From lea at mail-mitpress.mit.edu Tue Mar 2 11:47:33 2004 From: lea at mail-mitpress.mit.edu (MIT Press) Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 23:47:33 +0700 Subject: [LEAuthors] Leonardo Electronic Almanac vol.12 no.3 March 2004 Message-ID: / ____ / / /\ / /-- /__\ /______/____ / \ ________________________________________________________________ Leonardo Electronic Almanac volume 12, number 3, March 2004 http://lea.mit.edu ________________________________________________________________ ISSN #1071-4391 ____________ | | | CONTENTS | |____________| ________________________________________________________________ EDITORIAL --------- < Thank you, LEA 2003 Reviewers by Patrick Lambelet> LEONARDO REVIEWS ---------------- < Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity, reviewed by Amy Ione > < Sarai Reader 03: Shaping Technologies, reviewed by Aparna Sharma > ISAST NEWS ---------- < In memoriam: Billy Kluver, co-founder of E.A.T. > < Leonardo/ISAST collaborates with ISEA 2006, San Jose, California > < Leonardo/ISAST governing board members renew terms > < Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha win the 2003 Leonardo Award for Excellence > < Leonardo International Advisory Board welcomes new member Hisham Bizri > < Leonardo collaborates with Harvestworks > ________________________________________________________________ _______________ | | | EDITORIAL | |_______________| ________________________________________________________________ < Thank you, LEA 2003 Reviewers > by Patrick Lambelet LEA Managing Editor plambelet at tiscali.it Readers will notice that this month's LEA is significantly shorter than usual. This is due to a variety of factors. In January, we held a brief but energetic weekend meeting near Pisa, Italy between the LEA editorial staff (currently residing in Italy and Switzerland) and Leonardo Executive Editor Roger Malina. What became very clear in those three days was that LEA is part of an energetic, thriving, worldwide community, bringing together ideas and visions that might otherwise never encounter each other. Looking back over LEA's 2003 issues, we see a mind- boggling array of topics - Women, Art and Technology, Zero- Gravity Art, Technology and Difference, Interstellar Message Composition, the Contemplative Study of Consciousness and excerpts from the Leonardo Book Series and *Leonardo Music Journal*, only to mention a few. There is surely something in there to satisfy the intellectual appetite of nearly anyone interested in the arts, sciences and technology, no matter how diverse their fields of interest. We fully intend to improve and progress in this direction, despite the eternal constraints of a miniscule and geographically disparate staff. What we lack in number, we certainly compensate for in terms of energy and commitment. Nonetheless, we found that in the midst of implementing new production procedures and discussing forthcoming projects and initiatives, it was best to put out a "thin" LEA, albeit one that is on time. A crucial part in the LEA production process is played by our peer-reviewers, anonymous significant individuals who generously give their educated opinions on manuscripts submitted to us for publication, thus ensuring that we publish only material that meets the highest academic standards and adds to the existing body of knowledge in the field. Although our peer-review process is "blind" (reviewers' and authors' identities are not revealed to each other) - in this issue, in order to express our sincere appreciation to our reviewers, we publicly thank those who gave their precious time to support us in 2003. Finally, in this month's Leonardo Reviews, we feature contributions by Amy Ione and Aparna Sharma, while ISAST News keeps readers up to date on the latest happenings in the Leonardo community. ________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ | | | THANK YOU PEER-REVIEWERS | | 2003 | |______________________________| ________________________________________________________________ The Leonardo Electronic Almanac would like to gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for providing invaluable assistance as peer-reviewers for articles considered for publication in 2003. Peer-reviewers are instrumental in maintaining the highest standards that we strive for in material that is published in LEA. Each article considered for publication passes through a peer-review process, thus ensuring the highest possible degree of accuracy and rigorousness. * Adeline Kueh, La Salle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore * Alex Adriaansens, V2_Organization, Netherlands * Anne Nigten, V2_Organization, Netherlands * Annick Bureaud, Leonardo/OLATS, France * Arthur Woods, OURS Foundation, Switzerland * B. Alan Wallace, Santa Barbara Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Consciousness * Beau Takahara, ZeroOne-The Art of Technology Network, USA * Craig Harris, Ballet of the Dolls, USA * David Rosenboom, California Institute of the Arts, USA * Douglas Vakoch, SETI Institute, USA * Fatima Lasay, University of Philippines * Irina Aristarkhova, National University of Singapore * Jeffrey Schloss, Westmont College, USA * Margaret Tan, New Media and Performance Artist, Singapore * Masha Chuikova, Multimedia Center of Actual Art, Moscow * Marko Peljhan, Projekt Atol, Slovenia * Michael Naimark, Independent Media Artist/Researcher, USA * Nicola Triscott, Arts Catalyst, United Kingdom * Richard Clar, Art Technologies, France/USA * Rob La Frenais, Arts Catalyst, United Kingdom * Robert Pepperell, University of Wales College, Newport (UWCN) * Roger