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<P>Leonardo Electronic Almanac Vol 13, No 6-7, June - July 2005
<DIV><A href="http://lea.mit.edu/">http://lea.mit.edu</A></DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV>
<DIV>ISSN #1071-4391</DIV>
<DIV>____________</DIV>
<DIV>| |</DIV>
<DIV>| CONTENTS |</DIV>
<DIV>|____________|</DIV><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>INTRODUCTION</DIV>
<DIV>------------</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>EDITORIAL</DIV>
<DIV>---------</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< New Media Arts, Technology and Education @ MAAP Singapore</DIV>
<DIV>2004, by Hock Soon Seah and Kim Machan ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>FEATURES </DIV>
<DIV>--------</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< New Forms for 21st Century Conceptualism, by Dew Harrison ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Virtual Campus - It is Fun and Educational, by Alexei Sourin,</DIV>
<DIV>Konstantin Levinski and Qi Liu ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Astral Travel in Virtual Realms: Evaluating Conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>Understanding in Digital Reconstructions of Past Cultures, by</DIV>
<DIV>Erik Malcolm Champion ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< In Between Institution and Market - the Role of Media Art and</DIV>
<DIV>Infrastructure in the Era of Post-Regional Integration, by</DIV>
<DIV>Andrew H. K. Lam and Andy Tam T. K. ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Digital Speculations, by Bharat Dave ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Idensity®, by Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>ONE FROM THE VAULT: FROM THE LEA ARCHIVES</DIV>
<DIV>-------------------------------------------</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Molten Media and the Infiltration of the Law, by Curtis E.A.</DIV>
<DIV>Karnow ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO REVIEWS</DIV>
<DIV>----------------</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology, reviewed by David</DIV>
<DIV>Beer ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of Medical Imaging,</DIV>
<DIV>reviewed by Jan Baetens ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of</DIV>
<DIV>Bioscience, reviewed by Eugene Thacker ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO JOURNAL</DIV>
<DIV>----------------</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Contents and Abstracts: *Leonardo* Vol. 38, No. 4 ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>ISAST NEWS</DIV>
<DIV>----------</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< *Leonardo* Editorial Office Moves to San Francisco Art</DIV>
<DIV>Institute ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Brainstorming for *Leonardo's* 40th Anniversary > </DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Leonardo@SIGGRAPH Town Hall Meeting > </DIV><BR>
<DIV>< The Pacific Rim New Media Summit: A Pre-Symposium to ISEA2006 ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< PRNMS Working Group On Organizations/Symposia-Pacific Rim</DIV>
<DIV>Residencies > </DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>BYTES</DIV>
<DIV>-----</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< CFP - Leonardo Music Journal 16 (2006) ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< CFP - Leonardo Abstracts Service ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< CFP - Digital '05: "EXQUISITE" ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Jacques Mandelbrojt at the 17th Earagail Arts Festival,</DIV>
<DIV>Donegal, Ireland ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>OBITUARY</DIV>
<DIV>--------</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Inspired by the stars and earth: Joan Brassil, Artist,</DIV>
<DIV>teacher, mentor 1919-2005 ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><A name=1></A>
<DIV>INTRODUCTION</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>LEA's June - July double issue, guest edited by Dr Hock Soon</DIV>
<DIV>Seah and Kim Machan, sees yet another special edition, this time</DIV>
<DIV>about New Media Arts, Technology and Education. This reviewed</DIV>
<DIV>international conference was organized as part of the Multimedia</DIV>
<DIV>Art Asia Pacific Festival 2004 held in Singapore. </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>One From the Vault, the monthly dose of things past, looks at</DIV>
<DIV>Curtis E. A. Karnow's Molten Media and the Infiltration of the</DIV>
<DIV>Law, a piece which first appeared in June 1995.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>For Leonardo Reviews, Michael Punt's selections include those</DIV>
<DIV>of new panel member David Beer, with his reflections on Tia</DIV>
<DIV>DeNora's book, *After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology*. Also</DIV>
<DIV>featured is *The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of</DIV>
<DIV>Medical Imaging*, reviewed by Jan Baetens, another of the newer</DIV>
<DIV>members who has already made a significant contribution to this</DIV>
<DIV>project. Eugene Thacker's review of *Liminal Lives: Imagining</DIV>
<DIV>the Human at the Frontiers of Bioscience* completes this</DIV>
<DIV>section. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In ISAST news, read about *Leonardo's* move to a new home,</DIV>
<DIV>brainstorm with them for their upcoming 40th anniversary, and</DIV>
<DIV>find out about the latest Leonardo@SIGGRAPH Town Hall Meeting in</DIV>
<DIV>August. Also, keep updated with our series on *The Pacific Rim</DIV>
<DIV>New Media Summit: A Pre-Symposium to ISEA2006*, where another</DIV>
<DIV>working group chair shares the group's scope and objectives. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Bytes features two vastly different calls for papers/artwork</DIV>
<DIV>that will surely be of interest to many. Also, find out more</DIV>
<DIV>about current exhibitions by Jacques Mandlebrojt at the 17</DIV>
<DIV>Earagail Arts Festival in Donegal, Ireland.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Lastly, Jill Sykes mourns the passing of Australian Joan</DIV>
<DIV>Brassil, 85, who was an artist of unique character and singular</DIV>
<DIV>talents. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><A name=2></A>
<DIV>EDITORIAL</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>NEW MEDIA ARTS, TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION @ MAAP SINGAPORE 2004</DIV>
<DIV>by Hock Soon Seah and Kim Machan</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Hock Soon Seah</DIV>
<DIV>School of Computer Engineering</DIV>
<DIV>Nanyang Technological University</DIV>
<DIV>Nanyang Avenue</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore 639798</DIV>
<DIV>Tel: +65 6790 5788</DIV>
<DIV>Fax: +65 6791 9414</DIV>
<DIV>ashsseah [@] ntu [dot] edu [dot] sg</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Kim Machan</DIV>
<DIV>MAAP - Multimedia Art Asia Pacific </DIV>
<DIV>GPO BOX 2505</DIV>
<DIV>Brisbane Qld 4001 </DIV>
<DIV>Australia</DIV>
<DIV>Tel: Australia +61 0411 591 058</DIV>
<DIV>Tel: China +86 1304 109 4471</DIV>
<DIV>Tel: Singapore +65 9193 3007</DIV>
<DIV>Fax: +61 7 33 484 109</DIV>
<DIV>kim [@] maap [dot] org [dot] au</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.maap.org.au/">http://www.maap.org.au</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>KEYWORDS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Multimedia Art Asia Pacific (MAAP) 2004, GRAVITY, 'MAAP in</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore', New Media Arts, Technology And Education</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ABSTRACT</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Leonardo Electronic Almanac June - July 2005 (Vol 13, No 6-7)</DIV>
<DIV>presents an eclectic mix of papers selected from the New Media</DIV>
<DIV>Arts, Technology and Education 2004 conference. Held as part of</DIV>
<DIV>'MAAP in Singapore', the conference had seven strands, "Media</DIV>
<DIV>Culture", "Southeast Asian Forum", "Artist Forum: The Gravity of</DIV>
<DIV>Sound and Distance", "New Media Education in Singapore",</DIV>
<DIV>"Connections", "Technical Art" and "Society and New Media".</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In October 2004, Multimedia Art Asia Pacific (MAAP) [1],</DIV>
<DIV>organized 'MAAP in Singapore' adopting as its theme, *GRAVITY* -</DIV>
<DIV>the gravity of real and virtual space, social gravity, and the</DIV>
<DIV>gravity of ideas referenced and linked the weightless code of</DIV>
<DIV>digital media to the conceptual weight of art history in a</DIV>
<DIV>concentrated examination of New Media Art. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>A key Festival component was the international conference; 'New</DIV>
<DIV>Media Arts, Technology and Education' [2] with Professor Trebor</DIV>
<DIV>Scholz (State University of New York) and Professor José L.</DIV>
<DIV>Encarnação (INI-GraphicsNet Foundation, Germany) delivering</DIV>
<DIV>keynote addresses on "New Media Arts Education and its</DIV>
<DIV>Discontent" [2] and "Computer Graphics Technologies for Art,</DIV>
<DIV>Cultural Heritage and Edutainment" [2] respectively. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>From the conference's seven strands, "Media Culture",</DIV>
<DIV>"Southeast Asian Forum", "Artist Forum: The Gravity of Sound and</DIV>
<DIV>Distance", "New Media Education in Singapore", "Connections",</DIV>
<DIV>"Technical Art" and "Society and New Media", we offer an</DIV>
<DIV>eclectic mix of papers selected for their fresh perspectives and</DIV>
<DIV>contribution(s) to the Festival's theme.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In our first essay, Dew Harrison questions the teaching of</DIV>
<DIV>digital media theory to new practitioners where it is understood</DIV>
<DIV>as deriving from lens and screen-based media. It examines other</DIV>
<DIV>routes through 20th century art history to current practice in</DIV>
<DIV>digital art and determines the validity of Marcel Duchamp as</DIV>
<DIV>influential on contemporary practice generally, and on</DIV>
<DIV>Conceptual Art specifically. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In *Virtual Campus - It is Fun and Educational*, Alexei Sourin,</DIV>
<DIV>with Konstantin Levinski and Qi Liu share with us the "great</DIV>
<DIV>multimedia place for electronic education and fun, research and</DIV>
<DIV>games, meeting new friends, and immersion in campus life" that</DIV>
<DIV>is, a virtual model of Nanyang Technological University, and how</DIV>
<DIV>it "teaches students how 3D shapes and their colors can be</DIV>
<DIV>easily defined with parametric and implicit functions."</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Erik Malcolm Champion's piece then deals with astral travel in</DIV>
<DIV>virtual realms, where he evaluates conceptual understanding in</DIV>
<DIV>digital reconstructions of past cultures. His paper discusses</DIV>
<DIV>the case study of an ancient Mayan site, Palenque, to suggest</DIV>
<DIV>ways of creating a platform conducive to cultural learning using</DIV>
<DIV>virtual environment technology.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Next, a joint effort by Andrew H. K. Lam and Andy Tam T. K.</DIV>
<DIV>explores how the conditions of media art have changed radically</DIV>
<DIV>over the past few years. Their paper aims to project a vision in</DIV>
<DIV>the relationship between the institution and the market, within</DIV>
<DIV>the framework of the role of media art and infrastructure across</DIV>
<DIV>the Asian continent.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In *Digital Speculations*, Bharat Dave describes selected</DIV>
<DIV>projects that served as vehicles for critical investigation of</DIV>
<DIV>interactive digital media and their potential for exploring</DIV>
<DIV>different ways in which experiences can be imagined,</DIV>
<DIV>constructed, and communicated.</DIV>
<DIV>Finally, Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar share their</DIV>
<DIV>work, *Idensity®*, which develops scenarios for an interplay of</DIV>
<DIV>the urban space and the media domain.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>The Festival was supported by the Singapore National Arts</DIV>
<DIV>Council, The Australia Council, Arts Queensland: with seventeen</DIV>
<DIV>funding partners; seven galleries including The Singapore Art</DIV>
<DIV>Museum; live broadband events between Singapore and Brisbane;</DIV>
<DIV>and participation in global public artworks.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><A name=3></A>
<DIV>REFERENCES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. MAAP (Multimedia Art Asia Pacific) is an organization and</DIV>
<DIV>festival that explores New Media Art across a range of art forms</DIV>
<DIV>and practices emphasizing interactive multimedia, Internet,</DIV>
<DIV>digital media, animation and projects integrating new media.</DIV>
<DIV>MAAP was established to bring focus to the "unmapped" cultural</DIV>
<DIV>new media content emerging from Australia and the Asia Pacific</DIV>
<DIV>regions and is now an Asia Pacific touring new media arts</DIV>
<DIV>festival and web site resource, partnering with key</DIV>
<DIV>organizations in our region. MAAP's inaugural festival in 1998</DIV>
<DIV>was based in Brisbane and Online and continued till 2001 when it</DIV>
<DIV>extended its commitment to regional partnerships. MAAP stepped</DIV>
<DIV>offshore to Beijing in 2002 and after the resounding success of</DIV>
<DIV>'MAAP in Beijing'; the festival was held in October 2004 in</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore. For more information: <A href="http://www.maap.org.au/">http://www.maap.org.au</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>2. 'New Media Arts, Technology and Education' - International</DIV>
<DIV>refereed conference jointly organized by the Nanyang</DIV>
<DIV>Technological University's School of Art, Design and Media and</DIV>
<DIV>the School of Computer Engineering in cooperation with the</DIV>
<DIV>SIGGRAPH Singapore Chapter and the Southeast Asian Computer</DIV>
<DIV>Graphics Society (SEAGRAPH). For information, abstracts and</DIV>
<DIV>program: <A href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sce/maap2004/">http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sce/maap2004/</A></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>DR HOCK SOON SEAH is the Dean and an Associate Professor of the</DIV>
<DIV>School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological</DIV>
<DIV>University, Singapore. He serves in the Editorial Boards of</DIV>
<DIV>Computer & Graphics Journal published by Elsevier and the</DIV>
<DIV>International Journal of IT published by the Singapore Computer</DIV>
<DIV>Society. Seah is the Founding President of ACM SIGGRAPH</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore and the South East Asian Computer Graphics Society</DIV>
<DIV>(SEAGRAPH). He is also the Leader of Digital Media Virtual Grid</DIV>
<DIV>Community under the Singapore National Grid Office. He was</DIV>
<DIV>general co-chair for the International Conference on Cyberworld</DIV>
<DIV>in December 2003 as well as the Multimedia Art Asia Pacific</DIV>
<DIV>(MAAP) Conference on New Media Art, Technology and Education in</DIV>
<DIV>October 2004. He holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical</DIV>
<DIV>Engineering, a Master's degree in Computing and a Ph.D degree in</DIV>
<DIV>Computer Graphics.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>KIM MACHAN has worked in the area of contemporary art,</DIV>
<DIV>nationally and internationally, for the past 18 years as</DIV>
<DIV>curator, arts producer and consultant.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>She pioneered art projects in free to air television broadcast</DIV>
<DIV>as producer and curator of *Art Rage: Artworks for Television*</DIV>
<DIV>commissioning over 70 artists productions 1995-2000. She has</DIV>
<DIV>spoken at numerous conferences and Chaired Online Art in Asia at</DIV>
<DIV>the World Wide Web Conference, Hong Kong.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Machan is a founding member and Festival Director of MAAP</DIV>
<DIV>(Multimedia Art Asia Pacific) since 1998 and has researched new</DIV>
<DIV>media art networks and projects in Australia and Asia Pacific</DIV>
<DIV>regions over the past seven years. In 2002 she was Contributing</DIV>
<DIV>Curator, *Media City Seoul* and Chief Curator *MAAP in Beijing*.</DIV>
<DIV>Other major exhibitions included *Gravity* at the Singapore Art</DIV>
<DIV>Museum as part of *MAAP in Singapore* 2004. Machan is currently</DIV>
<DIV>a Ph.D candidate at QUT Brisbane in the area of New Media Art in</DIV>
<DIV>Asia.</DIV><BR><A name=4></A>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>FEATURES </DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>NEW FORMS FOR 21ST CENTURY CONCEPTUALISM</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Dew Harrison</DIV>
<DIV>Gray's School of Art</DIV>
<DIV>Robert Gordon University</DIV>
<DIV>Scott Sutherland Building</DIV>
<DIV>Garthdee Road</DIV>
<DIV>Aberdeen, UK</DIV>
<DIV>AB10 7QD</DIV>
<DIV>dew [dot] harrison [@] rgu [dot] ac [dot] uk</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.graysartschoolresearch.co.uk/">http://www.graysartschoolresearch.co.uk</A></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.dshed.net/networking">http://www.dshed.net/networking</A></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.pva.org.uk/">http://www.pva.org.uk</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>KEYWORDS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Conceptual art, digital art, Duchamp, hypermedia technology,</DIV>
<DIV>non-linearity, large glass</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ABSTRACT</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This paper questions the teaching of digital media theory to</DIV>
<DIV>new practitioners where it is understood as deriving from lens</DIV>
<DIV>and screen-based media. It examines other routes through 20th</DIV>
<DIV>century art history to current practice in digital art and</DIV>
<DIV>determines the validity of Marcel Duchamp as influential on</DIV>
<DIV>contemporary practice generally, and on Conceptual Art</DIV>
<DIV>specifically. A case is made for the merging of computer-</DIV>
<DIV>mediated and Conceptual Art and compounded in the work</DIV>
<DIV>StarGlass, the transposition of Duchamp's thoughts and ideas</DIV>
<DIV>into a hypermedia art system. The piece was shown during the</DIV>
<DIV>presentation of the paper at MAAP 2004.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the West, the economically privileged side of the</DIV>
<DIV>North/South divide, we have a technocratic society where 21st</DIV>
<DIV>century culture is digitally based and lives are largely</DIV>
<DIV>computer-mediated. Artists here play with the materials and</DIV>
<DIV>content of our culture and will cross territories in order to do</DIV>
<DIV>this, to make the invisible visible and open our eyes and ears</DIV>
<DIV>to what's going on around us. In this high-tech culture they</DIV>
<DIV>can engage with unorthodox media, tools and ideas, they can use</DIV>
<DIV>computers and new technologies to explore areas within and</DIV>
<DIV>around art practice and cultural theory.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This has not been an easy transition, from the Modernist</DIV>
<DIV>specificity of orthodox art material to the Postmodern techno-</DIV>
<DIV>scientific inquiry and there are a number of art history trails</DIV>
<DIV>available to follow. Charlie Gere, a Digital Art historian,</DIV>
<DIV>gives a convincing argument for current new media art practice</DIV>
<DIV>as an outcome of our present Digital Culture, (2002) [1] which,</DIV>
<DIV>in turn, has emerged from a synthesis of art, technology and</DIV>
<DIV>science, the Cybernetic era of influential discourses including</DIV>
<DIV>Information Theory, General Systems Theory, Molecular Biology,</DIV>
<DIV>Artificial Intelligence and Structuralism. According to Gere,</DIV>
<DIV>art practice reflecting these concerns began exploring questions</DIV>
<DIV>of networking, telecommunications, information, and the use of</DIV>
<DIV>generative techniques. By the mid-to-late 1960s artists were</DIV>
<DIV>incorporating technical electronic objects in their work and</DIV>
<DIV>beginning to employ video and computers as new media. In her</DIV>
<DIV>book *Digital Art*, Christiane Paul (2003) suggests that</DIV>
<DIV>contemporary artists are using new materials, as ever, to engage</DIV>
<DIV>with established art concerns, in that there are currently old</DIV>
<DIV>concepts being explored within new artistic practices using</DIV>
<DIV>emerging digital technologies, she states that "Some of the</DIV>
<DIV>concepts explored in Digital Art date back almost a century, and</DIV>
<DIV>many others have been previously addressed in various</DIV>
<DIV>'traditional' arts" [2].</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Art history books concerning art for the 21st century now,</DIV>
<DIV>necessarily, include sections on digital and sci-art, in *art</DIV>
