[LEAuthors] Leonardo Electronic Almanac vol 12, no 08, August 2004
nisar keshvani
nisar at keshvani.com
Mon Aug 2 23:22:38 EDT 2004
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Leonardo Electronic Almanac volume 12, number 8, August 2004
http://lea.mit.edu
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ISSN #1071-4391
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| CONTENTS |
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INTRODUCTION
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EDITORIAL
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< Network Leaps, Bounds and Misses, by Fátima Lasay >
FEATURES
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< UNESCO's Program in the Promotion and Support of Digital Art
and Electronic Music in Asia and the Pacific, by Tereza Wagner >
< Recent New Zealand Electroacoustic Music, by Ian Whalley >
< Latin American Media Art, by José Carlos Mariátegui >
< The Use of Internet for an International Collaborative
Project, by Hasnul Jamal Saidon and Roopesh Sitharan >
LEONARDO REVIEWS
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< Amartya Sen: A Life Re-Examined, reviewed by Aparna Sharma >
< The Cinema Effect, reviewed by Yvonne Spielmann >
< The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, reviewed by
George Gessert >
< Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and
Consciousness,
reviewed by Jan Baetens >
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| INTRODUCTION |
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In LEA's August issue, we are pleased to present 'Network
Leaps, Bounds and Misses' guest-edited by Fátima Lasay. Lasay is
an artist, independent curator and educator of digital media and
her research, creative and theoretical concerns include a
cultural definition for technology-based art.
This issue emerges from ideas and research discussed at the
2003 "Old Pathways/New Travelers" meeting, in New Delhi, India.
Lasay describes the issue's theme as a "meditation on the goals
of that meeting."
The first article, by Tereza Wagner, discusses the UNESCO
DigiArts portal, designed to "promote creativity in the field of
digital arts," especially in the context of developing
countries.
New Zealand educator/composer Ian Whalley discusses the role of
the New Zealand Sonic Art CD series, which he curated, in the
documentation of New Zealand electroacoustic music.
Peruvian scientist/media theorist José Carlos Mariátegui
explores the various permutations of globalization in the
context of Latin American media art.
Hasnul Jamal Saidon and Roopesh Sitharan, both artists based in
Malaysia, describe an experimental online project based on a
collaboration between students based in Japan and Malaysia,
using it as a basis for discussing notions of "self, identity,
nationality and cross-cultural encounters in today's age of
global telecommunication."
In Leonardo Reviews, Yvonne Spielmann reviews *The Cinema
Effect*, by Sean Cubitt, George Gessert reviews *The Molecular
Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age* and Jan Baetens reviews Roy
Ascott's *Telematic Embrace*.
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| EDITORIAL |
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NETWORK LEAPS, BOUNDS AND MISSES: CRITIQUING REGIONAL
STRATEGIES FOR DIGITAL ARTS AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN ASIA AND THE
PACIFIC
Fátima Lasay, Guest Editor
51-A Mindanao Avenue, Pag-asa,
Quezon City 1105, Philippines
fats at up.edu.ph
Under the UNESCO Digi-Arts Knowledge Portal for technology-
based arts and music, an international colloquium took place in
December 2003 at the Sarai Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies in Delhi, India. The meeting, entitled "Old
Pathways/New Travelers: New Media, Electronic Music and Digital
Art Practices in the Asia Pacific Region," sought to promote and
develop research, networking, mutual cooperation, training and
knowledge in these fields within the region.
This issue of *Leonardo Electronic Almanac* springs as a
meditation on the goals of that meeting, as a self-reflexive
look into a proposed network that is founded on regional
reification. Here we try to look within and without the Asia
regional landscape and try to trace the paths of a network and
its diversity, communality and identity.
In this issue, the fluidity between nexus, flux and negotiation
in Ian Whalley's analysis of New Zealand electroacoustic music
may also be seen as an alternative description of the dynamics
of network competency, while Hasnul Jamal Saidon and Roopesh
Sitharan present another layer of the regional network phenomena
in a Malaysia-Japan Internet collaboration. The local,
transregional and global attitudes towards technology and art
discussed by José Carlos Mariátegui present us with shared
significance in the Latin American experience of the "media
space."
The Asian and Latin American development dynamic in a unified
system of world trade may be useful in conducting broader
dialogues on regionalism and globalization strategies at
cultural levels. The national development goals of China, Korea
and Taiwan, which balance domestic fortification and competent
industrial and technological alliances, are believed by some to
contribute to intensified South-South competition [1]. What are
the implications, across the entire political spectrum, of
deindustrialization in Cono Sur as a result of China's
industrial expansion? Meanwhile, pan-Arab solutions to problems
concerning technologies and industrial policies are under
scrutiny. At the 2002 ministerial Arab ICT Summit at Burj al-
Arab, UAE information and culture minister Shaikh Abdullah bin
Zayed al-Nayan expressed skepticism towards the efficiency of
Arab-level meetings and described better efficiency working at
the level of the Gulf Cooperation Council [2]. As the Arab,
Latin American and Asian experiences indicate, geographical
reification seems to be crucial in prospecting development
issues, but what is its potential in terms of working solutions?
Evidently state, regional and world affairs involve a dynamic
balance. The role and place of new technologies and art in a
social, cultural and economic landscape inscribed by ancient
histories of contact ask us to rethink our traditions and
conceptualizations of the local, global and universal. The
ontological divide between nationalism, regionalization and
globalization requires us to review our use and understanding of
similarities, differences and diversity as contact technologies
enable us to experience these cross-global tensions in mediated
space. In identifying the demands of dynamic balance in this
space, perhaps the region is at best a prognostic and
organizational tool.
Such new connected consciousness also demands recognition of
the social nature of information and raises the physical
topology of information and communications technology to its
social and cultural dimensions. What are the discrepancies in
these topologies and the level of asymmetry among its nodes?
Where should connections, within and outside regional networks,
be established in response to dynamic tension? Where should
traditions be broken?
If regionalization enables us to see the limitations of
geographical proximity, then it might also allow us to measure
the value of and the distance towards cultural and conceptual
affinity and diversity. A strong regional network recognizes its
weaknesses, and empowers all its local constituents to strategic
action.
REFERENCES
1. See Ernst Hillerbrand, "South-South Competition: Asia Versus
Latin America?," Dialogue on Globalization Conference Reports,
in *FES Briefing Papers*, November 2003. http://www.fes-
geneva.org/
2. See Max Ford, "Plugging into Change," in *Global Agenda*.
http://www.globalagendamagazine.com/2003/markford.asp
_____________________________
BIOGRAPHY
Fátima Lasay is an artist, independent curator and educator of
digital media. Her research, creative and theoretical concerns
include a cultural definition for technology-based art. Fátima
Lasay obtained her degree in Industrial Design (1991) and Master
of Fine Arts (2002) at the University of the Philippines, where
she also developed its digital media art elective courses in
1995. She has conducted workshops in Manila (Philippines),
Sierre (Switzerland) and Yangon (Burma), and will be presenting
her creative work and research this year in Melilla (Spain),
Aarhus (Denmark), Yangon (Burma) and Singapore.
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| FEATURES |
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UNESCO'S PROGRAM IN THE PROMOTION AND SUPPORT OF DIGITAL ART
AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Tereza Wagner, deputy team leader, UNESCO Digi-Arts Portal,
UNESCO, 7, pl. de Fontenoy, 75007 Paris, France
T.Wagner at unesco.org
The UNESCO DigiArts portal (devoted to communication,
networking and learning in the field of electronic music and
media art) was created in 2002 to promote creativity in the
field of digital arts. At a time when computers and their
different applications are expected to transform our physical
world into a virtual one, permitting a more direct and immediate
access to our physical environment, a team of UNESCO specialists
found it essential to start networking around the world and
gathering information on the current activities in this field,
especially in developing countries.
In this context, UNESCO's DigiArts portal
(http://portal.unesco.org/digiarts) has commissioned a variety
of research and documents by media arts and electronic music
professionals and artists, in order to permit the
contextualization and documentation of this new form of creation
in different geo-cultural regions.
The Conference held by UNESCO in SARAI, Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies, Delhi, was part of this strategy. For the
first time, specialists in media arts and electronic music came
together in Asia to explore a common course of action, which
will permit better communication and an exchange of programs,
knowledge and ideas in addition to promoting residencies in
different specialized institutions. To that end, the
participants of the meeting have decided to create a new
regional organization and a networking list (apnaidea) that will
be devoted to media arts and electronic music in Asia and the
Pacific. A draft proposal of the statutes of the new
organization is being established in cooperation with the
different members of the network. It will be studied at another
meeting scheduled for September/November 2004, whose purpose
will be the official creation of the organization. Several
countries have expressed interest in hosting this meeting, but
an official decision has not yet been made. UNESCO will be
backing this new organization as much as possible with its
DigiArts portal.
Research, conducted by Andrew Brown (Queensland University of
Technology, Australia), whose aim was to map the major
institutions and practitioners in the field of electronic music
in Asia and the Pacific, proved that music technology activities
in the Asia/Pacific region are quite focused on academic music
programs. In many countries, these academic programs are still
quite young. As expected, countries that have more established
university programs in this field, such as Australia and New
Zealand, have the largest quantities of practicing musicians.
In the field of media arts, Gunalan Nadarajan (an art historian
and media art curator in Singapore) is conducting further
research for DigiArts and the conclusions will most likely be
similar to those found in the domain of music. The meeting in
SARAI also revealed that there is an extremely low level of
activity in the field of software creation in the region and
that there is therefore an urgent need to promote training for
artists and computer engineers capable of producing creative and
cultural digital tools of this kind, which will serve to promote
and produce Asian/Pacific cultural contents for the digital
space in a region where a such a big percentage of all computer
hardware is produced. Through apnaidea networking, the DigiArts
portal will focus its efforts on building specific competency in
this particular field.
RELATED URLs:
UNESCO'S DigiArts Portal: http://portal.unesco.org/digiarts
APNA:IDEA http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/apnaidea
UNESCO Division of Arts and Cultural Enterprise Division of
Arts and Cultural Enterprise:
http://www.unesco.org/culture/creativity/
UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts:
http://www.unesco.org/culture/creativity/prize
MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED 2 JULY, 2004
_____________________________
BIOGRAPHY
Tereza Wagner is program specialist of the UNESCO Division of
Arts and Cultural Enterprise, coordinator of the UNESCO Prize
for the Promotion of the Arts and deputy team leader of the Digi-
Arts Portal. Her graduate and undergraduate degrees are from
Paris V University, France, including a doctorate in
anthropology of contemporary arts. Within UNESCO, she is in
charge of the coordination of promotional and teaching programs
related to contemporary arts and creativity (visual arts,
literature, dance, music, theater, digital arts) as well as a
program related to promoting arts education in the school
environment.
