Before our workshop and the introduction to our Niki topics, I had never heard of Jonathan Harris. A couple of days later and I’m 90% sure that he’s the man of my dreams. The 10% of uncertainty is due to the fact that I’ve never met the man, but he’ll be in Australia quite soon so who knows.

Jonathan Harris can be described as an innovative new media artist/network developer/ideas man/anthropologist philosopher/designer.

His work includes an array if interesting and varied projects including CowBird, “A public library of human experience”, and I Love Your Work, an “interactive documentary about sex work”. His work can be viewed on his website, here.

The thing that I adore about Jonathan Harris is his way of life. He doesn’t have the average job description, instead he has ideas and he makes them happen.

Not only that but his ideas are focused on creating empathetic connections between people and using technology to strengthen human relationships rather than weaken them.

He also spends a lot of time trying to understand other people, immersing himself in lives completely seperate to his own and lands very distant from his home, in order to better understand himself and other people.

He’s also wise:

Spend time alone in nature. If your ideas still seem worthwhile in the presence of natural solitude, then they are probably worth pursuing.

Jonathan Harris

 

He is also ethical and altruistic:

Remember that businesses were initially created as a way to solve social problems, not just to make money.

Most businesses nowadays have become like monsters.

 

I agree with a lot of his ideas and I love his work. I’ll be creating a Niki page on him with Esther and James, and I’m really looking forward to it.