Malina, Leonardo/ISAST, USA; Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale, France * Simon Conway Morris,University of Cambridge, United Kingdom * Steven Dick, U.S. Naval Observatory, USA ________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ | | | LEONARDO REVIEWS | | 2004.03 | |_________________________________| ________________________________________________________________ This month, as the LEA publishing timetables have shifted slightly out of synch, this report on *Leonardo Reviews* is being filed before the full list of reviews for March has been compiled. Consequently, all we are able to do here is draw your attention to two fascinating reports that have been filed. The first, by Amy Ione, covers a report that is significant to the Leonardo community. *Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity* has already been covered in *Leonardo Reviews*, but Ione's is a timely reminder of the issues that should be addressed and those that the report has overlooked. The second is a review of the *Sarai Reader* by one of our Indian reviewers, Aparna Sharma. Emerging from CSDS, Dehli, this project, has excited many colleagues with its novel approach to publishing and its invitation to revisit theory "out of the box," so to speak, in particular drawing attention to theory as a practice. It is a pleasure to be able to feature both reports side by side here in this way, since they have an interesting synergy. Next month, as our new publishing cycles merge again, I will of course provide the references for all the new material that has been posted, as usual. In the meantime, new reviews will be published on the first of the month, as they have been for the past two years. They can be accessed as always at: http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu Michael Punt Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Reviews _____________________________ BEYOND PRODUCTIVITY: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND CREATIVITY Edited by William J. Mitchell, Alan S. Inouye and Marjory S. Blumenthal, The National Academies Press, Washington DC, 2003. 268 pages, illus b/w, paperback $35.00. ISBN: 0-309-08868-2. Reviewed by Amy Ione, The Diatrope Institute, PO Box 6813, Santa Rosa, CA, 95406-0813 ione at diatrope.com Since computer science emerged as a field in the middle of the twentieth century, it has become an increasingly integral part of human life. The degree to which revolutionary inventors turn to computerized tools is both obvious and understated. As a result, we frequently need to be reminded that computer science has drawn from and contributed to many disciplines and practices. These interactions are the core of what we now term information technology (IT) - new forms of computing and communications. *Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity*, developed over 18 months, does this, drawing on the expertise of W.J. Mitchell, N. Katherine Hayles, John Maeda, Lillian F. Schwartz, Barbara Stafford and other authorities who were members of the report committee. The report summarizes where practitioners have developed new applications and praises the creative promise of this approach. In doing so, this book argues that the powerful alliance forged by the computer with arts and design is establishing an exciting new field - information technology and creative practices (ITCP). Here, they assert, we find evidence of the benefits in expanding IT's sphere of influence. The committee also brings to light all that we might gain from encouraging, supporting and strategically investing in this domain Comprehensive and impressive overall, the reader gets a sense of the excitement experts in the field bring to their research. Their enthusiasm will no doubt match that of many *Leonardo* readers who are personally involved with projects that link computer science with the arts communities. The *Leonardo* community will also welcome the way the documentation incorporates innovative architectural and product designs, computer animated films, computer music, computer games, interactive art installations, cross-cultural experimentation and Web-based texts. With an eye toward the future, the report additionally acknowledges that the abundant examples of current success also point to the many opportunities for new collaborative ventures that remain to be explored. Well-organized overall, the chapters effectively summarize the broad reach of specific topics and are carefully cross- referenced to point the reader to areas where ideas were expanded in an earlier (or later) section. This outline effectively presents advances in the underlying disciplines of ITCP and associated applications, probes creativity and comes to terms with the particular concerns of the academic environment and policy issues. It would be hard to remain unimpressed by the encyclopedic accumulation of knowledge concerning all aspects of the topic. As a fan of the way footnotes allow for an ongoing counterpoint to an analytic commentary, I was particularly impressed by the reach of the footnotes. Full of information, they provided delightful asides to the trends generalized in the body of the text. Anyone seeking to learn more about a specific approach will find leads in abundance offered in the extensive subtext. Example boxes also add tremendously. Topics included range from the utility of information technology in our computer-linked world to use of the computer in music improvisation and the telerobotics found in the work of people like artist/engineer Ken Goldberg. While I already knew many of the examples mentioned in these asides, some, like the fascinating object- based