[LEAuthors] Leonardo Electronic Almanac vol 12 no 7 July 2004
nisar keshvani
nisarh at keshvani.com
Wed Jul 7 20:12:45 EDT 2004
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Leonardo Electronic Almanac volume 12, number 7, July 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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FEATURE
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< Translation, Transcodification, Transmission: Erika Tan's
*Pidgin: Interrupted Transmission*, by Janice Cheddie >
LEONARDO REVIEWS
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< Europe-Asia Contemporary Music Festival, reviewed by
Alexandre A. Ovsyannikov >
< HYLE: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry,
reviewed by Rob Harle >
< Luchino Visconti, reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg >
LEONARDO JOURNAL
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< LEONARDO selected abstracts - Vol. 37, No. 4 (August 2004) >
LEONARDO COLLABORATION ANNOUNCEMENT
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< ISEA 2004 >
ISAST NEWS
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< Leonardo/ISAST new address >
< Pacific Rim New Media Summit: A pre-symposium program of ISEA
2006
>
< Leonardo and Harvestworks event collaboration >
< Leonardo/ISAST collaborates on 100th anniversary colloquium
on Gregory Bateson
>
< Leonardo and Ours Foundation announce Virtual Vernissage of
Spacearts Database >
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| INTRODUCTION |
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In this month's issue of LEA, our feature article is by Janice
Cheddie, who discusses "issues of cultural translation, digital
media and notions of difference," using a work by U.K.-based
artist Erika Tan as a basis for her exploration.
Leonardo Reviews includes a review of the Europe-Asia
Contemporary Music Festival in Kazan, Russia, by Alexandre A.
Ovsyannikov; Rob Harle's review of a special issue of *HYLE: The
International Journal for the Philosophy of Chemistry*; and
Andrea Dahlberg's review of a new book on Italian filmmaker
Luchino Visconti.
Elsewhere, we feature selected abstracts from the upcoming
issue of Leonardo (Vol. 37, No. 4); an announcement and
information on Leonardo's collaboration with ISEA2004, taking
place in Finland, Estonia and the waters in-between; and the
latest news on the activities of Leonardo/ISAST.
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| FEATURE |
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TRANSLATION, TRANSCODIFICATION, TRANSMISSION: ERIKA TAN'S
*PIDGIN: INTERRUPTED TRANSMISSION*
By Janice Cheddie, Research Fellow, Cross Cultural Contemporary
Arts (AHRB), G.4 Laurie Grove Baths, Goldsmiths College,
University of London, London SE14 6NW, U.K.
j.cheddie at gold.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
"Translation, Transcodification, Transmission" seeks to open a
discussion on the issues of cultural translation, digital media
and notions of difference. It seeks to explore these issues
through the discussion of shifts within contemporary
international exhibition-making and UK-based artist Erika Tan's
2001 installation, *PIDGIN: Interrupted Transmission*.
_____________________________
In the last decade, the scene of international exhibition-
making has been marked by a number of shifts. First, the center-
periphery binary of post-colonialism has been under critical
scrutiny, leading to examinations of the structures and
transformations of contemporary globalization [1]. Second, major
international art exhibitions and many museums and institutions
have been preoccupied with concepts of geographical circulation,
migrations, diaspora etc., as conditions of the global subject
and thus not exclusively the condition of the post-colonial
subject [2]. Third, contemporary international exhibition-
making, as a discursive practice, has been increasingly
characterized by a re-mapping of the world as a series of
peripheries that do not have a center. Fourth, this questioning
of the center-periphery binary, within international curatorial
practice, has been underpinned by the emergence of the
transnational subject. Dan Cameron, senior curator at the New
York New Museum and Director of Istanbul Biennale 2003, posits
the concept of the artist as a global citizen. As a global
citizen, Cameron argues, the artist is at the forefront of
producing a creative practice informed by the processes of
globalization, travel and migration [3].
One of the most influential texts on globalization in
relationship to notions of the cultural imagination and
difference has been Arun Appadurai's *Modernity at Large:
Cultural Dimensions of Global Modernity* [4]. Within Appadurai's
analysis, the transnational imaginary is one that is produced
within the intersections of mass migration and electronic media.
As with mediation, so with motion. The story of mass migrations
(voluntary and forced) is hardly a new feature of human history.
But when it is juxtaposed with the rapid flow of mass-mediated
images, scripts and sensations, we have a new order of
instability in the production of modern subjectivities. As
Turkish guest workers in Germany watch Turkish films in their
German flats, as Koreans in Philadelphia watch the 1988 Olympics
in Seoul through satellite feeds from Korea, and as Pakistan cab
drivers in Chicago listen to cassettes of sermons recorded in
mosques in Pakistan or Iran, we see moving images meet de-
territorialized viewers. These create diasporic public spheres,
phenomena that confound theories that depend on the continued
salience of the nation-state as the key arbiter of social
changes. In this sense, both persons and images often meet
unpredictably, outside the certainties of home and the cordon
sanitaire of local and national media effects. This mobile and
unforeseeable relationship between mass-mediated events and
migratory audiences define the core link between globalization
and the modern [5].
While it can be argued that Appadurai's text is widely cited
within visual culture [6], there is very little theoretical work
that has sought to closely examine digital artists' work within
the context of the wider shifts and processes of globalization
and difference. The theoretical focus within discussions of
cultural difference, globalization and visual culture, to date,
has been largely on the discursive content of the work.
My own area of theoretical interest in Appadurai's text is the
conjuncture between visual culture, globalization and the
construction of the visual imaginary. In my desire to examine
these issues, I have sought to link Appadurai's text with the
international space of visual culture, through the work of Sarat
Maharaj on cultural translation. Maharaj has characterized the
international space of contemporary visual culture as the "scene
of translations":
"Beyond the demand for assimilation, beyond absolutist notions
of difference and identity, beyond the reversible stances of
'self and other' in which the Euro-centric gaze fashions itself
. . . in the 1990s we have come to see the international space
as the meeting ground for a multiplicity of tongues, visual
grammars and styles. These do not so much translate into one
another as translate to produce difference [7]."
Within my theoretical positioning, I am seeking to position
cultural translation as a series of digitally mediated
processes. It is beyond the scope of this essay to discuss in
detail the complex issues of globalization, trans-national
subjectivity. My main focus, within this essay, is a narrow one,
in that it seeks to open a discussion on the issue of
translation, digital media and notions of difference.
Furthermore, my essay seeks to open the discussion of these
issues through the discussion of one artist, Erika Tan, and a
single installation - *PIDGIN: Interrupted Transmission (2001)*.
I have focused on Tan's installation because it allows for a
detailed reading of the networks and circulations of digital
media, difference and translation.
Erika Tan, artist and curator, was born in Singapore in 1967.
Tan studied social anthropology and archaeology at Kings'
College, Cambridge, and Film Directing at the Beijing Film
Academy before completing her MA in Fine Art at Central St.
Martins', London. Tan has been exhibiting as a visual artist
since 1994 and her body of work includes photographs, videos,
websites and multi-media installations and has been included in
a number of major U.K. and international exhibitions [8].
At a recent conference presentation [9], Maharaj introduced the
notion of "pidgin" as a key term in understanding his "scenes of
translation". Maharaj, through a series of visual devices,
positions "pidgin" as a vehicle for communication derived from
particular contexts and local conditions. Through this
positioning, he argues that "pidgin" is not a "mother-tongue"
language, but rather a meeting ground for cultural exchange and
contact. It is in this sense that Maharaj asserts that within
pidgin there are no native speakers. The importance of pidgin,
for Maharaj, is that as an amalgamation of languages pidgin
breaks the link between language, authenticity, origin, culture
and belonging.
Tan's *PIDGIN: Interrupted Transmission* (2001) presents the
audience with modes of digital, cultural and linguistic
translation as a series of interplays between the visual, sonic,
textual and computer realms. My central concern here is to
explore the complex processes of cultural translation within
contemporary media, through theorizations of transcodings and
transmissions as discursive, cultural, visual and technical
concepts. It is through these theoretical frameworks that I am
seeking to position Tan's installation as an intersection
between contemporary visual culture, technology and cultural
translation.
