Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom computer viruses.
Life and work
Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago. He studied fine art and philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Cornell University, and Columbia University. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy of Art and Technology at the Planetary Collegium at University of Wales, NewportZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe lecture page Joseph Nechvatal: Immersion Into Noise and has taught art theory and art history at the School of Visual Arts. He has had many solo exhibitions Joseph Nechvatal Interview: The Viral Tempest November 10, 2023 and is one of five artists that art historian Patrick Frank examines in his 2024 book Art of the 1980s: As If the Digital Mattered. Art of the 1980s: As If the Digital Mattered by Patrick Frank, Walter de Gruyter GmbH
His work in the late 1970s and early 1980s chiefly consisted of postminimal gray palimpsest-like drawings that were often photo-mechanically enlarged. Beginning in 1979 he became associated with the artist group Colab, organized the Public Arts International/Free Speech series, and helped established the non-profit group ABC No Rio. In 1983 he co-founded the avant-garde electronic art music audio project Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine. In 1984, Nechvatal began work on an opera called XS: The Opera Opus (1984-6)Rhys Chatham, Die Donnergötter (LP, CD), Table of the Elements/Radium 2006, CD Book, p. 14 with the no wave musical composer Rhys Chatham.
He began using computers and robotics to make post-conceptual paintings in 1986 Joseph Nechvatal, Selected Writings. Paris: Editions Antoine Candau, 1990 and later, in his signature work, began to employ self-created computer viruses. From 1991 to 1993, he was artist-in-residence at the Louis Pasteur Atelier in Arbois, France and at the Saline Royale/Ledoux Foundation's computer lab. There he worked on The Computer Virus Project, his first artistic experiment with computer viruses and computer virus animation.Robert C. Morgan Digital Hybrids, Art Press volume #255, pp. 75-76. He exhibited computer-robotic paintings at Documenta 8 in 1987.Nechvatal, J. 1987. Theoretical Statement Concerning Computer Robotic Paintings, Documenta 8 Catalogue, Vol. 3
In 2002 he extended his experimentation into viral artificial life through a collaboration with the programmer Stephane Sikora of music2eye in a work called the Computer Virus Project II.
Nechvatal has also created a noise music work called viral symphOny, a collaborative sound symphony created by using his computer virus software at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University. In 2021 Pentiments released Nechvatal's retrospective audio cassette called Selected Sound Works (1981-2021) and in 2022 his The Viral Tempest, a double vinyl LP of new audio work.Joseph Nechvatal / The Viral Tempest Interview at It’s Psychedelic Baby music magazine In 2025, he joined the roster of artists/musicians at Table of the Elements with two CD/book releases: Selected Sound Works (1981-2021) and The Marriage of Orlando and Artaud, Even. Table of the Elements Records Catalog 2025
From 1999 to 2013, Nechvatal taught art theories of immersive virtual reality and the viractual at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (SVA). A book of his collected essays entitled Towards an Immersive Intelligence: Essays on the Work of Art in the Age of Computer Technology and Virtual Reality (1993–2006) was published by Edgewise Press in 2009. Also in 2009, his virtual reality art theory and art history book Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances was published.Nechvatal. J. Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing (July 7, 2009) / In 2011, his book Immersion Into Noise was published by Open Humanities Press in conjunction with the University of Michigan Library's Scholarly Publishing Office.Immersion Into Noise published by Open Humanities Press in conjunction with the University of Michigan Library's Scholarly Publishing Office. Ann Arbor. 2011. Nechvatal has also published three books with Punctum Books: Minóy (noise music—ed.—2014), Destroyer of Naivetés (poetry—2015), and Styling Sagaciousness (poetry—2022). Joseph Nechvatal Interview: The Viral Tempest November 10, 2023 In 2023 his art theory cybersex farce novella venus©~Ñ~vibrator, even was published by Orbis Tertius Press Joseph Nechvatal Interview: The Viral Tempest November 10, 2023
The Joseph Nechvatal archive is housed at The Fales Library Downtown Collection at the NYU Special Collections Library in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal archive at The Fales Library Downtown Collection at the NYU Special Collections Library
Viractualism Viractualism is an art theory concept developed by Nechvatal in 1999Christiane Paul, in her book Digital Art, discusses Nechvatal's concept of viractualism on page 58. One of the images she chooses to illustrate that section of the book is Nechvatal's painting entitled the birth Of the viractual (2001). Joe Lewis, in the March 2003 issue of Art in America (pp.123-124), discusses the viractual in his review Joseph Nechvatal at Universal Concepts Unlimited. John Reed in Artforum Web 3-2004 Critic's Picks discusses the concept in his piece #1 Joseph Nechvatal. Frank Popper also writes about the viractual concept in his book From Technological to Virtual Art on page 122. from Ph.D. research The title of the Ph.D. dissertation is "Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances : A Study of the Affinity Between Artistic Ideologies Based in Virtual Reality and Previous Immersive Idioms". A url introduction to the thesis, entitled "Frame and Excess", can be read on-line and the entire thesis downloaded in PDF at: Nechvatal conducted at the Planetary Collegium at University of Wales, Newport. There he developed his concept of the viractual, which strives to create an interface between the actual and the virtual.