sculpture of John Simon, served as introductions. (For those unfamiliar with his work, Simon focuses in on how he combines the skills of painting, sculpture, computer hardware construction and software developments.) More functional, but of great importance to the field, were the boxes that exposed issues. One, for example, outlined how the new technologies have led to a review of the laws surrounding copyright protection. Despite all of these attributes that recommend the report, I was tremendously disappointed to find that the scrutiny given to the state of the field did not make a serious attempt to introduce the key distinction between science and technology and to clarify how computer science differs from natural science. To oversimplify, it is generally agreed that technology is the systematic study of techniques for making and doing things. Science, by comparison, is defined as the systematic attempt to understand and interpret the world. From this perspective, technology is concerned with the fabrication and use of artifacts. Science, on the other hand, is devoted to the more conceptual enterprise of understanding the environment. While one could conclude that both depend upon the comparatively sophisticated skills of literacy and numeracy, not all would conclude that the two domains are equivalent (although this report seemed to implicitly infer they are). Perhaps I missed it, but as I read through the pages it seemed that this committee simply assumed that computer science is a science, much the way social scientists assume their work is science. However, many continue to question the validity of aligning fields like mathematics, computer science and social science with the natural sciences. Similarities in their methodology can be shown, to be sure. Nonetheless, we can also find that the use of analogy to manipulate information yields different types of conclusions from field to field. One area of contention is the way in which the natural and life sciences question their analogies through experiments that yield a different kind of data than creative projects conceived using mathematical tools that are more adept in coupling logical/algorithmic criteria when relating information. This committee never asks if it matters that a logical or algorithmic "science" approaches inquiry from a different vantage point than that of a data-driven experimental science. As a result, this report presents the context of the experiential, technical and contextual issues effectively without reckoning with what the analytic rigor of science conveys from field to field. Without examining the "science" of computer science, these experts adequately look at everything from working within institutional environments to funding issues and problems of peer-review without conceptualizing issues outside of what is essentially a narrowly defined scope that initially appears to be a quite sweeping analysis. Being a National Research Council publication, this oversight was particularly unsettling. By reputation, this group aims to further communication on scientific and technological endeavor. Given its sponsorship, one would assume that clarifying relationships between science and technology would have a high priority. Yet *Beyond Productivity* seemed to be more aligned with the humanities. Indeed it brought the liberal arts of the medieval European university to mind. In this educational system, the liberal arts were characterized in terms of the *Trivium* and the *Quadrivium*. The traditional *Trivium* included language, rhetoric and logic. Language is seen in terms of grammar, the study of meaning in written expression. Rhetoric is defined as a comprehension of verbal and written discourse. Logic refers to argumentative discourse for discovering truth. These elements seem integral to the way ITCP methodology is conceptualized. Similarly, the *Quandrivium*, like computer science, is about number. Included are arithmetic, the understanding of numbers; geometry, the quantification of space; music, the study of number in time; and astronomy: laws of the planets and stars. Only astronomy is what all would agree is properly termed science today. Yet, in the medieval university, the study of astronomy was hardly the empirical science of contemporary astronomy. The transdisciplinary approach that the committee elevates further brings to mind today's liberal arts curriculum, which aims to give one a knowledge of the humanities (literature, language, philosophy, the fine arts and history), the physical and biological sciences, and mathematics and the social sciences. This kind of mix seemed to be the foundation for the undertakings represented in *Beyond Productivity* as well, a comprehensive survey that did not seem to see its role in terms of asking challenging questions. Rather, the product suggests the goal was to communicate issues familiar to those who work in the art, science and technology environment. Yet - and this is why I raise this point - in the United States there is an ongoing debate as to whether educators have dumbed-down science within the humanistic framework. The lack of engagement with where science interfaces with ITCP brings this question to mind and with it, the related question of whether we have successfully educated humanists to the ideas and methods of the scientist. For example, one interesting section outlined the difference between interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary thinking/activity. According to the view presented, interdisciplinary work is the more appropriate term when an expert in one discipline reaches out to integrate views