Copyrighting his own mind in 2003, Jonathon Keats established a legal claim over his neural networks as a sculpture, intending to leverage copyright laws to achieve a form of intellectual property immortality. This project serves as a representative example of his approach to conceptual art, where he frames philosophical inquiries as large-scale, often absurdist, experimental interventions.
Early Conceptual Experiments
Born in 1971 in New York City, Keats attended Lick-Wilmerding High School and Amherst College before beginning his professional career in San Francisco. His debut in 2000 at the Refusalon gallery involved sitting in a chair for 24 hours while patrons purchased his thoughts at a rate determined by their annual income. By 2002, he moved into political satire by petitioning to make the Law of Identity, A ≡ A, a statutory law in Berkeley, California. While the ordinance did not pass, it garnered national attention and influenced political discourse in Massachusetts.
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Keats frequently adopts the mantle of a researcher to explore existential questions. He attempted to identify the taxonomic classification of God by using laboratory-based in vitro evolution, suggesting in interviews that the results showed similarities to cyanobacteria. He acted as executive director for the International Association for Divine Taxonomy, urging others to submit independent research. In 2005, he personalized the metric system for individuals such as Craig Newmark, recalibrating units like the meter and kilogram based on each patron's heartbeat.
Collaborations and Speculative Real Estate
His 2006 projects expanded into cross-species collaboration and physics-based development. He provided easels to Leyland cypress trees in Georgia and orchestrated a ballet for honeybees in Chico, California, by planting specific flower patterns to influence their communication. Simultaneously, at the Modernism Gallery in San Francisco, he utilized air rights to sell real estate located in the extra dimensions theorized by string theory, including blueprints for a four-dimensional tesseract house.
Technological and Cultural Interventions
Keats has engaged with media and technology through unconventional reinterpretations. In 2007, he released a ringtone comprising four minutes and 33 seconds of silence as a tribute to John Cage. His later projects included the creation of a pornographic theater for house plants by projecting pollination footage onto rhododendrons and designing voting booths operated by ouija boards. He received the Sophie Brody Medal in 2010 for his contributions.
Fast facts
- Born: 1971, New York City
- Education: Amherst College, Lick-Wilmerding High School
- Known for: Conceptual art, experimental philosophy
- Award: Sophie Brody Medal (2010)
- Residence: San Francisco, Italy
Questions readers ask
What is the Atheon?
It is a public art project established by Keats in downtown Berkeley, California, functioning as the first temple dedicated to the worship of science.
Why did Keats copyright his mind?
He claimed his mind was a sculpture created through his thoughts and sought to leverage intellectual property rights to achieve temporary immortality after his death.
Achievements
- Sophie Brody Medal — 2010
- Fields: conceptual art