PIDGIN: AS GALLERY SITE
When installed within the gallery space, *PIDGIN* is comprised
of two large projection screens that are placed opposite each
other at either end of the gallery, each one home to a parallel
stream of images and icons. At times, the content on one screen
seems echoed or mimicked by that of the other. This interplay is
actually very precisely synchronized and is mediated by the
presence of a third element (a computer control-system called
Smartpax, running the software program Trax) [10]. On this third
monitor screen, positioned on a desk next to a book of research
documents, clusters of digital data drift by (corresponding to
the image-sequences on the different projectors), each cluster
accompanied by the traces of the underlying computer code as
well as by textual annotations.
As part of the installation, Tan translates four texts from
written English to various phonetic translations [11].
*PIDGIN* seeks to explore the relationship between these
"translated texts" and the interplay between the visual sonic
and machine realms of the installation. In doing so, Tan seeks
to draw the audience into a series of complex and questioning
relationships, with the differing realms of contemporary
translation. Within contemporary culture, translation is largely
focused on the written and spoken word. However, *PIDGIN*
introduces other forms of translation into the installation,
such as the notion of translation as sonic, visual and
technological processes.
Tan writes: "Pidgin/*PIDGIN* is a form of broken transmission.
What came very quickly with this piece were the ideas associated
with the term 'pidgin', which also linked up with the Dataton's
SMARTPAX technology, which I have used to create the work. The
SMARTPAX hardware and TRAX software control different devices,
so it is a way that different devices can communicate with each
other. In *PIDGIN*, SMARTPAX connects two DVD players and a CD
player, switching each one on and off, locating specific
sections within a disk to create a dialogue with the different
elements of the work. That corresponds to the idea of *PIDGIN*
and communication via a linguistic code or language. Although
the SMARTPAX technology is sophisticated, it can't make a
seamless jump from one bit of footage to another on the DVD. It
takes a couple of seconds to 'locate' and 'trigger' the next bit
of footage. As it jumps, there is a break in transmission - this
has informed how the work has been created and how it has been
edited [12]."
TRANSCODING
In my analysis of *PIDGIN*, I am seeking to utilize the term
"transcoding", as a discursive term to analyze the relationship
between cultural translation and globalization. The concept of
transcoding has been used as a technical and discursive term in
relationship to debates concerning the development and use of
digital media. For Lev Manovich [13], transcoding is not only
the translation from analogue to digital code, but a wider
process involving a cultural re-conceptualization derived from
computer-based ontology, epistemology and pragmatics. Within the
construction of the cyborg, Donna Haraway positions the term
transcoding as signifying a key process in the construction of
new technological subjectivities [14]. Within cultural and
critical theory, the term has been used as a discursive term in
relationship to the analysis of cultural change and cultural
memory [15].
In *PIDGIN*, we witness the movement of the concept of
transcoding/translation from notions of a correspondence of
meaning to an exploration of the various modes of
translation/transcodings as ongoing and mutating processes. In
this movement, Tan seeks to incorporate into our understanding
the translation human/machine/sonic/visual codes and structures,
a conceptual maneuver that stresses the production of cultural
forms dislocated from their individual or discernible points of
"origin". Thus, Tan's installation both predates and echoes
Maharaj's assertion of pidgin as a language where there are no
native-speakers. The importance for cultural translation is the
removal of the notion of origin. Within Haraway's construction
of the cyborg, the term "transcoding" challenges the ontological
and epistemological sites of origin within Western culture. In
positioning, "pidgin" as a language formed within the
contemporary scene of cultural translation, informed and
produced within the structures and processes of contemporary
digital media, Tan opens up new avenues to explore the
intersection between cultural translation and technology.
In putting forward the notion of translation/transcoding in
relationship to cultural difference, I am not invoking Deleuze
and Guattari's concept of a minor language [16]. Rather, I am
putting forward the relationship between globalization, digital
media and visual culture as a powerful discursive force that is
operating throughout our understandings of contemporary visual
culture and difference. The focus here is to begin a discussion
on the ways in which technology and its dissemination of visual
culture and cultural difference is explored and embedded within
the processes of technology. It is in this sense that the
various processes of transcoding of visual culture within the
domains of electronic media cannot be theorized with the
Deleuzian concepts of a "minor language."
TRANSLATION/TRANSCODINGS/CREOLIZATION
It is this interchange between the two concepts of pidgin as a
system of communication and as a contact language between human
and technological forms that are played out within *PIDGIN*
[17]. This linkage between technology and new cultural forms is
further emphasized within Tan's playful suggestion that
languages emerging within the use of SMS ("texting") can be
located as a new form of pidgin/Creole.
Tan argues in the exhibition text that there is no distinction
between notions of pidgin and Creole but rather that these
distinctions are academic territorial boundaries, not profoundly
differing epistemological or ontological approaches.
Furthermore, Tan "un-homes" the concept of pidgin/Creole. (This,
of course, is a pun - within the installation itself an image is
repeatedly shown of the release of homing pigeons from their
cages and the image of pigeons as carriers of diseases and
communications). Tan's process of the un-homing of *PIDGIN* is
the removal from its linguistic/literary/regional/historical
framings of pidgin/creole into wider discussions. Tan's
installation seeks to draw the audience's attention to the
emergent new languages between the visual/textual/sonic/computer
and discursive realms. In mobilizing the concept of "pidgin" in
relationship to the emergence of a new cultural landscape, it is
possible to link the process of creolization, as proposed within
the installation, as a contemporary experience of modernity
[18]. Tan's work further shifts the processes of creolization as
contemporary experience by linking these processes - through the
installation's translated texts, computer code and the enactment
of the game "Chinese Whispers" to wider issues of translation,
technology and transmission.
At the heart of this concept of "creolization" lies a
translation and the transcodings of the "everyday" into a new
cultural environment and encounters - the emphasis is not on
literary transformation, but on mass cultural transactions [19].
Thus, the focus of our notions of "translation" within the
contemporary moment has to be the transcoding of cultural
difference within the visual, rather than a focus on "formal"
literary or textual, transmissions of contemporary electronic
media.
INTERRUPTIONS
*PIDGIN* further opens up a way to investigate the level of
intervention within contemporary visual culture, technology and
difference, embedded within the processes of the work and not
simply at the level of content. Central to Tan's installation,
in its fabrication and its editing, is the ways in which
computer software produces a series of gaps and interruptions
within the image and its transmission. Tan utilizes the gaps and
interruptions embedded within computer software as it seeks to
move between the differing devices used to fabricate the
installation. In utilizing these gaps, Tan suggests that notions
of degradation and interference frame the contemporary
experience of technology as it moves through various
technological translations [20]. These gaps, interruptions in
the transmission, form part of the audience's encounter with the
installation and are woven throughout *PIDGIN* to explore
differing translations of meaning. Within *PIDGIN* these gaps
and interruptions produce moments of temporal disruptions and
incoherence, partly the product of the inability of the
technology to produce seamless operations: but also through Tan
breaking the association with the popular imaginary of
technology as a means of "speeding up" instant communication and
processing.
Tan further inflects the notion of technological temporality as
a marker of recorded time and electronic traces, through her
manipulation of the timeline within the installation. In
*PIDGIN*, Tan's time line presents the viewer with idea that the
installation has a technologically driven structure and
linearity, but this in fact is false. In the installation, Tan
presents us with a constructed time-line, a fake timeline, which
does not factually show the moments when things are being
triggered, thus disguising the time delay between the
"representation of action" and "real action". These gaps are
temporal moments within the installation, opening up the
encounter with the work as engagements with the differing
notions of temporality. The installation presents us with
diverse notions of temporality - temporality as a
technologically measured device; temporality as technologically
recorded time; temporality as a lived experience moment within
the duration of the installation. Thus, within Tan's work we see
the ways that technology, as a discursive network, constructs,
circulates and disrupts its own modes of production. *PIDGIN*,
in mapping out a discursive field between the human, machine and
the ways that it operates within the realm of textual
information and technological networks, seeks to explore the
temporal processes and disruptions embedded within contemporary
digital networks [21].