<DIV>tomorrow*, Edward Lucie-Smith (2002) understands technology as</DIV>
<DIV>linked to an enhanced representation in art, which therefore</DIV>
<DIV>centres on video and, to a lesser extent, on digital still</DIV>
<DIV>photography. Although he does determine a direct link between</DIV>
<DIV>sci-art and Conceptual Art when he asserts that "The diagrams</DIV>
<DIV>made by scientists in order to explain their ideas can be seen,</DIV>
<DIV>and indeed have been seen, as direct forerunners of Conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>Art" [3]. Margot Lovejoy (1990) [4] in her contribution to an</DIV>
<DIV>*Art Journal* issue on computer art also makes a strong case for</DIV>
<DIV>the importance of photography as the basis for the use of</DIV>
<DIV>electronic media in art practice. Lev Manovich (2001) looks at</DIV>
<DIV>any new digital media practice through the theory and history of</DIV>
<DIV>the still and moving image "I draw upon the histories of art,</DIV>
<DIV>photography, video, telecommunication, design, and, last but not</DIV>
<DIV>least, the key cultural form of the 20th century - cinema" [5]. </DIV>
<DIV>However, other theorists and practitioners relate connections</DIV>
<DIV>between art and technology through an investment in Conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>Art and refer to Marcel Duchamp as seminal in this approach.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>It is generally accepted that a direct line can be established</DIV>
<DIV>between current art practice and the ideas of Duchamp, whether</DIV>
<DIV>new technologies are involved or not. Michael Rush (1999) in his</DIV>
<DIV>book on new media practice asks, "What branch of contemporary</DIV>
<DIV>art, for example, would not claim Marcel Duchamp as a</DIV>
<DIV>predecessor?" [6]. Frank Popper (1993) [7] in his search for the</DIV>
<DIV>roots of Electronic Art identifies seven different sources from</DIV>
<DIV>which contemporary technological art has drawn its inspiration:</DIV>
<DIV>Photography and Cinematography; Land Art; Light + Kinetic Art;</DIV>
<DIV>Cybernetic Art; Installation Art; Performance; and Conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>Art. All of which can call upon Duchamp as an initiator to some</DIV>
<DIV>extent. In her search for an art-historical context for Internet</DIV>
<DIV>Art, Rachel Greene (2004) states the "Many net artists feel a</DIV>
<DIV>strong connection to the work of French artist Marcel Duchamp</DIV>
<DIV>(1887-1968)" [8]. Joseph Kosuth (1969) [9] sited Duchamp as a</DIV>
<DIV>historical pivot between the Modern and the post-modern</DIV>
<DIV>condition releasing art from its physical embodiment with his</DIV>
<DIV>'Readymade', which led to a re-questioning of what 'art' might</DIV>
<DIV>be. Its essential nature therefore became conceptual and</DIV>
<DIV>pertinent in the critique of Modernism that followed. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>This view is upheld but questioned when in relation to computer-</DIV>
<DIV>art by Manovich who speaks of a distinction between 'Duchamp-</DIV>
<DIV>land' and 'Turing-land'. Duchamp-land being the established art</DIV>
<DIV>world and Turing-land being exemplified by ISEA, Ars Electronica</DIV>
<DIV>and SIGGRAPH. Manovich asserts that the convergence of these</DIV>
<DIV>two worlds will never happen where they have different agendas,</DIV>
<DIV>with Turing-land being oriented towards state-of-the-art</DIV>
<DIV>computer technology rather than content. He states that even</DIV>
<DIV>though "Duchamp-land has finally discovered computers and begun</DIV>
<DIV>to use them with its usual irony and sophistication" it will not</DIV>
<DIV>accept practice from Turing-land, for it is only ever concerned</DIV>
<DIV>with 'art' and not with "research into new aesthetic</DIV>
<DIV>possibilities of new media" [10]. As Mark Rothko (1968) argued</DIV>
<DIV>"Pictures must be miraculous… for anyone experiencing [them]</DIV>
<DIV>later, a revelation" [11], Turing-land stops at the miraculous.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>It is the 'discovery of computers' in Duchamp-land that is the</DIV>
<DIV>concern of this paper. Although Duchamp is seen as impactive on</DIV>
<DIV>so many aspects of 21st century art practice, and in particular</DIV>
<DIV>for computer-mediated practice, it is his influence on</DIV>
<DIV>Conceptual Art that is of significance here. My proposition is</DIV>
<DIV>that computers are most efficiently engaged in contemporary</DIV>
<DIV>practice through a symbiotic relationship with conceptualism and</DIV>
<DIV>that this is most apparent where both computer-mediated art and</DIV>
<DIV>Conceptual Art have been influenced by the work and ideas of</DIV>
<DIV>Duchamp. This view is supported by Edward Shanken (2004) [12]</DIV>
<DIV>who suggests a convergence of Art-and-Technology and Conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>Art where both engage in discourse on indexing, information, and</DIV>
<DIV>data storage and retrieval as witnessed in the early work of Art</DIV>
<DIV>& Language and in the 'Software' exhibition 1970 curated by Jack</DIV>
<DIV>Burnham (a known Duchampian).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The aptitude for the use of computers in Conceptual Art</DIV>
<DIV>practice was initially voiced by Christine Tamblyn (1990) [13]</DIV>
<DIV>in an article for *Art Journal*, where she stated that computers</DIV>
<DIV>were designed to augment mental processes as opposed to being</DIV>
<DIV>visual or manual aids. This understanding is in line with my own</DIV>
<DIV>research and practice where I see both conceptual art and</DIV>
<DIV>hypermedia dealing with the semantic association of ideas and</DIV>
<DIV>thoughts in one interconnected narrative or artwork. Hypermedia</DIV>
<DIV>being an evolving conception to facilitate the augmentation of</DIV>
<DIV>human mental activity by emulating organic memory systems. My</DIV>
<DIV>doctoral thesis (1998) [14] expounds this view and investigates</DIV>
<DIV>conceptual art through Art & Language projects and Duchampian</DIV>
<DIV>ideas supporting practice where the computer enables connected</DIV>
<DIV>multimedia items in a manner which mimics human thought and</DIV>
<DIV>memory retrieval. My work continues along this premise and the</DIV>
<DIV>piece *Star Glass* is an exploration of the ideas of the</DIV>
<DIV>forerunner of contemporary Conceptual Art, Duchamp, in that it</DIV>
<DIV>transcodes the 'Large Glass' into a hypermedia art system.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><A name=5></A>
<DIV>STARGLASS</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Duchamp is the 'star', the StarGlass his constellation, the</DIV>
<DIV>StarGlass is a navigable star-chart of the 4D space of</DIV>
<DIV>electronic memory in 2D form. The memory is the hypermedia</DIV>
<DIV>database of the 'Large Glass' itself.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The hypermedia network - StarGlass - is not to be limited to</DIV>
<DIV>the connectivity defined by the creator, but must enable the</DIV>
<DIV>viewer to organise the exploration of the subject (Durham's</DIV>
<DIV>Glass) in a way that makes the most sense to them.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This is not an electronic book, or document, or encyclopaedia</DIV>
<DIV>emulation; there are no text and buttons in discrete blocks, no</DIV>
<DIV>'back', 'forward', 'next', 'quit'. It is night, we are asleep</DIV>
<DIV>and dreaming, we can indulge in the free-association of thought,</DIV>
<DIV>we are guided by the stars and the night sky.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Every star in the night sky is a node, all of Duchamp is in the</DIV>
<DIV>Glass, the StarGlass is made of star-nodes, the nodes are all of</DIV>
<DIV>Duchamp - notes, quotes, readymades, paintings/sketches,</DIV>
<DIV>preliminary models for his Glass elements, initial ideas for the</DIV>
<DIV>Glass, music...</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The StarGlass is a game-like piece, playful, intriguing,</DIV>
<DIV>talking to the individual, to you. The Glass is concerned with</DIV>
<DIV>interpretation with the formulation of 'meaning' derived from</DIV>
<DIV>the connection of thoughts and ideas into whole concepts.</DIV>
<DIV>Hypermedia allows for the linkage of interrelated, multi-media</DIV>
<DIV>ideas into a semantic network, a conceptual art work. It is the</DIV>
<DIV>perfect vehicle for the contemporary version of Duchamp's work,</DIV>
<DIV>which has much to offer to art practitioners in the new</DIV>
<DIV>millennium, it is the thought-net for a new consciousness.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>What factors influence our own understandings of concepts, our</DIV>
<DIV>own connections of associated items from which we extract</DIV>
<DIV>meanings? Are we influenced by our environment? Not just our</DIV>
<DIV>cultural and social environment, but also our physical, material</DIV>
<DIV>environment. Are we single elements linked into a global</DIV>
<DIV>network, part of a solar network, a universal network? Does the</DIV>
<DIV>association of planets at our moment of birth define our</DIV>
<DIV>position in the life network, dictate aspects of our</DIV>
<DIV>personality, affect our understandings of the life-net, our</DIV>
<DIV>consciousness, colour our choices and shape our interpretations.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>To find meaning in Duchamp's Glass, the StarGlass allows you as</DIV>
<DIV>viewer to select your own birth star sign of nodes and see what</DIV>
<DIV>meanings arise from this combination of astrological</DIV>
<DIV>determinings.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>StarGlass was created with the understanding that a way forward</DIV>
<DIV>for contemporary art practice is through the merging of</DIV>
<DIV>Conceptual Art and hypermedia technology. While showing this</DIV>
<DIV>work it is prudent to explain, in linear narrative form, its</DIV>
<DIV>reason for being as a non-linear art system. The linear</DIV>
<DIV>narrative exists, as distinct from the non-sequential narrative,</DIV>
<DIV>only in the telling. Stories are told orally in short strands of</DIV>
<DIV>linear recital, segmented and juxtapositioned for improved</DIV>
<DIV>telling by subsequent narrators. This is an essential process if</DIV>
<DIV>we are to continually engage and delight the listener but where</DIV>
<DIV>simultaneous events take place, how can they be told in linear</DIV>
<DIV>form? </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In oral storytelling the teller determines the linear sequence</DIV>
<DIV>of events, in a hypermedia system, the reader/viewer (listener)</DIV>
<DIV>takes this action. Hypermedia enables the viewer to connect</DIV>
<DIV>short strands of information in ways which make sense and give</DIV>
<DIV>meaning to the whole work be it a text story or a multimedia art</DIV>
<DIV>piece. StarGlass is a hypermedia art system, it has no</DIV>
<DIV>beginning, middle or end in the formal linear narrative sense,</DIV>
<DIV>instead it has an interface, the navigation of the system itself</DIV>
<DIV>and the option to 'quit' whenever. Much the same as viewing a</DIV>
<DIV>painting or the Large Glass itself, except that this Glass holds</DIV>
<DIV>all Duchamp's ideas, texts, images plus the enlightening</DIV>
<DIV>material from the boxes - as it was intended to be. The</DIV>
<DIV>interactive, non-directive method of engagement with StarGlass</DIV>
<DIV>makes the viewer work and think, it is neither a passive nor</DIV>
<DIV>easy task making sense of Duchamp.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Hypertext has developed in parallel with Conceptual Art, they</DIV>
<DIV>are both concerned with the linkage of associated ideas into</DIV>
<DIV>concepts, with the structuring of text items into meaningful</DIV>
<DIV>associations. Where hypertext has developed into hypermedia and</DIV>
<DIV>the connectivity of multimedia items by semantic association,</DIV>
<DIV>Conceptual Art has moved beyond discourse to incorporate</DIV>
<DIV>materials other than language. Contemporary art with a</DIV>
<DIV>conceptual base now incorporates cultural imagery and social</DIV>
<DIV>narrative resulting in works of great complexity. Hypermedia is</DIV>
<DIV>designed to manage complex systems in a web-like structure of</DIV>
<DIV>interrelated items with electronic memory mirroring human</DIV>
<DIV>memory. Arguably, the most complex piece of art to date has been</DIV>
<DIV>Duchamp's 'Large Glass' entitled *La Mariée mise à nu par ses</DIV>
<DIV>célibataires, même* or *The Bride stripped bare by her</DIV>
<DIV>bachelors, even*. This piece, together with its accompanying</DIV>
<DIV>'Green Box' of notes and later work *Étant Donnes*, is generally</DIV>
<DIV>regarded to be both the culmination and the summation of his</DIV>
<DIV>work, occupying his thoughts between 1912-1923 when he abandoned</DIV>
<DIV>it as finally unfinished leaving us with a seemingly</DIV>
<DIV>unfathomable puzzle.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Large Glass together with the boxes completes a corpus of</DIV>
<DIV>non-linear, semantically associated ideas ripe for transposing</DIV>
<DIV>into hypermedia. The Large Glass is the encasement of a plethora</DIV>
<DIV>of non-sequentially inter-connected ideas and the transposition</DIV>
<DIV>of these into a new media enables new readings of his work. When</DIV>
<DIV>seen as a whole entity his work is riddled with cross-references</DIV>
<DIV>and complex meanings generating different interpretations</DIV>
<DIV>through its blatant ambiguity. The Large Glass and its semantic</DIV>
<DIV>key, the Green Box, of 93 documents, sketches, calculations and</DIV>
<DIV>notes together contain a wealth of association links proffering</DIV>
<DIV>the conjunction of images and text ideal for hypermedia. The</DIV>
<DIV>'white box', "a l'infinitif", mostly refers to his thoughts on</DIV>
<DIV>the fourth dimension. Duchamp's work can be taken as a richly</DIV>
<DIV>endowed semantic network, which continues to inform contemporary</DIV>
<DIV>conceptual artists.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Large Glass was originally constructed in the form we know</DIV>
<DIV>early last century, this glass encasement of connected ideas was</DIV>
<DIV>the nearest Duchamp could get to his goal. The technology was</DIV>
<DIV>not sophisticated enough at that time to support his interest in</DIV>
<DIV>the 4th dimension. He wanted to portray his Bride in the 4th</DIV>
<DIV>dimension and began with painterly abstractions of the figure</DIV>
<DIV>culminating in the flatness of glass as a material nearing the</DIV>
<DIV>state of no thickness or 'inframince' and therefore acting as a</DIV>
<DIV>signifier to the 4th dimension. He replaced traditional (thick)</DIV>
<DIV>paint and canvas as tools for picture making and renounced</DIV>
<DIV>painting, declaring his Large Glass to be "a three-dimensional</DIV>
<DIV>physical medium in a fourth dimensional perspective" [15]. From</DIV>
<DIV>Duchamp's notes it would seem that his interest in the 4th</DIV>
<DIV>dimension was not aligned to the, then contemporary, 'relativity</DIV>
<DIV>theory' proposed by Einstein but to the idea that the 4th</DIV>
<DIV>dimension could be understood through geometry progressing from</DIV>
<DIV>the n-dimension and aligned to the mathematics of Poincaré.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>A single point has no (n) dimensions, two points define a line</DIV>
<DIV>and have one dimension, two lines create a plane and have two</DIV>
<DIV>dimensions, two planes create a volume or a three dimensional</DIV>
<DIV>space or object, so what do two volumes create? Duchamp</DIV>
<DIV>suggested that they should create a fourth dimensional space or</DIV>
<DIV>object. Western art has been traditionally concerned with 2D</DIV>
<DIV>representations of 3D spaces, Duchamp considered that if 2D</DIV>
<DIV>images could stand for a world of 3D objects it would follow</DIV>
<DIV>that 3D objects could represent things in a 4D world. He</DIV>
<DIV>conceived the Bride as a 3D representation of a 4D being, as a</DIV>
<DIV>"two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional bride who</DIV>
<DIV>herself would be the projection of a four-dimensional bride in</DIV>
<DIV>the three-dimensional world" [16]. Painters are 2D artists</DIV>
<DIV>working on a flat plane, sculptors are 3D artists working with</DIV>
<DIV>material objects in real space and now, in the 21st century, we</DIV>
<DIV>have digital artists working in the 4D of cyberspace concerned</DIV>
<DIV>with the virtual space/object incorporating time.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>As artists, technology is part of our everyday existence</DIV>
<DIV>whether we take a utopian or dystopian view on this, our view</DIV>
<DIV>may be the content of our practice, as also may be the</DIV>
<DIV>interrogation of the medium we choose to use. We may follow a</DIV>
<DIV>very Modernist practice of specificity, in this case new media</DIV>
<DIV>for 4D art, and we may then uphold the autonomy of art through</DIV>
<DIV>our engagement with new technologies and scientific advances. </DIV>
<DIV>We have to contend with the issues inherent in new media of</DIV>
<DIV>connectivity, narrativity, navigation, time, virtual/real space,</DIV>
<DIV>non-linearity… but also to deal with those current art issues of</DIV>
<DIV>content, meaning, presence, identity, gender, personality,</DIV>
<DIV>place, performativity, context, object…and to re-question the</DIV>
<DIV>meaning and function of art itself in this technocratic age of</DIV>
<DIV>21st century capitalism and culture. Altogether a very Techno-</DIV>
<DIV>Conceptual practice of which StarGlass is a prime example.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>REFERENCES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. C. Gere, *Digital Culture* (Reaktion Books Ltd., 2002).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>2. C. Paul, *Digital Art* (Thames & Hudson, 2003) p.7.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>3. E. Lucie-Smith, *art tomorrow* (Terrail, 2002) p.219.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>4. M. Lovejoy, "Art, Technology and Postmodernism: Paradigms,</DIV>
<DIV>Parallels, and Paradoxes", in *Art Journal*, Fall, 257 ff.(1990).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>5. L. Manovich, *The Language of New Media* (The MIT Press,</DIV>
<DIV>2001) p.9.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>6. M. Rush, *New Media in Late 20th-Century Art* (Thames &</DIV>
<DIV>Hudson, 1999) p.9.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>7. F. Popper, *Art of the Electronic Age* (Thames & Hudson,</DIV>
<DIV>1993).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>8. R. Greene, *Internet Art* (Thames & Hudson, 2004) p.19.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>9. J. Kosuth, "Art After Philosophy (parts I-III)", in *Studio</DIV>
<DIV>International*, 178, 9, pp.5-17 (1969).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>10. L. Manovich, *The Death of Computer Art*. </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www-apparitions.ucsd.edu/~manovich/text/death.html">http://www-apparitions.ucsd.edu/~manovich/text/death.html</A></DIV>
<DIV>(Last accessed March 2004)</DIV><BR>
<DIV>11. M. Rothko, "The Romantics Were Prompted", in *Theories of</DIV>
<DIV>Modern Art*, H B Chipp (Ed.), University of California Press</DIV>
<DIV>pp.548-9 (1968).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>12. E. Shanken, "Art in the Information Age", in *Conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>Art: Theory, Myth, and Practice*, M Corris. (Ed.) Cambridge</DIV>
<DIV>University Press pp.235-250 (2004).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>13. C. Tamblyn, "Computer Art as Conceptual Art", in *Art</DIV>
<DIV>Journal*, Fall, 253 ff. (1990).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>14. D. Harrison, *Hypermedia Systems: the Creation and</DIV>
<DIV>Interpretation of Concept-based Art*, CAiiA, University of Wales</DIV>
<DIV>(unpublished) (1998).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>15. M. Duchamp, *l'infinitif*, (The White Box) (1966).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>16. See [15].</DIV><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Dew Harrison (BA Fine Art, MA, MSc, Ph.D [CaiiA]) is a Research</DIV>
<DIV>Fellow at Gray's School of Art for the Robert Gordon University,</DIV>
<DIV>Scotland, where her research concerns digital and computer</DIV>
<DIV>mediated art practice. Prior to this she has lectured in</DIV>
<DIV>interactive art, multimedia and new media theory and was the</DIV>
<DIV>research fellow for the two yr AHRB funded project *Digital Art</DIV>
<DIV>Curation & Practice: Aesthetics, Participation & Diversity*</DIV>
<DIV>based at the University of the West of England. Her own practice</DIV>
<DIV>concerns the territory where contemporary conceptual art engages</DIV>
<DIV>with new media and presents non-linear narrative and the</DIV>
<DIV>semantic association of thought and idea in multimedia form. Her</DIV>
<DIV>work has been shown in the UK and abroad in Ireland, Spain,</DIV>