_____________________________
RECENT NEW ZEALAND ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC: NEXUS, FLUX,
NEGOTIATION
Ian Whalley, Department of Music,
University of Waikato,
Hamilton, New Zealand
musik at waikato.ac.nz
ABSTRACT
New Zealand electroacoustic music was pioneered by Douglas
Lilburn in the 1960s. Lilburn found a unique sonic voice based
in the local environment and influenced a generation of younger
composers. The New Zealand Sonic Art CD series, published since
1990, extends this electroacoustic tradition. The first two CDs
pay homage to Lilburn and the European aesthetic while *New
Zealand Sonic Art III* includes a wider range of work,
reflecting changing patterns of cultural immigration to New
Zealand, an emerging and distinct national identity, the
influence of "local" culture, and the application of recent
digital technology.
INTRODUCTION
New Zealand electroacoustic music began from the pioneering
work of Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001). An established instrumental
composer, Lilburn made a decision to abandon orchestral work
after completing his *Third Symphony* in 1961 [1]. From that
point on, he concentrated on electroacoustic music. His decision
reflected a wider national artistic shift: a search for a New
Zealand voice and a reaction against colonial art. Despite its
European origins, Lilburn found that electroacoustic music
lacked cultural baggage, because audio samples from the local
environment could be fused with electronic sounds. This made it
possible to create a unique New Zealand soundscape [2]. An early
example of his approach is found in *Summer Voices* (1969) where
he used a direct quote from a New Zealand Maori lullaby sung by
local school children. He extended this idea, quoting directly
from the natural environment, in his later works like *Three
Inscapes* (1972) and *Soundscape with Lake and River* (1979).
Lilburn's aesthetic orientation was to be his most influential
contribution. It encouraged a generation of his students, such
as Denis Smalley, Ross Harris and John Rimmer to begin from a
similar approach and common techniques [3]. Underpinning the
aesthetic was Pierre Schaeffer's notion of musique concréte: a
method of constructing sound works by editing together tape-
recorded fragments of natural or man-made sound sources. Smalley
was to later develop the notion of "spectromorphology" [4]. This
aesthetic is based on using non-human and often environmental
gestures as the basis for abstract soundworks based on gesture
and changing texture.
By the mid 1990s, electroacoustic music was an established part
of the "art music" genre in New Zealand, with the ODE Record
Company releasing a set of six CDs by electroacoustic composers
in 1994. The idiom was largely academically focused,
experimental in nature and disengaged from popular music idioms
and the wider community.
It is to Lilburn's credit, however, that electroacoustic music
continued to receive significant airplay and concert hall
exposure, along with new acoustic instrumental works. His
influence also ensured that university-based student composers
often included electroacoustic music courses in their programs
and became fluent in acoustic and electroacoustic idioms.
NEW ZEALAND SONIC ART SERIES
To update the ODE Records CD series, the Music Department at
the University of Waikato published two discs: *New Zealand
Sonic Art 2000* [5] and *New Zealand Sonic Art Vol. II* [6]. The
second disc was dedicated to Lilburn, who passed away in 2001.
Responses to the call for works for these two CDs came mainly
from academic composers of European/British heritage, their
contributions being largely influenced by Lilburn or Smalley's
aesthetic [7]. Many of the works submitted fit comfortably with
an established and internationally recognized academic
electroacoustic music style.
The intention of making the third CD in the series was to
reflect a wider cultural and aesthetic palette. Many factors
influenced this decision. The New Zealand population,
particularly in the upper half of the North Island of the
country where the majority of people live, had become far more
ethnically diverse since the 1960s. There was an increasing
indigenous Maori population, a rapidly growing Polynesian
community and a rise in recent immigration from parts of Asia. A
consequence was that the predominantly European cultural "gaze"
typical of the 1960s continued to be diluted. Further, the
"colonial cringe" that looked to Europe and England for cultural
confirmation became less prominent. Confidence grew not only in
local "European" culture, but also in a rapidly emerging
cultural mix of Asian, Maori, Pacific Island and European
inheritances [8]. Given the comparatively short history of
European settlement in the country, the evolving culture was
then less stable, more flexible and more open to negotiation
than in many established countries and cultures.
A further influence on the call for works for the third CD was
the development of other musical styles apart from an
electroacoustic one, some of which were unique to New Zealand
[9]. In the early 1990s there was a revival of traditional Maori
instruments, illustrated by the pioneering work of Hirini
Melbourne and Richard Nunns. Their first album, *Te Ku Te Whe*
[10], is one of the most original soundscapes to be produced,
either nationally or internationally. Their contribution was to
provide an alternative New Zealand voice to that established by
Lilburn.
A second influence was the emergence of an experimental
performance-based "soundculture," resulting from the use of
found and invented instruments. In New Zealand, composers such
as Phil Dadson pioneered this approach. His work with From
Scratch [11], for example, incorporated Polynesian rhythms
played on specially constructed and tuned percussion instruments
made of PVC plastic pipes. A third factor was a growing interest
in the music of Asian cultures by white New Zealand composers.
Jack Body, for example, took a documentary approach to
Indonesian soundscapes in his electroacoustic CD, *Suara* [12].
A fourth influence was the emergence of a digital sample- and
synthesizer-based popular music culture. Commercially, record
companies such as Kog Transmissions developed a number of
artists for the international market [13]. A more experimental
approach was illustrated by CDs such as *Dr. Kevorkian and the
Suicide Machine,* by The Ironman [14]. Finally, intermedia
artists had also begun to experiment with electronic music
through mixed media events, beginning in the late 1980s. For
example, Artspace in Auckland hosted the first Soundwatch
festival in July 1989. By the late 1990s, there was also an
increasing number of sonic publications from Artspace, such as
*The Fourth Window* [15].
NEW ZEALAND SONIC ART III
The call for works for New Zealand Sonic Art III sought
material generated from found and invented instruments,
traditional instruments and environmental sounds. It hoped to
capture some of the range of cultural approaches and
experimental music taking place that had been represented on the
first two CDs as well as to find commonalities and differences
between a diverse range of practitioners and to explore issues
of access and elitism, regionalism and internationalism, tools
and output. It was also hoped that the disc, as a collection of
soundworks, would reflect something of the emerging and evolving
New Zealand identity.
>From the many works submitted in response to the call, the
following tracks were selected by a panel:
1. Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns, *Te Hau Kuri (Dog's
Breath)*; 4:30
2. John Elmsly, *Soft Dawn over Whispering Island*; 10:32
3. Kit Powell, *Contrasts*; 6:36
4. Phil Dadson, *Zitherum Voice*, 8:00
5. Ian Whalley, *Kasumi*; 7:48
6. Norm Skipp, *The Void*; 6:00
7. Chris Cree Brown, *Aeolian Harp Sounds*; 7:48
8. Chris Knox, *Rake*; 2:56
9. William Harsono, *Subconscious*; 7:19
10. Michael Norris, *Aquarelle*, 10:20
A PERSPECTIVE
The introductory notes to the CD, penned by Martin Lodge, begin:
"Forty years ago, New Zealander Douglas Lilburn established an
approach to electroacoustic composition rooted in the
investigation of environmental sound. The intention was to
uncover the inner, spiritual values of natural sound and thereby
develop an awareness of place..." [16].
Having curated and produced the CD, four areas seem worth
noting: reconciling old and new approaches; culture and
technology; technology as a facilitator of cultural similarity;
and negotiating and reconciling traditional and international
boundaries.
RECONCILING OLD AND NEW APPROACHES
Lilburn's legacy is evident in John Elmsly's *Soft Down Over
Whispering Island*, where some of the samples are taken from the
natural environment and then electronically manipulated.
Similarly, Kit Powell draws on native bird sounds in *Contrasts:
A Collage of Found Sounds and New Zealand Bird Calls.* Smalley's
aesthetic of using an abstract approach to sound generation is
found in Michael Norris's work *Aquarelle*, which sits
comfortably with the international Anglo/French acousmatic style
in approach and content.
These techniques, however, are not the sole province of
electroacoustic music composers. "Rake", by ex-punk rocker Chris
Knox, uses sound samples from rakes on metal, plastic, paper and
glass as school students clean up a sports stadium after a big
event. Like most electroacoustic works, it is constructed
through editing rather than being recorded from a real-time
performance. Knox notes that his method of working to create the
piece by manipulating recorded sounds was "a very logical
extension of what I had been doing on tape for the past twenty
years" within the popular music aesthetic, but "without the
constraints of the pop song structure" [17].
In contrast, Lilburn's approach could also be considered as a
point of difference with works that use new instruments to
create a live performance. Phil Dadson *Zitherum Voice*, for
example, is generated from an improvised performance of an
invented acoustic instrument where three piano wires connected
to polystyrene resonators are strung onto a 3-meter long tubular
frame. The instrument can be played with a variety of devices,
such as, in this instance, a battery-powered hand-fan.
Despite the range of approaches to generating the source
material, the point of reconciliation between old and new
practice is in the use of similar digital tools to manipulate
the works after the fact. Few of the works on the CD could exist
without digital audio splicing or editing. Similar
software/hardware platforms for audio recording have also been
used by a number of practitioners, regardless of style.
CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
The application of new digital technology can inspire new
artistic ideas in idioms that developed before this technology
was available. Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns' *Te Hau Kuri*
(Dog's Breath) is generated in the first instance from a number
of short performed samples of traditional Maori instruments.
These samples were taken into the studio and mixed, layered and
panned using digital editing technology. The result sounds like
a live performance, but the work could not be created by two
players or by playing live. There are more tracks than players
and the volume alterations, panning placements, sound
compression and sound equalization manipulations are added
through digital editing. The idea behind the work, a sonic
rendition of a legend from the late fourteenth century using
replicas of instruments that may have existed at the time, is
thus only able to be realized using contemporary technology.
The relationship is of course dialectic: acoustic performance
and digital editing tools can be used in the creative process in
ways that may not have been originally imagined. Chris Cree
Brown's *Aeolian Harp Sounds*, for example, was generated in the
first instance by an outdoor sculpture placed in the
Christchurch Botanical Gardens. A large shell channels the wind
as it blows through the structure. The "performance" was
generated from strings that were in this instance randomly
tuned. These sounds were then digitally recorded and further
enhanced in the production process in the studio, with slight
compression being used to level out the volume of sounds.
Overall, the sound level is also lowered on the disc to give the
impression of how the original might best be encountered in the
original setting.
TECHNOLOGY AS A FACILITATOR OF CULTURAL SIMILARITY
An outcome of different practitioners' using similar digital
audio hardware or synthesis tools as a means of generating new
music is that they may converge on similar outcomes: without a
diversified source of cultural input, the tools themselves might
become the means of generating cultural product. For example,
experience at European festivals suggests that it is
increasingly difficult to tell which geographical region many
works originate from.
