Josh On

(New Zealand, 1972)

Member of the Futurefarmers artist collective. Designer and author of different web projects such as The Anti War Game or Communiculture. Among its most ambitious projects are They Rule and Exxon Secrets, two interactive online map generation systems. Other of his exhibitions have been “d10” State Cesar Chavez Gallery, San Francisco (1997); “Cafe” Limn Gallery, San Francisco (1998); “Bay Area Now II,” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; transmediale, Berlin (1999); “Wedding Exhibition”, Sapporo Art Park; Gallery 16, San Francisco; Osnabruck Media Art Festival; World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam (2000); “MFA Show,” Luggage Store Gallery, Stanford (2001); “manTRANSforms”, The Brooklyn Anchorage, New York (2001); or Ars Electronica, Linz; transmediale.03, Berlin; Whitney Biennial, New York.

He participated in Medialab Madrid in Banquete 03_Metabolismo y Comunicación with They rule!, a collective cartography project that aims to make visible some of the close interrelationships of the American ruling class. The most powerful companies in the United States are represented in a structure of interconnected links that can be navigated with a search engine. If the user finds the website of a specific company or leader interesting, they can enter it in the list of URLs corresponding to said leader or company; You can also save wiring diagrams with your comments for other users to view. In this way, future users will be able to express their approval of the information thus gathered by sending their vote. They rule! offers users the ability to investigate powerful corporations and the people behind them.