Thus, the work incorporates the idea within the production of a
notion of temporal disruption, presenting us with a slowing down
process. In slowing down, it is possible to read Tan's process
as one that seeks to incorporate within the installation's
visual, temporal and sonic productions the philosophical concept
of duration [22]. It is duration, as lived experience of
temporality and subjectivity, that produces a deficit of
transmitted information. *PIDGIN* asks the installation audience
to experience gaps, slippages and loss of meaning between the
visual image and audio as part of the artist's process-based
mode of production.
This invites the audience to focus on the three-way
relationship between the viewer, the physical space and the
transcoding within computer-based processes. Within this triad,
Tan has sought to open up the spaces of artistic intervention,
seeking to create a lacuna that incorporates moments of duration
and possible incoherence. These constructed and conceptual
spaces do not necessarily demand understanding on a linguistic
or discursive level. Within the installation, the gap can be
read as devices that invoke threshold, temporal and physical
spaces, that create the possibility for mis-understanding and
mis-translations, and improvisation. This triad is embedded with
the structure, production and completion of the installation -
through the utilization of the slippages and gaps with the
software devices - as part of the structure of the audience's
encounter with the piece.
*PIDGIN* does not present a coherent structure of meaning
within the visual image produced, but a work whose meaning is
also embedded within the technological construction and
distribution of the work. Tan's engagement with the
technological rendering of the work also informs part of the
audience's encounter with the installation's explorations of the
discursive and technical concepts of interrupted transmissions.
*PIDGIN* thus constructs a discursive field through which
networks of meaning are mediated through the human cultural and
machine code.
Tan's work also opens up a dialogue concerning the ways in
which the circulation of contemporary cultural difference is
mediated through these slippages and interruptions in
transmission, circulations of cultural difference which move
across and through discursive spaces. It is through these modes
of distribution that cultural difference acquires
transformations of meaning.
"BROKEN TELEPHONE/CHINESE WHISPERS": TRANSMISSIONS
"Broken Telephone/Chinese Whispers" forms a central motif
within Tan's installation. A playful device that alludes to
Tan's own mixed English and Chinese heritage, "Broken
Telephone/Chinese Whispers" enters into a dialogue with the
relationship between "transmission/translation" and points them
to ways in which messages are relayed and progressively
distorted through successive iterations.
"Broken Telephone/Chinese Whispers" invokes concepts of
transmission in three complex ways: transmission as a formal
process that can situate objects and bodies in inharmonic, noisy
and terrestrial relations without consuming their autonomy [23].
Central to the game of Chinese Whispers is the construction of
the listening subject within the game, where the participants
are often stripped of the visual clues of communication. In
place of these, the game enacts modes of proximity, spatial
awareness and distortion, asking the audience to reflect on the
multifarious ways in which transmissions takes place. Tan
further links this piece to issues concerning technology by
forming a network of people that suggests a linking of
communicating devices such as the telephone, as the production
of incomplete and fractured processes through poor reception,
transmission and interference.
*PIDGIN* positions transmission as a cultural product and
process, as suggested by Walter Benjamin in his analysis of
Kafka [24]. In this text, Benjamin puts forward the notion of
transmission as a process that locates a distinction between the
notions of truth and how meanings and productions of everyday
cultural values are explored. In this way, cultural difference
within the processes of electronic distribution is conducted
through the textures and sonic realms of the electronic screen.
These textural and sonic structures communicate difference
within modes of "contamination." As a critical term,
"contamination" has been located as a state of being where we
cannot know what an "authentic" state of existence is [25], thus
signaling the beginning of a productive state of cultural
exchange. In this way, Tan returns us to a discursive notion of
creolization as the loss of the moment or point of origin or
authenticity.
Thus contamination, degradation, incoherence and interference
are enacted with the installation's game of Broken
Telephone/Chinese Whispers. Within common usage of the term
"Chinese whispers," an alternative and troubling aspect of
transmission is evoked - modes of transmission that produce
alternative structures and networks of knowledge and
understanding, like Benjamin's concept of transmission. Within
"Chinese Whispers" the object of truth may have been lost, but
what is communicated are differing and competing networks for
our understanding of truth and the lack of purity of any
language. "Broken Telephone/Chinese Whispers" points to
construction of listening, within the distribution of
information, as a conscious, embodied act, rather an auditory
function.
Finally, in discussing transmission as a technical process, the
game of Broken Telephone/Chinese Whispers evokes the game of
Chinese Whispers to shift our focus away from concepts of
authenticity and truth to locations of the transmissibility of
culture. Here is the dislocation of the "concept" of Chinese
whispers as transmission of culture of the "other" but an
exploration of the pleasure and ritual of human communication.
The gaps and interruptions produced within the transmissions of
the relayed message are informed and mirrored by the computer
software that carries other forms of code.
If one follows Tan's use of *PIDGIN* as a contact language, a
theorization whereby Tan embeds the notion of a contact language
within human and technological interactions, these contact
languages for Tan, through SMS and other devices, are acts of
improvisation that visually and sonically create the space in
which culture is transmitted and interacted with. Rather than
"making do," these acts of improvisation call for a deep
affinity of the structural tones of nuances of the languages. As
such, these acts can be read as acts of translation that produce
not a correspondence of meaning but rather a working besides and
within the various human and technological languages. These
languages, within their processes of improvisation, construct
the terrain upon which the processes of interaction take place.
This is the space that Tan has so gracefully sought to explore.
_____________________________
REFERENCES AND NOTES
1. See, for example, Documenta 10 (Kassel, Germany 1997);
Johannesburg Biennale, "Trade Routes" (South Africa, 1998); Sao
Paulo Biennale, "Anthograppia," (Brazil); Venice Biennale,
"Apertutti," (Venice, Italy, 1999); Documenta 11 (Kassel,
Germany, 2002), 50th Venice Biennale, "Dreams and Conflicts: The
Dictatorship of the Viewer" (Italy, 2003).
2. See "Cities on the Move" (Hayward Gallery, London); "Century
City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis" (Tate Modern,
London, 2001); and "Short Century" (Chicago, 2002).
3. See "Justice Deferred," by Dan Cameron, Istanbul Biennale
"Poetic Justice" Catalog (Turkey, 2003).
4. A. Appadurai, *Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of
Global Modernity* (Minneapolis, MI: University of Minnesota
Press, 1998).
5. In regard to this, see Appadurai [4] p.4, and Manuel
Castells, *The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1, The
Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (Oxford, U.K.:
Black Publishers, 1996).
6. See Okwui Enwezor, "Mega-Exhibitions and the Antinomies of a
Transnational Global Form," in *Manifesta Journal: Journal of
Contemporary Curatorship* (Ljublana, Slovenia: 2004).
7. Sarat Maharaj, ed. Jean Fisher, "Perfidious Fidelity: The
Untranslatability of the Other," in *Global Visions: Towards a
New Internationalism in the Visual Arts (Kala Press: London,
1994) p. 28.
8. Tan's exhibitions include "Cities on the Move," Hayward
Gallery, London, 1999; "Slipstream," Institute of Contemporary
Arts, London, 2001; "Sites of Construction," CAS Gallery, Osaka,
Japan, 2000; East International Norwich Art Gallery, U.K.;
"JUNCTURE," Cape Town, South Africa, 2000; "Incommunicado," U.K.
National Touring Exhibition, Hayward Gallery, London U.K., 2003-
2004.
9. "Middle England," Exeter, U.K., 30 April - 1 May, 2004.]
10. See www.dataton.com for more information on SMARTPAX.
11. These texts are Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, *Manifesto of
the Communist Party*; McKenzie Wark, *All that is Solid Melts
into Airwaves*; Translation-Lingua Vision:
www.linguavision.com/translat.htm ; and *Genesis* 11:1-9.
12. Erika Tan, *PIDGIN: Interrupted Transmission*, exhibition
catalog (Film and Video Umbrella, London: 2001).
13. Lev Manovich, *The Language of New Media* (Cambridge, MA,
MIT Press: 2001).
14. Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science,
Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s," in the *Haraway
Reader* (Routledge, London and New York: 2004).
15. See Fredric Jameson, *The Political Unconscious as a
Socially Symbolic Act (Methuen, London: 1981) and Paul Gilroy,
*Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness* (Verso,
London: 1992).
16. See Deleuze and Guattari, *Kafka: Towards a Minor
Literature* (Minnesota University Press, Minneapolis, MN:
1986).
