Joshua Davis constructs art, which focuses on geometrical shapes, contrasting colors and intricate designs.  He creates both still pieces as well as motion and installation pieces.  All his works exemplify his modern and unique style of creation. 

As a Colorado native, Joshua Davis began his career painting bus benches.  He decided to pursue a career in the arts when one of his bus bench creations landed on the front page of the paper.[1]  After his epiphany to officially join the art world, Davis moved to New York where he experiments with various illustration techniques as well as implementing computer programming into graphic design.  He has very little formal training, as he obtained a degree in art history and taught himself computer-programming languages at night.

Davis has several artistic influences, including the Austrian artist Lia, Manny Tan, and Jackson Pollock.  Lia’s work is similar to Davis’ in that it implements both still, motion, and interactive media.  Both artists also occasionally create installation works.  More specifically, both artists utilize repetitive primitive shapes to construct intricate designs.  These shapes include lines, circles, and squares as well as many organic shapes. 

The first image is Joshua Davis’ White from 2008, while the second image is Lia’s Template from 2008.  The works are similar in their implementation of circles and their placement in an organic form.  Both works also feature a subtle reference to mathematical subjects and how math can be utilized to construct complicated designs.  The works differ greatly with the mood they portray.  Davis’ selection of color and loose placement of shapes portrays a sense of freedom, fun, and positivity.  His work is contrasted by the sharply defined and colorless shapes of Lia’s work.

Manny Tan is another digital artist that has provided great influence to Joshua Davis.  Manny’s work features a union between flash technology and basic mathematical properties.  A majority of his works are online flash illustrations that function through the interactivity of the user.  Examples of his video work can be viewed at http://www.friendsofed.com/fmc/MannyTan/index.html#.  An example of Joshu Davis’ video work can be viewed at http://vimeo.com/1606498 and http://www.toolband.com.  It appears Joshua Davis takes influence from Ta’s implementation of flash technology.  The two artists feature the implementation of proprietary shapes as well as similar patterns of motion.  Although Davis appears to utilize less flash interactivity, he does use such interactivity for web menus.  The themes of both works are constructed through the three simple elements of shape, color and motion.  

The final influential artist to Joshua Davis is Jackson Pollock. The first work depicted below is Jackson Pollock’s Untitled from 1960 while the bottom image is Joshua Davis’ Untitled from 2007.  Pollock’s and Davis’ works once again feature abstract representations.  They both implement a wide variety of color selections and rely on the simplicity of the work to construct intricate themes and subject matter.  Another similarity between the two artists lies within the common element of utilizing random elements to bring together works as a whole.  The works are not so much about the forms themselves, but rather, the motion and concept they represent. 

References:

[1] Lia. (2010). Projects. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from Lia Software Art: http://liaworks.com Davis, J. (n.d.). Biography. Retrieved September 3, 2010, from Joshua Davis Studios: http://www.joshuadavis.com/biography

[1] Finck, N. (2000, November 14). Joshua Davis. Retrieved September 3, 2010, from Digital Web Magazine: http://www.digital-web.com/articles/joshua_davis

[1] Kealoha, A. (2005, August 19). Joshua Davis, 6 Questions. Retrieved Septemeber 3, 2010, from Cool Hunting: http://www.coolhunting.com/design/joshua-davis-fi.php

[1] Lia. (2010). Projects. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from Lia Software Art: http://liaworks.com

[1] Malmber, E. (2010, January 01). Joshua Davis: Infinitely Interesting. Retrieved September 3, 2010, from Apple Pro Profiles: http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/joshuadavis

[1] Tan, M. (n.d.). Manuel Tan. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from Biography: http://www.friendsofed.com/fmc/MannyTan/index.html#

[1] Unknown. (2003). About Jackson Pollock. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from Jackson Pollock: http://www.jacksonpollock.com/bio.shtml

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At this time, the artists I have chosen to interview and study have not responded to my requests for an interview.  I have thus found a few interviews that have been conducted by other parties.  