from other fields. The transdisciplinary worker, conversely, does not dabble in related fields. Rather this practitioner will have developed expertise in all of the fields needed to accomplish a creative task. While a wonderful goal, particularly in light of the report's view that interactive projects are becoming more evident in the evolving institutional environment, I still found the report did not address why so many who work in art, science and technology confuse science and technology and indiscriminately conflate them when doing so. In summary, the committee does recommend mechanisms that would enable and sustain productive cross-disciplinary collaborations, but without addressing the difference between science and technology (or explaining why the authors believe they are comparable, if this is their view). This oversight weakens the overall impact of this report. Elevating the transdisciplinary projects stressed all that creativity promises but some of the implicit limitations seemed to highlight the goals (and shortcomings) of a liberal-arts education. The way in which the physical and biological sciences are abstractly present and never clarified raised many of the questions often expressed by critical commentators of interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary work. As such, *Beyond Technology* will aid those eager to learn more about information technology in terms of art and design. Those who believe that the breadth of the field too often subsumes distinctions between science and technology might find that this report, too, fails to speak to distinctions. Aside from this caveat, those who are new to the field will definitely appreciate the care with which the authors summarize contemporary work. Those who work in this area will no doubt find that the survey is a good resource for thinking about the funding situation, conceptualizing policy issues and finding like-minded people. _____________________________ SARAI READER 03: SHAPING TECHNOLOGIES By The Sarai Programme, CSDS, Delhi + The Waag Society for Old and New Media, Amsterdam. Jeebesh Bagchi et al., eds. Thomson Press, Faridabad, 2003, 379 pp. ISBN: 81-901429-3-3. Reviewed by Aparna Sharma Aparna31S at netscape.net With the intention of transcending commonplace binarism that characterizes much discourse on technology in South Asia and of opening a qualified space that takes into account the mutual imbrication of technology, society, culture and politics, the Sarai Reader 2003 - *Shaping Technologies* - covers vast territory. This collection is comprised of contributions from scholars and practitioners that make for an intense exchange between multiple impetuses. *Shaping Technologies* is the third in the Delhi-based research collective Sarai's annual publications. In the introduction, Sarai's editorial collective states that technology, which had figured importantly in previous readers, "... has taken center-stage [in this edition] as a multi-faceted constellation of ideas, images, reflections, debates, histories and provocations" (p. vii). Though the reader contains informative accounts of technology- dumping and its impacts on health and environment in urban spaces, its contribution really rests in mapping how commonly held polarities of, say, the "native," the "rural" and the "modernizing" meld. Divided into nine sections that examine specific facets of the technology/society interface, it indicates technology as being constituted in an unsettling manner, entailing the interruption of indigenous forces along with new and emergent technology/ies: constituting a matrix of contingent and disparate forces that interact without negating or subordinating some in favor of others. Debate around technology is extended in the notion of "disruptive innovation', summarized in Chennai-based research scholar Nimmi Rangaswamy's comment: ". . . that existing mainstream markets are not starting places for waves of growth," and there is need to "incubate technologies from the ground up rather than introduce top down" (p. 170). Specificity, particularly in terms of communities, is crucial to most research contained in the reader. The notion of community takes on board intricacies and inter-operability of factors such as socio-cultural patterns and practices, language and environment. Without being an essentially materialist or localized description, the reader examines these factors not only to reflect better the re-appropriation of technologies but also to highlight how the process is persistent, responding to varied, concurrent stimuli. Two comprehensive and cogent arguments are Vikram Vyas's overview of an IT-based drought- proofing model for water management and Rangaswamy's study around the introduction of internet in rural districts of the south Indian state, Tamil Nadu. Both emphasize grass-roots research and activation for enhanced possibilities in relation to development; and note the reciprocity between communities and technology. *Shaping Technologies* does not only examine contemporary technologies. Disruption is traced in the participation with earlier technologies, as discussed in the section "Excavations." In temporal specificities, such as those of, say, the colonial moment, one finds that the interjection of the native instills particular tensions in the usage/s of technological devices and the practices emanating from them. Particularly engrossing is Sabeena Gadihoke's study of women's domestic and amateur photography at the turn of the century, in which she posits the photographic camera not only as the means for access to the "outside" from within a confining and restricting