On the CD, Norman Skipp's *The Void* was premiered as part of
the "La Création du Monde" portion of Synthèse 2001 in Bourges,
France. Despite the philosophical basis of its generation, a
"personal cultural resonance with the land of one's birth, and
how that defines one's identity" [18], the resulting sound is
very much a European one with little direct local identity in
sound. At the same time, this sense of internationalism is also
part of New Zealand electroacoustic music culture as is its
European connection.
NEGOTIATING AND RECONCILING TRADITIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
BOUNDARIES
Two works provide examples of negotiating and reconciling
regional and international influences. These illustrate how
differing cultural resources and narrative traditions can be
drawn together to create unique works.
My own work, *Kasumi*, takes its source material from short
instrumental samples of seven New Zealand Maori instruments. In
tandem, there is a Japanese text for the work from the Manyoshu
by Otomo no Yakamochi, written on 23 February 753. Both the text
and the instruments are recreated in their original incarnations
in the work but are also extensively manipulated through digital
processing techniques. The approach weaves three different
cultures into one work, but creates a new hybrid from the sum of
the parts. The danger of attempting "crossover" work is in using
source material inappropriately. I was fortunate to have access
and advice from an expert player of traditional Maori
instruments (Richard Nunns) and a Japanese musician (Chikako
Komaki), who could read the text and comment on its use.
Another work on the CD reconciles a modern European approach to
electroacoustic manipulation with a Chinese text.
*Subconscious*, by William Harsono, a recent immigrant to New
Zealand from Taiwan, is based on an original poem read in the
composer's first language. This is woven into an electroacoustic
score based on a moving three-dimensional sound world, and draws
the listener into a meditative mood. The advantage of being able
to borrow fluidly and fluently from both cultures is clearly
illustrated.
CONCLUSION
Culturally, *New Zealand Sonic Art III* draws on a wide range
of historical and geographical influences. The resulting
juxtaposition of works represents something of what it means to
be a New Zealander at present, including aspects of the culture
that have not been reconciled and may never be.
Despite these contrasts, there are points where reconciliation
is attempted sonically: the results are generally introspective
and spacious, which also reflects something of the New Zealand
character. It is evident that digital audio tools are providing
a means to reconcile various sonic influences, or to extend old
ideas into new areas. At the same time, the local cultural
resources provide the means to make a distinct cultural product.
The amalgam of Polynesian, European and Asian heritage that is
continually negotiated, in combination with the national
geography and climate, make the country unique. Lilburn's notion
of finding a New Zealand voice has not disappeared, but the
world he sought to represent, and the resources that can be
drawn on to portray it, have been considerably expanded since
the 1960s.
RELATED URLS
Ian Whalley
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/humanities/music/staff/ian_whalley.shtml
New Zealand Sonic Art Project
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/humanities/music/nzsonicart.shtml
Organised Sound (Cambridge University Press)
http://titles.cambridge.org/journals/journal_editors.asp?mnemonic
=OSO
ICMA
http://www.computermusic.org/about_icma/about_master_frameset.ht
ml
Interactive Music Project
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/humanities/music/imp.shtml
REFERENCES AND NOTES
1. See Michael Norris and John Young, "Half Heard Sounds in the
Summer Air: Electroacoustic Music in Wellington and the South
Island of New Zealand," in *Organised Sound*, 6(1) 2001, pp. 21-
28.
2. See Chris Bourke, "Douglas Lilburn: An Interview," in *Music
in New Zealand*, 29, 1996, p. 37.
3. Their recorded works include Denis Smalley, *Tides* (Ode
Record Company, CD MANU 1433, 1993); Ross Harris, *Inner World*
(Ode Record Company, CD MANU 1434, 1993); and John Rimmer,
*Fleeting Images* (Ode Record Company, CD MANU 1437, 1993).
4. Denis Smalley, "Spectomorphology: Explaining sound-shapes,"
in *Organised Sound* 2(2), 1997, pp. 107-26.
5. *New Zealand Sonic Art 2000* (Hamilton: University of
Waikato, CD MDUW1200, 2000).
6. *New Zealand Sonic Art Vol. II* (Hamilton: University of
Waikato, CD MDUW1201, 2001).
7. See Smalley [4].
8. See William Dart, John Elmsly, Ian Whalley, "A View of
Computer Music: Auckland, Waikato and the Asia/Pacific
Connection," in *Organised Sound* 6(1) 2001, pp. 11-20.
9. Ian Whalley, "Editorial: Music Technology in Australasia and
South East Asia," in *Organised Sound* 6(1), 2001, pp. 1-2. The
issue gives a good summary of the influence of local cultures on
music-making.
10. Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns, *Te Ku Te Whe* (Rattle
Records, CD RAT-D004, 1994).
11. Gregory Ncholas, *Pacific 321 Zero* (NZFC Films, 1993).
12. Jack Body, *Suara* (Ode Record Company, CD MANU 1380, 1993).
13. See Russell Brown, "Dancing Kings," in *Unlimited*,
December 2000, pp. 58-64.
14. The Ironman, *Dr. Kevorkian and the Suicide Machine* (CD
Universal 98432, 2000).
15. See *The Fourth Window* (CD/CDROM, Artspace, 1999).
16. *New Zealand Sonic Art III* (Hamilton: University of
Waikato. CD MDUW1202, 2002).
17. See [16], Chris Knox liner notes, p. 12.
18. See [16], Norman Skipp liner notes, p. 10.
MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED 2 JULY, 2004
_____________________________
BIOGRAPHY
Ian Whalley lectures in the music department at the University
of Waikato (Hamilton, New Zealand), where he is digital music
studio director and director of the Interactive Music Project.
As a composer, his work is influenced by sound gestures from the
Asia/Pacific region, and their combination with electro-acoustic
textural manipulation. He has received awards and grants from
the British Council (UK), Kunitachi's CCMMT (Japan), Meiji
University Visiting Fellowship (Japan), Klangart '99 (Germany)
and UNESCO (India). His research work focuses on generative and
interactive systems in music, and artificial intelligence/agent-
based applications to non-linear music. He has published in
forums such as *The Computer Music Journal*, *Organised Sound*,
*Canzona*, *Convergence*, *Enculturation*, *Contexts* and for
international events such as ICMC and ISEA. His editorial board
service includes *Organised Sound* (Cambridge University Press)
and he curates the New Zealand Sonic Art CD Series. Ian is
currently a director-at-large for the International Computer
Music Association.
_____________________________
LATIN AMERICAN MEDIA ART: LOCAL CREATION / GLOBAL ARTICULATION
by José Carlos Mariátegui, Alcanfores 1096,
Miraflores, Lima 18, Peru
jcm at ata.org.pe
In geographical terms, we usually think of Latin America as a
region. But it is not easy to generalize into one the creative
processes of different countries in a determined region. Though
this notion of generalization tends to be taken out from the
process of so-called "globalization," it could be questioned in
a very critical but useful way in order to analyze the
differences among new media creation in Latin America. Since all
of us are suffering from, in one way or another, as well as
representing, the processes of globalization in different levels
and from different perceptions, it seems interesting to consider
the space for action as an intersection between global and local
premises: a position that occupies a hybrid space, a platform of
mixed realities, in an attempt to articulate the ideas within
these two strong tendencies. This hybridism by which these
identities are transported is reflected in today's ambivalent
use of media art from the production and participation within a
"global popular culture" to the construction of local
attitudes.
It is not just a question of identifying Latin America's local
reality with tradition or modernity; new identities are not only
generated by global or local means but from the complex
articulations that occur inside an unstable equilibrium in the
form of different visions of the same discourse, emerging from a
local contact that mediates its relation and response with the
exterior (which does not necessarily mean the global).
>From a simplistic perspective, globalization could be seen as a
way to try to apply the same "prescription" that worked well in
some countries to others; that is to say, an attempt to recreate
the same discourse in another language and culture. In this
sense, the analysis of the current development of media art on a
global scale often has a sophisticated but empirically flat
theoretical development, constructing polished conceptual
arguments that gather little from (local) reality. Nothing is
less original than this type of proposal. For this reason, the
articulation of intermediate process and getting together
different pieces from reality have a fundamental value in
today's contemporary media art creation.
A central aspect that occurs to many people that live in highly
populated centers, capitals or metropolises in Latin America is
the approach and desire for a Western lifestyle, imitating it in
the hope of becoming "others": an unstable equilibrium of total
subjugation. It is interesting that many of those global cities
inside this complex space seem united or much more "connected"
with each other than with the extremely quiet zones outside
those cities, with no awareness of what happens there at a
creative level. The scheme and condition of the premises and the
relation with the centers that exist within the peripheries
needs to be reframed, bringing into the discussion a concept
that we can call the "periphery of the periphery": towns where
in many cases the Internet has not yet arrived, where the
digital is still in its infancy or not at all present, spaces in
which if we want to "innovate," it must be by the use of
"offline technologies," such as video. If we manage to develop
or to define a strategy in terms of south-south interaction,
this will open new possibilities for different forms of existing
creation resisting the dominance of an imposed international
post-modern language and generating new media spaces that would
be part of a real "networked space": much closer, in cultural
terms, to a geographical one.
Although one can focus on a subject by way of many
representations, in the case of video and electronic art in
Latin America, there have been many attempts to abstract the
city and turn it into "another" space. There is no doubt that a
metropolis such as Sao Paulo, Mexico City or Lima - which, in
addition to experiencing decades of migratory displacement - is
a portrait of the ideas of its inhabitants. As Nestor García
Canclini comments: "As a result of this kind of situation,
national cultures lose their influence in the social definition
of identity and new modes of definition are accepted" [1]. In
this sense, popular or local culture acts as a depository of
official speech as well as of the popular narrative, creating a
space where modernity and tradition converge by means of day-to-
day practice.
This practice reveals in many cases the intrusion of power and
the persistence of tradition in demonstrating the social
tensions that generate conflict. Local empowerment is still the
most important movement in the present world because it is the
application of concepts taken from global and local spheres. The
political, social and mediated strategies force us to see the
perspective within the contemporary creation using these
definitions. Based on this idea, we can work on three types of
attitudes towards new media art proposals in such contexts:
local, transregional and global.
II
The local level is a movement not only of empowerment and
solidarity but also of independence and critical vision. By
means of a universalistic panorama, the folk-nationalist or
"traditional" local content tends to put an emphasis on the
difference between the creation (simulation) and the real
situation. In this way, a sort of "critical bridge" is formed in
which both ways of looking - the folklorist interpretation on
one side and the real situation on the other - are compared and
placed in relation to each other. Media art oriented in a
vernacular way tends in vain to compress all the diversity
available in a country, typifying it as a single cultural
reality. By way of such means, enormous differences will be
ignored, especially the ones between urban and rural zones. As a
reaction to this vision, traditional images are mixed with
modern, global, post-industrial ones, showing them in satirical
forms to demonstrate not one reality, but a compendium of
"realities." This confrontation is not used in a negative sense,
but to connect modern culture and tradition.