The following interview is from http://www.coolhunting.com/design/joshua-davis-fi.php

Joshua Davis, 6 Questions

by Ami Kealoha in Design on 19 August 2005 

We’re in the home stretch leading up to the inaugural American edition of Semi-Permanent, the design conference that’s met great success over the last few years in Sydney and London. Held in New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall, the event emphasizes creativity, bringing together image-makers and producers at the forefront of diverse fields like advertising, graphic design, web, graffitti, and animation. You may have already noticed that we’ve had the privledge to showcase some of their work in the above banner. Starting with an interview with tattooed modern American innovator, Joshua Davis, over the course of the next few weeks we’ll present a series of q+a’s with some of today’s main players from Semi-Permanent’s line-up.

Joshua Davis park his car, attends to his 2-year-old daughter, and talks to his wife, all while agreeably juggling our interview on his cell phone. Multi-tasking is nothing new to this 34-year-old illustrator, painter, and designer, who, over the last decade has been winning awards, creating work for the likes of Sony, Diesel, and Wired, lecturing globally, and teaching at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Here, he homes in on current experiments with proximity-based design, the punk tunes that get him motivated, and the new frontiers of fashion.

How did you get here?
I was living in Colorado and they had 25 artists paint bus benches. Mine ended up making it on the front page of the paper and I had this defining moment. Three days later, I bought a plane ticket and went to New York with $300. I slept on people’s floors for the first year. I was just determined. I started to do stuff in galleries. Then I went to school. I thought, “It’ll give me all this free time and I can take out loans.”

While still in school, I had written and illustrated a children’s book. I love children’s books and there were two publishers in New York that I thought would do justice to my work. I’m like 23-24 years old and I got two letters back saying who are you? I told one of my classmates and he said you can self-publish, there’s this thing called the world wide web. So, I read a 500 page book about html and I had no idea what I had just read.

What are you doing now?
I really enjoy doing hand-drawn work. I literally put a sheet of paper on a Wacom tablet and I draw a piece that has all the assets, but program the color palette, for example. I think that’s what sets me apart from other designers who are using programs to do the work. It means I can collaborate with other designers. I’ve been working with the rock band Tool, which is a process of meeting with the band, coming up with ideas, and drawing.

I’m really fascinated with proximity-based design. Basically, I design proximity fields around the user’s mouse, so if I have 1000 objects on the screen, all of the objects are affected by it according to its proximity, so you get undulating waves of movement. The other stuff I’ve been getting into is 2-d, 2 1/2-d, 3-d and optical illusions, taking illustrations and scaling them up so you realize it’s a 3-d space and you can fly through it.

What are your current obsessions?
On the bookshelf is Ayn Rand. I just finished The Fountainhead and now I ‘m starting Atlas Shrugged. She’s she sot crazy ideas. My favorite artist is Cy Twombly. And I’ve also been really into Basquiat. I’m trying to create programs that fuck up. WIth music, definitely heavy metal or I would say punk is my music of choice. My favorite thing in rotation is this band called The Refused and the album is The Future Shape of Punk. If you’re not in the mood to work, put that album on. On Gamecube it’s Resident Evil on the Xbox it’s Psychonauts.

What’s next?
The interest I’m getting is from the fashion industry. I tell them I can take a system and generate patterns and print shirts and every shirt would be unique. And they’re like, “Oh, wow really?” I just did handbags in Japan. It’s getting off the screen and into the physical form, which I’m all for. Being printed in a magazine is one thing, but being printed on a handbag is another. It’s legit. I see a lot of designers making t-shirts. For me, tees are cheap.

How do innovations influence your process?
The software that I use and the programming language that I use are constantly being added on to and they’re creating new things in the tool set. Its like the paint man coming out with a new color of paint that you didn’t previously have. As software evolves, I’ll be able to have new ideas, but you know I always tell this story: If you have one foot in the past and one in the future, then you’re pissing on the present. You’re never going to have an auto-Joshua Davis button. It’s not going to happen. I don’t want that kind of distraction to deter anyone from what’s happening now. 
As painter, I used to make my own oil paint. I used to experiment working with materials, waxes, resins. When I started getting into programming I experimented with programming the same way. I’m still the same person, but the weapons have changed.

Any advice?
I’m always trying to tell people, you have these designers who travel the world and didn’t study internet design. You have Ito Nakamura who is an architect. You have me who’s an illustrator. The internet is the worst place you can go. What I do comes from interpreting it on the net.