social order, but as imbued with the pulls between that order and women's conflicts at that moment of nationalist upsurge. Similarly, by describing the "selective adoption" of "naturalist" techniques in the commercial imagery of the bazaar, Kajri Jain's paper identifies friction and resistance between two differing scopic regimes, wherein techno-rationalist devices are employed to preserve and continue the "messianic" or the sacred with overtones of the cult and devotional. The reader is replete with such dialogue and has achieved a wide geographical palette that extends outside India. The writings offer reconstitutive insight not only at an immediate level but, more subtly, in relation to politics as well, countering much cynicism that surrounds technology as being either "apolitical" or exploitative. The disjunctive and inter- subjective nature of the technology/society interface emerges as exerting pressures on the boundaries of what constitutes as "political" and opens alternate theaters for contest, which may not coincide fully with popular modes for struggle or be equally explicit or articulate. These throw a gauntlet before anyone even vaguely examining technology and stress its import not only as a means towards elevated levels of economic development, but as a drive in the construction of the social and political realms. Chicago-based anthropology student Biella Coleman addresses this aspect most pointedly in her paper, which identifies the embedded politics of transgression in the practice of hacking. One of the most impressive and poised statements is the translated version of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore's essay, "Airborne." A record of thoughts from his first air flight, it profoundly identifies the agenda for the interface, then at its most nascent. Though referring to the imperial mode (the essay was written in 1932), Tagore's characteristic vision emphasizes an "intimacy," a situation "in the totality of space and time" for creativity to manifest. This emphasis is echoed through the reader, opening new territories and introducing reflective approaches that restore the technology debate from slipping along common trajectories that oscillate between the extremes of either techno-fetishism or phobia. The reader thus accomplishes injecting necessary complexity and rigor into discourse. ________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ | | | ISAST NEWS | |______________________________| ________________________________________________________________ IN MEMORIAM: BILLY KLUVER, CO-FOUNDER OF E.A.T. It was with a great sense of loss that we learned of Billy Kl??ver's death this January. Born in 1927, Wilhem J. Kluver founded Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) in 1966, along with fellow engineer Fred Waldhauer and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. The creation of this revolutionary organization was inspired by the event *9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering*, a series of performances involving such artists as John Cage, Lucinda Childs, ?yvind Falstrom, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor and Robert Whitman, along with a team of u0 engineers and scientists, mostly from Bell Telephone Laboratories, where Kluver worked as an electrical engineer. Mr. Kluver was instrumental in helping artists including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham create work that required technical and technological expertise, as well as the *9 Evenings* and E.A.T. teams. His most cherished wish was that the new technologies - until then the military's exclusive domain -would be used with peaceful aims in artistic and community-based projects. In recent years, Billy Kluver and his wife and longtime collaborator Julie Martin had been in the process of entrusting their considerable resources to various research centers, including the Getty Research Foundation in Los Angeles and the Fondation Daniel Langlois in Montreal. Sylvie Lacerte, Montreal _____________________________ LEONARDO/ISAST COLLABORATES WITH ISEA 2006, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA San Jose, California has been chosen to host a biannual international symposium that will feature a global gathering of leaders in the art, science and technology communities in August 2006 to explore cutting edge developments in creative expression using new and emerging tools. The International Symposium on Electronic Art, sponsored by the Netherlands-based Inter-Society for Electronic Art (ISEA), fosters interdisciplinary exchange among culturally diverse organizations and individuals working with art, science and emerging technologies. The 2006 conference theme is "Silicon Transvergence," and will focus on projects that bridge the boundaries between the arts, education, technology and business communities. Internationally renowned new media curator Steve Dietz will serve as the 2006 symposium director, responsible for coordinating and establishing the programming of the symposium and related events. ZeroOne, a local non-profit that focuses on creating new opportunities to explore the connections between art and technology, will be the lead organization coordinating the 2006 Symposium logistics. The CADRE Laboratory for New Media at San Jose State University will be the lead educational institution for the prestigious ISEA Academic Conference. A unique pre-conference summit of Pacific Rim New Media Centers will explore the conference theme within a context of economic globalization, regional integration and environmental change. The two-day event will be facilitated by Leonardo/ISAST in