Straight outta Taipei && from the future yawl!
Way back in September, we welcomed jonCates from the future (Taipei Taiwan Standard Time) as the DOS Punks DAO Artist of the Month.
DOS Punks fam, Bayneko, summed it up nicely, saying, "jonCates is an experimental artist and glitch media master, who uses writings, digital images, films, games, and even colloquial grammar to draw the viewer into his glitch Western universe."
I first bumped into jonCates in sgt_slaughtermelon's Glitch Forge server but didn't start paying close attention until Kentucky Route Zero made a Glitch Western Wednesday appearance! Check out our conversation that follows.
The following is a total copy/pasta from a jonCates Medium post (here).
DOS Punks conversations, Part I
₿odaciouspiratΞ (DOS Punk 856) && jonCates discussion, September 2022
(₿odaciouspiratΞ (DOS Punk 856) && jonCates (The Cowgirl) in conversation)
₿odaciouspiratΞ: howdy jon! The Cowgirl is especially impactful for me for two reasons: there is a remarkable resemblance to DOS Punk 856 that i normally have. and so The Cowgirl imagery became even more memorable because of how it was introduced to me
(https://twitter.com/joncates/status/1524431370864398336?s=20&t=VGbxlnfIpAaXKbELzKQnag)
jonCates: on May 11, 2022, i posted: today is the 1rst Glitch Western Wednesday yawl! ⚡⌛🔓 time to unLock sum secrets, from The Cowgirl… She dreamt of walking to the edge of the worlds again. Datamoshed, she left Kansas Territory that day… head’N Out West; towards a 鬼鎮 (Ghosttown), where she would find herself, inna Glitch Western
(The Cowgirl glitches virtual Spirit Simulator — jonCates (2022)
You are playing the final/first Interlude of Kentucky Route Zero, The Death of the Hired Man… In game, Emily sits at the bar in The Lower Depths, watching the television, and talking to Carrington. She says: “I was in a movie recently. A western. Kind of. A glitch western.”
(Kentucky Route Zero — Cardboard Computer (2011–2020)
₿odaciouspiratΞ: i went back afterward and did some catching up about how we arrived at the version of KRZ today. i love the haunting misery of the game’s locations and its characters.
(Kentucky Route Zero — Cardboard Computer (2011–2020)
jonCates: they credit me with initial inspiration and influence which is very sweet of them and which i appreciate endlessly we made a game together, Jake and Tamas and i, before they made Kentucky Route Zero (KRZ), which they also credit as being how KRZ got started after they had gotten started on KRZ, i began to formalize the structures of my Glitch Western so it becomes a situation where it’s all vry interrelated rly when Emily, in KRZ, sits at the bar and says that she was in a Glitch Western she is, in a sense, or from a certain point of view, saying that she (Emily) is Emily Mercedes Rich, who starred in my film 鬼鎮 (Ghosttown). which is supersweet kinda easter egg that Jake put into the narrative of KRZ to kinda say that we had been on these paths all along that we were in the same whirlds or that we were crossing over between our whirlds as we had done in reality for so many years togethers
₿odaciouspiratΞ: hell yeah! when i came across that line in your tweet thread, “I was in a movie recently.” i kind of sat up like “okay … what have i missed here … ?”
jonCates: its buried deep at the end for true believers, like you :)
₿odaciouspiratΞ: The Cowgirl, how did this character and imagery evolve in your work?
jonCates: i could answer in different ways like sum would be rly straightforward direct answers. for instance, in my film i set out to center female characters as well as queer the genre EMR (Emily) is perfect bc she is this person. she is this cowgirl +so i knew i wanted her to be The Cowgirl, the central fictional character in the film i had alrdy been writing for the film, but then when she agreed to do it, i started rly writing specifically for her as The Cowgirl +we were spending alot of time togethers, like a couple times a week, every week. we started to rly zone in on who The Cowgirl is +i think that even tho its an experimental art film, it still has sum traditional narrative structures, where often times, you have a central fictional character. this central character is often a version of the creator of the film, the director or the writer, etc. in this way, The Cowgirl, as played by Emily, is def’ly a version of me that we created togethers. she + i mirror each other, esp when we were out shooting on locations Out West all vry intentional
₿odaciouspiratΞ: jC and EMR on location 🖤
jonCates: ya! ‘shoot’N’ ;) +then to bring it around to the VR +such, im mixing different technological moments. im comparing technological ‘frontiers’ + industrial revolutions bc we’re living through different industrial revolutions now. Old West era is during a previous industrial revoltion that changes everything in a way that leads to this industrial revolution that we’re living through now. in our current industrial revolution digital is a technological ‘frontier’ literally and ideologically. this is how we get to California so its like a mix of all this, all of these considerations and motivations + all vry sincere actually, vry much who i rly am
₿odaciouspiratΞ: and this mix is so good. i can feel how it’s inextricably intertwined, so i appreciate the time and effort to share some of this with me.
jonCates: theres one other piece of the puzzle that you might like i went to Austria to study Media Art Hystories + got my Masters degree there. my MediaArtHistories program was the 1rst of its kind + i was literally the 1rst person to graduate from it lol! the whole idea in the program was to compare the past, present, futures of Media Art, so i was technically trained in how to do that
₿odaciouspiratΞ: and so that’s how you ended up in Austria? to participate in that degree program? how did you find it?
jonCates: yes, Oliver Grau founded the program, he created it. + i knew his work && was alrdy in communications w/ him etc. so when he started the program i applied. this is active Catholic monastery called Stift Göttweig on top of a little mountain is literally where i went to grad school lol
(Stift Göttweig Library — Jorge Royan 2009)
₿odaciouspiratΞ: …you lived there too? “on campus” essentially?
jonCates: sumtimes in the little village below, on the mountain so imagine being there, in that library, studying abt computers, VR, Digital Art, etc. thats what it was like. at a certain pt i also decided to do sumthin weirdy like that, in my own work, in 鬼鎮 (Ghosttown), working w/ my own experiences of haunted ‘Americana’
₿odaciouspiratΞ: i have a predisposition to want to experience haunting. and i appreciate your work on both the surface level (it looks cool!) and also for how it makes me feel.
jonCates: that’s high compliment! deeply appreciate it friend
₿odaciouspiratΞ: thank you for continuing to share.
(https://objkt.com/asset/KT1DgWtehNmmQEfJHJKxbJAjJdEcfaUg9T4L/71)
CC0WPUNKs
Gifted by jonCates to DOS Punks DAO members:
Cowpunks, cowpokes, and cowfolks can copypaste, remix, instantiate, fake, flip, rip, steal, invert, modify, distribute, decentralize, decode, recode, recompress, right-click-save, bitcrush, ASCII, ANSI, DOS, punk, phunk, demake, détourne, glitch, game, simulate, imagine, dream, appropriate, abstract, trash, pirate, imitate, flatter, and even celebrate CC0WPUNKs; all without asking permission because permissionlessness is a coreconcept of Dirty New Media digitalPunk and thereby foundational to these here CC0WPUNKs yawl!
(Cowpunks, cowpokes, 'n cowfolks whose spirits instantiate here...)