Garnet Hertz (born 1973) is a Canadian artist, designer and academic. Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Art and is known for his electronic artworks and for his research in the areas of ''

critical making Critical making refers to the hands-on productive activities that link digital technologies to society. It was invented to bridge the gap between creative, physical, and conceptual exploration. The purpose of critical making resides in the learnin ...

'' and

DIY culture "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...

Work

Hertz is known for robotic artworks that are a synthesis of living insects and electronic machinery. His ''Cockroach Controlled Mobile Robot'' (2007) uses a giant Madagascan cockroach to control a robot that moves through the gallery space. In his 2001 work ''Fly with Implanted Web Server'', viewers of a specific URL browsed web pages served from inside a biological organism. Several of his works involve the repurposing of obsolete media technologies. His work ''OutRun'' turned an arcade video game cabinet into a street-driveable vehicle. As the vehicle is driven, it converts the a camera view of the real street into an 8-bit video screen view that the driver uses to navigate. Hertz's publishing works are generally focused on alternative electronic culture in design and art, and include a 10-booklet

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...

series titled ''Critical Making'', a booklet titled ''Disobedient Electronics'', and a

media archaeology Media archaeology or media archeology is a field that attempts to understand new and emerging media through close examination of the past, and especially through critical scrutiny of dominant progressivist narratives of popular commercial media s ...

book titled ''A Collection of Many Problems''. With

Jussi Parikka Jussi Parikka (born 1976) is a Finnish new media theorist and Professor iDigital Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University Denmark. He is also (visiting) Professor in Technological Culture & Aesthetics at Winchester School of Art (University of ...

, Hertz co-authored a paper entitled "Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method," which was nominated for the 2011

Transmediale Transmediale, stylised as transmediale is an annual festival for art and digital culture in Berlin, usually held over five days at the end of January and the beginning of February. Transmediale takes the form of a conference (sometimes called ...

Vilem Flusser

media theory Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly ...

award. He is also author of the academic monograph titled ''Art + DIY Electronics'' by

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

in the

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

series in 2023. The project is described by curator

Tina Rivers Ryan Tina Rivers Ryan is an American curator, researcher, author, and art historian. Her expertise is in new media art, which includes digital art, and internet art. She is an assistant curator at the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York s ...

as follows: "In this groundbreaking study, Hertz argues that the

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

electronic art Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media. More broadly, it refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and elec ...

ists who 'kludge' their own technologies constitute an important artistic countercultural practice that is an urgent response to the escalating failures of our technological infrastructures."

Academic career

Hertz is the

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in Design + Media Arts at

Emily Carr University of Art and Design Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co ...

. Hertz was previously

Research Scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...

and

Artist in Residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

in the Department of

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

at the

University of California Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

and was also Faculty in the Media Design Program at the

Art Center College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred R. ...

Awards

In 2003, Hertz won a Canada-U.S.

Fulbright Award The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to pursue graduate studies at the University of California Irvine in an interdisciplinary program in art, computer science and engineering. In 2008, Hertz won the Oscar Signorini prize for

robotic art Robotic art is any artwork that employs some form of robotic or automated technology. There are many branches of robotic art, one of which is robotic installation art, a type of installation art that is programmed to respond to viewer interactions ...

. In 2013, Hertz was awarded a Canada Research Chair as Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts. In 2019, Hertz was awarded a second term as Canada Research Chair as Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts.

External links

* Garnet Hertz
Personal home page, conceptlab.com

Garnet Hertz - MIT Press Author Page

Garnet Hertz - Canada Research Chair Profile

Garnet Hertz - Google Scholar Page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hertz, Garnet 1973 births Living people Artists from Saskatoon Canadian digital artists New media artists Robotic art University of Saskatchewan alumni University of California, Irvine alumni University of California, Irvine people Art Center College of Design faculty Canada Research Chairs Emily Carr University of Art and Design faculty Canadian contemporary artists Canadian designers Artists from Saskatchewan Art Center College of Design people