Automatic Rain

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Automatic Rain, one of JODI’s first works for the web browser, drew inspiration from the timed sprinklers that kept Silicon Valley’s lawns in perfect order. The piece begins with a red logo bearing the title of the work. These were drawn from small branded flags that announced the presence of timed sprinklers on the lawns around San Jose State University in Silicon Valley.

Playing out across three web pages, it made use of a found image, a photograph, Netscape’s blink feature, and the slow loading times of the mid-90s web to create a simple and lyrical composition.

In 1995, on a dial-up connection, blue text would fill the screen slowly; and the tag makes the text flashed on and off. Clicking on this brings the user to a black screen. The slowness of the apparatus gave the rain a decidedly uneven, cinematic effect.

(summarised from ‘Net Art Anthology’ project of Rhizome)