Another thing I always end up telling my students this. It’s so simple. The type of work that you present is the type of work you’ll get hired to do. I probably get more work from my abstract art site. It’s how you get to do crazy things for crazy clients. Use the medium to express yourself.

This second interview is from: http://www.digital-web.com/articles/joshua_davis/

Joshua Davis

Share your comments on this topic with other web professionals

In: Interviews

By Nick Finck

Published on November 14, 2000

Digital Web:

Joshua, we are honored to do this interview with you. For those who may not be as familiar with your work as we are, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at Kioken?

Davis:

Here’s what my bio says:

Joshua Davis who runs - http://www.praystation.com is a one-man research and development web-site. Its objective is to apply design and technology into a collection of small, sometimes daily, modules - is incubating a lifestyle, a mentality, living with anomalies (1 : deviation from the common rule : IRREGULARITY; 2 : something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified), producing work in a world that is under constant flux and change.

He is also the sole creator of http://www.once-upon-a-forest.com - which is the nemesis of what we perceive the web to be. No easy, short domain name. No easy to use navigation. No instructions. No Faq’s. No Ads, No Links, No Tech Support. No Help. No Answers.

A good amount of time is spent trying to - Unite : Communicate : Explore - onhttp://www.dreamless.org - where we cannot continue to grow in the field of design and technology acting independent - We must combine forces, and relinquish our interpretations about what does and doesn’t work. Understand that knowing where to buy bricks does not mean you know how to build a house.

Yet when the sun rises - Clients come to Kioken, http://www.kioken.com , because they want an “off the hook” experience. As developers we shouldn’t assume that the general viewing public is an idiot. We should try to evolve the medium by making intuitive systems that educate the user - not design to what level we think they can handle.

Digital Web:

Did you ever have any formal training in design or digital technologies? If so, do you feel that has made a serious impact on your success as a designer or do you feel that even without the training you could be successful? A lot of people feel that there is merit in having a degree in design while others feel that a degree does not mean as much as a rock solid portfolio. What is your opinion on this issue?

Davis:

I went to Pratt in Brooklyn, Majored in Illustration and minored in Art History. I threw myself into art and art history during the day and taught myself programming at night.

I was in college trying desperately to pay for my own education - I had put together two prototypes for a children’s book I had written and illustrated. I sent these two prototypes to only two publishers I felt could only do justice to my work ( I was naive, work with me here ) and I was given rejection letters from both. I was young, I didn’t have an agent or rep, I can’t even tell you if they even looked at the prototype.

Well. what now? A student I was friends with, in the commercial design department, said that there was this new publishing medium called the internet, and I could self publish my work with almost no cost. Netscape 2 had just come out (freaky right? yes, I’ve been doing it that long) So Netscape had just published their book on Netscape 2 HTML.

During the day I was in school absorbing art, communication design and art history, and at night I was learning every nook and cranny of HTML publishing in Netscape 2.

Well, I ran out of money, was months late on my rent, eating macaroni and cheese, I had my phone disconnected, my gas for my stove had been turned off, I had no electricity, but since I lived on the top floor of this building I managed to string extension cords out into the hallway of my building and steal electricity from an outlet attached to the light bulb hanging in the hallway. Just to be able to boot up my homemade 386 DX 2 66.

So as I mentioned before, I was out of money - so I went to the dean of Pratt and said that I could no longer attend school. So she went to financial aid and got me more money to be able to continue school - then by fate said - Why don’t I get a job on campus? do you know how to write HTML for website production?

I of course was floored. So I got a job writing HTML for Pratt’s web-site.

Yet I never did finish my degree - I left during my Junior year. I felt the internet was going to pass me by and I decided to continue to teach myself everything I could as technology progressed. But school also gave me a foundation in communication design, fine art, art history and myth.

Digital Web:

You have inspired designers from around the globe and from all walks of life with your sites and your art. With all the roles and responsibilities you play at Kioken, how do you still manage to find time to do sites like PrayStation and Once Upon a Forest?

Davis:

Work is for the most part research and development - so most of my time is spent exploring ideas and building systems. These modules appear in my personal work, which maybe a few months from now a client may want to work into a web-site.

So It’s really killing 2 birds with 1 stone in that department.