The second level, the transregional one, is a mixture between
local and global concepts, but in geographically related terms.
This is an "integration movement," in which elements coming from
the media are reworked, leading to a reinterpretation of
reality. In the topics of this level, there are some anti-global
characteristics since it tends to use material from local media.
The new image is a way of creating awareness and persuading the
public to understand things from other perspectives.
An acceleration of reality and the comparison of patterns
communicating forms that go towards a transregional media
culture are persistent factors in the revaluation of symbols
towards an internationalism and against tradition, while still
remaining critical to the local context. This cosmopolitan
ethnography to which the contemporary creation makes reference
offers a new definition from which we understand the challenge
of a change: it is more important to pay special attention to
the definition of the media information than to the media
technology associated with it. In this respect, TV can still
teach us many things that may be useful in providing an insight
to the future of the Internet.
The global level is a movement of peripherization, meaning that
despite the fact that the distances between the centers and
peripheries are growing, these projects tend to place themselves
among global strategies to stay in a "relative" center. Art has
become a prefabricated question, where everything is the
consequence of a great historical distortion and perhaps the
real innovators will not be considered the "best." There is no
more originality, just recycling. The intellectual exercise no
longer has any value, because the people have become quick
consumers, demanding a "hit" or something "cool." Interestingly,
it is impossible to define authorship with a specific
nationality, marking such works as being completely global.
As Gerardo Mosquera has pointed out: "It is necessary to cut
the global pie not only with a variety of knives, but also with
a variety of hands, and then share it accordingly. This is
neither revolution not political correctness: it is a need, for
all we want is an endogamous culture" [2].
If we do not have a clear idea of the plural cultural
conformation of a country, we will not be in a condition to
contribute to a social change that some societies demand as a
historical imperative in order to juxtapose theory with
practice. For that reason, although the important "ones" may
remain unnoticed, the system is fast and forces us to be very
selective, but not deep; it is much easier today to leave a
track in Lima than in New York.
[This article is a revised version prepared specially for LEA.
The original text was previously published in German in
*Bandbreite. Medien zwischen Kunst und Politik*, eds. Andreas
Broeckmann and Rudolf Frieling (Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos,
2004).]
REFERENCES
1. Néstor Garcia Canclini, in *Culturas híbridas: Estrategias
para entrar y salir de la modernidad* (Grijaldo, México: D.F.,
1990).
2. Gerardo Mosquera, "Notes on Globalization, Art and Cultural
Difference," in *Rijksakademie van beelbende kunsten and RAIN*,
2001, pp. 26-36.
MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED 2 JULY, 2004
_____________________________
BIOGRAPHY
José-Carlos Mariátegui is a scientist and media theorist, and
president of Alta Tecnología Andina (ATA), a non-profit
organization dedicated to the development and research of
artistic and scientific theories. He is the founder of the
International Festival of Video and Electronic Art in Lima (1998-
2003) and director of the Memorial Museum Mariátegui of the
National Institute of Culture. He is resident at the CICV Centre
de Recherche Pierre Schaeffer Montbéliard Belfort, Hérimoncourt
(France), coordinator of the scientific thought and philosophy
of science program at Cayetano Heredia University (Lima) and of
numerous expositions and symposia in Peru. He teaches in the
Ricardo Palma University museology program and his recent
conferences include Coloquio Internacional de Historia del Arte,
Medi at terra Festival, ISEA 2000, Emoçao art.ficial and
Transmediale.03. He has curated several exhibitions, including
the Interferences Festival (Belfort, 2000) and "Nueva/Vista:
Videokunst aus Lateinamerica," ifa-Galeries (Bonn, Berlin,
Stuttgart, 2002-2003). He is a member of several committees on
virtual reality, interaction, visual computing and artificial
life and a member of the ISEA Cultural Diversity Committee. He
served as a juror of the 13 Videobrasil (2001), as a member of
the ISEA 2002 International Programming Committee and of the
International Advisory Board of Prix Ars Electronica 2004. He is
a corresponding editor for *Leonardo Electronic Almanac* and
*Fine Art Forum* and currently acts as a node of the E-Tester
project (www.e-tester.net), a platform of critical theory and
practice on contemporary creation.
His most recent publications include "Techno-Revolution: False
Evolution?" (*Third Text*, London, 1999; Spanish-language
version in Márgenes Encuentro y Debate, Año XIV, Lima, 2000);
"Video-Arte-Electrónico-en-Peru" (in *De la pantalla al arte
transgénico*, edited by Jorge La Ferla, Universidad de Buenos
Aires, 2000), "Visiones/contravisiones del vídeo y arte
electrónico en el Perú" (in *Perú: Resistencias*, Casa de
América, Madrid, 2001), "Art as Evolution" (in *Medi at terra 2000
Neo[techno]logisms* Athens, 2001), "Gianni 'Tupac' Toti, un
hommage à Gianni Toti" (in *Turbulences vidéo* France, 2002).
"The Camera as an Interface: Closed-Circuit Video Projects in
Peru" (in *Leonardo Electronic Almanac*, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2002.),
"Peruvian Video/Electronic Art" (in *Leonardo*, Vol. 35, No. 4,
2002), and "Lebende und optische Maschinen - Eine Interpretation
von zwei installationen" (in *Rosa Barba: Off Sites*, Walther
Köning, Köln, 2003).
_____________________________
THE USE OF INTERNET FOR AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
Hasnul Jamal Saidon, School of Art,
Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
hasnulsaidon at yahoo.com
Roopesh Sitharan, Faculty of Creative Multimedia,
Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia
roopesh at mmu.edu.my
ABSTRACT
This article is basically a report of a research project called
*Upload:Download - Fukuoka: Kuala Lumpur Young Artists' Online
Collaboration*. It is an experimental online project that
represents an international collaboration between students based
in Fukuoka, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Essentially, the
project aims to explore the creative potential of the Internet,
especially amongst youth. It is also designed to instigate
further inquiries into the notions of self, identity,
nationality and cross-cultural encounters in today's age of
global telecommunication. The project also functions as an
experimental case study to investigate the underlying forces of
mass and multimedia in forming today's realities.
INTRODUCTION
The era of the 1990s brought a radical change in the way we
communicate with each other, where people separated by
geographical distance are united in the virtual realm through
the emergence of Internet technology. An award-winning
dictionary of Internet terms, www.netlingo.com, defines Internet
as "The most important technological innovation of our
generation, the Internet is actually a network of networks" [1].
The Internet is a global network that links computers worldwide
and connects millions of people from various backgrounds. This
huge network creates a fresh situation for individuals and
society as a whole, prompting us to reflect upon its impact,
potential and implications. The Internet revolution is not just
about communications and technology - it touches the very
fundamental ingredient of our social structure, as described by
Eduardo Kac: "The complexity of the contemporary social scene
permeated by electronic media, where the flux of information
becomes the very fabric of reality, calls for a reevaluation of
traditional aesthetics and opens the field for new developments"
[2].
Questions ranging from issues of the social and private sphere
to those of gender and identity are posed in new ways through
the Internet. Thus, with the interest in analyzing and exploring
the potential and implication of virtual networked society, the
project *UPload:DOWNload - Fukuoka: Kuala Lumpur Young Artists
Online Collaboration* was born. Hasnul J. Saidon, along with
Roopesh Sitharan, initiated the project during his residency
program at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Japan, from October to
December 2003. Eight young artists from Malaysia and 11 young
artists from Japan were engaged in the project via Internet.
PROJECT BRIEF
The project was divided into four sub-projects, involving
different elements of multimedia at each level. The four sub-
projects are:
1. interFACES (stills)
The artist had to upload a .jpg image of a self-portrait, which
was then manipulated by a participating artist from another
country into typical and stereotyped faces of the particular
artist's country and vice versa.
Can facial features in regard to cultural stereotype be
relevant for an increasingly networked generation? Can facial
features be the epitome of cultural or national identity (or
even pride) in the age of the Internet? Can there be a pure or
an original "face" for a particular notion of identity and
nationality, especially in the age of global telecommunication?
2. BranconTEXT (animation, gif sequence, PowerPoint slides)
Here the artists were required to record the brand of products
used on a particular day. Later, the images/logo of the brands
were arranged according to the sequence of usage. The logo and
images of the brand were uploaded to the site and later
downloaded by a participating artist from another country, who
created a character from the logo and vice versa.
Are brands important in the daily life of the participating
artists and how do they relate to the products that they use and
consume? Are their consumption patterns similar or different? Is
there any indication of globalized or homogenized taste and
style? Or do the taste and style gravitate more towards local
preferences? What are the implications of information technology
towards their consumption patterns, tastes and styles?
3. CITY stream (video)
The artists were required to shoot a 5-10 second sequence of
digital video of a selected location in the city that reflected
the space that they constantly used or lived in, a space that
they liked and enjoyed. The video was later uploaded to the site
and downloaded by the participating artist from the counterpart
country, who used it to create a 7-15 second video reflecting an
ideal virtual city of their own and vice versa.
Are cities becoming globally homogenized or localized? Are they
becoming increasingly commercialized? How do the participants in
both cities relate and interact with their cities? How do they
relate to other cities via the Internet? What is their notion of
an ideal urban dwelling space, both physically and in virtual
form? Do they have the same vision?
4. soulBITS (sound)
The artists were required to create or compose their own short
digital music or sound composition, reflecting their own notions
about spiritual happiness and well-being. The audio was uploaded
to the site and downloaded by the participating artist from the
counterpart country, who used it to create digital music with
the same notion and vice versa.
Does spirituality have any relevance to the present age,
especially amongst urban youths? How do the participants relate
to spirituality? What are the differences and similarities? How
does spirituality stand in the midst of mass consumerism, global
telecommunications and cross-cultural encounters?
THE PROCESS
The whole project evolves within the process of downloading,
manipulating and uploading content provided and used by both
counterparts. Content is no longer "concrete," but a vital part
of the communicational contexts that can be rejuvenated and
manipulated, virtually by anybody. The online nature of the
project was ideal in making global participation possible, and
the idea of "manipulating" content provided by each other played
a significant role.
In the interFACES project, the context of the work involving
portraits of participants posted online proved an important
point in working with such virtual and networked environments.
The organic form of such content, without any identity or
characteristics, is explained by Alan Sondheim: "The online
aspect is crucial; the work permits global participation, and
the idea of 'stripping' has a political context as well - one
may be stripped of her or his political rights, belongings,
etc." [3].