17. I borrow the term "contact language" from the
anthropologist Mary Louise Pratt, in *Imperial Eyes: Travel
Writing and Transculturation* (Routledge, London and New York:
1992); in relationship to digital culture, see the exhibition
"Contact Zones: Art of the CD-ROM," curated by Timothy Murray.
18. See Édouard Glissant, *Poetics of Relation* (Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Press); in relationship to visual
culture, see Enwezor et al, eds., "Créolité and Creolization,"
at Documenta 11, Platform 3, Hatje Cantz, 2003.
19. For discussion of these issues in relationship to cinema,
see Rey Chow *Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality and
Ethnography* (Columbia University Press, New York, NY: 1995).
20. See L. Manovich [13].
21. For the importance of multiple temporalities within notions
of the trans-national and the role of global communications,
see: Roger Rouse, "Thinking Through Transnationalism: Notes on
the Cultural Politics of Class Relations in the Contemporary
United States," in *Public Culture*, No. 7 (1995) 353-402.
22. In relationship to film and difference, see Laura U. Marks,
*The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment and the
Senses* (Duke University Press, Durham, NC: 2000).
23. See Douglas Kahn, Ed., Introduction, *Wireless Imagination:
Sound, Radio and the Avant-Garde,* (MIT University Press,
Cambridge, MA and London: 1992) p. 20.
24. Walter Benjamin, "Some Reflections on Kafka," in
*Illuminations* (Schocken Books, New York, NY: 1969).
25. Jean Fisher, "Some Thoughts on Contamination," in *Vampire
in the Text: Narratives of Contemporary Art* (InIVA, London,
2003) p. 252.
MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED 27 FEBRUARY 2004
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janice Cheddie is a writer and researcher on visual culture
based in the Cross-Cultural Contemporary Arts Research Project
(Arts and Humanities Research Council), Goldsmiths College,
University of London, London, U.K.
________________________________________________________________
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| |
| LEONARDO REVIEWS |
| 2004.07 |
|_________________________________|
________________________________________________________________
This month, Leonardo Reviews is delighted to carry one of our
occasional reviews from our colleagues in Russia. This report by
Alexandre A. Ovsyannikov was translated by L. Komissarova and
edited for publication here by Dene Grigar's team. His report of
*The Europe-Asia Contemporary Music Festival* suggests that the
event epitomized some of our editorial ambition, drawing art,
science and geopolitical histories into a single agenda. Also
featured here this month is Rob Harle's review of a fascinating
nexus of art and science as it appears in *HYLE: International
Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry.* In this special edition,
art and chemistry form the main focus of attention and, by all
accounts, it is a fascinating and worthwhile intellectual
venture. Finally, in a rather more mainstream fusion of the arts
and sciences (and technology), Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's revised
and updated book on Luchino Visconti comes under the scrutiny of
a relative newcomer to the panel, Andrea Dahlberg. Elsewhere in
this month's reviews, Amy Ione, Robert Pepperell and Roy Behrens
are joined by Dene Grigar, Michael R. Mosher, Dennis Dollens and
one of our newest reviewers, John Knight.
All their reviews can be read on line at:
http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu
We hope that you enjoy them.
Michael Punt
Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Reviews
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EUROPE-ASIA CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL
Karzan, Russia, April 2004
Reviewed by Alexandre A. Ovsyannikov; review translated by L.
Komissarova
At a distance of 800 kilometers from Moscow, on the Volga
River, lies the city of Kazan. The fates of many famous people
who contributed much to world science and art are connected with
this city: the mathematician N. Lobachevsky, the writer M.
Gorky, the singer F. Shalyapin, the ballet-dancer R. Nureyev,
the composer S. Gubaidulina and others. In 2005, Kazan
celebrates its millennium under the patronage of Russian
President V. V. Putin. What does the capital of Tatarstan look
like now on the world cultural map?
Our region is a meeting place of great civilizations - East and
West, Europe and Asia. The problem of mutual understanding of
these poles has been discussed in the world at all levels for a
long time. Kazan has brought its contribution to this process by
the establishment of an international musical forum called
"Europe-Asia" that reflects the idea of spiritual communication
of its different peoples and traditions. Held this spring for
the sixth time, the event is as popular as the Shalyapin opera
singers festival and the Nureyev ballet dancers' festival,
regularly held in Kazan.
The Europe-Asia Contemporary Music Festival started in 1993.
Festival events took place not only in Kazan, but also in other
cities of the Tatarstan Republic - Naberezhni Chelni (1993,
1996), Almetyevsk (1998), Nizhnekamsk (2000, 2002), Bugulma
(2002) and Zelenodolsk (2000, 2002, 2004) - giving a view of new
art to many people. Composers and performers from almost 30
countries have taken part in Euroasian music dialogue during
these years, and music of Tatar authors has joined in the world
art process.
The guests of the festival were composers and performers of
contemporary, professional vocal, instrumental and traditional
music, as well as those who experiment in the sphere of
electronic sounds and multimedia devices, non-traditional
instruments and new forms of performance. The fact that the
phenomenon of New Music - which originally addressed rather
"advanced" connoisseurs of art - has won a broader audience
denotes a gradual disappearance of conservative views toward
music. Otherwise, many of these musical exercises, which were
performed sometimes with the aid of exotic ancient drums,
sometimes with the latest models of computers, would scarcely
gather many sympathetic listeners.
A preliminary musical education of the audience has been
conducted by the chief founder and constant participant of the
International Festival of Contemporary Music Europe-Asia in
Kazan, Chairman of the Union of composers, Chairman of Tatarstan
section ISCM in the Russian Federation - R. F. Kalimullin and
his team.
The festival program included numerous discussions, lectures on
problems of multimedia and modern composers' practice,
excursions to the Kazan studio of light-music "Prometheus," to
the exhibitions of avant-garde art. One of these picturesque
expositions - "Children Draw Music of Sofiya Gubaidulina" - was
presented to the city by the studio "Prometheus" and at the
moment is being held in the Kazan Centre of contemporary music
of S. Gubaidulina, which was opened in 2001 in honor of the
seventieth birthday of the outstanding composer. The Centre is
one of the organizers of the festival this year, together with
the Ministry of Culture and the Union of Composers of the
Tatarstan Republic. On a level with traditional, contemporary
vocal and instrumental music, a special program of electro-
acoustic and interactive compositions was performed at the sixth
festival. "Termen-Centre" also demonstrated its art. This center
was founded on the base of Moscow Conservatoire in 1992 and
named in honor of the famous inventor L. S. Termen. Director of
the Centre A. Smirnov and the soloist D. Kalinin performed an
interactive concert for the Japanese flute (syakuhati) and
spatial termen-sensors, using the computer program MAX/MSP. Also
the opus "Immatra," by a young, talented Kazan composer, Radick
Salimov, was "sounded." His work was favorably received by the
audience, who responded to a refined facture of a musical
exposition in a counterpoint with choreography and video-
projection images.
The final chord of the festival was a philosophical-lyrical
show, "Items from the Red Book," by composer Alexander Bakshi.
Its plot addresses the purpose of the Euroasian musical forum.
As the authors of this work say: "There is an idea in the air,
to compile the Red Book of Peoples. In spite of wars,
catastrophes and terrorist acts, the world's population is
growing, but the number of nationalities is becoming smaller in
number. It is not that people are dying out, but cultures they
belong to are. The archival records of folk music created by
Selcups and Crimchaks [small nationalities who once lived in
Russia] are heard in our performance. Few people know about
them. The native bearers of traditions have nearly vanished. But
there is another interesting point - approximately at the same
time when these nationalities began to die out, something wrong
started to happen to great cultures of the West. Suddenly they
began to talk about crisis, death of the Author, about the end
of Modern epoch . . . . "
The scenarist and the artist both were involved in what one of
the subtitles of the performance called "[t]he game of
imagination for the pianist and six characters." The video-
projections of still and dynamic images of texts, pictures and
portraits created a counterpoint in the actors' acting. A vacuum
cleaner, electric furnace, electric drill, children's balls and
live parrots comprised the arsenal used by the actors to build
the complex and ambiguous scenic imagery, growing as a lump of
snow to the final part. The spectacle started with kaleidoscopic
episodes involving such characters as a virtuoso cellist, a
musician with a hurdy-gurdy, a shrill-voiced Punch disturbing
the pianist (A. Lyubimov) to play his etudes, a yard-keeper with
a broom, grumbling "I'm bored with you walking up and down," and
a singing female ballet-dancer. And then, all of a sudden, they
gave way to portraits of J. Bach, A. Chekhov and G. Ulanova. The
final words, taken from Chekhov's *Cherry Orchard*, produced
directly, with no allusion, a melancholy feeling of the elapsing
beauty - the disappearance of cultures, which, like Chekhov's
*Cherry Orchard,* are on the verge of destruction now. The
touched and enthusiastic public didn't let the authors and
actors leave the stage for a long time and all the spectators
took away hope that nobody else will ever be enlisted in "The
Red Book."
