In an age ruled by technology, Jonah Brucker-Cohen’s MouseMiles (an art piece in his Desktop Subversibles series) explores how computer-related activities transfer into the physical world and their implications on our daily lives. MouseMiles is a web-based interaction site providing a networked mileage indicator for a user’s computer mouse. When entering www.mousemiles.net, a pop up window appears on screen and starts tracking the distance over time a user’s computer mouse travels. The amount of mileage a user’s mouse travels on screen is transmitted to a central server. All the miles generated by mouse movements are collected and transformed into tangible distances (miles). The mileage data is utilized to move a physical object, a model train set in real-time. MouseMiles tracks the width and height of each movement in accordance to each user’s individual screen. The width and height is used to calculate the exact mileage, the pop up window shows the markers: V (vertical), H (horizontal) and TM (total miles). It also displays the total number of laps the train has journeyed along with the total collected miles of all who participated in MouseMiles. All the markers are computed by the main server to keep track of the collected distance traveled. Every lap the train travels, the total mileage is recorded on an LCD screen at Media Lab Europe in the Republic of Ireland (where the installation currently resides and where MouseMiles was created), which simultaneously sends information back to each MouseMiles user. Therefore, everyone has the ability to view how their own mouse miles compare to the collective mileage and distance the train has moved.

I had the opportunity to interview Jonah Brucker-Cohen and the following are his answers to some of my questions regarding MouseMiles.

Jennifer Chu: I was wondering what/who inspired you or initiated your Desktop Subversibles series (including MouseMiles)?

Jonah Brucker-Cohen: As computers and the desktop metaphor reach virtual ubiquity in our daily lives, they also become objects we take for granted in daily use. My inspiration for Desktop Subversibles is to scrutinize the ubiquity of standard computer interfaces and activities such as copy/paste, clicking, and mouse movements by highlighting their existence on a shared and collective scale. By exposing the everyday interactions we have with computers in a shared space, we begin to question why and how we use these devices and their implications on our daily connected lives. MouseMiles, in particular, looks at how our physical energy used with computers such as moving the mouse and typing, become "ingested" into non-tangible forms - the same way writing with a pen results in static text. Through its physical output (a model train), MouseMiles allows for our physical 'digital' activities to be converted back to physical outputs that manifest on a collective scale. Thus our digital activities can manifest themselves on a similar level to our analog lives.

JC: I was wondering how is Mouse Miles different/unique from the examples you listed such as Mouse Odometer, Kudo etc.? Why do you think Mouse Miles is considered an installation/work of art as opposed to other programs, which are instead, deemed to be "programs for your own enjoyment"?

JBC: The distinguishing differences with MouseMiles from the other applications I reference are two fold: first, MouseMiles is a networked project, meaning that all people connected to the application are also connected to each other and a central server. All of their collected mileage is fed into one connected meter, which stores the miles and sends it back to the clients so they can know how their mileage is adding to the total miles. This provides a sense of community for each person, as they know they are part of a larger user base. The second difference the others lack is the physical aspect of MouseMiles. This gets closer to the idea of a shared, public, networked physical display. All of the collected miles are outputted to the train in real-time, thus each person's mouse movements are replayed collectively in physical space.