<DIV>Finland, Thailand, Singapore, America and Australia.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>She curates international online exhibitions such as the</DIV>
<DIV>*Net_Working* show with the Watershed Media Centre, Bristol and</DIV>
<DIV>works as a Director of PVA. MediaLab, an artist-led organisation</DIV>
<DIV>which initiates and supports good practice in new media art, now</DIV>
<DIV>renowned for its *Labculture Ltd* Residency Programme. Her</DIV>
<DIV>papers have been published and presented at conferences as</DIV>
<DIV>diverse as Art History, Museology and Consciousness Studies, and</DIV>
<DIV>she continues to lecture, mentor artists and supervise Ph.D</DIV>
<DIV>students in the field of computer-mediated art.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV><BR><A name=6></A>
<DIV>VIRTUAL CAMPUS OF NTU</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Virtual Campus of NTU is a shared virtual world built with</DIV>
<DIV>Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) [1] and blaxxun contact</DIV>
<DIV>communication platform [2]. It is a virtual model of the real</DIV>
<DIV>campus of Nanyang Technological University [3]. It is also a</DIV>
<DIV>great multi-media space for cyber-education. The whole Virtual</DIV>
<DIV>Campus (Figure 1) including VRML models of the land, buildings,</DIV>
<DIV>interiors, avatars and textures images is stored in only about</DIV>
<DIV>15 Mb of files and can be accessed from any Internet-connected</DIV>
<DIV>personal computer [4]. In this cyberspace, visitors can turn</DIV>
<DIV>themselves into virtually anything. Some choose to look like</DIV>
<DIV>fancy-dressed people, some turn themselves into sports cars, and</DIV>
<DIV>some appear as sparkling clouds or fire-balls.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Many visitors to the Virtual Campus are computer graphics</DIV>
<DIV>students, who either play virtual "hide-and-seek" with their</DIV>
<DIV>professor, or come to study concepts of virtual reality and</DIV>
<DIV>shape modeling. There are also strangers from around the world</DIV>
<DIV>meeting together on this hospitable land. Local students easily</DIV>
<DIV>navigate the familiar 3D environment, go to their favorite</DIV>
<DIV>places, or meet with friends in their hostel rooms. Foreign</DIV>
<DIV>guests usually just wander around and chat, astonished by the</DIV>
<DIV>size of what is probably the biggest shared cyberspace of this</DIV>
<DIV>kind. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>There are dusks and dawns in this cyberspace, which follow</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore time, but the Virtual Campus never sleeps. Many bots</DIV>
<DIV>(robots) populate it. These are avatars of students and</DIV>
<DIV>professors who walk back and forth between lecture theatres,</DIV>
<DIV>libraries, and student hostels. There are also birds hovering in</DIV>
<DIV>the sky and cars moving on the roads. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The bots are programmed to behave realistically for the</DIV>
<DIV>visitors. Some of these activities are stochastic, and some</DIV>
<DIV>follow the real class time-tables. The first bot, which the</DIV>
<DIV>visitors meet, will greet them immediately upon arrival and</DIV>
<DIV>invite them to chat with him. This bot is an avatar of one of</DIV>
<DIV>the project students who contributed alot to the Virtual Campus.</DIV>
<DIV>The "brain" of this bot is developed using AIML language and</DIV>
<DIV>ALICE files [5], and computer graphics terms from [6]. There are</DIV>
<DIV>also a few other bots wandering around. They are also "clones"</DIV>
<DIV>of the former project students. In fact, each of the project</DIV>
<DIV>students has a personal avatar copy in the Virtual Campus.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Virtual Campus is not only for walking through and seeing other</DIV>
<DIV>avatars or bots. The visitors can talk to them. Blaxxun Contact</DIV>
<DIV>provides the communication platform for it. It also allows for</DIV>
<DIV>text-to-voice synthesis so that the visitors can hear your</DIV>
<DIV>computer-simulated voice as well as voices of other visitors.</DIV>
<DIV>These chats may involve all the visitors or can be organized</DIV>
<DIV>into private chat groups.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Virtual Campus is a place for research on crowd simulation and</DIV>
<DIV>shared cyberspaces. Its content changes frequently. You can come</DIV>
<DIV>across an avatar, which is in fact a bot, and it will take time</DIV>
<DIV>before you understand it. Sometimes it may be a real person</DIV>
<DIV>disguised as a bot to test human reaction on some avatar</DIV>
<DIV>activities to be programmed. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>CYBER-LEARNING ON THE VIRTUAL CAMPUS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Electronic education is one of the priority directions at NTU.</DIV>
<DIV>The University's e-learning platform edveNTUre is based on the</DIV>
<DIV>BlackBoard software and several other companion software tools</DIV>
<DIV>[7]. It is widely used by the NTU professors to enhance their</DIV>
<DIV>lectures and achieve personal mentoring of the students. Since</DIV>
<DIV>its introduction in 2001, edveNTUre has developed from a rather</DIV>
<DIV>exotic way of publishing lecture materials and occasional visits</DIV>
<DIV>by the students to the present time when it has become a</DIV>
<DIV>necessary and very important part of each course with hundreds</DIV>
<DIV>of visits each day. Besides teaching materials such as lecture</DIV>
<DIV>notes, slides, streaming audio/video presentations, and extra</DIV>
<DIV>materials, it can be used for setting up on-line quizzes,</DIV>
<DIV>discussion groups, and uploading assignments. However, edveNTUre</DIV>
<DIV>rather gives a "two-dimensional look" of the teaching process</DIV>
<DIV>being based on html web pages. In contrast and in addition to</DIV>
<DIV>it, on the Virtual Campus NTU professors are able to meet with</DIV>
<DIV>their students in virtual 3D classrooms, "see" and communicate</DIV>
<DIV>with each other, and so add more immersion and fun to education.</DIV>
<DIV>Besides that, distant overseas students get a feeling of really</DIV>
<DIV>being on the campus. Many features available in edveNTUre are</DIV>
<DIV>also available on the Virtual Campus. Thus, some of the virtual</DIV>
<DIV>lecture theatres and other places are linked to streaming</DIV>
<DIV>multimedia presentations of current and pre-recorded lectures</DIV>
<DIV>and events.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Of course Virtual Campus is a learning tool for computer</DIV>
<DIV>graphics students illustrating to them theoretical concepts of</DIV>
<DIV>virtual reality, real time rendering and shape modeling. It is</DIV>
<DIV>used during lectures, as well as after classes for</DIV>
<DIV>consultations. One of the student assignments is *Implicit</DIV>
<DIV>Fantasies*, which is to design sophisticated shapes using</DIV>
<DIV>implicit functions and to make them available in their virtual</DIV>
<DIV>homes in the Virtual Campus. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>COLLABORATIVE SHAPE MODELING HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Another cyber-learning activity on the Virtual Campus is the</DIV>
<DIV>*Collaborative Shape Modeling Hands-On Experience*. This is a</DIV>
<DIV>part of the curriculum for the students taking the "Computer</DIV>
<DIV>Graphics and Application" course. The virtual laboratory where</DIV>
<DIV>this hands-on shape modeling experience is running can be</DIV>
<DIV>entered either from the lobby of the School of Computer</DIV>
<DIV>Engineering of the Virtual Campus or by a direct link. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Before going there, the visitors have to install a small</DIV>
<DIV>software plug-in. This plug-in is an extension of VRML, which</DIV>
<DIV>allows for defining geometric shapes with analytical formulas.</DIV>
<DIV>By "formulas" we understand analytical definitions with</DIV>
<DIV>*parametric*, *implicit* [8], and explicit [9] functions. All</DIV>
<DIV>these formulas are functions of three coordinates, which are</DIV>
<DIV>either parametric or Cartesian coordinates of 3D shapes. These</DIV>
<DIV>different representations are usually not used together in</DIV>
<DIV>computer graphics. With our plug-in, they can be used</DIV>
<DIV>concurrently for defining geometry and appearance of shapes. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The shape's geometry can be defined by some geometric shape and</DIV>
<DIV>its geometric texture, each defined by analytical functions. The</DIV>
<DIV>appearance of the shape can be defined by either function-</DIV>
<DIV>defined or fixed colors. Similarly to the shape's geometry,</DIV>
<DIV>parametric, implicit or explicit functions can be used for</DIV>
<DIV>defining the shape's color on its surface and inside it. This</DIV>
<DIV>approach helps the students to easier understand the concepts of</DIV>
<DIV>function based shape modeling. Also, the synergy of using the</DIV>
<DIV>three different types of functions results in the advance</DIV>
<DIV>quality and efficient solutions, which are impossible to achieve</DIV>
<DIV>when these representations are used on their own. The</DIV>
<DIV>theoretical foundations and further details of this approach can</DIV>
<DIV>be found in [10-11], as well as in the project web pages [12-13].</DIV><BR>
<DIV>After the plug-in is installed, besides the regular VRML</DIV>
<DIV>objects, function-defined shapes will become visible as well.</DIV>
<DIV>There will be one big shape hovering in the middle of the room,</DIV>
<DIV>as well as a few smaller fancy shapes displayed in different</DIV>
<DIV>parts of the room (FIGURE 2). The big shape is the one that the</DIV>
<DIV>visitors can interactively modify. The smaller function-defined</DIV>
<DIV>shapes are examples of the best works created in the previous</DIV>
<DIV>sessions. The function-defined shapes can be placed to other</DIV>
<DIV>part of the Virtual Campus, e.g. to the virtual shopping mall</DIV>
<DIV>where the visitors can get them for their virtual homes.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Several visitors may discuss the design in the chat box, type</DIV>
<DIV>individual shape modeling commands, command scripts, or provide</DIV>
<DIV>links to their off-line designs, and immediately see how the</DIV>
<DIV>shape changes accordingly. The VRML description of the shape</DIV>
<DIV>being modeled can be displayed at any time and this shared among</DIV>
<DIV>the visitors.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Besides this method of manual editing analytical formulas with</DIV>
<DIV>an immediate visual feedback, more complex function-based shape</DIV>
<DIV>modeling can be done with the interactive shape modeling program</DIV>
<DIV>developed for this project. The screenshot of the modeling</DIV>
<DIV>session with this tool is shown in FIGURE 3. The program offers</DIV>
<DIV>an advanced set of interactive operations such as cutting,</DIV>
<DIV>sculpting, embossing, engraving, and carving. It also allows for</DIV>
<DIV>interactive painting both on the surface and inside the object.</DIV>
<DIV>The colors become an integral part of the function-based model</DIV>
<DIV>of the shape. As a result, the program allows for making</DIV>
<DIV>realistically looking shapes, which are defined with very small</DIV>
<DIV>function-defined models while can be rendered with any desired</DIV>
<DIV>precision. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The initial basic shape for modeling can be either defined</DIV>
<DIV>analytically, or created interactively with simple basic shapes.</DIV>
<DIV>The initial shape is then gradually modified by applying</DIV>
<DIV>different interactive shape modeling and painting operations.</DIV>
<DIV>The result of the modeling can be either saved in the</DIV>
<DIV>proprietary function-based data format or in the function-based</DIV>
<DIV>VRML code for further use in the Collaborative Shape Modeling</DIV>
<DIV>Hands-On Experience or in other shared virtual worlds.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Besides this cyber-learning application, function-based model</DIV>
<DIV>extensions are used for making parts of other shared VRML</DIV>
<DIV>worlds, with or without interactive features. The same formulae</DIV>
<DIV>can be re-used with little modification for defining the</DIV>
<DIV>geometries, the 3D textures, the transform operations and the</DIV>
<DIV>appearances. The examples of this can be seen at the project's</DIV>
<DIV>web page [12]. Since each shape is in fact defined by only</DIV>
<DIV>several analytical formulae, these formulae can easily be edited</DIV>
<DIV>and exchanged when building shared virtual worlds. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>NEW FRONTIERS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The construction of the Virtual Campus never ends, just as it</DIV>
<DIV>never ends on the real campus of NTU, which keeps expanding,</DIV>
<DIV>renovating and upgrading constantly. Since the size of the model</DIV>
<DIV>cannot be increased above a certain level currently acceptable</DIV>
<DIV>for web visualization, Virtual Campus is expanding non-linearly.</DIV>
<DIV>It is in fact a meta-cyberworld now, which consists of many</DIV>
<DIV>smaller "parallel" shared cyberworlds. Each university school</DIV>
<DIV>and student hall of residence has its own model and respective</DIV>
<DIV>communication space. When you enter or leave these worlds, it</DIV>
<DIV>looks like you are still in the same virtual environment,</DIV>
<DIV>however these smaller worlds are different cyberspaces, which</DIV>
<DIV>may be even physically located on different servers. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Function-based web visualization is another way of expanding</DIV>
<DIV>the Virtual Campus. Many large VRML models, which require a big</DIV>
<DIV>number of polygons, will be replaced with compact function-based</DIV>
<DIV>models where shapes and their appearances are defined with small</DIV>
<DIV>parametric and implicit formulae. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>* IMAGES ACCOMPANYING THIS ARTICLE CAN BE SEEN AT THE LEA</DIV>
<DIV>WEBSITE: <<A href="http://lea.mit.edu/">http://lea.mit.edu</A>></DIV><BR>
<DIV>REFERENCES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. VRML specification</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.web3d.org/x3d/specifications/vrml">http://www.web3d.org/x3d/specifications/vrml</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>2. Blaxxun Contact <A href="http://www.blaxxun.com/">http://www.blaxxun.com</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>3. NTU website <A href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">http://www.ntu.edu.sg</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>4. Virtual Campus of NTU</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assourin/vircampus.html">http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assourin/vircampus.html</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>5. ALICE Artificial Intelligence foundation</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.alicebot.org/">http://www.alicebot.org</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>6. Alexei Sourin, *Computer Graphics. From a Small Formula to</DIV>
<DIV>Virtual Worlds* (Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2004).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>7. EdveNTUre <A href="http://edventure.ntu.edu.sg/">http://edventure.ntu.edu.sg</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>8.<X-TAB> </X-TAB>J. Bloomenthal, J. (ed.) *Introduction to Implicit Surfaces*</DIV>
<DIV>(Morgan Kaufmann, 1997).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>9. A.A. Pasko, V.D. Adzhiev, A.I. Sourin, V.V. Savchenko,</DIV>
<DIV>"Function Representation in Geometric Modeling: Concepts,</DIV>
<DIV>implementations and applications", *The Visual Computer*,</DIV>
<DIV>Vol.11, 8, 1995, pp. 429-446.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>10. Q. Liu, A. Sourin, Analytically-defined Collaborative Shape</DIV>
<DIV>Modeling in VRML. 2004 International Conference on Cyberworlds,</DIV>
<DIV>IEEE CS Press, pp. 70-77 (2004).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>11. K. Levinski, A. Sourin, Interactive Function-Based Shape</DIV>
<DIV>Modeling for Cyberworlds, International Conference on</DIV>
<DIV>Cyberworlds, IEEE CS Press, pp. 54-61 (2004).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>12. Function-based Web Visualization</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assourin/FVRML.htm">http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assourin/FVRML.htm</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>13. Interactive Function-based Shape Modeling</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assourin/Intshape.html">http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assourin/Intshape.html</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>DR. ALEXEI SOURIN is an Associate Professor in the School of</DIV>
<DIV>Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University,</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer</DIV>
<DIV>Science (Computer Graphics) from the Moscow Engineering Physics</DIV>
<DIV>Institute in 1983 and 1988 respectively. From 1983 to 1993 he</DIV>
<DIV>worked at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and since</DIV>
<DIV>1993 he is an academic staff of the Nanyang Technological</DIV>
<DIV>University. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society and ACM</DIV>
<DIV>SIGGRAPH. His research interests include computer graphics,</DIV>
<DIV>shared virtual environments, shape modeling, and web</DIV>
<DIV>visualization. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>KONSTANTIN LEVINSKI is a research student with the School of</DIV>
<DIV>Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University,</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore. He received his B.Sc. in computer science from Moscow</DIV>
<DIV>Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia. His Ph.D. project</DIV>
<DIV>is *Interactive Function-based Shape Modeling*.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>QI LIU is a research student with the School of Computer</DIV>
<DIV>Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He</DIV>
<DIV>received his B.Sc. in computer science and engineering from</DIV>
<DIV>Fudan University, Shanghai, China. His Ph.D. project is</DIV>
<DIV>*Function-based Web Visualization*.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV><A name=7></A>
<DIV>ASTRAL TRAVEL IN VIRTUAL REALMS: EVALUATING CONCEPTUAL</DIV>
<DIV>UNDERSTANDING IN DIGITAL RECONSTRUCTIONS OF PAST CULTURES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Erik Malcolm Champion</DIV>
<DIV>Information Environments Program, ITEE</DIV>
<DIV>University of Queensland Australia QLD 4072</DIV>
<DIV>erikc [@] itee [dot] uq [dot] edu [dot] au </DIV><BR>
<DIV>KEYWORDS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>virtual travel, cultural learning, virtual environments,</DIV>
<DIV>evaluation</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ABSTRACT</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Attempts to provide for the intangible goals and benefits of</DIV>
<DIV>real world travel has seldom been addressed or discussed in</DIV>
<DIV>virtual environment research. This paper discusses the case</DIV>
<DIV>study of an ancient Mayan site, Palenque, to suggest ways of</DIV>
<DIV>creating a platform conducive to cultural learning using virtual</DIV>
<DIV>environment technology.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>Figure 1: Case study Travel Environment: A Mayan Village</DIV>
<DIV>('Milpas')</DIV><BR>
<DIV>INTRODUCTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Why develop virtual environments? Although they have their</DIV>
<DIV>critics, especially for online learning [1], it can be argued</DIV>
<DIV>that Virtual Environments have been used successfully for</DIV>
<DIV>distance learning, for simulation, entertainment, medicine and</DIV>
<DIV>education [2].</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Marsh Wright and Smith [3] define four general types of Virtual</DIV>
<DIV>Reality environments (VR): work-related; informative; education</DIV>
<DIV>and training; and entertainment. Extrapolating from this and</DIV>
<DIV>Schroeder [4], virtual environments appear useful for the</DIV>
<DIV>following: </DIV><BR>
<DIV>- By promoting technology for the sake of technology (product</DIV>
<DIV>showcases). Various examples are on the websites of Shout3d,</DIV>
<DIV>Pulse3d, Adobe Atmosphere, Wild Tangent, Blaxxun, MindAxel, etc.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>- Through enhancing motor-coordination and related physical</DIV>
<DIV>skill, especially in games. Some of the best examples of</DIV>
<DIV>Macromedia's Director Studio 8.5 are the three-dimensional</DIV>
<DIV>shooter games.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>- By synergising learning through the use of various</DIV>
<DIV>multimedia, for example, Alias Wavefront's Maya has been used to</DIV>
<DIV>create models of the human heart in action, as well as show how</DIV>