Due to the process of sharing with other participants, the
contents were unstable and constantly changing, fitting into the
particular needs of the participating artists according to the
level of manipulation they employed. The very nature of the
content is organic and open to possibilities of change,
providing the artist with a unique opportunity to customize the
work. Digital content thus has the potential to become
"indefinite content," open to revision, evolution,
collaborative, manipulation and cross-disciplinary utilization
via the Internet. As Eduardo Kac has stated, "These works are
based on mutable structures and unstable links. For them to be
meaningful, they rely on enabling the participant to make
choices on-line, participate in the development of the work, and
determine the experience one has as he or she navigates a given
piece" [4].
At the participatory level generated through the networked
society summoned over the Internet, communicative encounters
take place not through physical appearance but through the
action and reaction that result from the participants'
engagement in a shared mediated activity. As the reactions are
experienced through the Internet, anybody around the globe with
Internet access can see them, erasing boundaries between them
and making the work accessible to anyone. This is a perfect
example of global collaboration interdependently generating
artworks and forming a global network. It is as described by
artist Damien Funk, who says about the collaborative *Funkworks*
project, "Collaboration supercharges their efforts and they
continue to produce stunning illustrative work on a regular
basis" [5].
The use of the Internet to create art influences the artist's
ideas, attitude and perception, resulting not only in
possibilities for changes in the content, form and context of
the artwork, but also demanding new skills and knowledge on the
part of the artist. For instance, one must understand the
process of uploading and downloading via Internet, the
requirements of the digital medium, proficiency in handling the
particular software required for media manipulation and
management, etc. This demands a multi-disciplined and multi-
tasking approach in meeting all the essential requirements to
create artwork on the Internet. The global network has become
the propeller of a radical economic, social and cultural
revolution manifesting new requirements for human capabilities
and knowledge to meet the future of information-based society.
This is well-defined by Peter Weibel, who writes that "Society
has attained a complex state of development in which a
technological instrument such as the Net has become necessary
for it to work" [6].
Participants in this project were required to register to the
site before being able to take part in the collaborative
process. This was in order to monitor, moderate and control the
flow of the content and to aid in the research process. Safety
was also an issue raised during the registration process, some
of the participants being reluctant to register and reveal their
actual information. The open nature of the project, which was
free from any restriction and accessible by anyone, created an
alarming state of uncertainty and insecurity. Security has
always been a difficult task in handling any works with similar
online characteristics. With the appearance of hackers creating
digital bacteria, worms and viruses, manipulating information
for their own benefits and advantage, it automatically creates
an atmosphere of doubt, disbelief and fear amongst Internet
users. As Charlotte L. Frost writes, "Technology can make us
feel vulnerable and exposed when we don't understand it or are
subject to it, yet we use it very intimately, for example in
text messages and e-mail. The Internet thrives on anonymity"
[7].
In the interest of pursuing and exploring new possibilities of
cross culture encounters via the Internet, the participants from
Malaysia and Japan agreed to embrace the process of content
hybridization between them and a mutual understanding took
shape, based upon trust and belief. With the trust gained
between both parties in submitting content revealing personal
interest and information, the project was well on its way.
"Trust" and "curiosity" stood as the key elements behind the
success of the project, creating an environment free from
skepticism and easing the flow of information and the
development of the artwork. The participants became the active
creators of meaning for the content.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The *UPload:DOWNload* project has revealed numerous potentials
in various aspects for further exploration. It serves as a
research platform, contributing towards technological
development as well as cultural understanding in relation to the
implications of the networked virtual society. It also serves as
a passage over the gap between researcher and participant,
artist and scientist, art and science, in an evolving and
knowledge-sharing society. The project would be best received as
a future-oriented investment in preparing ourselves to embrace
the transformation of global development and the implications of
such development.
Considering the potentials and capabilities of the UD project,
we can expect it to change continuously. Nevertheless, some key
areas have been identified for future development plans of the
project. These are:
"To develop and enhance the project by integrating the use of
wireless applications such as cellular phone technology and PDA
as an integral part of the artwork creation and contribution.
These wireless applications will be the key communication tools
of the future. This will enable participants to bring the
project into the physical space of their life rather than
logging into the virtual realm and uploading the content via the
website.
"To conduct workshops, seminars, talks and exhibitions
encouraging people around the globe to participate and
collaborate in the process of creating artworks, which will
increase the cross-cultural encounters amongst participants of
the UD project. This will also create a network, forming a
global virtual network beyond geographic restrictions.
"To adapt the artwork display in a gallery or offline context
(i.e. a physical space) at several venues around the globe to
enhance, experiment with and explore the relationship with and
participation in the virtual and physical space and all
activities done between the online and offline sites. This would
include experiments such as:
- A live panel display of manipulation of portraits
- Live videos and animations of the streaming and manipulation
process
- A soundscape stereo installation from the UD site
- An online terminal via the UD website
- Live conferencing for interactive performance-based activities
CONCLUSION
Undoubtedly, the Internet represents a new challenge for
artistic practice. It raises questions on cyber-cultural
analysis, bringing up the inevitable debate on the core of
social structures as we face a transforming and evolving future
society. This article explores how society has adapted itself,
forming a symbiotic relationship in utilizing telecommunication
technology in anyway possible.
Software giant Microsoft has said that "More Asians, including
Malaysians, are resorting to technology to express their
emotions," citing findings from a survey conducted by its MSN
Internet unit [8]. The company said in a statement that affluent
men and women these days are starting to depend on various
online communication channels, such as e-mail and instant
messaging, to express themselves. The second annual "Love
Online" survey conducted by MSN Asia covered areas like
"expressing feelings of love online, inviting someone out on a
first date, using the Internet to carry out two (or more)
romances and breaking up with someone online rather than face-to-
face" [9].
Through the execution and development of our project, many new
questions and unrevealed territory have emerged. Works similar
to this project penetrate the idea that the Internet creates new
forms of social relations and structure. The Internet will
continue to evolve as it is being associated with other forms of
technologies, involving our senses to improve the way we
communicate and reach each other. It opens new opportunity,
freedom, productivity, efficiency and access; at the same time,
it requires fresh awareness and consciousness to be able to
confront these changes. These are the areas in which
investigation and critical analysis are necessary in order to be
able to benefit from communication technologies such as the
Internet.
REFERENCES
1. From a keyword search of "internet" at
http://www.netlingo.com/ .
2. Eduardo Kac, "Aspects of the Aesthetics of
Telecommunications," in
John Grimes and Gray Lorig, eds., *Siggraph Visual Proceedings*
(New York, NY: ACM, 1992).
3. Alan Sondheim, "Apropos of Skin/Strip,"
http://www.skinstrip.net/archive/docs/reviews_articles_sondheim.h
tm .
4. Eduardo Kac, "Interactive Art on the Internet," in Karl
Gerbel and Peter Weibel, eds., *Mythos Information: Welcome to
the Wired World* (Vienna, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995) pp.
170-179.
5. The *Funkworks* project is a globally collaborative,
submission-driven artwork display and showcase magazine
dedicated to creative print
and digital art. See http://funkworks.org/ . Funk's statement
is taken from an interview by Christopher Hester, 30 November
2001, published at
http://www.designdetector.com/articles/damienfunkinterview.php .
6. Peter Weibel and Timothy Druckrey, eds., *Net Conditions:
Art and Global Media* (Karlsruhe, Berlin: Engelhardt and Bauer,
1999) pp. 18-19.
7. Charlotte L. Frost, "Putting the Personal in PC or the Dirty
in MAC," < http://www.furtherfield.org/cfrost/review1.htm >, in
*Furtherfield* < http://www.furtherfield.org/ >. *Furtherfield*
is an online platform for the creation, promotion and criticism
of adventurous digital/net artwork for public viewing,
experience and interaction. *Furtherfield* was founded in 1997
by artists Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow and is a London based,
non-profit organization.
8. Quoted in *The Star* (Malaysian newspaper) <
http://www.thestar.com.my >,
Thursday, 19 February, 2004.
9. "Asians Getting More Expressive Online," in *The Star* (see
[8]), 19 February, 2004.
MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED 2 JULY, 2004
_____________________________
BIOGRAPHIES
Hasnul Jamal Saidon received his BFA in painting from Southern
Illinois University, U.S.A. and his MFA in electronic arts from
Renselear Polytechnic Institute, U.S.A. His multi-dimensional
approach to producing works brings together the arts, technology
and themes regarding social appearances. He has been involved in
several international exhibitions and residency programs. He
presented a solo exhibition entitled *HypeVIEW* at the National
Art Gallery of Malaysia in 1997 and has won several awards, such
as the Phillip Morris Award, Young Contemporary, etc. He is
currently serving as a lecturer and chairman of the design
department at University Sains Malaysia (USM).
Roopesh Sitharan is pursuing his passion in exploring
interactive media arts and works as a tutor for the Multimedia
University in Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Roopesh finished
his Bachelor of Science (Hons) in digital media arts in 2001. He
has been involved in several national and international projects
and showcases of digital arts, such as the 2003 International
Juried Immedia Digital Arts Showcase, goto ("Net.Art") from
Asia, the Sony Third Place Gallery and Asia Pacific ICT Awards
(APICTA) 2002 Showcase. He was featured as the artist of the day
at the Museum of Computer Arts (MOCA). He has published works
and papers on the thoughts and understanding discovered
concerning the practice of new media arts in Malaysia and
currently contributes as an online publisher to Rhizome.org.
________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
| |
| LEONARDO REVIEWS |
| 2004.08 |
|_________________________________|
________________________________________________________________
This month, Leonardo Reviews welcomes new panel members John
Barber and Julia Peck, from the U.S.A. and the U.K.
respectively. Their specializations, evident in the reviews, add
to the range of expertise that the panel covers as well as the
geographical diversity.
Featured here this month is a lengthy review by Yvonne
Spielmann of Sean Cubitt's new book, *The Cinema Effect*, and
George Gessert's fascinating review of *The Molecular Gaze: Art
in the Genetic Age*, by Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin.
Leonardo Reviews is also delighted that this month we are able
to carry a review of Roy Ascott's *Telematic Embrace*, by Jan
Baetens, particularly because we hope it marks a collaboration
with his own journal *Image and Narrative*
(http://www.imageandnarrative.be/).
This is a very positive take on a significant book and we hope
it foreshadows a productive future for the two of us. In what is
self-evidently a strong month, Aparna Sharma reviews the film
*Amartya Sen: A Life Re-examined*, and regulars Roy Behrens,
Dene Grigar, Wilfred Niels Arnold, Rob Harle, Stefaan van
Ryssen, Amy Ione and Andrea Dahlberg have also filed interesting
and provocative reviews.
