Jonathan Harris (artist)
Jonathan Jennings Harris is an American artist and computer scientist, known for his work with data visualization, interactive documentary, and ritual.
Work
Harris is the co-creator of We Feel Fine, a search engine for human emotions. The project was named by AIGA one of the most influential design works of the last century, and later became a book published by Scribner in 2009.In 2006, Harris was commissioned by Yahoo! to create the Yahoo! Time Capsule, which sought to record a digital fingerprint of the world at that time. In 2007, he spent two weeks living with an Iñupiat Eskimo family during their traditional spring whale hunt in Utqiagvik, Alaska, producing the interactive documentary, The Whale Hunt. In 2008, he and Kamvar were commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art to create the interactive installation, I Want You To Want Me, visualizing thousands of online dating profiles as colorful balloons. The project was installed at the museum on Valentine's Day 2008.
In 2011, Harris released Cowbird, a free digital storytelling platform with the mission of creating a "public library of human experience." The project was active until 2017, when it was closed due to "growing awareness" of "attention economies and screen addiction."
From 2015 to 2021, Harris worked on a series of personal rituals at High Acres Farm, his family's ancestral land in Shelburne, Vermont—ultimately producing a set of 21 short films, released in 2022 as In Fragments.
Since 2024, he has been publishing a series of "illustrated wisdom teachings for all ages" known as Sunlight Papers.