<DIV>to service a car's engine.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>- By preserving cultural artefacts via a three or even four-</DIV>
<DIV>dimensional record of history. For example, UNESCO's World</DIV>
<DIV>Heritage Site and the Virtual Heritage Society's site.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>- In presenting ideas objects or techniques difficult to</DIV>
<DIV>perceive or conceive of in real-world form, or in conventional</DIV>
<DIV>media. This can range from Japanese timber construction details</DIV>
<DIV>to electric waves transmitted through the human brain or even</DIV>
<DIV>the formation of stars.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>- By extending the perceptual experience or perceptual</DIV>
<DIV>boundaries of observers. Various environmental art 'happenings'</DIV>
<DIV>have been around for decades. A multimedia cinema was proposed</DIV>
<DIV>as early as the 1950s.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>- And by engendering social discussion in multi-user chat</DIV>
<DIV>worlds like Activeworlds, Outerworlds, Vnet, Cybertown, Blaxxun</DIV>
<DIV>communities, iCity, and Galaxy Worlds.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Hence, if successful examples exist, why continue to research</DIV>
<DIV>at a conceptual level rather than gradually improve on</DIV>
<DIV>successful existing case studies? I suggest that one potentially</DIV>
<DIV>profitable and useful purpose regularly overlooked is also the</DIV>
<DIV>one that appears to be catered for at as a rudimentary</DIV>
<DIV>requirement of virtual environments. That is, virtual travel.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LIVING IN REALITY REQUIRES MORE THAN A COMPASS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>There are many research papers on the issues of virtual</DIV>
<DIV>navigation, orientation, and wayfinding. There are also many</DIV>
<DIV>websites that purport to offer virtual travel or virtual</DIV>
<DIV>tourism. However, what they offer are generally static or moving</DIV>
<DIV>pictures of foreign places, set music clips, information on</DIV>
<DIV>timetables and prices, or at most, 360 degree panoramic images</DIV>
<DIV>that are interactive insofar as one can spin the camera around,</DIV>
<DIV>and zoom in and out of the panorama.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Orientation and wayfinding are important functional elements of</DIV>
<DIV>travel information, but they are not the important components of</DIV>
<DIV>travel experience. To enrich and encourage our understanding of</DIV>
<DIV>a certain place, we need to gain a conceptual understanding of</DIV>
<DIV>which elements (people, activities, events and objects) make it</DIV>
<DIV>a significant and unique place. Only when tourists are intrigued</DIV>
<DIV>by the prospect of travelling in and to a place (the 'travel</DIV>
<DIV>experience') are they then interested in 'travel information'. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>BEING NOT-THERE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>A sense of being engaged with different local cultural</DIV>
<DIV>perspectives is not always possible as a real-time tourist.</DIV>
<DIV>Further, sometimes we wish to understand people who live far</DIV>
<DIV>away or in distant times, not easily accessible to us. Virtual</DIV>
<DIV>heritage monuments are now being overrun, the Lonely Planet</DIV>
<DIV>guide of South America actually suggests that tourists do NOT</DIV>
<DIV>visit Machu Picchu. Many ruins are bereft of their artefacts,</DIV>
<DIV>which sit forlornly in the museums of past colonial powers. In</DIV>
<DIV>that respect, Internet media may prove more immersive, useful</DIV>
<DIV>and educational than actually standing at site where history</DIV>
<DIV>once took place.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In this interpretative sense it may in fact be even more</DIV>
<DIV>educational, as it can rely on asynchronous multimodal data.</DIV>
<DIV>Virtual travel can also help lessen the impact of tourist</DIV>
<DIV>erosion, the cost and fear of travelling, and help reach and</DIV>
<DIV>educate the growing potential market of people who for whatever</DIV>
<DIV>reason cannot leave the house. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Digitally mediated technology can attempt to reproduce existing</DIV>
<DIV>data (archaeological impressions, extant ruins, the original</DIV>
<DIV>condition of found artefacts, even typical weather patterns) but</DIV>
<DIV>they can also make more or less accessible and more or less</DIV>
<DIV>contextual (i.e., augment, filter, constrain or optimise) the</DIV>
<DIV>user-experience. Virtual travel may not be like "being there";</DIV>
<DIV>it may offer more, "being Not-there". That is, it provides us</DIV>
<DIV>with a portal into what could have been, not what still is. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The capability for integration of the real and the conjectural</DIV>
<DIV>as well as synchronous and asynchronous data into conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>user-specific information suggests that virtual environments may</DIV>
<DIV>augment extends and "ground" (i.e. geographically and</DIV>
<DIV>historically orient and contextualise) real-world travel and</DIV>
<DIV>tourism experiences rather than merely emulate them. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>"...researchers and commentators have not yet begun to grapple</DIV>
<DIV>with the question: What does it actually mean to describe</DIV>
<DIV>something as *virtually* real? It is my contention that until</DIV>
<DIV>they do the unique potential VR has to change the way we</DIV>
<DIV>approach, study and think about the physical world will not be</DIV>
<DIV>fully exploited." [5].</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In augmenting real-world travel, successful virtual travel and</DIV>
<DIV>heritage environments should then attempt to augment or extend</DIV>
<DIV>reality. Through following contextual engagement rather than</DIV>
<DIV>realism, they can allow people to travel across time and space</DIV>
<DIV>in a way not possible in current reality in order to view what</DIV>
<DIV>used to be there as opposed to what remains. One can experience</DIV>
<DIV>first-hand important historical events as they relate to</DIV>
<DIV>artefacts peoples and places as well as the full dramatic range</DIV>
<DIV>of climate and topography not often possible to short-term</DIV>
<DIV>visitors.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Unfortunately there is a shortage of research integrating</DIV>
<DIV>theory and practice on how best to augment or invoke the user-</DIV>
<DIV>experience of place via digital media. Concentrating on</DIV>
<DIV>achieving photo-realism rather than understanding the unique</DIV>
<DIV>capabilities for digital media to enrich the user-experience,</DIV>
<DIV>means there are significant contextual questions still to be</DIV>
<DIV>answered [6]. For example, we currently have little evidence as</DIV>
<DIV>to whether virtual travel environments can afford useful and</DIV>
<DIV>unique ways for augmenting and evoking awareness and</DIV>
<DIV>understanding of distant places and foreign cultures. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Hence the need to evaluate the learning experiences possible</DIV>
<DIV>through virtual environments, through their ability to augment</DIV>
<DIV>narrative, conjecture, computer generated objects, real-time</DIV>
<DIV>dynamic data, and user-based feedback; and not just through</DIV>
<DIV>their ability to reproduce elements of the real-world.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Perhaps virtual representations cannot compete with actually</DIV>
<DIV>visiting the site, but the point is surely whether such projects</DIV>
<DIV>have a valid purpose and fit an important need, not whether they</DIV>
<DIV>mirror reality. In fact, if we wish to understand how ancient</DIV>
<DIV>people thought, believed and acted, we need a non-realistic</DIV>
<DIV>world to understand them and their beliefs. They saw and</DIV>
<DIV>imagined and related to things in a way a Westerner will not</DIV>
<DIV>understand by merely travelling to the current remains of their</DIV>
<DIV>past abode. In this sense virtual reality can augment rather</DIV>
<DIV>than compete with reality.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>POTENTIAL SOLUTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>I believe that certain criticisms of the technology and use of</DIV>
<DIV>virtual environments have been indirectly addressed by</DIV>
<DIV>entertainment software design [7]. Perhaps applying mechanisms</DIV>
<DIV>used in games (social agents, maps, dynamic environments, levels</DIV>
<DIV>of interaction constraint, and task-based artefactual use) to</DIV>
<DIV>virtual environments will lead to increased engagement.</DIV>
<DIV>Modifying game-style interaction to suit the virtual</DIV>
<DIV>reconstruction of a cultural site may also allow for a more</DIV>
<DIV>culturally immersive learning environment. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>However the above proposal raises serious problems in designing</DIV>
<DIV>virtual environments that in some way depict the values of past</DIV>
<DIV>cultures or exotic places. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. Place versus Cyberspace: What creates a sensation of place</DIV>
<DIV>(as a cultural site) in a virtual environment in</DIV>
<DIV>contradistinction to a sensation of a virtual environment as a</DIV>
<DIV>collection of objects and spaces?</DIV><BR>
<DIV>2. Cultural Presence versus Social Presence and Presence: Which</DIV>
<DIV>factors help immerse people spatially and thematically into a</DIV>
<DIV>cultural learning experience? Virtual Presence has been defined</DIV>
<DIV>as 'being-there'. Is Presence in a Virtual Heritage Environment</DIV>
<DIV>a sense of being 'there' or being 'somewhere other than here'?</DIV>
<DIV>Do we even fully understand what 'being' means in this context?</DIV><BR>
<DIV>3. Realism versus Interpretation: Does an attempt to perfect</DIV>
<DIV>fidelity to sources and to realism improve or hinder the</DIV>
<DIV>cultural learning experience?</DIV><BR>
<DIV>4. Education versus Entertainment: Does an attempt to make the</DIV>
<DIV>experience engaging improve or hinder the cultural learning</DIV>
<DIV>experience? </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The first problem is what cultural elements of a place are</DIV>
<DIV>missing from virtual environments. Merely creating a</DIV>
<DIV>reconstruction of a cultural site does not mean that one is</DIV>
<DIV>creating a platform for understanding and transmitting locally</DIV>
<DIV>specific cultural knowledge. We need to understand what</DIV>
<DIV>distinguishes a cultural site from another site; and what are</DIV>
<DIV>the features of place as a site of cultural learning. A game can</DIV>
<DIV>create a background, an atmospheric setting, but that does not</DIV>
<DIV>mean a background is a genuine place, imbued with cultural</DIV>
<DIV>significance.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The second problem is how to create an appropriate feeling of</DIV>
<DIV>immersion or of presence in a virtual environment -how we make</DIV>
<DIV>the past come alive for people so that they feel they are</DIV>
<DIV>transported 'there'. This has often been seen as a technical</DIV>
<DIV>constraint to render realistic virtual scenes, (due to the speed</DIV>
<DIV>of the Internet or network connection, limited processing power</DIV>
<DIV>or the computer's capacity to render a large number of objects</DIV>
<DIV>on the screen in real-time). This paper by contrast, proposes</DIV>
<DIV>designers foster engagement not purely through realism but also</DIV>
<DIV>through contextually appropriate interaction.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Culture understood from the distance of a hotel or guidebook is</DIV>
<DIV>obviously not the same as the dominant culture that guides</DIV>
<DIV>constrains and nourishes a local inhabitant. Yet even a virtual</DIV>
<DIV>traveler is not the same as a virtual tourist. Despite or</DIV>
<DIV>perhaps because they have a goal to solve, and have more</DIV>
<DIV>constraints and more direct immersion in the local way of doing</DIV>
<DIV>things, people who travel rather than tour arguably have richer</DIV>
<DIV>and more interesting experiences.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Tourists want to share cultural perceptions and learn through</DIV>
<DIV>doing, being told, observing, and asking. In a virtual travel</DIV>
<DIV>environment visitors want to be able to travel through time and</DIV>
<DIV>space, to explore. Tourism can lead to non-interaction, to being</DIV>
<DIV>hermetically sealed in a sterile 'they lived like this'</DIV>
<DIV>environment. Culture becomes high culture. It becomes non-</DIV>
<DIV>invasive, non-impressive.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the role of virtual heritage and virtual tourism, people</DIV>
<DIV>want to feel engaged in the activity, enjoy the spectacle, feel</DIV>
<DIV>the pressure of time, (the relative cultural idea of time-</DIV>
<DIV>place), and understand the 'embedded' meaning of local cultural</DIV>
<DIV>activity based on artefacts. In a virtual travel environment one</DIV>
<DIV>may want to be able to travel through time and space, to</DIV>
<DIV>explore, and to interact with people, objects, and local goals. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Thirdly, our idea of what reality is may be at odds with</DIV>
<DIV>understanding the past or a distant place from a local</DIV>
<DIV>perspective. What does reality mean when we are trying to</DIV>
<DIV>recreate and understand cultural perspectives? To what extend</DIV>
<DIV>should our concept of reality be jettisoned or adhered to? </DIV><BR>
<DIV>It is possible that attempting to create contextual affordances</DIV>
<DIV>and constraints will create too heavy a cognitive load on the</DIV>
<DIV>virtual traveller, or require a high degree of skill and a large</DIV>
<DIV>amount of time immersed in a virtual environment. Is it useful,</DIV>
<DIV>desirable or even possible to interact with digital</DIV>
<DIV>reconstructions of different cultures in a meaningful way? Could</DIV>
<DIV>interaction actually interfere with the learning process?</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Fourthly, if we do manage to create an engaging and believable</DIV>
<DIV>virtual environment, will the novelty or entertainment value</DIV>
<DIV>actually interfere with the cultural understanding gained by the</DIV>
<DIV>users? In virtual heritage environments this is particularly</DIV>
<DIV>evident in the conflict between individual freedom to explore</DIV>
<DIV>and the more pragmatic need to convey historical information. We</DIV>
<DIV>may for example create an entertaining game but will that allow</DIV>
<DIV>us to convey varying levels of historical accuracy in</DIV>
<DIV>reconstructing the past?</DIV><BR>
<DIV>CASE STUDY: PALENQUE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Such is the motivation for this research, cultural learning</DIV>
<DIV>experiences available via virtual travel environments. It</DIV>
<DIV>particularly attempts to isolate and evaluate the more effective</DIV>
<DIV>and preferable types of interactivity and interactive elements</DIV>
<DIV>available to three dimensional virtual heritage environments.</DIV>
<DIV>The chosen site is the Classical Mayan city of Lakam Ha in</DIV>
<DIV>Palenque Mexico, and the great majority of the artefacts of that</DIV>
<DIV>city of inscriptions are simply no longer there. However the</DIV>
<DIV>Internet can bring the landscape, the buildings, the artefacts,</DIV>
<DIV>reasonably accurate reconstructions of the native music,</DIV>
<DIV>representative animated avatars of the people, and past</DIV>
<DIV>historical and environmental conditions all together in one</DIV>
<DIV>multimodal interactive gestalt. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the case study, there are three different interaction modes.</DIV>
<DIV>One mode is action-based, and the participants had to push back</DIV>
<DIV>slabs to find the hidden tomb (this was actually what happened</DIV>
<DIV>in the discovery of the Tomb of Pakal under the Temple of</DIV>
<DIV>Inscriptions). If they managed to push back the sarcophagus lid</DIV>
<DIV>of Pakal when they reached the tomb, a portal appeared that took</DIV>
<DIV>them to a reconstruction of Palenque's Ballcourt (the Mayan</DIV>
<DIV>Ballcourt symbolized war, life and death, the growth of maize,</DIV>
<DIV>and the victory of the Mayan ancestors over the Lords of the</DIV>
<DIV>Underworld, Xibalba). </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The second mode was observation-based only, and participants</DIV>
<DIV>were asked to find artefacts located in the large and</DIV>
<DIV>navigationally confusing Palace. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the third mode, the three major temples of the Cross Group</DIV>
<DIV>had scripted guides, representing a Mexican tour guide, King</DIV>
<DIV>Pakal, and his son. Their movements and speech were proximity-</DIV>
<DIV>based, and they got angry or fell over if participants ran into</DIV>
<DIV>them. The goal was also to click and read information relating</DIV>
<DIV>to the giant inscripted tablets in each of the Temples. At the</DIV>
<DIV>end of the experiment people were asked to answer six questions</DIV>
<DIV>for each interaction mode, to see if they had learnt and were</DIV>
<DIV>able to extrapolate information from what they had seen.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Evaluations were conducted using a first year archaeology class</DIV>
<DIV>of 43 students, and in the second stage, 24 more experienced</DIV>
<DIV>participants who were either virtual environment designers or</DIV>
<DIV>cultural historians with an interest in virtual heritage. In the</DIV>
<DIV>third stage 10 IT-experienced people from Lonely Planet</DIV>
<DIV>Publications (a travel publications company with a strong web-</DIV>
<DIV>based presence), were tested. I also created four more</DIV>
<DIV>imaginative and less authentic 'worlds' based on the cultural</DIV>
<DIV>perspectives of the ancient Mayans in Palenque, Mexico. As part</DIV>
<DIV>of the evaluation, participants were asked to rank the</DIV>
<DIV>imaginative worlds against the archaeological worlds in terms of</DIV>
<DIV>a range of 'presence' criteria. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the Mayan 'Primal Mountain' World, fog was used in one world</DIV>
<DIV>to convey a mythical setting and in the more archaeological</DIV>
<DIV>environments glare was used at regular intervals to indicate</DIV>
<DIV>where spiritually valuable artefacts were located. They were</DIV>
<DIV>asked to find the beginning of the world (the sacred Mayan Sky-</DIV>
<DIV>Tree) and click on it for information. They were then asked to</DIV>
<DIV>find any other people (there were two Mayan paddler gods</DIV>
<DIV>paddling around the mountain). They were also asked if they</DIV>
<DIV>noticed the mountain they were on was actually a giant crocodile</DIV>
<DIV>(the Mayans believed the world was created from a crack in the</DIV>
<DIV>back of a caiman or turtle). Not a single person said they had</DIV>
<DIV>noticed unless it was pointed out to them or they had fallen off</DIV>
<DIV>the mountain. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Figure 1: Mayan Primal Sea</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the Mayan Village world, a participant could select an</DIV>
<DIV>avatar that was either one of four Western-style backpacking</DIV>
<DIV>characters or an avatar in local Mayan dress. Photographs of</DIV>
<DIV>real people available via the Lonely Planet Images database were</DIV>
<DIV>mapped onto the face of the avatars. The Mayan avatars were also</DIV>
<DIV>sized appropriately (less than five feet tall) and only by</DIV>
<DIV>changing into that smaller avatar were participants able to</DIV>
<DIV>explore the interior of the Mayan huts. The aim was to find the</DIV>
<DIV>other participant by orientating their avatar via large Mayan</DIV>
<DIV>carvings in the jungle and then find the village using the</DIV>
<DIV>interface guides and the sound of music. If they walked straight</DIV>
<DIV>into trees, their avatar slowed down and cried out in pain.</DIV>
<DIV>Which objects they found and how quickly they found them was</DIV>
<DIV>also automatically recorded. Participants were asked at the end</DIV>
<DIV>the relative sizing of the avatars and the results are being</DIV>
<DIV>statistically compared to how well the participants answered</DIV>
<DIV>other questions.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the Mayan Cave world, when the avatar walks into the water,</DIV>
<DIV>they automatically start swimming under water, blue fog appears</DIV>
<DIV>and the sound of bubbling water drowns out the ambient Mayan</DIV>
<DIV>music. If the participant does not keep pressing the forward</DIV>
<DIV>arrow they slowly ascend back to the surface of the water. By</DIV>
<DIV>finding, collecting and then dropping artefacts at a hidden</DIV>
<DIV>shrine, a Mayan sky-snake appears and so does a portal that</DIV>
