Open, democratic communication systems and social contexts: The Status Project

Heath Bunting emerged from the 1980s committed to building open, democratic communication systems and social contexts. He came from the street up, passing through and often revisiting graffiti, performance, intervention, pirate radio, fax/ mail art and BBS systems to become an active participant in the explosion of the Internet.

Between 1994 and 1997 Bunting produced many Internet projects, which can be accessed at the server www.irational.org set-up by himself.

Recently, he has moved into the field of genetics proclaiming it to be the next ‘new media’, and is also developing work in the area of physical network performance.

Heath Bunting biography (from http://irational.org):
“Heath Bunting was born a Buddhist in Wood Green, London, UK and is able to make himself laugh. He is a co-founder of both net.art and sport-art movements and is banned for life from entering the USA for his anti GM work. His self taught and authentically independent work is direct and uncomplicated and has never been awarded a prize or been bought or sold. He is both Britain's most important practising artist and The World's most famous computer artist. He aspires to be a skillful member of the public and is producing an expert system for identity mutation.”

About the Status Project: “We spend our days navigating both street and institutional status systems. The Status Project intends to make visible these systems and facilitate easy movement within them.”

Click here to download some of the visual maps:

http://status.irational.org/visualisation/maps/homeless.pdf

http://status.irational.org/visualisation/maps/a_man.pdf

http://status.irational.org/visualisation/maps/a_woman.pdf