concert with their Cultural Roots of Globalization Project. Additionally, Leonardo/ISAST will focus a special issue of the journal *Leonardo* on New Media Arts programs and emerging artists. For further information, contact: Leonardo/ISAST: isast at well.com San Jose Contact: Joel Slayton, CADRE Laboratory (1) 408-924-4368 San Jose Contact: Beau Takahara, ZeroOne, (1) 650-810-1057 _____________________________ LEONARDO/ISAST GOVERNING BOARD MEMBERS RENEW TERMS The Governing Board of Leonardo/ISAST is composed of prominent figures in the fields of art, science and technology. Leonardo/ISAST says goodbye to some of its long-serving board members and welcomes back returning members for another term. Lynn Hershman, Mark Resch and Piero Scaruffi have rotated off the Board, while Marty Anderson, Penny Finnie and Beverly Reiser have been elected to renew their terms. Renewing their terms on the Leonardo/ISAST Governing Board, Marty Anderson, Penny Finnie, and Beverly Reiser have expressed their enthusiasm for new activities in the network's future. Anderson has agreed to serve as vice chair in addition to his role as treasurer of the board. Finnie serves on the Leonardo/ISAST nominating committee and serves a key role in the strategic planning process for the organization by leading the project to revise the Leonardo/ISAST vision statement. Beverly Reiser, as chair of the Leonardo/ISAST international advisory board, will be deeply involved in the planning and implementation of the Pacific Rim Summit organized in conjunction with ISEA 2006 in San Jose. Although Lynn Hershman steps down from the board she remains actively involved in Leonardo/ISAST activities, by chairing the prize and awards committee and serving on the international advisory board. Likewise, while this marks the end of Mark Resch's term on the governing board, where he served as secretary, he will continue to participate in Leonardo/ISAST activities, such as chairing the Leonardo/ISAST panel at the 2004 College Art Association annual conference, "Art, Science, and Technology: Problems and Issues Facing an Emerging Interdisciplinary Field." Piero Scaruffi has also vowed to remain active in Leonardo/ISAST activities, serving as an advisor on issues related to marketing and globalization. The current composition of the Leonardo/ISAST Governing Board is Roger Malina, chair; Martin Anderson, vice chair and treasurer; Penelope Finnie; Michael Joaquin Grey; Greg Niemeyer; Ed Payne; Anne Brooks Pfister; Sonya Rapoport; Beverly Reiser; Joel Slayton; Darlene Tong; and Stephen Wilson. For further information, visit www.leonardo.info. _____________________________ ARTHUR ELSENAAR AND REMKO SCHA WIN THE 2003 LEONARDO AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha's article "Electric Body Manipulation as Performance Art: A Historical Perspective," published in **Leonardo* Music Journal* 12, has been named the winner of the 2003 Leonardo Award for Excellence. This annual award recognizes excellence in an article published in a *Leonardo* journal. Excellence is defined as originality, rigor of thought, clarity of expression and effective presentation. Three articles received honorable mention: Steve Dietz's "Ten Dreams of Technology"(*Leonardo* 35:5), Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr's "Growing Semi-Living Sculptures: The Tissue Culture and Art Project" (*Leonardo* 35:4), and Edward Shanken's "Art in the Information Age: Technology and Conceptual Art" (*Leonardo* 35:4). You can download the winning article and three honorable mentions at http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e- journals/Leonardo/isast/awards.html. Elsenaar and Scha's winning article traces the historical developments of using electrically manipulated human bodies as theatrical display. Addressing the controversial aspects of this sometimes destructive art form, they investigate the implications of electrical executions. More often, they note the stimulating effects of electricity upon the body, studying Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation as implemented in the nineteenth century by Duchenne and continued in practice today by artists such as Stelarc and article co-author Elsenaar. Citing technological advances that enable interactive nerve stimulation, Elsenaar and Scha point toward a future of computer- generated dance and theater performances. Arthur Elsenaar is an artist and electrical engineer who ran his own pirate radio station and built the transmitters for many illegal radio and television stations throughout the Netherlands. Elsenaar's recent work employs the human face as a computer-controlled display device. Remko Scha is an artist, DJ, and computational linguist. He has built an automatic electric guitar band ("The Machines"), designed an image generation algorithm ("Artificial") and developed a theory about language- processing ("Data-Oriented Parsing"). Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha have jointly developed a series of automatic performance pieces and video installations that involve computer-controlled facial expression, algorithmic music and synthetic speech. These works have been presented at scientific conferences, theater festivals, and art exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States. Elsenaar and Scha also explore the use of automatic radio stations as a medium for computer art. The Leonardo Award for Excellence was originally established by chemist and inventor Myron Coler and *Leonardo* publisher Robert Maxwell. Previous winners have included Rudolf Arnheim, Otto Piene, Alvin Curran, Karen O'Rourke, Donna Cox and Bill Seaman. The 2003 Prize and Awards Committee is comprised of Lynn Hershman, chair; Hisham Bizri, Char Davies, Marcos Novak and Bill Seaman. In addition to the winning article and three honorable mentions, six other articles were nominated for this prize: Anne Bray, "The Community Is Watching, and Replying: Art in Public Places and Spaces" (*Leonardo* 35:1); Harold Cohen, "A Self- Defining Game for One Player: On the Nature of Creativity and the Possibility of Creative Computer Programs" (*Leonardo* 35:1); Ken Gonzales-Day, "Analytical Photography: Portraiture, from the Index to the Epidermis" (*Leonardo* 35:1); Antoinette LaFarge and Robert Nideffer, "The Leonardo Gallery: Shift-Ctrl" (*Leonardo* 35:1); Phoebe Sengers, "Schizophrenia and Narrative in Artificial Agents" (*Leonardo* 35:4); and Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, "Modeling the Emergence of Complexity: Complex Systems, the Origin of Life and Interactive On-Line Art" (*Leonardo* 35:2). The 2003 Leonardo Award for Excellence is co-sponsored by the Technoculture Studies Department and the Art Department at the University of California, Davis, where it will be presented at a prize award lecture on campus during the Spring 2004 session. For further information, visit http://technoculture.ucdavis.edu. _____________________________ LEONARDO INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD WELCOMES NEW MEMBER HISHAM BIZRI The Leonardo International Advisory Board welcomes Hisham Bizri, from Lebanon, to its ranks of art-and-science luminaries throughout the world. International Advisory Board members communicate via e-mail and telephone on an ad-hoc basis to guide Leonardo/ISAST in its projects and collaborations. Bizri is a filmmaker and visual artist from Lebanon currently living in San Francisco. His films, videos and multi-media installations are meditations on his exilic experience as a Lebanese Muslim living in the West. Describing his philosophy of filmmaking, Bizri states, "I hope to bring aesthetics back to cinema, so that cinema can be seen once more as a window onto the world, and not as a mechanistic vehicle for ideology." Bizri studied with filmmakers Raoul Ruiz and Mikl?s Jancs? and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Lebanon, Ireland, Korea and Japan. A pioneer of "cinematic" virtual reality installations for the CAVE theater (premiered at Ars Electronica and ISEA '98), Bizri has also directed a number of narrative and experimental films and videos that have been shown internationally at venues including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), the Louvre Museum (Paris), Biarritz Opera House (France) and the Institute du Monde Arabe (Paris). Bizri was recently an artist-in- residence at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT and currently heads the time-based art program in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of California, Davis. Serving along with Hisham Bizri on the Leonardo International Advisory Board are Beverly Reiser, chair; Mark Beam; Julio Berm?dez; Annick Bureaud; Nic Collins; Lynn Hershman; Nisar Keshvani; Christine Maxwell; Michael Naimark; Michael Punt; Sundar Sarukkai; and Rejane Spitz. _____________________________ LEONARDO COLLABORATES WITH HARVESTWORKS The Leonardo international advisory board approved a collaboration with Harvestworks, which includes endorsing their conference, "The Interactive Project: Activated Environments and Hybrid Instruments," to be held 23-25 April, 2004 at various locations throughout New York City. The weekend-long seminar will feature artworks by the Harvestworks residents, panel discussions and demonstrations and involve arts organizations and artist's studios in the city. For more information and the final participant list, see: www.harvestworks.org. Founded in 1977 to cultivate artistic talent using electronic technologies, Harvestworks' mission is to encourage the creation and expand the dissemination of digital media artwork. From its New York City location and through its Internet presence, Harvestworks provides accessible and coordinated digital media production, education, information and content distribution services to a diverse creative community that includes electronic music composers, interactive media designers, film and video makers, digital tool developers and computer programmers. By bringing together innovative practitioners from all branches of the digital arts, Harvestworks provides a vital context and catalyst for creativity in the digital arts. ________________________________________________________________ ___________________ | | | | | 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 ________________________________________________________________ ___________________ | | | 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 ________________________________________________________________ _________________ | 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) ________________________________________________________________ ________________ | | | 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 425 Market St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, U.S.A. Tel: (415)-405-3335 Fax: (415)-405-7758 E-mail: isast at sfsu.edu More Info: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e- journals/Leonardo/isast/placeads.html#LEAads ________________________________________________________________ ____________________ | | | 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 (03) > ________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/leaauthors/attachments/20040302/6715dc2c/attachment.htm From nisar at keshvani.com