Ah, copy/paste, a truly remarkable command which has saved me many minutes of typing, paraphrasing and contextualizing, all thanks to that remarkable device – the mouse. How much effort did this mundane exercise require? Thanks to Clicks & Clicks_Livemixer, I can report that it took exactly six clicks of the mouse. Working in the background of my computer, Brucker-Cohen’s inventive project counted each click, displayed the tallied number onscreen, and relayed this number to a central server. And what an amazing six clicks they were. In addition to saving valuable minutes of my time, these six simple clicks have also contributed to the artwork itself. Compiling the clicks from each networked user, each click is translated into a unique tone, and played back at the physical installation. Thus, the physical clicks of the mouse are transformed virtually before it is recompiled again in a physical space. In other words, it translates the physical activity of the real world into the virtual through an application that is dependent upon input from the physical world – in this case, through the mouse. In a sense, he has effectively brought the physical and the virtual world together.

By concentrating on physical inputs to the Internet, such as the analog task of clicking a mouse, another alternative perspective emerges: Exposing the connection between physical and online spaces, he also effectively humanizes technology. It appears to be a recurring theme in Brucker-Cohen’s work:

Although Clicks functions in the background, collecting one’s mouse clicks, the complimentary Clicks_LiveMixer adds more user interactivity. No longer a passive exercise, the user may now directly influence the work. The clicks program alone collects the clicks and relays them to the physical installation. However, a second component of the artwork – Clicks_LiveMixer, allows one to hear the collected incoming clicks on one’s own computer, and using any of the three sliders provided by the application, one may modify the pitch, tone and duration of the incoming clicks. Therefore, collaborating with others becomes an important element of Clicks, as Brucker-Cohen portrays the digital world as an entity where communication is key. Clicks looks at how an everyday computer activity such as clicking a mouse takes on new meaning when shared among a network of people. A major premise of Clicks is to investigate how people together on-line share an experience.