<DIV>takes them back to the start.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the Mayan Ballcourt world, each participant turned into a</DIV>
<DIV>Mayan ball player, and each was asked to try to get the rubber</DIV>
<DIV>ball to touch the hoop. If they did so, thunder and lighting</DIV>
<DIV>were triggered. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Participants were evaluated via inworld task performance, post-</DIV>
<DIV>experience cultural understanding (knowledge recall),</DIV>
<DIV>observation of time passed, speed of rendering, ranking of world</DIV>
<DIV>against certain cultural presence criteria, and environmental</DIV>
<DIV>observation. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the third evaluation the 10 Lonely Planet employees were</DIV>
<DIV>also asked which interaction mode they preferred for virtual</DIV>
<DIV>travel environments. Four preferred game-style environments,</DIV>
<DIV>four preferred exploration environments (where the visitor</DIV>
<DIV>wanders freely), and only one preferred guide-led environments,</DIV>
<DIV>and only one preferred a social chat-room style environment.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>CONCLUSION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Problems with currently available virtual environment</DIV>
<DIV>technology affect a sense of engagement in virtual heritage</DIV>
<DIV>projects. While virtual environments can be used to simulate</DIV>
<DIV>historically situated cultural perspectives, the issues of</DIV>
<DIV>place, presence, realism and education first need to be solved.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The research case mentioned in this paper concentrated on</DIV>
<DIV>evaluating which type of interactivity most aided cultural</DIV>
<DIV>awareness and engagement in a virtual travel environment, in</DIV>
<DIV>this case, a virtual heritage environment reconstruction of</DIV>
<DIV>Palenque in Mexico.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The research utilized five evaluation methods, and found</DIV>
<DIV>several methods produced undependable results, in particular</DIV>
<DIV>questionnaires, and post-experience multi-choice questions on</DIV>
<DIV>ability to extrapolate cultural learning. However, subjective</DIV>
<DIV>records of time passed and speed of environment (frame-rate)</DIV>
<DIV>compared to actual frame-rate, and actual time spent in world</DIV>
<DIV>does seem a promising way of measuring engagement.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Game-style interaction may also be intuitive for navigation and</DIV>
<DIV>task-performance, and reduce cognitive loading, but at the</DIV>
<DIV>expense of understanding cultural significance.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Further, and this was learnt from bitter experience, advanced</DIV>
<DIV>techniques that slow down the environment in order to create</DIV>
<DIV>more realistic effects may not be noticed by participants</DIV>
<DIV>engaged in solving tasks. In this case, the use of dynamic</DIV>
<DIV>lighting (dynamic shadows) may appear highly immersive to the</DIV>
<DIV>world designer, but have little or no effect on the actual</DIV>
<DIV>participant's sense of immersion.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>* IMAGES ACCOMPANYING THIS ARTICLE CAN BE SEEN AT THE LEA</DIV>
<DIV>WEBSITE: <<A href="http://lea.mit.edu/">http://lea.mit.edu</A>></DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>REFERENCES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. H. Dreyfus, *On the Internet* (London: Routledge, 2001). <X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV><BR>
<DIV>2. J. Nielsen, *2D is Better than 3D*, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox</DIV>
<DIV>for November 15 (1998). Online article, last viewed August 22,</DIV>
<DIV>2004. URL: <A href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/981115.html">http://www.useit.com/alertbox/981115.html</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>3. T. Marsh, P Wright, & S. Smith, "Evaluation for the design</DIV>
<DIV>of experience: Modelling breakdown of interaction and illusion,"</DIV>
<DIV>in Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn, Jonathan Freeman and Huib de Ridder</DIV>
<DIV>(Guest Editors), *CyberPsychology and Behavior* Vol. 4, issue 2,</DIV>
<DIV>pp.225-238 (2001).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>4. R. Schroeder, *Possible worlds: the social dynamic of</DIV>
<DIV>virtual reality technology* (Colorado: Westview Press, 1996). </DIV><BR>
<DIV>5. M. Gillings, "Virtual archaeologies and the hyper-real" in</DIV>
<DIV>P. Fisher and D. Unwin (editors) *Virtual Reality in Geography*</DIV>
<DIV>(London and New York: Taylor & Francis, 2002), p.17.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>6. E. Champion, "The Limits of Realism in Architectural</DIV>
<DIV>Visualisation," in *LIMITS XXIst annual conference of the</DIV>
<DIV>Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand*</DIV>
<DIV>(SAHANZ), Melbourne Australia, September (2004). </DIV><BR>
<DIV>7. E. Champion, "Applying Game Design Theory to Virtual</DIV>
<DIV>Heritage Environments," in *Grapphite2003, Melbourne.</DIV>
<DIV>Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Computer</DIV>
<DIV>graphics and interactive techniques in Australasia and South</DIV>
<DIV>East Asia* Melbourne, Australia, February (2003). URL:</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=604532">http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=604532</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Erik Champion is a lecturer in the Information Environments</DIV>
<DIV>Program at the University of Queensland. This paper is from his</DIV>
<DIV>doctoral research while at the University of Melbourne on an</DIV>
<DIV>Australian Research Council Scholarship. Lonely Planet was the</DIV>
<DIV>industry sponsor. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Upcoming publications include two articles in the *Encyclopedia</DIV>
<DIV>of Virtual Communities and Technologies* (editor S. Dasgupta,</DIV>
<DIV>George Washington University), and with Associate Professor</DIV>
<DIV>Bharat Dave, a chapter in the anthology *Theorizing Digital</DIV>
<DIV>Cultural Heritage*, (editors S. Kenderdine and F. Cameron, MIT</DIV>
<DIV>Press).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><A name=8></A>
<DIV>DIGITAL SPECULATIONS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Bharat Dave</DIV>
<DIV>Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning</DIV>
<DIV>The University of Melbourne</DIV>
<DIV>Australia</DIV>
<DIV>b [dot] dave [@] unimelb [dot} edu [dot} au</DIV><BR>
<DIV>KEYWORDS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>multimedia, interactivity, narrative, discourse, design</DIV>
<DIV>vocabulary</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ABSTRACT</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The advent of interactive digital media poses opportunities and</DIV>
<DIV>issues that cannot be explored or analyzed using traditional</DIV>
<DIV>canons of artistic production or aesthetic experiences. The</DIV>
<DIV>digital media implicate techniques, tools, authors, and</DIV>
<DIV>audiences in a complex web of production and appreciation of art</DIV>
<DIV>works. As a result, most work in digital media remains</DIV>
<DIV>speculative in nature, offering only partial glimpses of this</DIV>
<DIV>new creative landscape. This paper describes selected projects</DIV>
<DIV>that served as vehicles for critical investigation of</DIV>
<DIV>interactive digital media and their potential for exploring</DIV>
<DIV>different ways in which experiences can be imagined,</DIV>
<DIV>constructed, and communicated.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>INTRODUCTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Interactive digital multimedia projects implicate techniques,</DIV>
<DIV>tools, authors and audiences in ways that are hard to</DIV>
<DIV>disentangle and discuss in isolation. The closest expressive</DIV>
<DIV>form to what multimedia technologies have to offer may be the</DIV>
<DIV>Wagnerian *gesamtkunstwerk* [1] or the symbolic theatre projects</DIV>
<DIV>of Ervin Piscator and Meyerhold in which boundaries between</DIV>
<DIV>performers and audiences were erased. When sounds and images</DIV>
<DIV>freely criss-cross the boundary between discrete and continuous</DIV>
<DIV>states, when temporal or spatial representations can be</DIV>
<DIV>fractured and recombined at will, and when authorial intentions</DIV>
<DIV>get subsumed under the interactive control of audiences,</DIV>
<DIV>traditional canons of artistic production, appreciation and</DIV>
<DIV>criticism may not be adequate [2]. Navigating without shared</DIV>
<DIV>signposts in digital media landscape, each step is a tentative</DIV>
<DIV>speculation into the realm of possibilities. And it is precisely</DIV>
<DIV>for that reason a reflective record of work assumes all the more</DIV>
<DIV>importance.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>To explore the possibilities and pedagogic questions opened up</DIV>
<DIV>by interactive digital media we have undertaken a number of</DIV>
<DIV>experimental projects in the last few years. The projects</DIV>
<DIV>described in the following sought to bring together realms of</DIV>
<DIV>architectural design, computer modeling, and visualization. The</DIV>
<DIV>underlying purpose was to challenge the traditional spatial</DIV>
<DIV>representations in architecture and investigate different ways</DIV>
<DIV>in which spaces can be imagined, constructed, communicated and</DIV>
<DIV>felt. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Traditionally architectural compositions have been conceived</DIV>
<DIV>through a multitude of media and representations: sketches,</DIV>
<DIV>diagrams, planar and perspective projections, analog models,</DIV>
<DIV>collages, etc. While the use of such media and representations</DIV>
<DIV>has informed different traditions of spatial thinking, we also</DIV>
<DIV>come across works that break free of accepted traditions and</DIV>
<DIV>continuities of expression [3]. For example, Giambattista</DIV>
<DIV>Piranesi, an Italian draftsman drew not only the existing ruins</DIV>
<DIV>of Rome but turned them into fantastic, visionary spaces</DIV>
<DIV>populated with fragments of disparate elements from many</DIV>
<DIV>archaeological sites. Piranesi's imaginary collages are the</DIV>
<DIV>hallmarks of spatial displacements. A different kind of</DIV>
<DIV>conceptual break from traditions is witnessed in projects of the</DIV>
<DIV>mathematician Iannis Xenakis [4] who sought to translate musical</DIV>
<DIV>harmonies into spatial configurations. In fact, this line of</DIV>
<DIV>investigation combining sound and space has been a recurrent</DIV>
<DIV>theme in architecture ranging from the Greek concepts of</DIV>
<DIV>proportion to the 20th century works of Le Corbusier. The most</DIV>
<DIV>drastic change in architecture in pedagogical terms occurred</DIV>
<DIV>early in the 20th century with the establishment of Bauhaus and</DIV>
<DIV>its curriculum. In the face of industrialized means of</DIV>
<DIV>production and new materials, the new design curriculum called</DIV>
<DIV>for experimental projects using new materials and techniques</DIV>
<DIV>that resulted in a new aesthetic. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>With the introduction of digital media, we are faced with new</DIV>
<DIV>opportunities to (re)question the nature of creative design, how</DIV>
<DIV>it is conceptualized and representations that fluctuate between</DIV>
<DIV>discrete and continuous states [5]. The following describes some</DIV>
<DIV>opportunities we have explored in the use of interactive digital</DIV>
<DIV>media to imagine experiences ranging from abstract to spatially</DIV>
<DIV>concrete.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>TELLING STORIES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Primarily our projects revolve around using either literary</DIV>
<DIV>references or computational procedures for narrating a concept</DIV>
<DIV>or experience. The former projects are aimed at evoking a sense</DIV>
<DIV>of place based on some literary reference- a poem, travelogue,</DIV>
<DIV>memoir, song or prose. The motivation in these projects was to</DIV>
<DIV>explore ways in which linear, textual narrative can be expressed</DIV>
<DIV>using non-textual and non-linear representations and</DIV>
<DIV>interactivity. An additional goal of these projects was going</DIV>
<DIV>beyond literal translation of words to evoking the experiences</DIV>
<DIV>conveyed in the original source. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In one project, the verses of a popular song (*Stairway to</DIV>
<DIV>Heaven* by Led Zeppelin) provided the starting point. However,</DIV>
<DIV>upon further exploration words took on new and different</DIV>
<DIV>associations appropriate to the media. The stairway became not a</DIV>
<DIV>path connecting levels separated in vertical dimension but a</DIV>
<DIV>path of metaphorical journey through a landscape littered with</DIV>
<DIV>memories. A landscape that is smooth and rough at the same time,</DIV>
<DIV>and in which the cracks open up over which one steps moving</DIV>
<DIV>towards a climactic moment. This project was conceived and</DIV>
<DIV>rendered as a linear narrative in which visuals, background</DIV>
<DIV>audio and motion come together to communicate what was</DIV>
<DIV>originally represented in lyrics.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In another project (based on description of the Walled City by</DIV>
<DIV>William Gibson), the linear narrative was replaced with non-</DIV>
<DIV>linear unfolding. Moving through constricted spaces bounded by</DIV>
<DIV>reflections of signs and spaces (Figure 1), there is a sense of</DIV>
<DIV>being trapped within a walled environment. The boundaries are</DIV>
<DIV>permeable though never completely opaque or completely</DIV>
<DIV>transparent. Although there is directional movement between</DIV>
<DIV>nodes, the nodes themselves can be traversed in any order. There</DIV>
<DIV>are spaces of congestion and spaces of solitude, spaces for</DIV>
<DIV>watching and being watched, complemented with visuals and</DIV>
<DIV>background music that signify different transitions and moods.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Figure 1. Walled City: Idoru (Andrew Hayne)</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The non-linear narratives were explored further in the third</DIV>
<DIV>project (based on the City, a short story by Ray Bradbury). It</DIV>
<DIV>is inviting yet forcefully empty and desolate. The scale of</DIV>
<DIV>spaces and textures of surfaces generate a sense of wistfulness,</DIV>
<DIV>a kind of place that may be deserted after a catastrophic</DIV>
<DIV>accident (Figure 2). There are shadows lurking and machines at</DIV>
<DIV>work behind facades. The labyrinthine environment appears to</DIV>
<DIV>invite and then trap the visitor as every fork in the path</DIV>
<DIV>offers a different orientation to the spaces than what was</DIV>
<DIV>encountered before. The eye moves at a non-uniform pace -</DIV>
<DIV>sometimes slow, at other times flying, occasionally squeezing</DIV>
<DIV>past narrow passages and under menacing archways and doors. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Figure 2. The City: Illustrated Man (Cameron Lacy)</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In other projects, instead of literary references we drew upon</DIV>
<DIV>abstract concepts that were to be expressed through computable</DIV>
<DIV>procedures. One such project revolved around the notion of</DIV>
<DIV>*rhythm* - how does one explain what is rhythm as a visual or</DIV>
<DIV>aural experience using digital media instead of a linear</DIV>
<DIV>definition put in words? The project resulted in an interactive</DIV>
<DIV>composition in which space, color, shapes, temporal sequence and</DIV>
<DIV>audio notes constitute the elements through which the concept of</DIV>
<DIV>rhythm is illustrated.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Similarly in the next project, the concept of *entropy* was</DIV>
<DIV>explored. Entropy can be thought of as a measure of how close</DIV>
<DIV>(or far) a system is to equilibrium and disorder. The system may</DIV>
<DIV>begin at a zero level of entropy (totally stable) and increase</DIV>
<DIV>in entropy as the user interacts. The user interaction with</DIV>
<DIV>various elements increases or decreases the entropy in the</DIV>
<DIV>system, which affects other elements in composition. The state</DIV>
<DIV>of an element (its color, shape, sound, form) is affected by and</DIV>
<DIV>affects the level of entropy of the system.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The final project described here is shaped by diverse</DIV>
<DIV>beginnings (Figure 3). Different elements in the project make</DIV>
<DIV>references to different sources such as the Australian outback,</DIV>
<DIV>the tracks of the emus and kangaroos, the paddy fields of South</DIV>
<DIV>East Asia, the weaves and wafts of carpets and tracks made</DIV>
<DIV>through their fibres by those who trod upon it or scurry among</DIV>
<DIV>that fibrous surface. At a later point, these references</DIV>
<DIV>coalesced into the worlds of critters, flighty yet seductive,</DIV>
<DIV>and how they draw the reader into their flat yet playful world</DIV>
<DIV>of hide and seek.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Figure 3. Desert Swamp (Gemma Cooke) </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the last three projects described above, the worlds being</DIV>
<DIV>explored become increasingly unpredictable, dependent on the</DIV>
<DIV>user interaction for their coming into being in the first place,</DIV>
<DIV>and then engaging the user into an ongoing dialogue for their</DIV>
<DIV>subsequent development. These are procedural [6], non-</DIV>
<DIV>determinate worlds that contain only a code of possibilities at</DIV>
<DIV>the start, never a singular form right from the beginning.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The interactive projects described above are part of a series</DIV>
<DIV>of digital speculations developed by those students of</DIV>
<DIV>architecture with a keen sense of spatial imagination. The</DIV>
<DIV>projects were developed as part of an advanced workshop in</DIV>
<DIV>interactive digital multimedia, in a finite amount of time.</DIV>
<DIV>While the projects can be appreciated purely as standalone</DIV>
<DIV>objects, it is worth recounting and reflecting on the process</DIV>
<DIV>that led to their development.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>PEDAGOGIC FRAMEWORK</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The increasing adoption of digital media in design education</DIV>
<DIV>leads to subtle changes in design objectives, means, and</DIV>
<DIV>outcomes in that process. Such changes are due to the peculiar</DIV>
<DIV>nature of digital representations and operations that allow us</DIV>
<DIV>to manipulate representations. With only a few decades of</DIV>
<DIV>collective developments and experiences in digitally supported</DIV>
<DIV>design education, it is not surprising that we still frame and</DIV>
<DIV>reflect on these changes in a provisional fashion only. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The rapid pace of developments in digital technologies and new</DIV>
<DIV>experimentation they afford in design conception engender a</DIV>
<DIV>context in which provisional explorations take the place of</DIV>
<DIV>sustained theoretical reflections. We are too intimately close</DIV>
<DIV>to evolving digital technologies and that makes it difficult to</DIV>
<DIV>select vantage points from which to better articulate</DIV>
<DIV>development of a new expressive and communicative medium and to</DIV>
<DIV>understand its ramifications. In such a climate, design</DIV>
<DIV>educators stand on shifting grounds. Caught among design</DIV>
<DIV>discourse, development of new digital tools, and cultivating</DIV>
<DIV>design sensibilities among students, design educators have</DIV>
<DIV>responded with different pedagogic frameworks to incorporate</DIV>
<DIV>digital media in design education. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In our case, we explore both pedagogic and critical issues with</DIV>
<DIV>digital media in a design workshop offered as an elective</DIV>
<DIV>subject in the design curriculum. The workshop is aimed at</DIV>
<DIV>developing a critical understanding of interactive digital media</DIV>
<DIV>and their potential for imaginative design explorations. It</DIV>
<DIV>revolves around structured thematic discussions that become more</DIV>
<DIV>concrete in the form of three speculative projects. The</DIV>
<DIV>speculations are structured so that students, on the one hand,</DIV>
<DIV>get exposed to new possibilities for design exploration and</DIV>
<DIV>learn to develop a critical and reflective attitude. On the</DIV>
<DIV>other hand, students also learn to explore and use new media</DIV>
<DIV>authoring tools. The content of speculations is consciously</DIV>
<DIV>designed not to faithfully build or rely upon traditional</DIV>