Footnotes
Further reading John Johnston, The Allure of Machinic Life: Cybernetics, Artificial Life, and the New AI, MIT Press, 2008, cover Donald Kuspit, The Matrix of Sensations VI: Digital Artists and the New Creative Renaissance Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito, The Edge of Art, Thames & Hudson Ltd, p. 213 Frank Popper, From Technological to Virtual Art, MIT Press, pp. 120–123 Johanna Drucker, Joseph Nechvatal : Critical Pleasure Robert C. Morgan, Voluptuary: An algorithmic hermaphornology, Tema Celeste Magazine, volume #93, p. 94 Bruce Wands, Art of the Digital Age, London: Thames & Hudson, p. 65 Robert C. Morgan, Laminations of the Soul, Editions Antoine Candau, 1990, pp. 23–30 Margot Lovejoy, Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age Routledge 2004 Joseph Nechvatal, Immersive Excess in the Apse of Lascaux, Technonoetic Arts 3, no3. 2005 Joseph Nechvatal. Immersion Into Noise. Open Humanities Press in conjunction with the University of Michigan Library's Scholarly Publishing Office. Ann Arbor. 2011 Johanna Drucker, Joseph Nechvatal : Critical Pleasure, Redaktion Frank Berndt, 1996, pp. 10–13 Mario Costa, Phenomenology of New Tech Arts, Artmedia, Salerno, 2005, p. 6 & pp. 36 – 38 Dominique Moulon, L'art numerique: spectateur-acteuret vie artificielle, Les images numeriques #47-48, 2004, pp. 124–125 Christine Buci-Glucksmann, L'art à l'époque virtuel, in Frontières esthétiques de l'art, Arts 8, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004 Brandon Taylor, Collage, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2006, p. 221 Dominique Moulon, Conférence Report : Media Art in France, Un Point d'Actu, L'Art Numerique, pp. 124–125 Edmond Couchot, Des Images, du temps et des machines, édité Actes Sud, 2007, pp. 263–264 Fred Forest, Art et Internet, Editions Cercle D'Art / Imaginaire Mode d'Emploi, pp. 48 –51 Wayne Enstice & Melody Peters, Drawing: Space, Form, & Expression, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp. 312–313 Ellen K. Levy, Synthetic Lighting: Complex Simulations of Nature, Photography Quarterly (#88) 2004, pp. 7–9 Marie-Paule Nègre, Des artistes en leur monde, volume 2, la Gazette de l'Hotel Drout, 2008, pp. 82–83 Corrado Levi, È andata così: Cronaca e critica dell'arte 1970-2008, Joseph Nechvatal intervistato nel suo studio a New York (1985–86), pp. 130–135 Donald Kuspit, Del Atre Analogico al Arte Digital in Arte Digital Y Videoarte, Kuspit, D. ed., Consorcio del Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, pp. 33–34 & pp. 210 – 212 Robert C. Morgan, Nechvatal's Visionary Computer Virus, in Gruson, L. ed. 1993. Joseph Nechvatal: Computer Virus Project, Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans: Fondation Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, pp. 8–15 Sarah J. Rogers (ed), Body Mécanique: Artistic Explorations of Digital Realms, Columbus, Ohio, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University Edward A. Shanken, Art and Electronic Media. London: Phaidon, 2009. , pp. 42, 285, 160
External links
Joseph Nechvatal's website