Joan and Dirk first created the site, they rushed to Yahoo! to attempt to register it with the other art listings, but were turned away. According to one of the letters posted at www.archimuse.com, "Yahoo! said they should try again later when they had more work to show." Three years later, you will find jodi.org listed in the Bizarre Jokes category (http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Humor__Jokes__and_Fun/Bizarre), along with such trivialities as the famous dancing baby, "The Gumby File," and a site for men who like to keep women trapped in a pit.

The best experience of jodi.org is through Internet Explorer version 3 or 4 on a PC, though I had almost as much fun on Netscape on a Mac. You will need to have Java and Shockwave installed to get the full effect. Be sure to save your work before you start – jodi.org sometimes, purposefully, crashes your browser, and possibly your whole system.

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Feel free to critique, comment, or suggest a site review by emailing aaron@schwa.com. Aaron is an interface designer and founding partner at Schwa Digital Design (http://www.schwa.com), and has also written about the Internet for Books and Culture and Wired. In his other life he's a poet and book reviewer for Publishers Weekly.