Then there are speaking engagements, which are, again, fuel to the fire. Because I pick up different ideas from different people and different cultures, which then get re-worked back into my exploration as an artist and developer. So if anything it’s become a philosophy and a way of life.

Digital Web:

Every day it seems the Web edges toward being more and more corporate and marketing driven. Corporate design is what pays the bills yet most artists struggle to bring a slice of true creativity to their works. How do you manage to do this in your own work? What do you say to the client to get them to see the bigger picture of “what can be” and not just “what has already been done”?

Davis:

Funny enough - not a whole lot of convincing really takes place. Clients come to kioken because they know what we are going to deliver to them.

You see it’s harder to convince a client to use any interactive environment if all you do is produce standard HTML web-sites.

Kioken has started off as an interactive environment, so clients come to us to realize their bigger picture.

Digital Web:

There has been lots of rumors through the grapevine that Kioken fired this client or that you refused to do this other project, etc… this is of course, unverified. Is, in fact, Kioken terminating client relationships, and if so, what were the driving reasons for that action?

Davis:

The big Bossman was quoted as saying in The Industry Standard that “we had to fire Sony… they weren’t listening to us, so we let them go.”

He finished up his comment by saying that “What the client sometimes doesn’t understand is the less they talk to us, the better it is. We know what’s best.”

Now this comment is painfully honest.

What it says is that most clients are not up to speed on what is possible and only shut down any process of anything exciting happening if they dilute the process.

You’re a studio - is it not your job to know more about the environment and the technology then the client may know?

Of course.

Digital Web:

A lot of design agencies are cycling through employees faster than the market can keep up with. Some are leaving the industry altogether while others are just looking for a better job. In a world of pre-IPOs and Internet start-ups, what do you feel is the determining factor for retaining employees, and more specific, retaining web designers?

Davis:

Kioken is like 17 people ( give or take ) and in the years kioken has been in the business, I think only 3 people have ever left.

Go to Kioken at 3:00 am and there’s half the studio there.

You want to stay at work - because work is based on play.

You make your own hours, as long as the work gets done; you’re required to play video games and watch DVD’s.

The studio is there to help you grow creatively and push you. And in return people who get hired at kioken become part of the family. A family which is so devoted, that leaving the company is pretty rare.

Digital Web:

You started a site that brought the entire design community together to share ideas, discuss issues and work together collaboratively. Dreamless.org, in my opinion, is a huge success. What do you think makes it such a success and what do you think is the next step toward furthering the process of designers collaboratively working together?

Davis:

I had spent some time exploring community sites and, for me, they seemed flawed.

I wanted to communicate with a community of people on a site that was about anything and nothing. A site that could be about heavy concept in design but the site itself have no design. So audience was very important.

Dreamless I think is only 3 or 4 gif files - it’s built using HTML and CSS talking to PERL files on the backend - I would design it to be very mute and neutral - shades of gray - and not be flashy or even have any art. This would allow dreamless to have people talk about design related issues or anything deemed interesting.

It also a very tight environment - some discussions are started by moderators and users can reply to the opening thoughts.

There is also a base understanding of respect. There are always two sides to any story and users can battle out their ideas and not blatantly offend anyone because they feel their way is better - and if this type of discussion happens, threads are closed or deleted all together.

Community is about respect and banding together to help perpetuate our ideas.

Digital Web:

You mentioned once that you wish you could use the full capacity of your brain and you cited that Einstein probably only used 10 or 12 percent of his brain. There is a theory that Einstein as well as DaVinci used not only their left brain but also their right brain to an equal amount… you yourself use a lot of mathematics in your work as well as artistic skills. In some ways people see you as a genius web designer, now you may not agree with that, but do you feel that it is perhaps that you are skilled in both hemispheres of the brain?

Davis:

Big misconception here.

I’m horrible at math. I was a sponsored amateur skateboarder in high school - trust me I wasn’t going to math class. I think that if I was good at math, and I was my own math teacher, I would have been far more interested.

I’ve just tried to absorb a ton of philosophy, myths, science, and methodologies, just to try to see things in every angle I could - sometimes I find myself looking at things which become complacent, to find beauty in things we deem common.

I try to break things down to the simplest form and then work my way up to better understand the complex whole.

And there are times I feel really insane - I mean really, really insane.