We hope that the Europe-Asia Contemporary Music Festival, which
takes place in the centre of the original Russian region, where
the Islamic and Orthodox Churches are in close proximity and
where the unique communities of Turks, Slavs, Jews, and people
of other national cultures exist, will bring to Kazan jubilee
concerts in 2005 with even more admirers of modern art from all
over the world.
_____________________________
HYLE: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PHILOSOPHY OF CHEMISTRY
Special Issue: Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry,
edited by Tami I. Spector and Joachim Schummer, HYLE
Publications / University of Karlsruhe, Institute of Philosophy,
Karlsruhe, Germany, Vols. 9.1 and 9.2, 2003. 243 pp., illus.
b/w. $28.00 per issue for individuals. Includes "Chemistry in
Art: A Virtual Exhibition" on CD-ROM. Available online at:
http://www.hyle.org/journal/issues.htm. ISSN: 1433-5158.
Reviewed by Rob Harle, Southern Cross University, Australia
recluse at lis.net.au
This issue of *HYLE* is an exciting and bold attempt to not
only explore the relationship of chemistry to art but, by
extension, to address the current contemporary art/science
liaison in some detail. I recommend this special issue as
essential reading for *Leonardo* members and subscribers because
it raises important questions regarding *Leonardo*'s fundamental
project and raison d'être.
The journal is divided into two sections. The first comprises
six scholarly essays, discussing aesthetics and visualization in
chemistry. These are followed by book reviews and reports. The
second section has four essays, a very interesting and important
dialogue (between a chemist and arts critic/curator), and a CD-
ROM containing a virtual art exhibition, *Chemistry In Art*, the
art works being specifically commissioned for this issue.
There are a number of fundamental questions involved in the
current art/science liaison that as yet seem not to have been
satisfactorily addressed. The most important of these are: (a)
What is the difference between science and technology? (b) At
what level do artistic works created from a liaison with science
become "art" rather than simply process diagrams, models and
documentation of science processes? As Spalding says, "I did not
want to see sculptures of giant beakers [in regard to the
commissioned art]" (p. 234). (c) In the liaison, artist and
scientist must be equal partners - how can this possibly be
achieved?
All the essays except one are written by chemists or
philosophers, the exception being an essay by James Elkins, an
art theorist and historian. There are no essays by artists! Is
this glaring omission because chemistry and philosophers believe
artists make art and do not (or cannot) seriously discuss
theoretical issues? The editors/curators asked the artists to
provide "a brief text in their art projects" (p. 228). This is
not the same thing as a theoretical discourse about the
"intersections of art and chemistry" by the artists.
The knowledge of what constitutes art is rather limited in most
of the essays. Quite often, reference is limited solely to
drawing or painting. Understandably, perhaps - why should a
chemist know any more about art than an artist knows about
chemistry? This point highlights question (c) above, in severe
terms. These are the sorts of issues that this journal raises,
if we read it closely from a critical perspective. This is not
to say that the essays in *HYLE* are of little value; on the
contrary, they are extremely interesting as well as scholarly
and discuss "visualization" in the past and contemporary "world
of chemistry." However, we need more if we are to develop a true
symbiotic relationship between science and art. This symbiosis
will mean crossing Wittgenstein's notion of each discipline's
specific "language game" barrier.
The final entry in the journal, "Between Chemistry and Art: A
Dialogue," is a very open discussion between one of the editors
Tami Spector and the art curator/critic David Spalding. This
discussion does address some of the issues I raised above and
does not tend towards the insularism of the earlier essays.
Spector, to her credit, indicates that she has learnt much about
art from her involvement in this project. This provides a clue
to possible answers to some of the questions regarding the
liaison of art and science. That is, both artists and scientists
have to do some serious learning about each other's practices,
philosophies and methodologies.
The artworks on the CD-ROM virtual exhibition - which includes
images, installations and sculptures - are quite stunning, some
strangely beautiful, some created specifically from scientific
chemical processes and some commenting upon chemistry's cultural
and social impact. I will not attempt to describe these works.
The colors and forms in L. E. Last's images, for example, cannot
be adequately captured with words. Readers will have to purchase
the journal and view the virtual exhibition themselves - they
will not be disappointed.
Repeating my opening remarks, this is an important issue of the
*HYLE* journal for all interested in the liaison between art and
science generally, and art and chemistry specifically. I hope it
will spawn further heated debate in this exciting and almost
limitless enterprise.
_____________________________
LUCHINO VISCONTI
by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, London, UK: BFI Publishing, 2003, 250
pp., illus. Trade, £48.00; paper, £13.99. ISBN: 0-85170-960-5;
ISBN: 0-85170-961-3.
Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg, 9 Belvedere Road, London SE1 8YW,
U.K.
andrea.dahlberg at bakernet.com
2003 was the year filmmaker Luchino Visconti made a major
resurgence in the English-speaking world. New versions of *The
Leopard* and *Death in Venice* were released and more Visconti
films were released on DVD; in the United Kingdom, a major
retrospective of Visconti's films toured the country and the
British Film Institute published a new edition of Geoffrey
Nowell-Smith's monograph on Visconti.
This book was originally published while Visconti was still
alive and working in 1967 and was updated in 1973 to include
three films he made in the intervening years. At this time, it
was probably the leading work in the English language on the
Italian director and was known in particular for proposing a
variant of auteur theory to the effect that a film director
could produce a coherent, recognizable body of work without
being conscious of all those characteristics that marked out and
defined his work.
In the 2003 edition of the book, Nowell-Smith adds a new
preface and an excellent retrospective essay but leaves the body
of the text as it was in 1967 and 1973. Regrettably, few
additional studies of Visconti have since been published in
English and any serious study of this director must still rely
on Italian and French sources. It is a pity, therefore, that
Nowell-Smith did not take this opportunity to completely rewrite
the book for a new readership of film studies students and
serious readers interested in this complex and contradictory
director. As he explains in the preface, because the bulk of the
text was written before film studies had developed and
flourished as a subject there is, apart from putting forward a
variant on auteur theory, nothing of a theoretical nature in it.
The monograph was intended for an "educated general reader."
Such a person seems not to be much interested in film theory but
understands, without further elaboration, statements such as a
description of *Death in Venice* as "the film in which Visconti
reaches the culminating point of his identification with the
Hegelian Geist." This educated reader is also someone who has a
reasonable grasp of Italian history. The analyses of Visconti's
films are rather too narrow by today's standards, and there is
almost no consideration of the processes leading to the making
of the films, of the other people involved in their making and
their meaning and reception by particular audiences. There are
complaints about several censored versions of English releases
of films, such as *Rocco and His Brothers*, that are now
outdated as full versions are now available to English-speaking
audiences.
The retrospective, written in 2002, is a fascinating attempt to
give an overview of Visconti's films, to identify what
characterizes them and to critically assess them from today's
perspective. Nowell-Smith argues that the inheritors of European
art cinema of the 1960s are Coppola, Scorsese, Woody Allen and
Jim Jarmusch. He considers the significance of Visconti's
homosexuality as evidenced in his films and against the
background of denial at the time they were made. But it is his
argument that what truly distinguishes Visconti as a film
director is his understanding and interpretation of the Marxism
of Gramsci and Lukacs and his own construction of a theory of
history evident in all his films that is most impressive. It
seems that Visconti has suffered from the inability of
commentators to characterize his work as neo-realist,
melodramatic or operatic or unify them under the heading of some
other genre. Visconti is too complex for easy characterizations,
but Nowell-Smith makes an original and fascinating case for a
unique theory of history as the unifying theme present in the
diverse range of his works.
