Details from an in-progress work of a new series Im currently engaged in. Should be provocative to say the least…

Recently some friends and I completed a project for the Figment Festival. The main rule of Figment is you can’t sell anything- so in keeping with that parameter we developed Plant Parenthood, an effort to promote sustainable urban gardening in the NYC area. Together we raised roughly $1000 dollars to fuel our campaign. With these funds we created a plant adoption agency aimed at creating meaninful connections between plants and their owners to ensure more succesful gardening activity. With the majority of the money we purchased a large number of young vegetable plants. On the day of Figment, we set up our adoption agency on Govenor’s Island where the festival took place and screened potential plant adopters. In order for an individual to adopt a plant, they were required to complete our fairly rigorous screening process which involved a questionare on their previous experience and history with plants, an interview with one of our representatives, and individualized plant selection process, and finally, an oath wherin they swore to protect and care for their plant for the duration of its natural lifetime. By the end of the day, we had over 200 successful plant adoptions!

Our campaign includes a website that provides features to assist new plant owners in the care of their plants. It includes:

• basic tips for getting started
• instructions on building a sub-irrigated planter
• an interactive map that allows people to upload pictures of their plants from their cellphones or email account

Currently we’re working on editing the video we took of the event to release as a documentary. Pictures of our performance are below.

In the spirit of extending the format possibilities for online video and removing some of the restrictive barriers of existing video sites, I developed youDisco. youDisco is an extension of you3b, a youTube triptych player developed by Jeff Crouse of Eyebeam.  youDisco is a multi channel video player that can support up to 8 different streaming youTube videos at once within a 3d space. To start using youDisco, click the flashing icon and enter a youTube video url in one of the provided text fields. Click the button next to the text field to load the video. You can adjust the volume of each individual video by using the volume sliders below the url of the video. You can save your set of videos and view existing sets that other people have saved by clicking the save current and view existing buttons respectively.

I’m working to extend the features of youDisco so that it functions even more effectively as a real-time multi-video player and mixer. If you have any suggestions for features you would like to see, or encounter any bugs, please shoot me an email or leave a comment. My goal is to make this tool as useful as possible to the Internet video community.

On the morning Saturday, April 25th 30 individuals armed with white paint and rollers traversed Manhattan and sections of Brooklyn in vans. By 3:00 they had whitewashed approximately 130 billboards around the city. Prior to this, these locations held illegal advertisements and billboards placed there without permits and in violation of advertising regulations as articulated by the New York City Department of Buildings. After the white washers had completed their work, over 50 New York artists descended on the spaces and put up their work in place of the advertisements. By the end of the day, the spaces had been filled with original artwork. The project was coordinated and organized by artist and activist Jordan Seiler of publicadcampaign.com, who targeted street level illegal street level advertisements. Read more…

Camoflauge from jennifer jacobs on Vimeo.

This was the hardest thing I have ever tried to do. See more about it here

Layoff was relased on 3.16.09 with great success!

Play it now

Press release follows:

Tiltfactor and the collaborative Values at Play project are proud to announce the release of LAYOFF, a game that examines the current financial scandal. The game has been called “The Videogame for the Crisis” and “A game for today’s economy” in reviews! In the game, players play from the side of management needing to cut jobs, and match types of workers in groups in order to lay the workers off and increase workforce efficiency. The financiers in this game cannot face layoffs.

Read what reviewers are saying here:
First Wall Rebate
Kotaku:Layoffs the Videogame is Depressing Fun
Unigamesity:Layoff the Videogame for the Crisis, March 16th 2009
Review-Chronicle of Higher Education
Review-Hctor
Review-Game Politics, March 17th
Review- Joystiq, Get fired for playing Layoff — The Game

DUPLICITY

SYLLABICATION:	du·plic·i·ty
PRONUNCIATION:	d-pls-t, dy-
NOUN:	Inflected forms: pl. du·plic·i·ties 1a. Deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech. b. An instance of deliberate deceptiveness; double-dealing. 2. The quality or state of being twofold or double.
SYNONYMS:	deceit, deception, dishonesty, double-dealing, fraud, guile, perfidy, treachery, twofold, artifice, treason

Tractor Presents:

Selected works by Jennifer Jacobs

Our society is obsessed with surface appearance. We are bombarded by images that are presented as more important than real objects and events. The presentation of these images is designed to motivate self-identification and mimicry. Any imitation of these images results in an artificial and disposable sense of self because the images themselves are extremely temporary. Sealed for Your Protection is a call and response to our disposable culture. The show is divided between an animation and a set of prints. The animation, entitled Surface Value, depicts the exploration and dismantling of a female android, and serves as a critique of the artificiality of modern femininity. Surface Value appropriates the same visual language that is used to promote consumerism, but displays these methods in a much darker context. The prints, collectively entitled Hybrid Flow, are a response to the animation. Rather than subvert feminine stereotypes to address unrealistic expectations, Hybrid Flow creates a positive portrayal of the modern female digital archetype that is both intimate and inherently female without resorting to mainstream representations of women in electronic media.

Show Opens Thursday January 8th, 6-10pm

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