Jason Salavon (born 1970) is an American

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

. He is noted for his use of custom computer software to manipulate and reconfigure preexisting media and data to create new visual works of

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

Early life

The son of an artist, Jason Salavon was born in 1970 in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

and raised in

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

(Hill 2004). He earned his BA in 1993 from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

and his MFA in 1997 from

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum a ...

. During and after school, Salavon worked as an artist and programmer in the video game industry. After he earned his MFA, he also designed and taught courses as an instructor at

. Salavon currently lives in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, where he is a studio artist and an associate professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Work

Salavon is noted for his use of custom computer software to manipulate and reconfigure media and data to create new visual works of art. A significant body of Salavon's work involves two general means of manipulating preexisting media to create works of art: first, by overlaying images (such as multiple photographs) and averaging the result to create visual amalgamations and, second, by distributing processed media (such as individual frames of a movie) side by side or in other configurations. An example of the first means is Salavon's 2004 suite of works, ''100 Special Moments'', which consists of images based on the average of groups of 100 unique commemorative photographs culled from the Internet. An example of the second method of production is his 2000 work, ''The Top Grossing Film of All Time, 1 x 1'', which is a static image showing all of the frames of the movie ''Titanic'' reduced to the average color most representative of each frame. Salavon employed a similar method in his 2003 series ''Emblem'', reducing films such as

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

's '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' to a set of concentric rings of color representing each frame of the film. A third part of Salavon's work involves the recomposition of statistical data into visual images. For example, in the 2001 works ''Shoes, Domestic Production, 1960-1998'', Salavon organized and transformed a data set concerning the show industry into "psychedelic constellations" bursting with color. A more recent example is Salavon's 2006 work, ''American Varietal'', a commission to transform census data into site-specific art for the new headquarters of the

US Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

Suitland, Maryland Suitland is a suburb of Washington, D.C., approximately one mile (1.6 km) southeast of Washington, D.C. Suitland is a census designated place (CDP), as of the 2020 census, its population was 25,839. Prior to 2010, it was part of the Suitland ...

. Salvon's public installation ''American Varietal'' is installed at the

. At one point in time, the

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

search results for the term "Playboy" placed Salavon's website in a higher position than Playboy's own website. This was likely the result of extensive

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

discussion about and linking to Salavon's website for his works ''Every Playboy Centerfold, The Decades'', amalgamations showing the decade-by-decade evolution of the "average" Playboy centerfold from the 1960s to the 1990s. In 2018 Salavon's work ''Everything All at Once(Part III)'' was displayed in the Chicago New Media 1973-1992 exhibition, curated by jonCates.

Collections

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York *

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

, Washington *the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jer ...

, New York

References

* Irvine, Karen.
Jason Salavon
",

Museum of Contemporary Photography A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

(Midwest Photographers Project Collection). Retrieved on March 16, 2007. *
Jason Salavon
",

(Permanent Collection). Retrieved on March 16, 2007. *Picard, Caroline (November 29, 2018).
'Chicago New Media 1973-1992' pays tribute to the city's contribution to video games and digital art
. Chicago Reader. Retrieved September 25, 2019. *Cates, Jon (2018). ''Chicago New Media, 1973-1992.'' Illinois, United States: University of Illinois. p. 9. .

External links

Official web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salavon, Jason Living people American contemporary artists American digital artists School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni 1970 births

Early life

Work

Collections

References

Further reading

External links