_____________________________
All these can be read on-line at
http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu
Michael Punt
Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Reviews
Advertising Outdoors, by David Bernstein
and
History of the Poster, by Josef and Shizuko Müller-Brockmann
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Amartya Sen: A Life Re-examined, directed and produced by Suman
Ghose
Reviewed by Aparna Sharma
America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives as New
Beginnings, by David E. Nye
Reviewed by Michael Punt
The Cinema Effect, by Sean Cubitt
Reviewed by Yvonne Spielmann
Close Reading New Media: Analyzing Electronic Media, by Jan Van
Looy and Jan Baetens
Reviewed by Dene Grigar
Compelling Visuality: The Work of Art in and out of History,
edited by Claire Farago and Robert Zwijnenberg
Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold
Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids, by Sidney
Perkowitz
Reviewed by John F. Barber
Earthly Paradises: Ancient Gardens in History and Archaeology,
by Maureen Carroll
Reviewed by Rob Harle
Had Gadya: The Only Kid. Facsimile of El Lissitzky's Edition of
1919, edited by Arnold J. Band; introduction by Nancy Perloff
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, by Suzanne Anker
and Dorothy Nelkin
Reviewed by George Gessert
Neurology of the Arts: Painting, Music, Literature, edited by
F. Clifford Rose
Reviewed by Amy Ione
Photographers of Genius at the Getty, by Weston Naef
Reviewed by Julia Peck
Russia at Play: Leisure Activities at the End of the Tsarist
Era, by Louise McReynolds
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images, by David M.
Lubin
Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg
Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and
Consciousness, by Roy Ascott; edited and with an essay by Edward
A. Shanken
Reviewed by Jan Baetens
Typography: Formation and Transformation, by Willi Kunz
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
_____________________________
AMARTYA SEN: A LIFE RE-EXAMINED
film directed and produced by Suman Ghose, First Run/Icarus
Films, New York, NY, 2003. Running time, 56 min.
Reviewed by Aparna Sharma
aparna31S at netscape.net
*Amartya Sen: A Life Re-Examined*, is a documentary about the
life and work of Nobel Prize-winning economist, Dr. Amartya Sen.
Rich and moving, the nearly hour-long film focuses on his
contributions in the field of welfare economics, providing an
overview of a vast span of his engagements and contextualizing
his thoughts and propositions. The discussions within the film
invite the viewer to better understand the dynamics of economic
development, wherein Sen's arguments have identified the
complexities and intricacies of social choice/s. As the film
proceeds, it indicates Sen's thought as emulating dialogue
between varied and distinct systems of reason and thinking. From
such a position, one begins to appreciate some of the
inadequacies of Western liberalism and the case for expanding
and re-situating economic development beyond macroeconomic
measures only.
The film combines interviews with a galaxy of scholars,
politicians and associates who comment upon Sen's work,
particularly within the ambit of the social choice theory, and
discuss some of his independent research efforts in rural
Bengal. Central in lending structure to the film is a
conversation between Sen and economics professor Kaushik Basu,
from Cornell University. In this conversation, Basu inquires
deeply into the evolution of Sen's thinking, traversing both
intellectual and personal trajectories. Rather than giving
interpretation or explanation, the conversation is
deconstructive, which facilitates in situating Sen's ideas
within a larger historical and socio-political context. Through
editing, this dialogue is carefully combined with other
interviews, such that it serves as a delicate framework for the
film, fully evoking the import of Sen's contributions and
introducing the viewer to wider philosophical and cultural
implications. Acutely interesting is Harvard historian Sugata
Bose's succinct and lucid commentary, in which he places Amartya
Sen in the tradition of thinking shared by two prominent
twentieth century Bengalis: Nobel laureate and writer
Rabindranath Tagore and filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Bose holds that
in following this tradition, including Sen, the intellectual and
cultural history of our times could be reinterpreted as being,
". . . characterized by competing and multiple universalisms,"
for the three thinkers attest to "lines of communication that
connect different cultures." This observation is extremely
useful in challenging notions of cultural distinction, innocence
and orientalist sympathies, besides drawing the historical
significance of Sen's contributions outside of his discipline.
The insightfulness of the film is complimented by its
structure. Patiently culled facts and sustained arguments,
including suitable criticisms, have been combined with a
recollection of Sen's background, interesting and humorous
anecdotes, memories and minutiae. All these elements wedded
together lend an air of ease and rescue the film from the
potential trappings of a dense exchange, which might have
limited its possibilities. The film's editing, which has been
noted by critics elsewhere, reflects an eye for fine and
considered construction. The style and pace of the film are
smooth, transitions between sequences gentle, imagery flavorsome
and economical, and music poignant - the manner of the film is
subtle yet emphatic and parallels the grace and poise
characterizing the trinity master's own arguments and style.
Through such a refined approach, the film transcends the gross
level and dives deeper into unpacking Sen - the individual - in
terms of his philosophical leanings, motivations and
convictions. Especially interesting is a brief sequence from a
2002 lecture at Cornell University, where Sen states the need
for a secular right-wing political party in India. While he
promptly qualifies that he might not necessarily vote for it,
his remark is intriguing, given that he is commonly associated
with the Political Economy approach. What makes this more
noticeable is timing, in light of the recent landmark mandate
marked by an anti-incumbency sentiment against the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata party-led coalition, which had some
of the ingredients Sen spells in the lecture: pro-business and
right-wing. This is one of many sequences in the film that
indicate the cruciality of Sen's thought, which consistently
favors and injects complexity into social choice, rather than
aligning with any kind of fundamentalist resolution, liberal or
otherwise.
Amartya Sen's research into the subjects of poverty, welfare
measurement and social choice have been widely celebrated. It
was only fitting for an in-depth film of this kind to dwell upon
his education at some of the most notable institutions in the
world (Vishwa Bharati, founded by Rabindranath Tagore at
Shantiniketan [West Bengal], the Presidency College, Calcutta,
where Sen first encountered the writings of Kenneth Arrow; and
later at Cambridge University) to foreground the instilling and
development of an inquiring, concerned and appreciative attitude
that is at the heart of Sen's pursuits. Not only does the film
present the dialogics embodied in Sen's thinking but going one
step further, it filters impulses he has interacted with,
without compromising his occupations and philosophical
dispositions. This coincidence of the personal and intimate with
the intellectual and philosophical is evidenced throughout the
film and feeds into making it a profound and outstanding text of
historical and interdisciplinary merit.
*Amartya Sen: A Life Re-examined* is a remarkable documentary
that provides a comprehensive account of one of the greatest
thinkers of our times. The film is not merely informative; it is
an impetus for thought and reflection embellished with valuable
views and concerns for the human condition. Touchingly, the film
closes with Tagore's celebrated prayer for liberation: "Where
the Mind Is Without Fear . . .," from his most cherished text,
*Gitanjali*.
_____________________________
THE CINEMA EFFECT
by Sean Cubitt, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. 464 pp., illus.
48 b/w. Trade, $39.95. ISBN: 0-262-03312-7.
Reviewed by Yvonne Spielmann, Braunschweig School of Art, Germany
spielmann at medien-peb.uni-siegen.de
Another Cubitt. After the publication of two volumes on video
that discussed aspects of medium and culture (*Timeshift*, 1991,
*Videography*, 1993), Sean Cubitt's critical preoccupation with
the phenomena of flow, change and instability also drove the
discussion of digital media and networked communication with
regard to the organization of knowledge, power and spatial
relations on a global scale in the monograph, *Digital
Aesthetics* (1998). There, he identified cartography as the
paradigm of realism in contrast to perspective as the paradigm
of special effect (perspectival vision is synthetic) that is
essentially spatial because it organizes in space. (Cubitt
coined the term "spatial effect"). More recently, in the
comprehensive survey of simulation theories (*Simulation and
Social Theory*, 2001), Cubitt once more stressed in a historical
view the building of concepts and the manufacture of thinking
processes that in the interplay with social and economic factors
merge into clustered terms such as *simulation* (here again, the
synthetic characteristics are foregrounded). And finally, the
(up to now) masterpiece is out: a book about the "cinema effect"
that takes in previous reflections on the instability and flow
in the emergence of media instead of identifying interruption
and defining normative patterns.
Departing from still commonly held theoretical positions,
according to which cinema is roughly divided - that is, realism
(starting with the brothers Lumière) and magic (starting with
the stop-trick by Georges Méliès) - Cubitt is interested in the
magic flow of effects that constitute cinema as a whole: as a
visual effect of motion on the temporal raster of the "pixel,"
as an effect that through the differentiation of the "cut"
constructs objects in spatial and temporal relations, and as a
special effect that grounds in animation and connotes meaning,
transformation and metamorphosis through the "vector" that marks
the transition from "being" of the object (cut) to becoming
"synthetic." Lucidly, the argument of the book develops from the
beginning of the medium where Cubitt describes three positions -
namely Lumière, Méliès and Cohl - that together contribute to
the formation of the cinema effect. In the first and basic
chapter, Cubitt builds an argument for viewing cinema as an
"object" on the scrutiny of the phenomena of motion, spatial
object, and transformation that are placed in terms of pixel,
cut and vector.
The first, the pixel describes the moment of movement as the
first magic effect of cinema. This constitutes an aesthetics of
astonishment and instigates the birth of cinema as special
effect. This moment in the history of cinema, as the author
stresses, documents not "life" (la vie) but "liveliness" (le
vif) and is shared by the social activity of the modern
"flaneur" (around 1895) and is also paralleled in the new
concept of life that is divided up into work and leisure time.
Thus, in understanding cinema as magic, special effect is, first
of all, exemplified in the work of the brothers Lumière who
serve as main authority to Cubitt's statement that cinema does
not represent time but originates it. Finally, cinema does not
represent reality, and it is not the temporal structure that
automatically and necessarily leads into the narrative. On the
contrary, as the thorough (and for the non-expert, easy to
follow) discussion of theories on early cinema convincingly
concludes, Lumiérè's cinema is misregarded under the category of
documentary, because it shows the magical transformation from
life to liveliness: therein lies the magic, the specialty of
cinema.
The second category that Cubitt introduces in order to liberate
cinema from the dogma of realism and narrative is the "cut" that
develops with the interruption of movement through Méliès'
invention of stop-trick. In line with the previous argument that
the cinematic events relate to the real but (with regard to its
material condition) consist of discrete and fragmented elements,
Cubitt's secondary discussion of the cinema as the universe of
the synthetic unfolds how Méliès' technique of stop-motion
distinguishes objects from their movement. Méliès, thereby,
constitutes the possibility of cinematic third dimension: cinema
as a spatial effect. Logically, what follows in the third, the
"vector" section, is another argument for the synthetic
characteristics of cinema that Cubitt identifies in the early
animation films of Emile Cohl (around 1908). Clearly, here film
is not narrative, not illusion of continuous flow, but
fragmentation.
