Joel Swanson

Words are power(ful); my artwork illuminates the subtle but powerful ways that language shapes perception. My medium is text, but my artwork takes many forms including blinking neon signs, interactive digital works, and meticulous hand-made works on paper. Thematically I explore how language structures our world through standards such as spelling and grammar, digital character encoding, and even alphabetization. As tools of language I am interested in erasers, highlighters, and correctional fluid but also typography, spell-check algorithms, and machine learning. Through dimensionality, repetition, and decontextualization my work makes the familiar unfamiliar and the ordinary strange; I want my artwork to make people perceive words from new and unconventional perspectives.