Paul: Have you started writing code using AS2 syntax yet? Do you see any benefits to ActionScript artists in using AS2?

Jared: Yes I have begun to write code using AS2 syntax. It's a natural step in the right direction, although it is a little startling that there is yet-one-more-place-to-put-your-code in Flash. The benefits to artists will be in the form of reusable painting or algorithmic tools. I have already written an irregular sinusoidal 'Spine Class' that I will undoubtedly use hundreds of times in the next two years.

Paul: Presumably some of your time in Flash is taken up producing commercial applications and websites. Is there much cross-fertilisation of ideas, concepts and techniques between your personal creations and your commercial work?

Jared: This is a great question. It turns out that an unusually high number of the ideas at Levitated are implemented for commercial purposes. I believe it's because many of my employers are familiar with me through those works. One a side note, I would encourage anyone working in this field to do exactly what is you're interested in, no matter how specific or weird, and someone, somewhere will have a need for your skill.

Paul: ActionScript has the ability of being an exploratory environment allowing artists to tweak code, at times haphazardly, to see what mutations occur. Do you always work with a particular end result in mind?

Jared: You're absolutely right about ActionScript's power of exploration. However, 80% of the time I sit down to a blank FLA, I do so with a specific goal in mind. The other 19% of the time it's fun to begin with a rough sketch, an odd shape, or simple equation. My iterative process usually begins with accomplishing some minimal requirement for the program, beyond just getting the thing to run for the first time. Observing the program in any of its stages usually sparks some other idea for expansion or refinement, and I'll work next to implement that. This process is repeated dozens of times, sometimes over the course of days or weeks. Strange blooms are harvested as the program evolves. 1% of the time I awake in front of my computer having written something totally alien to me.

Paul: Tell me about the most satisfying piece you've made for Levitated?

Jared: I believe the most satisfying piece I've made for levitated is the http://www.levitated.net/exhibit/darkside/index.html. For those who are not familiar with the project, it is a fairly complex MIDI visualization that displays musical notes as reactive coloured bars, arranged vertically by pitch and horizontally by time. The arrangement then scrolls from right to left in synchronicity with the music. It was titled after one of my favourite compositions, the 1st movement of Beethoven's 14th, the 'Moonlight Sonata'. In terms of man-hours and lines of code, it is definitely the most complicated piece on Levitated, while the enjoyment that comes from watching the work is quite simple.

Paul: Is there any underlining philosophy behind the pieces collectively at Levitated. Is there any overall message trying to get out?

Jared: Computer Science is fun.

Paul: In the book 'Fresh Flash' your chapter was devoted entirely to the 'setInterval' method freshly realised in Flash MX. Can you briefly explain to us why you found this function so fascinating and useful in your own work?

Jared: Honestly, I was asked by the editor to pick only one function. I chose 'setInterval' because the idea of playing with time seemed promising. Indeed it turned out a nice collection of odd experiments. The best part about the process was that I learned quite a bit about how to use the method.

Paul: In the late 60's http://www.guggenheim.org/artscurriculum/lessons/sf_lewitt.php developed 'instructions for the making of Art'. This represented a shift in authorial hegemony from a centralised model (centred in the body of the artist), to a distributed one. In the interactive pieces you've programmed, is there any author? - is it you?, the computer?, the code? or the user?

Jared: This is a difficult question that I'm happy you asked. Sometimes the line between the artist and the machine is blurred. More correctly, the line is fractal. It is very rewarding to hit 'play' on a well-formed, finely tuned program, and watch the machine go to work. Often, 100% of the computer's resources will going into executing your instructions, as many times as you have asked it to, for some indefinite amount of time. You may even ask the computer to make some random decisions of its own along the way. In the end, the work that is created can be immeasurably more complex than what you, as a human, could have ever produced operating on your own instructions. In this light, the computer is doing most the work. So some look to this and say that there is little or no artistic input in work created this way. How could there be when everything is so logically determined? My belief is that the work is pure artistic input, filled with emotion, careful thought, and a deep human perspective. It is the 'well-formed, finely tuned program' that makes this so.

Paul: In 'irregular sticks' you make a direct reference to traditional painting and blur the separation between traditional painting and computer art. Do you think this kind of categorisation between mediums is useful?

Jared: Computer art suffers its past. So I believe it is useful to contrast and compare the computational and traditional painting mediums. Traditional painting is a millennium old discipline filled with technical achievement and advancement of the art. Libraries of methods derived within its history, such as composition, back-painting, and stroke irregularity, should not be forgotten or excluded when generating art on the computer. Until a hundred years of computational history have been accumulated, traditional painting is a good source of inspiration.

Paul: What kinds of music do you listen to and does it have any impact in you work?

Jared: When deep in the method structures of a program, I listen to any music that is as spaced out as I am. Three words I might use to describe the genre would be DEEP SPACE AMBIENCE. One of my favourite artists in this field is Robert Rich. I listen to the Beatles in the morning.