Sun Mar 7 03:12:37 2004 From: nisar at keshvani.com (nisar keshvani) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 15:12:37 +0700 Subject: [LEAuthors] LEA cfp - RE:SEARCHING OUR ORIGINS: Critical and Archival Histories of the Electronic Arts Message-ID: ** Sincere apologies for cross-posting ** Please feel free to spread the word widely: LEA Special Issue: RE:SEARCHING OUR ORIGINS: Critical and Archival Histories of the Electronic Arts Guest Editors: Paul Brown and Catherine Mason The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is inviting papers The mid to late 20th Century has become a popular topic for humanities research in recent years. Many projects are attempting to re-discover and re-contextualise the somewhat neglected field of history of art and technology. International histories of electronic and digital arts are now beginning to be written and voice given to the pioneers of these artforms. Additionally, with contemporary 'new media' artforms such as video and net art enjoying high prominence at present, much discussion is taking place about the foundations of current practice and about reception of electronic arts in cultural institutions, including curatorial practice as well as archiving and conservation issues. This special issue of LEA seeks to report on international projects and initiatives working to recover, document or construct critical and historical contexts for the electronic arts. Topics of interest might include (but are not limited to): - Origins of electronic and digital arts - Key transition points, for example - from analogue to digital - Art and technology collaborations - Educational/access initiatives - Critical analyses - Cultural analyses - Acquisition and conservation issues - Etc? For the LEA February 2005 issue, we invite contributions from artists, practitioners, curators, theorists and historians that engage with histories of the electronic/digital arts and art/science/technology collaborations. These can include: - full papers - works in progress - artists' statements - museum and gallery initiatives - etc? Under three levels of submission: - Fully refereed papers - Shorter work that may be sent to peer review and - Personal reminiscences and experiences that may be editorially selected and not peer reviewed. The guest editors are members of CACHe: Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc? a major research and archiving project based in the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck, University of London and funded by the UK Government's Arts and Humanities Research Board. CACHe is documenting and contextualising the early days of computer arts in the UK from its origins in the 1960s to 1980, when the first "User Friendly" systems began to appear. http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hafvm/cache/ LEA encourages international artists / academics / researchers / students to submit their proposals for consideration. We particularly encourage authors outside North America and Europe to send proposals for articles/gallery/artists statements. Proposals should include: - 200 - 300 word abstract / synopsis - A brief author biography - Any related URLs - Contact details Timeline 1 May 2004 - submission of abstracts 31 May 2004 - short-listed candidates informed 31 Sept 2004 - Contributors to submit full papers for peer review Deadline for abstracts: 1 May 2004 Please send proposals or queries to: Paul Brown or Catherine Mason and Nisar Keshvani LEA Editor-in-Chief lea at mitpress.mit.edu http://lea.mit.edu ******************************************************************************** LEA Information and URLs ------------------------------------------- Receive your FREE subscription to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac e-mail digest at http://mitpress.mit.edu/lea/e-mail -- just provide your email address, name, and password, and check off that you'd like to be added to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac monthly e-mail list to keep on top of the latest news in the Leonardo community. How to advertise in LEA? http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/isast/placeads.html#LEAads For a paid subscription (to become an ISAST member and access archives dating back to 1993): http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=27&mode=p The Leonardo Educators Initiative ------------------------------------------------------- The Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) is a listing of Masters and Ph.D. theses in the art/science/technology field, for the benefit of scholars and practitioners. LEA also maintains a discussion list open only to faculty in the field. Students interested in contributing and faculty wishing to join this list should contact lea at mitpress.mit.edu What is LEA? ---------------------- Established in 1993, the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is jointly produced by Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST) and published under the auspices of MIT Press. LEA is an electronic journal dedicated to providing a forum for those who are interested in the realm where art, science and technology converge. Content ------------- 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. Mission ------------ LEA's mission is to maintain and consolidate its position as a leading online news and trusted information filter while critically examining arts/science & technological works catering to the international CAST (Community of Artists, Scientist and Technologists) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/leaauthors/attachments/20040307/836a2fb2/attachment.htm