MouseMiles obviously makes a user not only realize the amount of time and the distance a mouse travels, but also the amount of time spent using the computer. However, the program does not justify the time a user spends on the computer as it merely makes the audience aware of time by logging the viewer’s mouse mileage. No attention is given to how the audience uses the time, but rather an emphasis is placed on the output of time. While MouseMiles documents the movements of a user across a technological frontier, it is unable to geographically represent what is being viewed or interacted with. The interactive piece tracks distances of the collective; however, the mouse movements do not qualify content relationships. Jonah Brucker-Cohen places a great emphasis on the importance of the collective in relation to his art piece. MouseMiles is pioneering a new standard through the assimilation of boundaries where individual actions are placed within the collective. The user is aware of the necessity of the collective in relation to MouseMiles, but no relationship is concretely established between one’s contribution to the mouse mileage and the artwork. The user is only fed numerical data and the output of mouse mileage used to move the train is not seen by the collective. The audience has a limited view, constrained to the pop up window and the user has to download Macromedia Shockwave 8 Plug-In in order to view data on screen. Therefore, the collective is exclusive to those who have the right hardware and software to view and interact with the art piece. All users only see the real-time train from the peripheral through a computer screen in their specific geographical location. This removal of geography affects the new geography in which the train moves by creating a false sense of the collective in a virtual world. Although the mouse mileage is enabling data to power a physical moving object, it still resonates in a virtual world as it is controlled and based upon Internet data. The barrier deployed through geography defines the collective in the virtual sense but there is no physical basis. Does MouseMiles bring the collective beyond the virtual realm? The artist has deconstructed the users’ notions of how they experience and interact with everyday technology.

However, are we becoming slaves to an age ruled by computers from which, like the Industrial Revolution, we succumb to being placed on a never-ending rail line? The machine takes precedent and controls its users like an assembly line. The daily routine of having to use technology, logging onto the Internet is controlled by our dependence on machines. There is no way of breaking the pattern of daily custom such as moving and clicking the mouse. The never-ending rail line is a fixed position, which does not allow for much movement except in the same monotonous path. Are we participating and moving into a new technological geography with the physical dissipating? Virtual space is the new geography replacing the physical location of users and installations. MouseMiles is creating the awareness of a new geography combing the physical and virtual, while integrating the user’s awareness of both characteristics. Every time the audience moves the mouse, the virtual is being translated into the physical realm. MouseMiles as interactive artwork is trying to break boundaries between the physical and virtual. However, can boundaries be truly broken with the newfound awareness where virtual space has been manifested into physical space with an emphasis on the collective rather than the individual?

*Please attach an email link for Jonah Brucker-Cohen as requested.
jonah@coin-operated.com (that’s a “j” as in jonah - not an “i”)

Written by: Jennifer Chu