All of these - pixel, cut and vector - point to the cinematic
way to spatialize looking. Here, Cubitt relates to Jacques
Aumont's theories of painting, photography and film, where
Aumont anchors the invention of cinema in the "mobilization of
gaze." As Cubitt concludes: "At some point in the near future
when historians recognize that the photochemical cinema is a
brief interlude in the history of the animated image,
representation will become, like narrative, a subcode of
interpretation rather than an essence of motion pictures" (p.
97). This view of cinema maintains the importance of a material
theory of film "against narrativity." However, the point is that
animated film is not a sub-category of cinema, but its essence
that determines the grounding principles for the development of
any cinematic magic, a magic that involves the construction of
movement from discrete entities and the perception of moving
images, a magic that encompasses the extension of temporal and
spatial features and, through its potential of the spatial map,
beats off any scholarly notion of cinema representing reality -
and finally, a magic that is open to the production of meaning.
Cubitt stresses, in particular, the positive aspect of the
vector principle of becoming (which means open-ended and mobile
relationships between "subject, object and world"), because in a
world where everything turns into spectacle and data, where
everything is ruled by laws of commodity, the work of art "must
be positive." One challenge clearly lies in the affirmation of
the reality of cinema as magic: "The vector does not tell us
what to expect: it requires us to think" (p. 85).
In light of this idea, the critical and political stance
against narrative and realism implies an avant-garde position
towards corporate cinema that has taken over since the
implementation of copyright laws. This produces the apparatus of
a narrative according to the laws of commodity that are
highlighted in normative Hollywood cinema. Consequently, in the
next two chapters ("Normative Cinema" and "Post Cinema"), Cubitt
discusses the stabilization of cinema that subordinates magic to
narrative. Strikingly, Eisenstein's montage of effects marks the
transition from total cinema to the aesthetics and norms of
totality in so-called classical film that forms the paradigm of
spectacle in the 1930s and 1940s. While the cinema of spectacle
exposes temporality, it takes away from the magic and cinematic
effect. The task of media theory here is to understand "why and
wherefore" the commodity fetishism has driven the production of
cinema for 100 years. Because Cubitt argues for a stronger
consideration of the mutual but problematic relations between
the "cinematic object" and its audience that at the same time
drives and is driven by this practice of mediation, the
following chapter naturally searches for points of resisting the
"total" cinema. These possibilities are identified where cinema
turns away from the paradigm of reality (temporal) and
reinvestigates the early miracle and magic effect through stress
on the "spatialization of time". However, in contrast to the
early days of the medium, the period of "post cinema", as Cubitt
puts it, departs from normative aesthetics and the elitism of
the sublime; it bears the potential of becoming democratic where
it follows the understanding of beauty, which is inside the
world and "confronts ugliness: sickness, squalor, brutality:
things that can be changed" (p. 10).
Logically, the idea of change is linked to the notion of flow
that is initially identified in the principle of the vector
because it connotes "becoming." But, in post cinema, the
explorative naiveté and pioneer spirits of early cinema are gone
and cinema has to struggle harder to connect to its magic. Even
in mainstream films such as *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* and
*The Matrix*, Cubitt finds roots and traces of the "instability
of the vector," effects that "hover between reality and
unreality" (p. 350) and that are open to ethnic issues as well,
such as effects of orientalism that enter cinema. What counts
here is not that Hollywood simply incorporates and swallows the
"other" under its old paradigm of realism. Cubitt instead finds
unstable relations, unstable oscillation between antagonistic
principles (realism and simulation) in open-ended spaces of the
cinematic universe of the synthetic. This constitutes another
era of cosmopolitan film.
As its leading metaphor, *The Cinema Effect* starts with
Christian Metz's statement that "in some sense all cinema is a
special effect." What Cubitt means by this phrase expresses a
counter-argument against a narrow understanding of film's
relations to (physical) reality. "To the extent that all cinema
is a special effect," as Cubitt previously explained in *Digital
Aesthetics*: "The effects film is the cinema of cinema, the
cinema of a disavowal become affirmation in an astounded
moment." From the conclusion that film as a commodity inherits
from perspective and painting the transformation of three- into
two-dimensionality and the transformation of the temporal into
the (static/spatial) spectacle, we can draw a line to the
understanding of cinema as another "effect." The concern in *The
Cinema Effect*, then, is to underline the construction of a
cinematic reality of its own language that functions as the
mediator between the viewing subject and - what Cubitt is
interested in - the "object of cinema." The medium of film has
always played a major role in Cubitt's reflection on electronic
and digital media when he focuses on the interplay of
technological, economic, social and political factors (in short,
relationships of power, knowledge and aesthetics) that drives
the emergence, constitution and institutionalization of a new
mediums and thereby sets the frame for the unfolding of the
object (and the specificity) of the medium in temporal and
spatial terms - an object, however, that is subject to change
and not a stable (timeless) category.
In *The Cinema Effect*, Cubitt pursues the effects that cinema
produces in relation to reality from the perspective of the
digital media and traces back the roots and conceptual history
of terms such as "pixel, cut, and vector" that are commonly used
in contemporary media language. The idea is to discuss the
"object" of cinema as a conglomeration and amalgamation of
cinematic effects that are responsible for a moving image. And
these effects, as they express in pixel, cut and vector, are
further discussed as they establish digital aesthetics because,
for example, the openness of the vector includes the "subjective
role" of the individual who engages in an authorship type of
interrelationship with the computer. In addition, the notion of
transformation and metamorphosis - in short, all the ephemeral
presentations that cinema inherits (because it is an effect of
reality of its own rule and not a simple "reality effect") -
make the connection to the human-machine relations that we deal
with in the computer age. Where Cubitt states, "The vector is
the art of curiosity" (p. 85), the focus easily extends into the
discussion of European "oneiric film" that in the manner of
science-fiction deals with the results of the atomic and post-
nuclear catastrophes that the Hollywood cinema passes forward.
Throughout the book, Cubitt "searches" for traces of cinema that
maintain and revitalize its magic against totalitarian and
corporate cinema. The reader, then, is not surprised that points
of resistance that highlight instability, fragmentation and
spatial effects for the most part are located in the realm of
science-fiction, where magic is near.
_____________________________
THE MOLECULAR GAZE: ART IN THE GENETIC AGE
by Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin, Cold Spring Harbor, NY:
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2004. 216 pp., illus.
Trade, $45.00.
ISBN: 0-87969-697-4.
Reviewed by George Gessert
ggessert at igc.org
*The Molecular Gaze* surveys recent art involving
biotechnology, genetics and DNA. This terrain is full of
pitfalls not only because biotechnology presents profound social
and ethical challenges but because the art under consideration
does not comprise anything like a traditional school or
movement. Artists have come to genetics and biotechnology by
many different paths. Although these converge in art that in one
way or another involves DNA, nothing like an identifiable look
has resulted. Nor is this kind of art associated with any one
place, even for purposes of exhibition.
Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin negotiate this complicated
terrain with mixed success. Like many books of art commentary,
*The Molecular Gaze* reads as much like a collection of notes as
a work with a beginning, middle and end. The authors use art to
illuminate a variety of subjects: eugenics, commodification of
life, chimeras, "designer babies," childbirth and genetic
reductionism (which defines people in terms of their DNA). There
is insightful commentary on how scientific discoveries change
meaning as they move out of the laboratory into the larger
culture and on how molecular vision, which has come to dominate
the assumptions of the biological sciences, borrows metaphors
from texts and codes.
The most provocative chapter is on the new grotesque, freakish
or malformed human figures that have appeared in art over the
last decade and a half. These works range from Jake and Dinos
Chapman's sculptures of conjoined children and Cindy Sherman's
dismembered mannequins to Joel-Peter Witkin's photographs. Some
of this work reflects the hopes and fears unleashed by
biotechnology, but most does not, and at times the discussion
wanders far field.
*The Molecular Gaze* is a strikingly uneven book. It is
handsomely laid out and has more than 130 illustrations, many of
them full-page and in color. But its visual wealth and many
insights are mixed with misinformation and confusion. There are
many factual errors. Some are minor; for example, there are two
dwarfs in Velazquez's *Las Meninas*, not one, and the most
prominent is female, not male. And - disclosure - I was
surprised to read that my work with plants involved "fictional
genomes," when actually the plant genetic systems that I work
with are intractably real. Other errors would be minor if a
central feature of *The Molecular Gaze* were not its
investigation of relationships between art and science.
SymbioticA does not produce transgenic art but tissue culture
art. And, without explanation, the authors ascribe awareness of
evolution to Daumier, working in the 1830s, a generation before
Darwin published *Origin of Species*.
There are omissions, notably of Marta de Menezes, Heath Bunting
and Karl Mihel and Kim Trang. Brandon Ballengee, Adam Zaretsky,
Natalie Jeremijenko, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey are
mentioned in a footnote but not discussed. Computer-based
genetic art, an important field, is given just two short
paragraphs. The most troubling omissions, however, are
historical perspective and ecological vision. *The Molecular
Gaze* does not claim to be a history but includes enough
history, especially in the beginning, to give the impression
that the past is covered. This is far from the case. There is no
mention of animal breeding for aesthetic purposes and only one
passing reference to plant breeding, even though these are
arenas in which art and genetics have been intersecting for
centuries. Steichen's 1936 show at MOMA gets only a fleeting
reference. The early literature of art and genetics is almost
completely ignored. Helen and Newton Harrison are not mentioned
and eco-art is not discussed, even though much of it has genetic
dimensions. The section devoted to chimeras and transgenics does
not include so much as a thumbnail sketch of transgenic art's
history, all of which is recent and well within the scope of a
book concerned primarily with contemporary art. Inadequate
historical perspective encourages a false sense of newness about
much of the work discussed.
Most art concerned with biotechnology and genetics is done in
traditional mediums and *The Molecular Gaze* appropriately gives
such work a preponderance of attention. Living art, however,
gets short shift. Living art is a genuinely radical development.
Until the twentieth century, art was by definition made from
dead matter. (Performance and landscape gardening are exceptions
that proved the rule.) No painting, photograph, or sculpture in
stone has self-interests or value beyond what people assign it,
but living art has its own interests and, if it is sentient, its
own desires quite independent of human beings. Control over
living creatures means something quite different from control
over inert matter. What do genetics and biotechnology imply
about our relationships with other forms of life? What does it
mean to bring consciousness to evolution? What roles do plants
and animals play in human psychogenesis? Living art is ideally
suited to engage such questions.