Digital Web:

Studies have been conducted that show that society educates people to be left brain oriented. They say by the age of seven, only 10% of the population show signs of high creativity and by adulthood the percentage decreases all the way down to 2 percent. Creative people such as yourself are hard to come by, what do you feel can be done to encourage or allow more creativity among the population? Do you feel our society is too structured in the way of left brain thinking to be able to bring itself out of this established upbringing?

Davis:

I’ve actually put a ton of thought into this. I have always wondered why as children we have always taken part in creative activities, and then as we get older we either get discouraged about not being able to duplicate “exactly” what we see or are other forces at play?

The forest has helped me reach to a large amount of people all of whom, I hope, walk away with a different impression or experience.

Maybe the world wants to start thinking again as a society? Trends tend to dictate a ton of this - and believe that society generates this supply and demand relationship.

What can be done?

As an artist or developer you’ll simply create the things you want to present to the masses - right now I don’t want my mind numbed by corporate advertising and sitcom television - and the work I create, I hope, encourages others to allow themselves to think and interact with something fun.

Digital Web:

Things are changing pretty rapidly on the Web. Where do you think we will be ten years from now or even twenty years from now at the rate things are going? Do you see wireless web and web appliances being so integrated into our lives that it would be as common as, say, a light switch in a house? Do you feel this idea of Web everywhere is going to drive people away, that there will be a group of non-conformists that refuse to buy into the idea?

Davis:

Wireless - my god I cannot wait.

I want it small and mobile and too explode as soon as possible.

I don’t feel the issue of non-conformity will be a factor - it will simply be everywhere - whether you choose to participate or not, and don’t feel that things will become so parasitic that human life depends on technology in order to breath and eat.

But it will surely bring in so many benefits. The notion of appliances shaking hands and chatting, transparently, will be something will not only embrace but welcome in order to automate our lives into simplicity.

Digital Web:

What would you say inspires you? Is it art, music, other web sites, architecture, cities, people, nature, or something else? What sorts of things are most influential to you?

Davis:

Anything, that presents my thoughts with data of infinite confusion.

The more confusing the idea, or sound, or web-site, or architecture, or cities, or people, or nature, or anything - the more I’m prone to keep looking at it, trying to discover and uncover things.

In the end it’s about exploration.

Digital Web:

Are there any new projects that you are working on that you can talk about? Anything new that is coming out of Kioken that we should keep an eye out for?

Davis:

Personally:

PrayStation is about to morph into its new Year 3 form.

The Forest is going to brace for a little facelift.

I have a package with open-source CDROM and booklet coming out this January. It will be all of the data I collected for PrayStation over the past year - so far the CD has well over 1200 files. I’m also working out some ideas for new products that will hit the web-site created for showcasing these things:

http://www.antiweb-chaos.com - by designers - for designers - producing tangible products to keep our underground community alive and kicking.

Kioken is starting a new clothing line, a book created by everyone in studio, and a bunch of other stuff.

Digital Web:

What are your favorite sites on the Web? Not just ones you visit all the time, but perhaps the ones you like the best because of the content, the art or the idea.

Davis:

http://www.turux.org
http://www.dextro.org
http://www.re-move.org
http://www.jodi.org
http://www.snarg.net
http://www.presstube.com
http://www.uncontrol.com
http://www.k10k.net
http://www.zeldman.com

Digital Web:

How would you define creativity?

Davis:

I actually hate trying to define things in my own voice.

So the dictionary says: having the quality of something created rather than imitated: IMAGINATIVE

And that’s just fine for me. You see life isn’t complicated - People are complicated and they complicate life.

I prefer to keep things simple and when I try to define things - I over exposed crap and just end up getting convoluted ideas.

Digital Web:

What would you say is beauty in design?

Davis:

Being able to justify every pixel.

Digital Web:

Is there anything you would like to say to the readers? Any last thoughts or inspirational comments you would like to add?

Davis:

Not understanding is ok, it tells us that we are still open to explore ideas, that in our mistakes and failures we may discover new things.

Digital Web:

Again, it’s been a pleasure to hear from you Joshua. We look forward to seeing more of your work and being inspired yet once again. Thank you for taking the time to share with our readers some of your passions and ambitions.

Davis:

Tough questions - and I really wanted to take my best stab at them. - I hope you’ll enjoy my responses.