The monograph includes a select bibliography, full filmography,
and list of Visconti's theater and opera stagings. Despite the
dated qualities of the body of the text, it is still probably
the leading text on Visconti's films in the English language.
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LEONARDO, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (AUGUST 2004) - SELECTED ABSTRACTS
ARTISTS' STATEMENTS
-------------------
ART IN THE SPACE AGE: EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OUTER
SPACE AND EARTH SPACE
by Takuro Osaka
t-osaka at dd.catv.ne.jp
The author's interest in Space Art has taken several forms,
including project proposals for the effective use of the
International Space Station, research on the theme of the
possibility of art in outer space, and conducting interviews
with astronauts. He has also performed experiments in a
microgravity environment generated by parabolic flight. This
article provides an account of his plans and the results of
these experiments.
_____________________________
RESEAU/RESONANCE: CONNECTIVE PROCESSES AND ARTISTIC PRACTICE
by Andreas Broeckmann
abroeck at transmediale.de
Based on a paper presented at the Artmedia VIII Symposium,
> Aesthetics of Communication to Net Art," 29 November - 2
December 2002, Paris
Most Internet art projects use the Net solely as a telematic
and telecommunicative transmission medium that connects
computers and servers and through which artists, performers and
users exchange data, communicate and collaboratively create
files and events. At the same time, however, some artists are
exploring the electronic networks as specific socio-technical
structures with their respective forms of social and machinic
agency, in which people and machines interact in ways unique to
this environment. The author discusses recent projects that use
the Net as a performative space of social and aesthetic
resonance in which notions of subjectivity, action and
production are being articulated and reassessed. This text
discusses the notion of "resonance" in order to think through
these approaches to network-based art practices.
_____________________________
MAPPING THE DATABASE: TRAJECTORIES AND PERSPECTIVES
by Sharon Daniel and Karen O'Rourke
Sharon Daniel - sdaniel at ucsc.edu
Karen O'Rourke - korourke at free.fr
Based on a paper presented at the Artmedia VIII Symposium,
> Aesthetics of Communication to Net Art," 29 November - 2
December 2002, Paris
The authors attempt to re-imagine classification systems as
emergent systems - where names, categories and associated data
structures arise from the bottom up through collective usage.
Each has employed cartographic methodology as an interaction
metaphor in the design of dynamic, evolving systems that allow
participants to create and archive their own itineraries and
maps on-line. These systems explore the aesthetic dimensions of
the database. The authors have presented and tested prototypes
of two developing systems, *Subtract the Sky* and *A Map Larger
Than the Territory,* in a workshop/exhibition. This article
provides a brief description of the premise and implementation
of both projects. It concludes with some preliminary findings
from the workshop/exhibition and the authors' shared research.
_____________________________
ARTISTIC EXPERIMENTS ON TELEMATIC NETS: RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN
MULTI-USER VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS IN BRAZIL
by Gilbertto Prado
gttoprado at uol.com.br ; Web: http://www.cap.eca.usp.br/wawrwt
Based on a paper presented at the Artmedia VIII Symposium,
> Aesthetics of Communication to Net Art," 29 November - 2
December 2002, Paris
The author explores the transformation and derivations in the
field of artistic experimentation on the Net. The article
examines the accomplishments artists have made with the "new
poetics" of the dynamic universe of telematic art, expressed in
contemporary artistic production. The text introduces five
distinctive projects in multi-user virtual environments that
were recently produced in Brazil and then places the projects
within the more general context of art on the Net.
_____________________________
DAY-DREAMING STATES IN INTERFACED ENVIRONMENTS: TELEMATIC
RITUALS IN *OUROBOROS*
by Diana Domingues
ddoming at ucs.br ; Web: http://artecno.ucs.br
Based on a paper presented at ISEA 2002, 11th International
Symposium on Electronic Art, Nagoya, Japan, 2 - 31 October 2002
The anthropological effects of cyberspace grant to the
interfaced body a new capacity for attempting higher and more
complex levels of interaction. The author's on-line project
*Ouroboros* provides first and second interactivity. The web
site explores the seamless condition of being a reptile in
interaction with various environments as it evokes the symbolism
of the great world serpent Ouroboros. The author proposes that
interactive technologies return us to forms of communication
similar to the rituals of primitive societies. Feedback and
emergent behaviors effected through tele-immersion, remote
action and self-organizations related to the lives of snakes are
intended to provide the sensation of being in a daydreaming
state.
_____________________________
INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION IN DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS: A
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE PRODUCTION PROCESS
by Brigitte Steinheider and George Legrady
Brigitte Steinheider - bsteinheider at ou.edu
George Legrady - legrady at arts.ucsb.edu
Based on a paper presented at ISEA 2002, 11th International
Symposium on Electronic Art, Nagoya, Japan, 2 - 31 October 2002
The complexity of digital media technologies requires artists
to form teams of specialized experts integrating their
contributions. Studies on interdisciplinary collaborations in
organizational and scientific research-and-development teams
have revealed that three processes - communication, coordination
and knowledge-sharing - significantly influence their efficiency
and effectiveness. This model was applied to an international
and interdisciplinary digital media art production team to
analyze the effects of team members' geographical dispersion,
differing nationalities and heterogeneity of disciplines. The
results are in accordance with previous studies of teams in
corporate and scientific settings but also reveal differences
between artistic and industrial product development processes.
_____________________________
GENERAL ARTICLES
----------------
*Feel-in-Touch!*: Imagination through Vibration: A Utopia of
Vibro-Acoustic Technology, Puppetry and Multimedia Art
by Oguzhan Oezcan
oguzhan at ozcan.info
This article introduces a conceptual design for an interactive
artwork called *Feel-in-Touch!* Its aim is to improve the use of
imagination in artworks using abstract images in the formats of
interactive media and vibro-tactile aids. New technologies can
visually realize every surrealistic narration we can imagine,
but these technologies limit our perceptions by presenting only
one way of imagining, instead of multiple alternatives. This
restricts creative thinking. Working from the above assumption,
this article explores how to increase the degree of imagination
in an interactive artwork. The author discusses problems of the
imagination in art and interactive media and summarizes current
research on vibro-tactile and vibro-acoustic applications. He
then outlines *Feel-in-Touch!* and discusses the outputs of this
conceptual design.
_____________________________
CHIMERA CONTEMPORARY: THE ENDURING ART OF THE COMPOSITE BEAST
by Dave Powell
david.powell47 at knology.net
The author examines the history of artists' depictions of
fanciful organisms that are formed by combining parts of various
species. Broadly tracing the progression of this pursuit from
prehistory through the Ancient, Renaissance and Romantic Periods
and up to the twentieth century and contemporary genetic art,
the article analyzes the seemingly consistent effort to render
these forms simultaneously non-threatening or vulnerable in
attitude and visually realistic. The author asks whether this
practice, which seems to stem from aesthetic concerns, is
sufficiently critical in regards to current trends in genetic
engineering.
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| LEONARDO COLLABORATION |
| ANNOUNCEMENT |
|______________________________|
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ISEA2004: YOUR CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE THE CUTTING-EDGE OF
RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONIC ARTS
"The ISEA conference remains a premier venue that brings
together the visual, performing arts and sounds arts
professionals, but also the theorists, scientists and engineers
that are involved in the emerging disciplines." - Roger Malina,
executive editor, Leonardo
ISEA2004 CRUISE: AUGUST 15-17
ISEA2004 TALLINN: AUGUST 17-19
ISEA2004 HELSINKI: AUGUST 19-22
The ISEA2004 Symposium (http://www.isea2004.net) creates the
most exciting hub of new media technology, research and art this
August in Helsinki, Tallinn and on the amazing cruiser ferry
connecting these northern capitals. Finns and Estonians have
joined forces to throw what may well be the coolest conference
ever.
