Every Icon, 1996

Software: Web Based and Wall Hanging (Macintosh PowerBook170 and G3 versions with Plastic Acrylic)

14.5 x 10.5 x 3.5 inches

Runs Continuously, Never Repeats

Unlimited Numbered Edition

Every Icon is a piece of conceptual art realized in software that has been presented as an online installation, a Palm Pilot application, a wall projection, and a self-contained wall hanging object. The piece consists of a 32 x 32 square grid where every square can be colored black or white. Every Icon starts with an image where every square is white and progresses through combinations of black and white squares until every square is black. The piece will show every possible image. Although it takes only 1.36 years to display all of the variations along the first line, it takes an exponentially longer 5.85 billion years to complete the second line. Even in this limited visual space, there are more images than the human mind can experience in many lifetimes. In this way the piece comments on the promise of technology and the artist.

Artist Statement - Published in Parachute Magazine

See Every Icon Running as a Java Applet

Matt Mirapaul - Arts@Large for the New York Times

2016:

30th Year Distinguished Alumni Exhibition, SVA's Flatiron Gallery, New York, NY

2014:

//the_ART_of_DATA, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO

2010:

Traffic Art 2010, Sequence, Quebec, Canada
01SJ Biennial, San Jose, CA

2008:

NETworking: Net Art from the Computer Fine Arts Collection, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel

2006:

{Grid <> Matrix}, Mildrid Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

2005:

Techno/Sublime, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
John F. Simon, Jr., Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
Metamorfosis, Museo Extremeno e Iber oamericano de Arte Contemporaneo, Badajoz, Spain

2004:

John F. Simon, Jr, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct, Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Deluth; Stedman Art Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ; University Museums, University of Richmond, VA
RuntimeArt, Mi2 Exhibition Space, Zagreb, Yugoslavia

2003:

Dirty Pixels Show, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand; Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

2002:

John F. Simon, Jr.,SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Digital Louisiana, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
John F. Simon, Jr. University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
Electrohype 2002 Biennial , Malmo, Sweden

2001:

Work from the Permanent Collection, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA

2000:

2000 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1997:

Every Icon, Stadium Online Gallery, curated by Ron Wakkary, www.stadiumweb.com, New York