<DIV>architectural or spatial expressions. In fact, students are</DIV>
<DIV>encouraged to reassess their pre-conceived notions by way of</DIV>
<DIV>being critical and reflective in all the speculations. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Critical analysis* requires students to critically analyze and</DIV>
<DIV>review an interactive project sourced from the literature,</DIV>
<DIV>exhibitions and installations. The student reviews focus on both</DIV>
<DIV>the content and form of the original interactive project. The</DIV>
<DIV>reviews analyze and reflect the efficacy of media types, their</DIV>
<DIV>structure and presentation in the interactive project. In a</DIV>
<DIV>sense, this speculation exposes students to a palette of</DIV>
<DIV>interactive media elements from which they can draw upon in</DIV>
<DIV>subsequent speculations.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Experimental project* is concerned with exercising the</DIV>
<DIV>vocabulary of interactive media elements (i.e., what students</DIV>
<DIV>have extracted in the preceding critical analysis phase) through</DIV>
<DIV>a selected theme. Over the years, some of the themes explored in</DIV>
<DIV>this project have ranged from representation of tangible and</DIV>
<DIV>ephemeral places (e.g. war memorial, train station) to abstract</DIV>
<DIV>concepts like rhythm, contrast, pattern, proportion, symmetry,</DIV>
<DIV>etc. The emphasis of this speculation is on evocation of a</DIV>
<DIV>selected context or abstract concept and not literal replication</DIV>
<DIV>of traditional representations. In other words, students are</DIV>
<DIV>encouraged to express a selected place or concept using</DIV>
<DIV>interactive media in ways that cannot be done or may be</DIV>
<DIV>difficult to do using traditional media and representations.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Creative expression* offers an opportunity for students to</DIV>
<DIV>bring their creative imagination and technical competence</DIV>
<DIV>together in the form of a major interactive project. Students</DIV>
<DIV>are asked to select a 'text' as a reference (e.g. The Walled</DIV>
<DIV>City by Gibson, color music) and render it as an interactive</DIV>
<DIV>multimedia project. The emphasis of this speculative project is</DIV>
<DIV>on expressing interpretive dimensions of the theme and not on</DIV>
<DIV>simply reconstructing or reproducing the original text into</DIV>
<DIV>another form.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ISSUES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>As witnessed in the projects over the years, the pedagogic</DIV>
<DIV>structure of this elective has served its original purpose of</DIV>
<DIV>providing an experimental context to explore interactive digital</DIV>
<DIV>multimedia. At the same time, we are acutely aware of a number</DIV>
<DIV>of critical issues that remain to be properly addressed. The</DIV>
<DIV>following are three major concerns especially in pedagogic</DIV>
<DIV>settings.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Framing objectives* is essential to ensure that the work</DIV>
<DIV>produced is not just a consequence of accidental choices. It is</DIV>
<DIV>especially important when students are learning to master the</DIV>
<DIV>skills in the use of digital media while also discovering their</DIV>
<DIV>expressive potential. In this respect it may be useful to have a</DIV>
<DIV>high-level statement of what the work aims to accomplish (before</DIV>
<DIV>the seduction of media takes over) and which can be used as a</DIV>
<DIV>measure or reflective mirror against which subsequent media</DIV>
<DIV>choices can be evaluated. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Challenging conventions* needs to be framed as one of the</DIV>
<DIV>prime objectives while using new media so that leads to better</DIV>
<DIV>appreciation of even traditional media and concepts that we</DIV>
<DIV>normally take for granted. This is not easy or self-evident and</DIV>
<DIV>requires conscious effort. Just as it took a while to</DIV>
<DIV>conceptualize temporal shifts in cinema (e.g., flashback in</DIV>
<DIV>which temporal sequences are disrupted or multiple viewpoints</DIV>
<DIV>through which one sees parallel events unfolding), it requires</DIV>
<DIV>special effort to design around shifting space and time [7],</DIV>
<DIV>around elements that may at one moment be corporeal and at</DIV>
<DIV>another moment ephemeral, when sound turns into material, or</DIV>
<DIV>material turns into light. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Judging interactive media works* produced by students is all</DIV>
<DIV>the more difficult because of a number of overlapping and often</DIV>
<DIV>external factors. Sometimes the technology gets in the way of</DIV>
<DIV>the best of works (e.g. when real-time refresh turns into a slow-</DIV>
<DIV>motion parody). At other times, the open-ended interaction</DIV>
<DIV>results in more noise than signal. To what should we hold the</DIV>
<DIV>authors accountable rather than the audiences in such cases? How</DIV>
<DIV>shall we know that the work actually advances experiential</DIV>
<DIV>propositions rather than simply delivering stupefying visual or</DIV>
<DIV>aural sublime that overwhelms the senses? </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The questions posed above are intentionally rhetorical at one</DIV>
<DIV>level but at another they are pragmatic concerns for those of us</DIV>
<DIV>who teach the use of interactive multimedia in any discipline.</DIV>
<DIV>They become all the more critical if we are to impart skills not</DIV>
<DIV>only in the use of media but also a discerning and critical</DIV>
<DIV>attitude about what the use of such media can afford.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SUMMARY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The advent of interactive digital media poses opportunities and</DIV>
<DIV>issues that cannot be explored or analyzed using traditional</DIV>
<DIV>canons of artistic production or aesthetic experiences. Unlike</DIV>
<DIV>the traditional artistic practices that can be understood in</DIV>
<DIV>terms of, to borrow Goodman's terms, autographic or allographic</DIV>
<DIV>notations and performances, the new media implicate techniques,</DIV>
<DIV>tools, authors, audiences in a complex web of production and</DIV>
<DIV>appreciation of art works. As a result, most work in digital</DIV>
<DIV>media remains speculative in nature, offering only partial</DIV>
<DIV>glimpses of this new landscape. This paper described selected</DIV>
<DIV>projects aimed at developing a critical understanding of</DIV>
<DIV>interactive digital media and their potential for imaginative</DIV>
<DIV>design explorations to investigate different ways in which</DIV>
<DIV>spaces can be imagined, constructed, communicated and felt. What</DIV>
<DIV>we sorely need are conceptual terms and reflective accounts in</DIV>
<DIV>production and appreciation of such works through which a shared</DIV>
<DIV>discourse in interactive media works can evolve in future.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The work of students who participated in the Digital</DIV>
<DIV>Speculations elective is gratefully acknowledged.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>* IMAGES ACCOMPANYING THIS ARTICLE CAN BE SEEN AT THE LEA</DIV>
<DIV>WEBSITE: <<A href="http://lea.mit.edu/">http://lea.mit.edu</A>></DIV><BR>
<DIV>REFERENCES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. R. Parker and K. Jordan (eds.), *Multimedia: From Wagner to</DIV>
<DIV>Virtual Reality* (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company,</DIV>
<DIV>2001).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>2. L. Manovich, *The Language of New Media* (Cambridge, MA: MIT</DIV>
<DIV>Press, 2001).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>3. C. THOMSEN, *VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE FROM BABYLON TO VIRTUAL</DIV>
<DIV>REALITY* (MUNICH: PRESTEL, 1994).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>4. I. XENAKIS, *MUSIC ARCHITECTURE* (NEW YORK: PENDRAGON, 1996).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>5. B. DAVE, "PIXEL POINTS" IN *CAAD TALKS 3: DIGITAL DESIGN</DIV>
<DIV>EDUCATION,* MAO-LIN CHIU (ED.), TAIPEI: GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING</DIV>
<DIV>LTD., PP. 96-113 (2002).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>6. J. MURRAY, *HAMLET ON THE HOLODECK* (NEW YORK: FREE PRESS,</DIV>
<DIV>1997).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>7. H. Zettl, *Sight, sound, motion applied media aesthetics*</DIV>
<DIV>(Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1990).</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Associate Professor Bharat Dave teaches and conducts research</DIV>
<DIV>in computational design in the Faculty of Architecture, Building</DIV>
<DIV>and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Australia. He studied</DIV>
<DIV>architecture in India, followed by postgraduate studies,</DIV>
<DIV>research and teaching in the USA, Switzerland and Australia. His</DIV>
<DIV>recent research projects include virtual design studios,</DIV>
<DIV>computational support for multiple representations, interactive</DIV>
<DIV>multimedia technologies for virtual heritage applications, and</DIV>
<DIV>crossovers between digital and physical environments. He also</DIV>
<DIV>serves as the Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty and</DIV>
<DIV>supervises a number of masters and Ph.D research students.<X-TAB> </X-TAB></DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>IDENSITY® / SOFT URBANISM</DIV>
<DIV>by Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Elizabeth Sikiaridi</DIV>
<DIV>Professor Architect</DIV>
<DIV>University of Duisburg-Essen / invOFFICE</DIV>
<DIV>Sikiaridi [@] idensity [dot] net<X-TAB> </X-TAB></DIV><BR>
<DIV>Frans Vogelaar</DIV>
<DIV>Professor for Hybrid Space</DIV>
<DIV>Academy of Media Arts Cologne / invOFFICE </DIV>
<DIV>vogelaar [@] idensity [dot] net</DIV><BR>
<DIV>invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design</DIV>
<DIV>Jan Luijkenstraat 23</DIV>
<DIV>1071 CK Amsterdam</DIV>
<DIV>The Netherlands</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.invoffice.net/">http://www.invoffice.net</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>University of Duisburg-Essen</DIV>
<DIV>45117 Essen</DIV>
<DIV>Germany</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.uni-duisburg-essen.de/">http://www.uni-duisburg-essen.de</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>Academy of Media Arts Cologne</DIV>
<DIV>Peter-Welter-Platz 2</DIV>
<DIV>50676 Cologne</DIV>
<DIV>Germany</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.khm.de/">http://www.khm.de</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>KEYWORDS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>hybrid space, networked architecture, 'Soft Urbanism', mobility</DIV>
<DIV>networks, public space, public domain, new spatial paradigms,</DIV>
<DIV>idensity®</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ABSTRACT </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The presentation develops scenarios for an interplay of the</DIV>
<DIV>urban space and the media domain. New interdisciplinary fields</DIV>
<DIV>of planning and design are introduced: Soft Urbanism, exploring</DIV>
<DIV>the interaction of urbanism and the space of mass media and</DIV>
<DIV>communication networks, and Hybrid Space Design, developing</DIV>
<DIV>fused analog-digital / architectural-media spaces. Within this</DIV>
<DIV>framework, "idensity®" is proposed as a conceptual tool for</DIV>
<DIV>developing space in the information-communication age. A</DIV>
<DIV>theoretical introduction is illustrated by projects. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>"The new city presupposes that the cables of the interhuman</DIV>
<DIV>relations are switched reversibly, not in bundles as with</DIV>
<DIV>television, but in real networks, respons(e)ibly, as in the</DIV>
<DIV>telephone network. These are technical questions; and they are</DIV>
<DIV>to be solved by urbanists and architects." - Vilém Flusser 1990.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>To reinforce the significance of public space we have to deal</DIV>
<DIV>with at least two "publics", the global and the local public, by</DIV>
<DIV>creating spheres where local and global public space can fuse</DIV>
<DIV>and interchange.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Bridging the gap and connecting the global media spheres with</DIV>
<DIV>local content and place, an architecture of communication spaces</DIV>
<DIV>proposes a combined analog-digital infrastructure: publicly</DIV>
<DIV>accessible interfaces between the global media space and the</DIV>
<DIV>local urban place. 'Public Media Urban Interfaces' is an</DIV>
<DIV>alternative scenario for the interplay of mass media in order to</DIV>
<DIV>reinforce the function of public (urban) space. This project</DIV>
<DIV>develops a hybrid urban network-space, a fusion of media space</DIV>
<DIV>and urban space. It emphasizes the role of the public in an</DIV>
<DIV>increasingly privatized society and occupies the vacuum in</DIV>
<DIV>between the local and the global. The products of this alliance</DIV>
<DIV>of urban and media networks are "hybrid" spaces that are at the</DIV>
<DIV>same time analog and digital, virtual and material, local and</DIV>
<DIV>global.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This project represents a prototype for a new interdisciplinary</DIV>
<DIV>field of design and planning ('Soft Urbanism'), researching the</DIV>
<DIV>transformations of architectural/urban space of the emerging</DIV>
<DIV>"information/communication age", exploring the dynamic</DIV>
<DIV>interaction of urbanism and the space of mass media and</DIV>
<DIV>communication networks. 'Soft Urbanism', dealing with the "soft"</DIV>
<DIV>aspects of the city, not only intervenes in the realm of</DIV>
<DIV>infrastructures, but also adopts their concept and paradigm: by</DIV>
<DIV>supplying networks, 'Soft Urbanism' creates new fields of</DIV>
<DIV>possibilities and frameworks for self-organizational processes.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Today, the communicational paradigm, with its "network-cities",</DIV>
<DIV>"nodes" and "terminal architectures" is infiltrating and</DIV>
<DIV>transforming the architectural/urban discourse and practice.</DIV>
<DIV>Within this framework, 'idensity®' is proposed as a conceptual</DIV>
<DIV>tool for developing space in the information/communication age.</DIV>
<DIV>This composite term consists of the combination/fusion of the</DIV>
<DIV>word "density" of real/urban and "virtual"/media communication</DIV>
<DIV>spaces (density of connections) and of the word "identity".</DIV><BR>
<DIV>PUBLIC MEDIA URBAN INTERFACES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The local-based public 'tele-feeder facility (at your</DIV>
<DIV>neighborhood's launderette)', the primary unit of Public Media</DIV>
<DIV>Urban Interfaces, enables the public to produce messages and to</DIV>
<DIV>narrow-broadcast and receive them in a dynamic communication</DIV>
<DIV>environment. Creating a locally-based dynamic media network from</DIV>
<DIV>the bottom up, local events can be accelerated and reinforced to</DIV>
<DIV>temporarily invade the glocal media space. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>This link between global media space and local place having its</DIV>
<DIV>interfaces in public space makes it possible to broadcast,</DIV>
<DIV>access, influence the global media environment from the (urban)</DIV>
<DIV>local neighborhood. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>A demo project, exploiting London's urban tensions and</DIV>
<DIV>structure unfolds strategies and visualizes aspects of these</DIV>
<DIV>investigations, confronting a working hypothesis with the</DIV>
<DIV>idiosyncrasies of a specific urban situation.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>MEDIA BABIES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>128 feeder houses (Media Babies) distributed evenly over the</DIV>
<DIV>sprawling London towns and interconnected by means of a digital</DIV>
<DIV>network supply eight Bridge Clubs located on the Thames with a</DIV>
<DIV>continuous stream of (non-)events. The Media Baby at your</DIV>
<DIV>neighborhood launderette consists of a Catching Gallery, two</DIV>
<DIV>Intro Booths, a Debutantes' Booth, a Connector Platform and a</DIV>
<DIV>Microwave Transmitter. The Catching Gallery is the area where</DIV>
<DIV>the public can view the narrow/broadcasting activities of eight</DIV>
<DIV>other Media Babies and one Bridge Club. Interactive technology</DIV>
<DIV>enables the public to intervene in those narrow/broadcasts but</DIV>
<DIV>also creates the possibility to establish direct contacts, thus</DIV>
<DIV>forming endless smaller networks within the larger framework of</DIV>
<DIV>Public Media Urban Interfaces.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>BRIDGE CLUBS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Bridge Club, providing the space for public events on an</DIV>
<DIV>urban scale, bridges the gap between programs meant for local</DIV>
<DIV>distribution and those that deserve a larger audience. Using the</DIV>
<DIV>larger broadcast facilities available to the Club, the selected</DIV>
<DIV>programs are experienced and transformed to suit a mass</DIV>
<DIV>audience. The Bridge Club, being a knot in the net of</DIV>
<DIV>translocalities, also serves the function of bridging</DIV>
<DIV>programmatic events related to the site where the club is</DIV>
<DIV>located.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>REPLACE THE RIGHT TO VOTE WITH THE RIGHT TO BROADCAST</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The publicly distributed 'Air Time for All' Smart Card allows</DIV>
<DIV>you to produce and narrow/broadcast and also gives you the</DIV>
<DIV>opportunity to adopt a message (not your own) by giving it extra</DIV>
<DIV>air time. At the Media Baby in the neighborhood, you will find</DIV>
<DIV>the necessary programming facilities to make your program and</DIV>
<DIV>the means to monitor it as it goes on the air. You can also</DIV>
<DIV>accelerate messages (not your own) by giving them extra</DIV>
<DIV>broadcasting time with the help of the special Smart Card. And</DIV>
<DIV>as a message gains strength, its chances of reaching a much</DIV>
<DIV>larger audience increase, reaching more Media Babies, a Bridge</DIV>
<DIV>Club, the city or even the whole country, Europe and the rest of</DIV>
<DIV>the world.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SOFT URBANISM</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In architecture's role of defining and materializing the spaces</DIV>
<DIV>for social interaction, designing the relationship between the</DIV>
<DIV>physical and digital public domain is becoming more and more of</DIV>
<DIV>a challenge: investigating the relation and interconnection of</DIV>
<DIV>the "soft" city with its finite material counterpart, the living</DIV>
<DIV>environment, speculating about interfaces between the "virtual"</DIV>
<DIV>and the material (urban) world and designing hybrid (analog-</DIV>
<DIV>digital) communicational spaces.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Soft Urbanism deals with information/communication processes in</DIV>
<DIV>public space, the soft aspects overlying the urban sprawl and</DIV>
<DIV>modifying it: the invisible networks acting as attractors,</DIV>
<DIV>transforming the traditional urban structure, interweaving,</DIV>
<DIV>ripping open and cutting through the urban tissue, demanding</DIV>
<DIV>interfaces.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Soft Urbanism not only intervenes in the realm of</DIV>
<DIV>infrastructures, but also adopts their concept and follows their</DIV>
<DIV>paradigm. It brings an inherently flexible approach by expanding</DIV>
<DIV>the field of possibilities of social interaction and opening new</DIV>
<DIV>paths of urban development. Soft Urbanism is therefore not about</DIV>
<DIV>determining places, but about creating frameworks for processes</DIV>
<DIV>of self-organization. Not accepting being powerless in the face</DIV>
<DIV>of the forces of the market, Soft Urbanism rethinks the</DIV>
<DIV>strategies of interventions to reintroduce programmatic</DIV>
<DIV>speculations about the public domain in urbanism.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The interventions will not be about control and determination,</DIV>
<DIV>but about expanding infrastructures, frameworks for processes of</DIV>
<DIV>self-organization. "Soft" strategies will be "bottom-up"</DIV>
<DIV>strategies: rather than defining first the global result of the</DIV>
<DIV>interaction and then determining the necessary relation between</DIV>
<DIV>the elements in order to produce that interaction (which would</DIV>
<DIV>be a "top-down" approach), simple rules for a set of independent</DIV>
<DIV>elements will be developed and what emerges from the interaction</DIV>
<DIV>of these elements is aleatory. According to biological models,</DIV>
<DIV>these fields of interaction of plural forces could serve as a</DIV>