This interdisciplinary symposium presents the latest
technological and artistic innovations by the most advanced
media labs from all over the world, building a unique interface
for future products and businesses. ISEA2004 is the key
happening for those working with digital media, content
production, wireless applications and mobile technologies. It
brings together almost 2,000 top professionals: developers of
new technologies, scientists, artists, journalists and curators.
At the same time, the spectacular cruise on the Baltic Sea
serves as a forum for pleasant networking and leisure; it is
also a perfect opportunity to figure out what the Finns will be
up to in the future.
Joining ISEA2004 is easy and the registration costs are low.
Your FULL EXPERIENCE event package includes not only two nights'
accommodation on the ferry, but also breakfasts, luxurious
buffet dinners with wine and beer, the funky club program on
three stages over two nights with 25 DJs and live gigs and, of
course, the major conferences in Tallinn and Helsinki. IT IS
REALLY HARD TO BEAT THAT! Book your tickets for the fast-selling
event at http://www.isea2004.net/tickets - we recommend booking
soon as the most popular cabins are filling up. See more
information on who is coming and what the program will be like
below and at http://www.isea2004.net/programme.html.
For group bookings, contact Mika Minetti, mika at isea2004.net,
+358 40 719 2280.
The multi-venue ISEA2004 cruise on the Baltic Sea, conferences
in Tallinn and Helsinki (where you will have six simultaneous
streams to choose from), exhibitions and electronic music clubs
unite the leading media labs of the world, researchers,
developers of new technologies, designers and artists during the
one-week symposium. More than 300 leading innovators, artists
and scholars have been selected to present their work from
altogether 1,200 proposals received by the ISEA2004
International Program Committee (
http://www.isea2004.net/programme/index.html#IPC).
NETWORKING AND CLUBBING DURING THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CRUISE
Collaboration between researchers, artists, scientists and
businesses is an essential part of this year's ISEA2004
symposium. In fact, ISEA has never been organized on this scale
before. The Silja Opera cruiser ferry alone will host 20
installations, around 10 performances, interactive games and
numerous DJ and live acts. The entire ship turns into an arena
for networking meetings, poster sessions, panels, workshops and
seminars while sailing through the beautiful archipelago from
Helsinki to Stockholm and on to Tallinn via the Åland islands.
Networking sessions offer business units, artists and
journalists the chance to pitch their products and share ideas.
Because of the great scale of the event, you will not only
become absorbed in the inspiring networking sessions, but will
find it hard to resist joining the numerous clubs on the luxury
boat while eating five-star buffet dinners with wines and beers,
all included in the most affordable price!
The ferry program stretches from lifts to swimming pools,
pushing the limits of technological and artistic creation. Kelly
Dobson (MIT Media Lab, USA) brings along her Machine Therapy
project to the ferry's gym. The locative sound installation
Float by Tuomo Tammenpää (Finland) and Tamas Szakal (Hungary)
will turn the ship into a play-head and the route into the track
by translating GPS coordinates, distances to islands, depth,
direction and speed into a slowly developing soundscape.
In the game project Floating Territories by Leon Cmielewski and
Josephine Starrs (Australia), renowned throughout the world for
their animations, ISEA2004 participants receive swipe cards that
arbitrarily assign a tribal allegiance, after which migration
and participants' family history will be explored. Icols
Strategy Defense and Arms Fair maps out relations between the
new media technology that artists use and modern warfare, such
as GPS, augmented reality systems and VR-technologies. Icols
presents a modified "arms fair" in Mariehamn, capital of the
demilitarized zone of Åland.
After the cruise, ISEA2004 continues in Tallinn and Helsinki
with conferences and a wide range of other events. The
conferences offer networking possibilities for almost 2,000 top
professionals. Top speakers present future trends and latest
innovations in their own fields. Design, technology and research
have never been brought together like this before. The topics
range from wearable technologies to wireless and mobile
applications. In Tallinn, Katherine Moriwaki from NTRG (Networks
and Telecommunications Research Group, Ireland) presents her
project and design concepts related to fashion and technologies,
emerging communication infrastructures, networks and the body.
Tallinn and Helsinki keynotes include Arturo Escobar
(University of North Carolina, USA), Sarah Kember (Goldsmith
College, UK), Joanna Berzowska (Concordia University, UK),
Michel Maffesoli (Sorbonne, France), Shuddhabrata Sengupta
(Sarai New Media Initiative, India), Erkki Huhtamo (UCLA, USA),
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Brown University, USA) and Matthew Fuller
(Piet Zwart Institute, the Netherlands).
Tickets and more information at http://Www.isea2004.net/tickets
and http://www.isea2004.net/programme.html.
For group bookings contact Mika Minetti, mika at isea2004.net,
+358 40 719 2280
ISEA2004: EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE FERRY
DO NOT MISS THE EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION FOR ISEA 2004 - book
now!! SAVE 30% on tickets - RESERVE on-line here:
http://www.isea2004.net/tickets. The cruise prices are all-
inclusive (meals, travel, program all in one).
BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE: http://www.isea2004.net/tickets
p.s. Information on the program structure is on our website
http://www.isea2004.net. Our full program consists of over 300
shortlisted entries. Stay tuned for updates!
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| ISAST NEWS |
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LEONARDO/ISAST NEW ADDRESS
The Leonardo/ISAST headquarters have moved. As of 1 May, 2004,
you can reach us at:
Leonardo/ISAST
211 Sutter Street, Suite 800
San Francisco, CA 94108
phone: (415) 391-1110
fax: (415) 391-2385
General email: isast at leonardo.info
Web: http://www.leonardo.info
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PACIFIC RIM NEW MEDIA SUMMIT: A PRE-SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM OF ISEA
2006
The Pacific Rim New Media Summit is a program of ISEA 2006, the
International Symposium of Electronic Art, hosted by the City of
San Jose, California. The Summit is a gathering of organizations
and representatives from the Pacific Rim and Asia to focus on
development of partnerships among institutions with the
objective of addressing the challenges of how information
technology and creativity are shaping new directions in art,
science, architecture, design, literature, theater, music,
academic research and information technology based industry.
Why is this important?
The political and economic space of the Pacific Rim represents
a dynamic context for innovation and creativity framed by issues
of economic globalization, regional interaction, and
environmental change. Silicon Valley has a vested interest and a
cultural responsibility to help identify and enable new forms of
cultural production in the region and locally. Encompassing all
states and nations that border the Pacific Ocean and Asia,
including all of Southeast Asia, Pacific Latin America, and the
Pacific Islands, this event will address the developmental role
and capacity of new media art to foster greater mutual
understanding.
What will be achieved?
Not just another conference, the intention of the Pacific Rim
Summit is to enable development of specific outcomes that foster
cross-cultural and trans-regional cooperation, including the
establishment of an ongoing network of organizations and
formalized program of interaction between Pacific Rim new media
organizations. An International Steering Committee will identify
Summit themes and invite presentations. Other objectives
include: 1) a publication of white papers from Summit working
groups proposing specific collaborative programming; 2)
cooperative agreements for enabling collaborative research and
creative practice between organizations; 3) diaspora community
involvement to shape specific outreach programming responsive to
city of San Jose's diverse international heritages; 4) defining
working models for knowledge transfer from expert practitioners
to lay participants.
A special volume of *Leonardo: The Journal of the International
Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology* will be devoted
to the Summit.
Why San Jose and why now?
San Jose is the metropolitan capital of Silicon Valley. 2006
will be the first year of a planned biannual international
festival of art and technology. ZeroOne will be the name by
which the ongoing festival will be known. It begins in 2006 with
the hosting of ISEA 2006. ISEA stands for Inter-Society for
Electronic Arts (http://www.isea-web.org). It is an
international, artist-run organization, which sponsors a
symposium and festival of digital arts every 2 years in a
different city around the world. A consortium of San Jose-based
organizations competed for and won the bid to host the ISEA
Symposium in 2006. The sponsoring organizations for the ISEA2006
| ZeroOne San Jose Festival are:
o CADRE Laboratory for New Media, San Jose State University
o City of San Jose
o Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley
o San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau
o San Jose Museum of Art
o Tech Museum of Innovation
o ZeroOne: The Art and Technology Network
The Pacific Rim New Media Summit is a program of ISEA 2006 and
will be held August 7-8 preceding the traditional academic
conference.
