Jonathan Jennings Harris was born in Vermont on August 27, 1979. He attended Episcopal and St. Bernard’s Schools in New York City, then studied painting and drawing at Deerfield Academy, computer science at Princeton University, interactive art at Fabrica, and shamanic philosophy with The Power Path.

His work with data visualization (2004–2015) helped to establish that burgeoning field by celebrating the humanity of the newly social Internet — through pioneering digital artworks like Wordcount, 10x10, We Feel Fine, Yahoo Time Capsule, I Want You To Want Me, and Network Effect. His data works have been widely exhibited around the world, including at TED, Ars Electronica, Le Centre Pompidou, The World Economic Forum, The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, The V&A in London, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where two are in the permanent collection.

His work with interactive storytelling (2007–2018) combined the digital and physical worlds by adopting algorithmic approaches to data collection in real-life situations — seeking to experience a kind of empathy with computers and machines. These ritualistic experiments included The Whale Hunt, I Love Your Work, Balloons of Bhutan, A Silent Place, and Today, a daily photo practice he continued for 443 days. Today evolved into Cowbird, a storytelling platform open to all, producing a “public library of human experience” that ended up amassing 100,000 stories from 25,000 authors in 200 countries — until growing patterns of Internet addiction prompted its closure in 2017. He explored these dynamics in the visual essays World Building in a Crazy World, Modern Medicine, Data Will Help Us, and Navigating Stuckness. His storytelling works have been featured at numerous film festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, and IDFA, where he was the 2017 Guest of Honor.

His work with ritual placemaking (2015–) has been rooted at High Acres Farm, his family's home and land in Vermont for six generations. From 2015–2021, he performed a series of 21 rituals there, seeking to alchemize old family patterns as a way of preparing the land for the best possible future. This ultimately produced the 21 films of In Fragments as an exploration of "Life Art" — a way of co-creating with a particular life situation as a frame for the work over time, using the embodied technology of ritual as a tool for shaping its future. Other tangible outcomes have included the transformation of his grandparents' home into a beloved contemporary gathering place; the design and installation of a network of twenty-seven "lightning transformers" planted at specific locations across forty acres of land (collectively, Electric Webb); the completion of Notitia Sanctuary, a home and place of retreat that is now available for others to experience via weekly stays; and the initiation of the Linestone Collective, a network of creative practitioners.

His current work with illuminated publications (2023–) happens via Sunlight Papers — a publishing studio creating books, cards, prints, and other offerings for all ages.