BIO

“We have to go back to kindergarten. We have to get back to the level of those who have not yet learned to read and write. In this kindergarten, we will have to play infantile games with computers, plotters, and similar gadgets. We must use complex and refined apparatuses, the fruit of a thousand years of intellectual development, for childish purposes.”
—Vilém Flusser, “Does Writing Have a Future?”

Born 1978, Chicago, Illinois

Joel Swanson is a text-based interdisciplinary artist exploring the intersection of language and technology. He is an Associate Professor at the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder where he directs the TYPO Lab, an experimental art and design space exploring the limits of text-based technologies. He earned his Master of Fine Arts at the University of California, San Diego with a focus on Computing and the Arts.

Swanson’s creative practice examines the limitations, glitches, and failures inherent to language and text-based technologies. His work takes many forms including large-scale neon installations, digital animations, and intricate, repetitive drawings. He is fascinated by translation software, predictive text, and spell-check algorithms, along with erasers, label-makers, and manual typewriters. He uses these tools in absurd and unorthodox ways to expose their subtle but profound influence on our communication and thinking. This playful, provocative, and at times uncomfortable work challenges the cultural standards and norms embedded within language.

He has exhibited work at venues including the MSU Broad Art Museum, the Power Plant in Toronto, the Glucksman Museum in Cork, Ireland, Banff Centre for the Arts, the 57th Venice Biennale (official offsite venue), and a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Swanson has participated in residencies at La Napoule Art Foundation, HANGAR - Centro de Investigação Artística, the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, and RedLine Contemporary Art Center. He is a Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum Fellow and has included work in the Electronic Literature Organization's 4th Anthology.