<DIV>reservoir for the selection processes needed for the urban</DIV>
<DIV>transformations.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>MOBILE (CONTAINER) INFRASTRUCTURE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Public Media Urban Interfaces and the Bridge Clubs together</DIV>
<DIV>with a fleet of container-boats, caravans, rickshaws, taxis,</DIV>
<DIV>trucks and limousines (equipped with transmitters/receivers and</DIV>
<DIV>interactive life jackets) form a transportation/communication</DIV>
<DIV>infrastructure servicing the users of the network and also</DIV>
<DIV>commuters, nomads, migrants and tourists. The traditional</DIV>
<DIV>translocal (mobility/communication) networks are thus knitted to</DIV>
<DIV>the new glocal media networks (Internet/TV).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>These capsules containing (from rudimentary to more</DIV>
<DIV>sophisticated) media units are mobile nodes in the translocal</DIV>
<DIV>networked environments, "vessels" within the complex</DIV>
<DIV>multilayerings of the space of flows. They serve as spaces of</DIV>
<DIV>exchange (export/import trade), as laboratories of glocal</DIV>
<DIV>cultural bastardization. With this (container) mobile</DIV>
<DIV>infrastructure new hybrid urbanity emerges, that is no longer</DIV>
<DIV>tied to any one specific location but rather is the result of</DIV>
<DIV>their interconnection.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>URBAN IDENSITY®</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Within these new hybrid ("real" and media) landscapes, these</DIV>
<DIV>interconnected networks, traditional categories for analyzing</DIV>
<DIV>space are becoming obsolete. A new field of planning and design,</DIV>
<DIV>combining urbanism and architecture with</DIV>
<DIV>information/communication networks and media spaces is emerging.</DIV>
<DIV>It is a field that requires new tools and new research</DIV>
<DIV>categories in order to develop the new hybrid network</DIV>
<DIV>urbanities. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the contradictory dynamics of today's urban environment with</DIV>
<DIV>its antithetical tendencies of concentration and</DIV>
<DIV>decentralization, of functional mix and segregation, traditional</DIV>
<DIV>terms of spatial distinction lose their validity. In this</DIV>
<DIV>fragmented urban landscape, categories like "centre" versus</DIV>
<DIV>"periphery", "landscape" versus "city" and "functional zoning"</DIV>
<DIV>(such as living, working and recreation), are becoming obsolete.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The polarity between private and public space is</DIV>
<DIV>disintegrating. Public and private environments are becoming</DIV>
<DIV>intermingled and blurring in the fusion of media and "real"</DIV>
<DIV>space. We see this in the hybrid spaces of the publicly</DIV>
<DIV>broadcasted (inverted) privacies of reality TV and the "Big</DIV>
<DIV>Brothers," in the media presence of war intruding on our living</DIV>
<DIV>rooms and in the private (communication) space of mobile</DIV>
<DIV>telephony within public urban space.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>To understand this fusion, this superimposition and the</DIV>
<DIV>interaction of media and "real" urban spaces, the new term</DIV>
<DIV>'idensity®' is introduced, replacing the obsolete conventional</DIV>
<DIV>terms of spatial distinction. Idensity® does not differentiate</DIV>
<DIV>between information/communication networks and</DIV>
<DIV>urban/architectural environments. It thereby offers an</DIV>
<DIV>integrated model for dealing with hybrid (media and "real")</DIV>
<DIV>space in the information/communication age and incorporates a</DIV>
<DIV>wide range of future (communication) spaces.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>It is a composite term, combining the word "density" - of real</DIV>
<DIV>(urban) and "virtual" (media) communication spaces (density of</DIV>
<DIV>connections) - and the word "identity." 'Idensity®' integrates</DIV>
<DIV>the concept of "density" (density of connections, density of</DIV>
<DIV>physical and digital infrastructure, density of communication-</DIV>
<DIV>spaces, etc.) with the concept of "identity" (image policies,</DIV>
<DIV>urban brands, etc.). It can, for example, help in understanding</DIV>
<DIV>the processes of spatial segregation and distinction between</DIV>
<DIV>urban fragments that have qualities of 'global' performance and</DIV>
<DIV>that can be seen as part of a "global urban condition" and those</DIV>
<DIV>other, sometimes neighboring (parts of) cities that lose in</DIV>
<DIV>relevance and disappear from (global) mental maps. It can</DIV>
<DIV>therefore be implemented as an operative tool to steer the</DIV>
<DIV>processes of urban development.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>But it is not a mere summation of the concepts of "density" and</DIV>
<DIV>"identity." It is instead a fusion, as it inverts "identity,"</DIV>
<DIV>linking it to communication, "identity" being defined by</DIV>
<DIV>connectivity.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Therefore, it does not just address the "clear-cut identity,</DIV>
<DIV>the particularity, the individuality of the traditional places</DIV>
<DIV>or sites" but also the layered 'idensities' of the "non-lieux"</DIV>
<DIV>("non-places") [1] of today's generic cities, which are to be</DIV>
<DIV>found especially in the realms of mobility and consumption</DIV>
<DIV>(airports, hotels, shopping malls, motorway rest areas, etc.).</DIV>
<DIV>It does not refer only to object-qualities but describes a field</DIV>
<DIV>of superimposed (communication) spaces: the branded space of the</DIV>
<DIV>chain-shop, the symbolic space of the traditional building the</DIV>
<DIV>shop is located in, the media space of teleshopping, the</DIV>
<DIV>communication space of the GSM…</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This new term is implemented to describe and analyze the</DIV>
<DIV>communication spaces of the coming "network society", a society</DIV>
<DIV>not so much based on the traditional, relatively static</DIV>
<DIV>structures of belonging in the family, the corporation or the</DIV>
<DIV>state, but on flexible, dynamic, ever-changing networks of</DIV>
<DIV>exchange and communication. It carries the discussion on the</DIV>
<DIV>urban from the morphological level of a formal description of</DIV>
<DIV>the network patterns of the "network city" to a more integrated</DIV>
<DIV>structural understanding of the networks of spaces for social</DIV>
<DIV>communication.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>INVERSIONS OF PRIVACY - URBAN LIFESCAPES </DIV><BR>
<DIV>According to the traditional (bourgeois) concept of privacy,</DIV>
<DIV>identity is based on private individuality. It is, however,</DIV>
<DIV>important to be aware of the historicity of such a concept. As</DIV>
<DIV>John Lucaks writes "Domesticity, privacy, comfort, the concept</DIV>
<DIV>of the home and of the family [...] are, literally, principal</DIV>
<DIV>achievements of the Bourgeois Age." [2] The notion of the "privy</DIV>
<DIV>chamber" emerged in 17th century English literature at the same</DIV>
<DIV>time as new private physical spaces came into being, when the</DIV>
<DIV>introduction of the corridor layout in English interiors of the</DIV>
<DIV>17th century enabled the development of "private quarters." But</DIV>
<DIV>the expression "privy chamber" is also used metaphorically for</DIV>
<DIV>the soul. The "privy chamber" is the container of (private)</DIV>
<DIV>identity.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the last year of the 20th century, "Big Brother," the</DIV>
<DIV>notorious reality-soap (with its networked container) was</DIV>
<DIV>launched in Holland and was cloned and copied all over the</DIV>
<DIV>planet. "Big Brother" shocked people profoundly and became a</DIV>
<DIV>prime topic of debate in the media, from popular talk shows to</DIV>
<DIV>scholarly journals ("Is this the End of Our Civilization?").</DIV><BR>
<DIV>What was shocking in "Big Brother" was the broadcasting (the</DIV>
<DIV>invasion) of privacy. The participants of the soap defined their</DIV>
<DIV>identity not in the "privy chamber" but in the public networked</DIV>
<DIV>environment of the broadcasting-container. The ENDEMOL soap was</DIV>
<DIV>an interactive environment (the television audience had</DIV>
<DIV>democratic rights, influencing the sequels). The captives in the</DIV>
<DIV>container/networks witnessed their existence in the "Real</DIV>
<DIV>Virtuality" [3] of their media presence. They experienced their</DIV>
<DIV>identity within the 'idensities' of the (communication) channels.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the same year, 1999, a big campaign was launched in Holland.</DIV>
<DIV>On most billboards in major and minor cities, men and women,</DIV>
<DIV>youngsters and the elderly - in short, the average Dutch person -</DIV>
<DIV>were declaring "ik ben Ben." This was not the mass expression of</DIV>
<DIV>an identity crisis, but an advertising campaign for the launch</DIV>
<DIV>of the new GSM company called "Ben," targeting the public at</DIV>
<DIV>large. The slogan was based on a simple play on words, "ben"</DIV>
<DIV>meaning in Dutch "I am" and "Ben" being a common man's name as</DIV>
<DIV>well as the name of the mobile phone company. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>But what makes this slogan such an interesting expression of</DIV>
<DIV>our times is its definition of identity (I am: Ik ben) as</DIV>
<DIV>connectivity ("Ben" being the network provider) with the</DIV>
<DIV>'idensity®' of the urbanite being defined as the density of the</DIV>
<DIV>(superimposed media/"real") communication spaces.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>In February 2000 it was announced: "Ik Ben een jaar".</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This advertising slogan expresses in a very direct way nothing</DIV>
<DIV>other than a new view of subjectivity and identity. Villém</DIV>
<DIV>Flusser, the philosopher of communication, would write: "The new</DIV>
<DIV>image of man looks roughly like this: we have to imagine a</DIV>
<DIV>network of interhuman relations, a 'field of intersubjective</DIV>
<DIV>relations.' The strands of this web must be conceived as</DIV>
<DIV>channels through which information (ideas, feelings, intentions</DIV>
<DIV>and knowledge, etc.) flows. These strands get temporarily</DIV>
<DIV>knotted and form what we call 'human subjects.' The totality of</DIV>
<DIV>the threads constitutes the concrete sphere of life and the</DIV>
<DIV>knots are abstract extrapolations. […] The density of the webs</DIV>
<DIV>of interhuman relations differs from place to place within the</DIV>
<DIV>network. The greater the density, the more 'concrete' the</DIV>
<DIV>relations. These dense points form wave troughs in the field […]</DIV>
<DIV>The wave troughs exert an 'attractive' force on the surrounding</DIV>
<DIV>field (pulling it into their gravitational field) so that more</DIV>
<DIV>and more interhuman relations are drawn in from the periphery.</DIV>
<DIV>[…] These wave troughs shall be called 'cities'." [4] </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The term 'idensity®' is a conceptual tool for researching and</DIV>
<DIV>developing (social) space in the information/communication age.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>* IMAGES ACCOMPANYING THIS ARTICLE CAN BE SEEN AT THE LEA</DIV>
<DIV>WEBSITE: <A href="http://lea.mit.edu/">http://lea.mit.edu</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>REFERENCES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. Marc Augé, *Non-Lieux* (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1992).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>2. John Lucaks, "The Bourgeois Interior", in *American</DIV>
<DIV>Scholar,* Vol.39, No. 4, Autumn 1970, pp. 620-21.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>3. Manuel Castells, *The Rise of the Network Society*</DIV>
<DIV>(Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1996) pp. 327-375.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>4. Vilém Flusser, "Die Stadt als Wellental in der Bilderflut",</DIV>
<DIV>in: Vilém Flusser, *Nachgeschichten. Essays, Vorträge, Glossen,*</DIV>
<DIV>Dusseldorf (1990); English translation in part by Stephen Cox</DIV>
<DIV>("The City as a Wave-trough in the Flood of Images", in ARCH+</DIV>
<DIV>111, March 1992, p. 84) and in part by Fiona Greenwood.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ELIZABETH SIKIARIDI was born in London, UK, and grew up in</DIV>
<DIV>Athens, Greece. She studied architecture and urbanism at the</DIV>
<DIV>École d' Architecture de Belleville in Paris, France and at the</DIV>
<DIV>Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany, where she</DIV>
<DIV>graduated with honors.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>She has worked at the architectural office of Behnisch &</DIV>
<DIV>Partner in Stuttgart, Germany on the project of the German</DIV>
<DIV>Federal Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank) in Frankfurt/Main and on the</DIV>
<DIV>project of the German Federal Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag)</DIV>
<DIV>in Bonn.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Additionally, she has worked for the city of Berlin on the new</DIV>
<DIV>governmental headquarters Spreeinsel and Spreebogen and at the</DIV>
<DIV>Technical University of Berlin.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Elizabeth is a partner of invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism</DIV>
<DIV>and design based in Amsterdam/Essen (formally in Berlin).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>As a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, she has</DIV>
<DIV>lectured and published broadly internationally (Austria, Canada,</DIV>
<DIV>Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Pakistan,</DIV>
<DIV>Switzerland, Singapore, Spain, The Netherlands, U.K., U.S.A.).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Elizabeth also serves as a consultant to the Dutch government</DIV>
<DIV>on the use of space in the information-communication age (See:</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.infodrome.nl/publicaties/domeinen/07_rui_vog_essay.htm">http://www.infodrome.nl/publicaties/domeinen/07_rui_vog_essay.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV>l)</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>FRANS VOGELAAR was born in Holland and grew up in Zimbabwe and</DIV>
<DIV>Holland. He studied Industrial Design at the Akademie voor</DIV>
<DIV>Industriele Vormgeving in Eindhoven, graduating with honors.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Studied architecture and urbanism at the "Architectural</DIV>
<DIV>Association School of Architecture" (AA) in London, U.K. and</DIV>
<DIV>worked at the architectural and design office Studio Alchymia</DIV>
<DIV>(Allessandro Mendini) in Milan, Italy. Also worked at the Office</DIV>
<DIV>for Metropolitan Architecture (Rem Koolhaas) in Rotterdam.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Frans is the founder of invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism</DIV>
<DIV>and design based in Amsterdam/Essen (formally in Berlin). He is</DIV>
<DIV>also a professor for Hybrid Space (which combines analog-digital</DIV>
<DIV>and urban/architectural-media space) at the Academy of Media</DIV>
<DIV>Arts Cologne (KHM).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>He has lectured and published broadly internationally (Austria,</DIV>
<DIV>Canada, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia,</DIV>
<DIV>Pakistan, Switzerland, Singapore, Spain, The Netherlands, UK,</DIV>
<DIV>USA) and serves as a consultant to the Dutch government on the</DIV>
<DIV>use of space in the information-communication age (See:</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.infodrome.nl/publicaties/domeinen/07_rui_vog_essay.htm">http://www.infodrome.nl/publicaties/domeinen/07_rui_vog_essay.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV>l)</DIV><BR><A name=9></A>
<DIV>IN BETWEEN INSTITUTION AND MARKET - THE ROLE OF MEDIA ART AND</DIV>
<DIV>INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE ERA OF POST-REGIONAL INTEGRATION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Andrew Lam and Andy Tam</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Andrew H. K. Lam</DIV>
<DIV>Curator and Director</DIV>
<DIV>Hong Kong Museum of Site</DIV>
<DIV>And Chairman</DIV>
<DIV>Cattle Depot Artist Village</DIV>
<DIV>artopia_net [@] yahoo [dot] com</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Andy Tam T. K. </DIV>
<DIV>Performing, Installation, and Media Artist </DIV>
<DIV>Happening Group</DIV>
<DIV>Tel: (852) 9226 4341</DIV>
<DIV>Fax: (852) 2174 8936</DIV>
<DIV>andytams [@] netvigator [dot] com</DIV><BR>
<DIV>KEYWORDS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>media art, infrastructure, Asian media art, post-colonialism,</DIV>
<DIV>Asia alternative space</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ABSTRACT </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The conditions of media art have changed radically over the</DIV>
<DIV>past few years. On the verge of urbanization in Asia, media art</DIV>
<DIV>premieres new platforms, networks and other possibilities, which</DIV>
<DIV>anticipate new modes of city narration, communication and</DIV>
<DIV>consumption. Media art can be in any form from our daily living,</DIV>
<DIV>e.g. television, digital newspaper and on-line magazine etc. It</DIV>
<DIV>is not only the issues about media art as a new tool or as a new</DIV>
<DIV>art form. It is also concerned about social betterment and</DIV>
<DIV>scientific innovation. This was fully illustrated by General</DIV>
<DIV>Electric's familiar "better living through technology" slogan</DIV>
<DIV>in the 1950s. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>As suggested by Trend (2001), technology extends individual</DIV>
<DIV>subjectivity, social relations, and institutional power into</DIV>
<DIV>increasingly ephemeral and elusive dimensions. In most common</DIV>
<DIV>habits, people spend more time with their mobile, televisions,</DIV>
<DIV>and computers, the physicality of experience will be finally</DIV>
<DIV>diminished. These consequences change the nature of the</DIV>
<DIV>commercial world, explicitly including the production and sale</DIV>
<DIV>of goods and services, to move from the material to the</DIV>
<DIV>immaterial (digital form). At the same time, this also provides</DIV>
<DIV>huge benefits and millions in the market. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>This paper aims to project a vision in the relationship between</DIV>
<DIV>the institution and the market, within the framework of the role</DIV>
<DIV>of media art and infrastructure across the Asian continent. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>MEDIA ART/ FREE-MARKET/ MODERNIZATION, ETC </DIV><BR>
<DIV>As a powerful creative and immense force in our daily culture,</DIV>
<DIV>free market brings media art to the public and their living.</DIV>
<DIV>Without an open free market, regional modernization could not be</DIV>
<DIV>completed. To Asian media art, the international free market</DIV>
<DIV>(Westernized) is the only/most/last legitimate system in the</DIV>
<DIV>last phase of globalization. Castells (1993) coined this new</DIV>
<DIV>economy as a global economy, in which capital, production,</DIV>
<DIV>management, markets, labor, information, and technology are</DIV>
<DIV>organized across national boundaries. And competition is played</DIV>
<DIV>out globally, not only by the multi-national corporations, but</DIV>
<DIV>also by small and medium-sized enterprises that connect directly</DIV>
<DIV>and indirectly to the world market through their linkages in the</DIV>
<DIV>networks that relate them to the large firms. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>This also triggers the revolution in information technology. A</DIV>
<DIV>global and informational economy, a new world order, and a new</DIV>
<DIV>international division of labor are instrumental to groom a new</DIV>
<DIV>space that accelerates inter-city synchronization, acculturation</DIV>
<DIV>and finally, revision. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Stepping into the new millennium of post-colonialism, regional</DIV>
<DIV>integration surpasses the speed of globalization in Asia. On the</DIV>
<DIV>mid-ground of dichotomies between war and peace, liberation and</DIV>
<DIV>post-liberation, independence and inter-dependence, cities like</DIV>
<DIV>Quezon, HoChiMinh, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Bandar Seri Begawan,</DIV>
<DIV>Macau, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Singapore,</DIV>
<DIV>Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Okinawa, etc. have been confronting the</DIV>
<DIV>ambivalent (conflicting) crises of epidemic disease, diasporic</DIV>
<DIV>displacement, wreaking havoc, privatized war, ethnic wiping,</DIV>
<DIV>religious persecution, habitation congestion, drug addiction,</DIV>
<DIV>sex and child abuses, freedom and economic exploitation, and</DIV>