Summit Director: Joel Slayton
Co-Chair: Roger Malina
ISEA 2006 Director: Steve Dietz
Co-Sponsors: Leonardo/ISAST and CADRE Laboratory for New Media
Proposed Venue: SJSU/City of San Jose Martin Luther King Library
For more information, see
www.sanjoseca.gov/cityManager/releases/2003_ISEAaward.pd
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LEONARDO AND HARVESTWORKS EVENT COLLABORATION
Leonardo/ISAST collaborated with Harvestworks in holding their
Interactive Project: Activated Environments and Hybrid
Instruments conference, April 23-25, 2004 in New York City. The
weekend-long seminar featured artworks by the Harvestworks
residents, panel discussions and demonstrations, and involved
arts organizations and artist's studios in the city.
Representatives from the Leonardo community included *Leonardo
Music Journal* editor-in-chief Nic Collins, who presented his
own work and moderated a panel on the topic of Hybrid Music
Instruments. The Electronic Music Foundation sold back issues of
*Leonardo* and *Leonardo Music Journal* and CDs at very special
rates, along with selections from the EMF catalog.
For more information, see http://www.harvestworks.org
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LEONARDO/ISAST COLLABORATES ON 100TH ANNIVERSARY COLLOQUIUM ON
GREGORY BATESON
Leonardo/ISAST is co-sponsoring "Multiple Versions of the
World: A Conference Marking 100 Years of Gregory Bateson's
Influence," to be held 19-20 November, 2004 at Santa Clara
University's Center for Science Technology and Society, Santa
Clara, CA. http://www.batesonconference.org/
Among the many featured speakers are:
Mary Catherine Bateson: Institute for Intercultural Studies
Peter Harries-Jones: Prof. of Anthropology (Emeritus), York
University, Ontario; author of *A Recursive Vision*
Jerry Brown: Mayor of Oakland; former Governor of California
Nathan Gray: Co-founder OXFAM America; founder, EarthTrain
Tim Campbell: World Bank Institute; author *Quiet Revolution*
and *Leadership and Innovation*
Jay Ogilvy: Co-founder, Global Business Network; author,
*Creating Better Futures*
Carol Wilder: Assoc. Dean and Chair, Dept. of Communication,
New School University (NYC); author *Rigor and Imagination:
Essays from the Legacy of Gregory Bateson*
Kenny Ausubel: Founder and president, Collective Heritage
Institute (which produces the Bioneers Conference)
The November 20 portion of the conference is being sponsored by:
Bioneers Inc.
Gateway Pacific Foundation
Global Business Network Inc.
Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and
Technology
The Natural Step
Point Foundation
The Tides Family of Organizations
Urban Age Institute
Urban Age Magazine
A special event will be the world premiere of Nora Bateson's
film tribute to Gregory Bateson: *That Reminds Me of a Story.*
For more information about the Bateson Centennial Conference,
click http://www.batesonconference.org/. To purchase tickets to
the conference click http://www.acteva.com/go/Bateson
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LEONARDO AND OURS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE VIRTUAL VERNISSAGE OF
SPACEARTS DATABASE
Spacearts - Space Art Database Project -
http://www.spacearts.info
Artists have been at the forefront of space exploration since
its very beginning. Their works of imagination have stimulated
and catalyzed a new human endeavor. Works of art and literature
about space have both anticipated and stimulated space
development while exploring destinations and technological
concepts that were often too dangerous, too distant or too
advanced for the science and technology of the moment.
Artists have worked closely with space scientists and engineers
to help them to visualize and develop their scientific and
technological concepts, making the dream of space exploration a
reality. Science-fiction literature with a space theme, combined
with cinematography, has since become one of the most popular
and financially successful artforms of all time. As such, it
stimulates the public's fascination with space exploration and
likewise has a positive influence on maintaining the public's
support for further space development.
Today, a new breed of contemporary artists have initiated
projects to explore outer space on their own terms by realizing
their art beyond Earth or with their own bodies in
weightlessness. To date, there has been no existing
comprehensive documentation of this vast genre of art.
The goal of "SpaceArts - the Space Art Database" is to document
this important and exciting art form and to make it publicly
accessible via the World Wide Web. The project was made possible
through funding from the European Space Agency Technology
Transfer and Promotion Office and has been carried out by the
OURS Foundation http://www.ours.ch and Leonardo/OLATS
http://www.olats.org (the French sister organization of
Leonardo/ISAST - http://www.leonardo.info).
SpaceArts, with an initial web-based database engine and
integrated content management, has been custom built and is now
open to the public at http://www.spacearts.info
SpaceArts is being developed simultaneously in English, German
and French in order to serve as wide an audience as possible.
In this initial phase of the project, the database has
currently documented the work of approximately 25 contemporary
artists, each with a selection of their most important works. It
is estimated that the database will eventually document the work
of approximately 1000 artists, covering all the diverse facets
of the genre of space art.
For more information, see http://www.spacearts.info
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| |
| |
| CREDITS |
| |
|___________________|
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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| |
| LEA |
| WORLD WIDE WEB |
| ACCESS |
|___________________|
For over a decade, Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) has thrived
as an international peer-reviewed electronic journal and web
archive, covering the interaction of the arts, sciences and
technology. LEA emphasizes rapid publication of recent work and
critical discussion on topics of current excitement. Many
contributors are younger scholars and artists, and there is a
slant towards shorter, less academic texts.
Contents include Leonardo Reviews, edited by Michael Punt,
Leonardo Research Abstracts of recent Ph.D. and Masters theses,
curated Galleries of current new media artwork, and special
issues on topics ranging from Artists and Scientists in times of
War, to Zero Gravity Art, to the History of New Media.
LEA is accessible using the following URL: http://lea.mit.edu
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| LEA |
| PUBLISHING |
| INFORMATION |
|_________________|
Editorial Address:
Leonardo Electronic Almanac
Studio 3a, 35 Place du Bourg-de-four
1204 Geneva, Switzerland
E-mail: lea at mitpress.mit.edu
________________________________________________________________
Copyright (2004), Leonardo, the International Society for the
Arts, Sciences and Technology
All Rights Reserved.
Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by:
The MIT Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center, Cambridge,
MA 02142
U.S.A.
Re-posting of the content of this journal is prohibited without
permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and
events listings which have been independently received.
Leonardo/ISAST and the MIT Press give institutions permission to
offer access to LEA within the organization through such
resources as restricted local gopher and mosaic services. Open
access to other individuals and organizations is not permitted.
________________________________________________________________
ORDERING INFORMATION
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=27&
mode=p
Leonardo Electronic Almanac is free to Leonardo/ISAST members and
to subscribers to the journal Leonardo for the 2004 subscription
year. The rate for Non-Leonardo individual subscribers is $35.00,
and for Non-Leonardo institutional subscribers the rate is
$77.00. All subscriptions are entered for the calendar year only.
All orders must be prepaid by check (must be drawn against U.S.
bank in U.S. funds), money order, MasterCard, VISA, or American
Express. Where student subscription rates are available, a
verification of matriculant status is required.
Note: In order to place orders electronically, you must be using
a browser that is SSL-compliant. If you are unable to open the
ordering link listed above, then your browser does not support
the security features necessary to use this interface. Please use
the addresses below to submit your order. Address all orders and
inquiries to:
Circulation Department
MIT Press Journals
Five Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142-1407 USA
TEL: (617) 253-2889 (M-F, 9-5)
FAX: (617) 577-1545 (24 hours)
For questions contact:
journals-orders at mit.edu (subscriptions)
________________________________________________________________
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| |
| ADVERTISING |
|________________|
Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published monthly -- individuals
and institutions interested in advertising in LEA, either in the
distributed text version or on the World Wide Web site should
contact:
Leonardo Advertising Department
211 Sutter Street, Suite 800
San Francisco, CA 94108
phone: (415) 391-1110
fax: (415) 391-2385
General email: isast at leonardo.info
More Info: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-
journals/Leonardo/isast/placeads.html#LEAads
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| |
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
|____________________|
LEA acknowledges with thanks the Rockefeller and Ford
Foundations for their support to Leonardo/ISAST and its projects.
________________________________________________________________
< End of Leonardo Electronic Almanac 12 (07) >
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