However, the only artist working with living things who gets
anything like informed discussion is Marc Quinn, who uses living
genetic art to update portraiture. Quinn is a powerful and
accomplished artist, but by focusing on people he avoids most of
the questions that living art raises. In *The Molecular Gaze*,
artists who do engage these questions are either not mentioned
or else treated summarily. So human-centered is *The Molecular
Gaze* that it could have been titled *The Anthropocentric Gaze*.
Eduardo Kac is too well-known to ignore but is treated with a
mixture of fascination and hostility. He has created several
major live transgenic works, but the authors mention only *GFP
Bunny*, the famous fluorescing rabbit. Alba is described as
"allegedly luminous." Anker and Nelkin (or perhaps only Anker,
since Dorothy Nelkin died before *The Molecular Gaze* was
completed) repeat speculation that Alba's green color in
photographs is a result of Photoshop manipulation and write that
Alba died under "vague circumstances." The author(s) suggest
that Kac may be engaged in "commercial spectacle," and allow
readers to conclude that Alba never existed or else did not
fluoresce sufficiently to photograph.
How fair is this? Throughout *The Molecular Gaze* the authors
show no awareness that unverifiable claims are not unique to
*GFP Bunny*, but characterize many works of art that involve
DNA. No gallery-goer can see the bacteria in a David Kremers
painting or determine that they are alive, much less genetically
engineered. Can we be sure that Laura Cinti's cactus has a human
gene for keratin? Are the cells in Gary Schneider's photographs
his, and not someone else's, or for that matter a starfish's?
Does Ronald Jones shape his sculptures of cancer genes to look
more Arp-like than they actually are? Anker's own work invites
such questions. Are the chromosomes depicted in *Zoosemiotics:
Primates, Frog, Gazelle, Fish*, which appears on the book
jacket, really of those creatures? Viewers are free to dismiss
any work that requires too much knowledge or faith, but we have
more to gain by taking a cue from conceptual art and engaging
such work on its own terms - unless, of course, there is good
reason not to. The crucial test with art that involves genetics
or DNA is whether an unverifiable claim is within the realm of
possibility. Alba easily passes this test because, as almost
everyone knows, several different kinds of animals have been
genetically engineered to fluoresce. It is a minor mystery why
*GFP Bunny* inspires the author(s) to indulge in attempted
character assassination.
There are additional problems, but little would be gained by
dwelling on them. *The Molecular Gaze* would have been a better
book if it had been either more ambitious and covered more
territory, or else more modest and stuck to what the authors
know best: the new, grotesque birth and the metaphors by which
we understand molecular biology. By trying to be comprehensive
without doing the necessary work, *The Molecular Gaze* ends up
being at times both untrustworthy and out of touch.
*The Molecular Gaze* includes sufficient information to be
useful as a reference, but only for those who already know the
subject extremely well. For those who do not, the pictures are
worth a look, but even here one should proceed with caution. The
photograph of mice with fluorescing ears and tails that is
juxtaposed with Alba represents only one kind of gfp mice. There
are others with much more uniform fluorescence.
_____________________________
TELEMATIC EMBRACE: VISIONARY THEORIES OF ART, TECHNOLOGY, AND
CONSCIOUSNESS
by Roy Ascott; edited and with an essay by Edward A. Shanken,
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003.
439 pp., illus. 41 b/w. Trade, $44.95. ISBN: 0-520-21803-5.
Reviewed by Jan Baetens, Instituut voor Culturele Studies,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
If the definition of a good book is that one feels
intellectually provoked during its reading and leaves the volume
with the certitude of being more intelligent than at the start,
then *Telematic Embrace* is the book one might be looking for.
And if one is not hesitant about the old seductions of style
and, most of all, that impossible thing called the "personality"
of its author, this book provides even more than one could ask
from a vast collection of essays in the problematic, because too
overtly fashionable and therefore too easily out-fashioned,
field of theory on art and electronic culture. In the case of
Ascott's writings, those two elements - the visionary force of
his thinking on the one hand and the personal qualities of his
style on the other - may seem a little contradictory, since few
authors have made such strong pleas in favor of "distributed
authorship" and against the mirages of the traditional
(romantic, ego-centered) art world, yet the very example of
*Telematic Embrace*, which presents an extremely useful, highly
representative and carefully edited anthology of Ascott's
scholarly work, proves one of the basic theses of the author,
i.e. that the leap towards global connectiveness through
cybernetics and telematics does not exclude the human factor or
prevent man from liberating himself when abandoning the
traditional domains of the humanities.
Most books and essays on the relationship between art, science
and technology represent either a synthesis or a "snapshot" of
what their authors have been thinking or are thinking on the
subject. In both cases, their writings are homogeneous: in the
case of a book, the previous phases of reflection are integrated
in a kind of global survey that camouflages internal
contradictions and transforms previous hesitations and errors
into stepping-stones on the long path leading to final insights;
in the case of an essay, which normally gives just a cross-
section of the author's thinking on that specific point of time
and place, the lack of a global framework is not always
considered a flaw, and contradictions with later texts are part
of the game ("This was what I was thinking in 1984, and this is
what I am thinking now, and tomorrow I may appear to think
something else . . ."). The exceptional merit of Roy Ascott's
works as a theoretician of the relationships between art,
science and technology is that it in spite of their often
shattered and overtly "visionary" character, they are not just a
succession of speculations in which new links replace or destroy
the previous ones. Although they have not been rewritten for
this publication, the texts gathered in *Telematic Embrace* span
a period of more than three decades (1964-1993) and reveal
indeed an exceptional coherence (and maybe even a kind of master
narrative, although this word may be too negatively connoted).
This coherence is not the result of the mere application of a
pre-established, teleological program or of a single, all-
explaining and stubbornly adhered to theoretical paradigm. The
coherence of Ascott's thinking and writing develops almost
spontaneously along some basic lines, which the author never
renounces but which he always adopts following his own
principles of feedback and interactivity. If one had to
summarize Ascott's evolution, one might say that he gradually
moved from cybernetics to telematics, and from telematics to an
overall view of connectedness at both an electronic and at a
biological level. In the late 1950s and during the 1960s, Ascott
pioneered the interaction of art and the emerging science of
cybernetics, defined as "the study of control and communication
in living and artificial systems" (p.331). He then realized with
the cyberneticians themselves that such a study missed an
essential point, namely the fact that the observer had to be
considered part of the system studied. This brought him to
second-order cybernetics, which recognized the blurring of
boundaries between object and observer, while emphasizing even
more the importance of feedback and interactivity. With the
revolution of telematics (the integration of computers and
telecommunications), Ascott's ideas evolved towards what he
calls "connectivism," a paradigm in which the ancient spheres of
mind, body and world, or those of nature and culture, are no
longer separable and in which universal interaction is
celebrated as a new step in evolution (not only of man's
evolution, since there is no longer a clear-cut separation of
man and non-man in the universe).
All of this sounds familiar and the name of McLuhan comes
quickly to mind. The philosophical underpinnings of Ascott's
telematic embrace and McLuhan's global village are not without
analogy: the East and the West will meet, human conflicts will
be overcome by "communication," ancient hierarchies will be
replaced by freedom and democracy, even love will be in the air.
Ascott likes quoting (and connecting!), for instance, more or
less like-minded people such as the nineteenth-century French
socialist thinker Fourier, the apologist of "universal
attraction;" the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, the inventor of the
"noosphere;" or J.E.Lovelock, the advocate of Gaia; not to speak
of McLuhan himself, regularly mentioned with great sympathy. Yet
there are also considerable differences, which undoubtedly play
in favor of Ascott. Ascott's visionary thinking is always deeply
rooted in concrete, professional contexts: his many appointments
(academic, advisory and editorial) all over the world have
insured that he has always been in very close contact with the
wishes and needs of students, artists, researchers and the
interested audience. This field experience is crucial: It is
the perfect counterweight to intellectual freewheeling and
gratuitous speculation. What Ascott is discussing is always
both visionary and down to earth. In the same essay, for
instance, he can demonstrate the necessity to establish "post-
institutional" ways of working and giving all possible details
on the equipment of each single room of the Ars Electronica
Center in Linz. It is also the warrant of a real
interdisciplinary approach. Ascott's understanding of
contemporary science, for instance, is a real understanding, and
not that of a dilettante. Moreover, Ascott's work has always
been at the service of the intellectual needs of the field. The
selection of his essays in *Telematic Embrace* gives full and
clear evidence of this attitude of deep concern with the
didactics of contemporary art. Of course, since "everything is
connected," these didactics are never bookish. Almost all
important issues that are at stake in the twentieth-century
reflection on art are represented here: the role and place of a
museum, the relationship between art object and audience, the
integration of art and society, etc.
Ascott's place in the philosophy of art (I know this label is
erroneous, but nevertheless it helps to stress the importance of
this work) is paradoxical. Ascott is anti-modern since he
rejects absolutely the ideology of the purity of art and the
celebration of its objects, and in this respect his visionary
thinking can be linked with post-structuralism. One is not
surprised to see that in the recent texts by Ascott the name of
Deleuze starts appearing. Yet at the same time, his clear belief
in some Grand Narrative makes him an anti-postmodernist. Many
essays, even from the years when postmodernism was still a
positive value, are very critical of its incapacity to tackle
the new and to exceed the parodying relationship with the past.
The very long introductory essay by Edward A. Shanken, who did a
wonderful job as an editor (the very fact that the editing goes
almost unseen is the best compliment one can address to an
editor!) provides the reader with a very profitable historical
survey of the major tendencies in twentieth-century art that one
has to know in order to fully understand what is at stake in
Ascott's work. It is at the same time a perfect introduction to
this work itself, which it helps to interpret while giving
readers a strong impulse to deepen their own interpretations.
Often collected and introduced essays are broken up into two non-
communicating parts: the new introduction and the older essays.
In *Telematic Embrace*, the editor and the author manage to make
love.
(This review appears by kind permission of *Image and Narrative*;
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/ )
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Nisar Keshvani: LEA Editor-in-Chief
Patrick Lambelet: LEA Managing Editor
Michael Punt: LR Editor-in-Chief
Andre Ho: Web Concept and Design Consultant
Roger Malina: Leonardo Executive Editor
Stephen Wilson: Chair, Leonardo/ISAST Web Committee
Craig Harris: Founding Editor
Editorial Advisory Board:
Irina Aristarkhova, Roy Ascott, Michael Naimark, Craig Harris,
Julianne Pierce
Gallery Advisory Board:
Mark Amerika, Paul Brown, Choy Kok Kee, Steve Dietz, Fatima
Lasay, Kim Machan
fAf-LEA corresponding editors:
Ricardo Dal Farra, Elga Ferreira, Young Hae-Chang, Fatima
Lasay, Lee Weng Choy, Jose-Carlos Mariategui, Marcus Neustetter,
Elaine Ng, Marc Voge
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