<DIV>disappearance of cultural identity, etc. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The military tension and volatile (changing) disputes between</DIV>
<DIV>China and Taiwan, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, and</DIV>
<DIV>Indonesia and East Timor remain unresolved in the Post-Cold War</DIV>
<DIV>era. To tackle the situation, a new creative sphere has been</DIV>
<DIV>mirrored in the trajectories between traditional and modern,</DIV>
<DIV>past and future, east and west, globalization and localization,</DIV>
<DIV>free market and programmed economy, also will be gradually</DIV>
<DIV>emerged and resolved finally. The diversified and alternative</DIV>
<DIV>media art movements in China, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Myanmar,</DIV>
<DIV>and Indonesia shift their landscape to a disguised form, or take</DIV>
<DIV>a resistant aesthetic in whatever means for clandestine</DIV>
<DIV>existence. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>GLOBALIZATION VERSUS LOCALIZATION </DIV><BR>
<DIV>"Think Globally, Act Locally" is a worldwide intellectual</DIV>
<DIV>strategy. There are sample evidences that the Asians at this</DIV>
<DIV>post-integration era, by acting locally, might affect the</DIV>
<DIV>Eurocentric "global" ideal. In the new digital era, the Asian</DIV>
<DIV>spirit, which is self-expressive, bold, direct, D-I-Y, efficient</DIV>
<DIV>and adaptive, is rampant everywhere. Japanese' 'karaoke culture'</DIV>
<DIV>has swept through American bar culture. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>On the contrary, Hollywood, as an icon for commercial world</DIV>
<DIV>culture, has co-opted the "alternative look" of Hong Kong cinema</DIV>
<DIV>in its eclecticism. The acclaimed Pushan Film Festival, Tokyo</DIV>
<DIV>Film Festival and Hong Kong International Film Festival are</DIV>
<DIV>international enchantments. Media entertainment in Korea and</DIV>
<DIV>Japan restructures the global market with a market-oriented</DIV>
<DIV>approach by introducing popular icons and fancy designs with</DIV>
<DIV>budgeted prices. Since 1988 Taipei has attempted to pursue the</DIV>
<DIV>status of a Media Center in Asia, in view of the growing</DIV>
<DIV>economic development in China and Asia. In mainland China, the</DIV>
<DIV>Great Wall is no longer an empty and historic fortress: the</DIV>
<DIV>avant-garde media art in the rising China is well-known. The New</DIV>
<DIV>Media College in Hangzhou as well as the alternative space LOFT</DIV>
<DIV>in Beijing becomes the cradle of media talents. They are</DIV>
<DIV>searching for the emergence of in-between local culture and</DIV>
<DIV>traditional values, western ideology, and revolutionary</DIV>
<DIV>information technology. The works of Korean and Japanese artists</DIV>
<DIV>like Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Meiko Shiomi are now in the</DIV>
<DIV>pages of contemporary art history. They all exemplified Asian</DIV>
<DIV>identity and values a decade ago. Geographically, East and South-</DIV>
<DIV>East Asian art also offers the frame for global interrogation</DIV>
<DIV>and perpetual interaction. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>LASTING ASIA: SOMETHING IS ALWAYS ON </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The disappearance of regional identity in the post-integration</DIV>
<DIV>era is a crucial phenomenon of the rise of "Extreme-</DIV>
<DIV>Individualism" in Asian cities. They commonly desire political</DIV>
<DIV>freedom and economic independence; individual lifestyles are</DIV>
<DIV>natural outcomes of this extreme, which is well represented by</DIV>
<DIV>the outburst of youth culture and experimental media art. In Sai</DIV>
<DIV>Yeung Choi Street South, Hong Kong Media Power of Hong Kong</DIV>
<DIV>organized a social documentary to address social inequalities in</DIV>
<DIV>Hong Kong. In Art-Gu, Dongdaemun-Gu (Seoul), Dong Men</DIV>
<DIV>(Shenzhen), Lan Kwai Fong (Macau), Xin Tian Di (Shanghai), San</DIV>
<DIV>Li Tun (Beijing), Si Mun Ding (Taipei), Boat Quay (Singapore),</DIV>
<DIV>Petronas Twin Towers (Kuala Lumpur), Green Belt (Manila), RCA </DIV>
<DIV>(Bangkok) as well as other areas in Asia, a new creative motive</DIV>
<DIV>between commercial market and media system is emerging. Similar</DIV>
<DIV>to a conglomerate into greater networking, dynamic art villages,</DIV>
<DIV>suburban districts, open cultural spaces, avant-garde art and</DIV>
<DIV>design shops, alternative galleries, renovated industrial</DIV>
<DIV>plants, on-line teahouses, art cafes, D-I-Y forever-beauty</DIV>
<DIV>photography shops, internet check-points, video-on-screening</DIV>
<DIV>shops, TV art channels, on-line cyber war spaces, electronic</DIV>
<DIV>publications, artists' columns on homepages, alternative</DIV>
<DIV>leisure, and education centers as well as other creative spaces</DIV>
<DIV>of entertainments are being developed and settled in recent</DIV>
<DIV>years. The aesthetics of futuristic cities hinges on openness,</DIV>
<DIV>fluidity, density, diversity, dialogue, noises, D-I-Y, etc., and</DIV>
<DIV>is defined as plastic, pluralistic, eclectic, versatile, and</DIV>
<DIV>technology-oriented. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>During the post-integration era, the distinction between center</DIV>
<DIV>and marginal, software and hardware, permanence and temporality,</DIV>
<DIV>working and leisure are all beginning to break down. The</DIV>
<DIV>synchronization of Asian cities thus opens up new media spaces</DIV>
<DIV>and dimensions for everything, including production, commerce,</DIV>
<DIV>transformation of information, art activities, and daily life.</DIV>
<DIV>History does not seem to repeat itself under globalization, yet</DIV>
<DIV>it narrates an incessant story in a local context. The next beta-</DIV>
<DIV>version of "World Alternative Cities" in Asia is an endless,</DIV>
<DIV>timeless, and action-like in a "non-stop" real time entity, as</DIV>
<DIV>witnessed in a Hong Kong to-be-built 24-hour commercial complex.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>POST-MODERN ASIAN AESTHETICS AND MEDIA PUBLICATIONS </DIV><BR>
<DIV>One of the lasting effects of the era of post-regional</DIV>
<DIV>integration is the furthering criticism of modernism. As a</DIV>
<DIV>global product of conceptual idea, Asian media art contributes</DIV>
<DIV>theory-building to modernism [3] and post-modern paradigms in</DIV>
<DIV>particular. In dialogical opposition to Manhattan Modernism, a</DIV>
<DIV>statement of East and South-East Asia media ideology is or could</DIV>
<DIV>be to expose the concealed fractured lines of each respective</DIV>
<DIV>city. The global information flow also contributes to the</DIV>
<DIV>progressive and aggressive growth in media publications in most</DIV>
<DIV>Asian cities. Media and cultural periodicals like CINELINK (Hong</DIV>
<DIV>Kong), Videotape (Hong Kong), E+E (Hong Kong), TOFU (Hong</DIV>
<DIV>Kong), Hong Kong Film Archive Newsletter (Hong Kong), NEXT WAVE</DIV>
<DIV>(Chengdu), Transit (Manila), Vehicle (Singapore), Dandai</DIV>
<DIV>(Taipei), Real Tokyo (<A href="http://www.realtokyo.co.jp/">http://www.realtokyo.co.jp</A>), Art-it</DIV>
<DIV>(<A href="http://www.artit.jp/">http://www.artit.jp/</A>), and Reportage (Sydney) are eminent</DIV>
<DIV>examples, which well illustrate the superficial successes of the</DIV>
<DIV>modern era. For June's special issue, *Leonardo Electronic</DIV>
<DIV>Almanac* invited artists, musicians, academics, researchers,</DIV>
<DIV>practitioners, curators and critics in the field of new media,</DIV>
<DIV>electronic music and digital art practices to submit</DIV>
<DIV>contributions addressing regional strategies, networking</DIV>
<DIV>competence problems and realities in the Asia Pacific cultures.</DIV>
<DIV>These Asian media publications further develop and provide</DIV>
<DIV>critical criticism and new aesthetics through networking global</DIV>
<DIV>culture in a new digital age.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the networking age, as Lovejoy (2004) coined, the world is</DIV>
<DIV>increasingly polycentred (translocal, transcultural, and</DIV>
<DIV>transnational). By the 1990s, social, political, and economic</DIV>
<DIV>infrastructures became reorganized around electronic networks.</DIV>
<DIV>It suggested that media art is not only an art form, but also</DIV>
<DIV>deals with the meaning of cultural confrontations. The new Asian</DIV>
<DIV>aesthetics is independent from modernism and post-modernism. It</DIV>
<DIV>is more dependent on society - dependent on relationships</DIV>
<DIV>between people and not the sole product of any one person - and</DIV>
<DIV>is becoming increasingly important in the shaping of future</DIV>
<DIV>culture. The divestment of authorship is seen as more relevant</DIV>
<DIV>to an emerging culture founded on networks of exchange,</DIV>
<DIV>fluidity, transience, and mutually, as it ultimately offers us</DIV>
<DIV>the prospect of self-organization in personal and interpersonal</DIV>
<DIV>ways (Willats, 2000). It is becoming more invisible in nature. </DIV>
<DIV></DIV><BR>
<DIV>POTENTIAL OF EXISTING FORUMS </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Current conferences like Asian Art Net, City to City Cultural</DIV>
<DIV>Exchange Forum, Conference of Asian Foundation and Organization,</DIV>
<DIV>World Culture Forum Alliance, Asian Pacific Performing Arts</DIV>
<DIV>Network, International Network of Cultural Diversity and Asia</DIV>
<DIV>Europe Cultural Net, and Engaged Art Practice Conference have</DIV>
<DIV>occasionally worked on a different agenda. But they have the</DIV>
<DIV>potential of becoming media networks in Asia.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>M E D I A A S I A </DIV><BR>
<DIV>One of the results of post-regional integration is the re-</DIV>
<DIV>formatting of our media platform. For Asia, the media market is</DIV>
<DIV>now linking up with the new 3G system, 4-channel GSM network,</DIV>
<DIV>GPRS, PC/TV/Net station, satellite transmission and the</DIV>
<DIV>PDA/WAP/WTLS-based, gameboard-MP3 TV Mobile, etc. New</DIV>
<DIV>transmission forms of bluetooth, infrared communication,</DIV>
<DIV>interactive personal, and collective digital media have been</DIV>
<DIV>fully developed in the Asian region. Artists have tried to use</DIV>
<DIV>their domains and contexts to create innovative environments.</DIV>
<DIV>From traditional industrial theatre to institution-based on-line</DIV>
<DIV>cinemas, 3-D cinema, IMAX, OMNIMAX as well as other independent</DIV>
<DIV>film, video and avant-garde Cinerama.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ARTISTS AND WORKS OF ART</DIV><BR>
<DIV>NEW CINEMATOGRAPHY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>With respect to artists' work, there is variegated expansion of</DIV>
<DIV>video-cinematography and creative application of post-production</DIV>
<DIV>software and digital technique as one can see in Chen Chien</DIV>
<DIV>Jen's works, a Taiwan-based artist.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>CROSS-DISCIPLINARY AND CULTURAL APPROACH</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In Bui Cong Khanh and some other Vietnam artists' work, cross-</DIV>
<DIV>disciplinary approach is adopted in diverse art forms and</DIV>
<DIV>exemplifies the deep-rooted Vietnamese traditional culture.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>NON-MATERIAL DISPLAY OF LANGUAGE </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In some videos or film installations, the conventional material</DIV>
<DIV>display of language is converted with a new visual dimension and</DIV>
<DIV>technology to convert a traditional and formalistic art concept.</DIV>
<DIV>One can be seen in the *Body Bush* project of Hay Young (Hong</DIV>
<DIV>Kong) and the City University of Hong Kong, which exemplified an</DIV>
<DIV>action painter's art idea, Jackson Pollard, into a three-</DIV>
<DIV>dimensional and virtual space. Phoebe Man (Hong Kong) applied on-</DIV>
<DIV>line configurations with a virtual reality, interactive</DIV>
<DIV>narration and synchronized multi-sharing technique, and there is</DIV>
<DIV>repetitive mourning of the deaths in the Nanjing Massacre</DIV>
<DIV>through a small video-monitor in a home-like installation by</DIV>
<DIV>James Wong (Hong Kong).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Apart from using video-photographic conventional format by May</DIV>
<DIV>Fung (Hong Kong), there are experiments on CCTV space-travel</DIV>
<DIV>like the internet online projects in Shanghai Biennale 2000, in</DIV>
<DIV>Gwangju Biennale 2003, and in Guangdong Triennale 2003 by</DIV>
<DIV>Chinese Artist Xu Tan. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In *Treasure Hunt*, Yau Ching (Hong Kong) used an interactive</DIV>
<DIV>media installation by using zero monitors, one surveillance</DIV>
<DIV>camera, sensors, and a laser disk player to create a site-</DIV>
<DIV>specific interactive digital media game where the audience could</DIV>
<DIV>see many little images of their own in a very dark space and</DIV>
<DIV>shoot at the monitors with two toy guns. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>VIRTUAL REALITY </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Some others like Anthony Yau (Hong Kong) tried the recreation</DIV>
<DIV>of a virtual space from Hong Kong Historic site, a walled</DIV>
<DIV>village, in terms of an interactive game. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>MULTIPLE SCREENING </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Hung Keung (Hong Kong) used software Director to juxtapose or</DIV>
<DIV>multiple screen in his video in some Hong Kong or international</DIV>
<DIV>shows. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>VIDEO INSTALLATION: 40-MINUTE PROGRAM VIDEO CIRCLE SERIES </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In this media project curated by Zuni's Danny Yung (Hong Kong),</DIV>
<DIV>eight video artists were invited to produce 3-5 minute videos,</DIV>
<DIV>which were screened on 36 monitors and faced inward in a form of</DIV>
<DIV>circle in 1996. Viewers could walk inside the circle or stay</DIV>
<DIV>outside. In either case, it was not possible to see all the</DIV>
<DIV>screens at one time. The artists were asked to explore the</DIV>
<DIV>relationship between time, space and message. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>SYNCHRONIZED VIRTUAL WORLDS </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In some cases, artists like Kwan Ng (Hong Kong) enlarges the</DIV>
<DIV>communication basis of our global consciousness by configuring</DIV>
<DIV>multi-level, 8-channel synchronized virtual worlds, or by</DIV>
<DIV>converting the materiality of the displayed images in a given</DIV>
<DIV>site for installation project. His recent engagement with a</DIV>
<DIV>commercial project by transferring technical media dexterity</DIV>
<DIV>extends the possibility of partnership between the art and</DIV>
<DIV>commercial sectors. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>MEDIA-BASED VIRTUAL THEATRE </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Zuni is the most avant-garde theater company in Hong Kong.</DIV>
<DIV>Their recent project also attempted media-based virtual theatre</DIV>
<DIV>in their MIES project. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>MULTI-LEVEL INTERACTION </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Eric Van Hove's project activates multi-level interaction and</DIV>
<DIV>intervention in different public spaces through photographic</DIV>
<DIV>mobile devices in different platforms and points of views,</DIV>
<DIV>capturing the virtual phenomena in such a diversified plural</DIV>
<DIV>city as Tokyo. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>REVERSION OF MEDIA ENVIRONMENT </DIV><BR>
<DIV>With the advent of new technology, the character of media art</DIV>
<DIV>practices transforms tremendously. Their visual display, in</DIV>
<DIV>turn, would reverse the production and presentation of</DIV>
<DIV>paradigmatic film and the media environment around the globe. </DIV>
<DIV></DIV><BR>
<DIV>MEDIA-BASED HAPPENING </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Hong Kong based art group, Happening Group, has searched</DIV>
<DIV>any possibilities in between media, happening, and site-specific</DIV>
<DIV>installation. It tries to explore the very fundamental issues</DIV>
<DIV>about the human body, aesthetics, local cultures, and</DIV>
<DIV>technology. Its works have exemplified and extended the</DIV>
<DIV>potentiality from materiality to immaterial or even spirituality.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ADAPTATION OF LOCAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN A GLOBAL BUILDING </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Recently, the Hong Kong Bank Headquarters installed hi-tech</DIV>
<DIV>lighting on its 'outskirt', signifying the new era of this world</DIV>
<DIV>local banks' adaptation of new creative media to its late</DIV>
<DIV>modernist building. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>CREATIVE INDUSTRY: THE NEW INSTITUTION AND MARKET FORCE </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The creative industry, as an integral fabric of urban reality,</DIV>
<DIV>should be crucial for a sustainable development of the creative</DIV>
<DIV>environment. The drastic emergence of no fewer than 120 artist-</DIV>
<DIV>run independent spaces in East and South-east Asia, are</DIV>
<DIV>converted from commercial showrooms, café bars cum galleries,</DIV>
<DIV>abandoned industrial warehouses, heritage buildings, studio</DIV>
<DIV>spaces and university cultural centers, etc. They all become new</DIV>
<DIV>city service centers and futuristic sites of cultural</DIV>
<DIV>significance, which help to re-define the local and regional</DIV>
<DIV>media art landscape. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>More spectacular is the phenomenon of artists beginning to</DIV>
<DIV>cluster around powerful art communities in order to join</DIV>
<DIV>creative forces and make things happen! Taiwan (Taipei Art</DIV>
<DIV>Village, Whashang Art District, Nantou International Art</DIV>
<DIV>Village, Warehouse by Railway Scheme, Kio-ATuo Art Village, Nam</DIV>
<DIV>Ying Tsung Yeh Arts & Cultural Center), Hong Kong (Oil Street</DIV>
<DIV>Art Village/Cattle Depot Artist Village; Fotanian), Singapore</DIV>
<DIV>(Singapore Art Village), Quezon City (Big Sky Mind and the</DIV>
<DIV>former Surrounded by Water), Kobe (CAP House). Cultural planners</DIV>
<DIV>strategically incorporate these art villages into their</DIV>
<DIV>patronage systems, thereby diminishing reactive power and</DIV>
<DIV>shaping a more comprehensive cultural policy affecting the</DIV>
<DIV>region. The former Oil Street Art Village, now known as Cattle</DIV>
<DIV>Depot Artist Village (CDAV), which houses five alternative</DIV>
<DIV>spaces and 14 studios, is now prepared to collaborate with the</DIV>
<DIV>Hong Kong Arts Development Council in making this cluster a</DIV>
<DIV>strategic model of global village to experiment creative</DIV>
<DIV>industry. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In East and South-East Asia, media art and market forces do not</DIV>
<DIV>form formal alliances, but there are noted models or strategies</DIV>
<DIV>of co-existence: </DIV><BR>
<DIV>BIG BUSINESS + ART CLUSTER: A NEW ALLIANCE </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The overall characteristic of a new Asia is its pluralism and</DIV>
<DIV>eclecticism. The Videotape in the CDAV will become eclectic, as</DIV>
<DIV>its creative power being alternative will be made adaptive to</DIV>
<DIV>the marketing strategy of enterprises and funding body. On the</DIV>
<DIV>other hand, the official art establishments are obliged to form</DIV>
<DIV>new alliances with media artists and alternative spaces to</DIV>
<DIV>achieve better program support. The conventional top-down</DIV>
<DIV>approach of cultural planning would be scrutinized. In Whashang</DIV>
<DIV>Art District, they brought in rental revenue and broadened the</DIV>
<DIV>audience base by renting its venue to NIKE's NBA Basketball</DIV>
<DIV>Night in 2001 and some media groups for presentations. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>SPACE RE-LOCATION </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Apart from the café bars cum showrooms, some alternative spaces</DIV>
<DIV>like Space Contemporary Art/Gallery 253 in Bangkok are</DIV>
<DIV>strategically located on the adjacent side of a commercial</DIV>
<DIV>gallery. The Pottery Workshop has a space in the Fringe Club</DIV>
<DIV>and the Para/Site Central is a borrowed space from the</DIV>
<DIV>commercial gallery Hanzart II in Hong Kong. Alternative Space</DIV>
<DIV>Bluespace Contemporary Art Centre in HoChiMinh City co-exists as</DIV>
<DIV>a commercial gallery and uses the HoChiMinh Fine Art Museum a</DIV>
<DIV>strategic base for presentation of avant-garde performances and</DIV>
<DIV>installations. The Tadu Contemporary Art is located within the</DIV>
<DIV>bar area of the Royal City Avenue (R.C.A.; Bangkok). Commercial</DIV>
<DIV>galleries, Singapore Art Council, Singapore Heritage Board, as</DIV>
<DIV>well as other cultural organizations in Singapore, also cluster</DIV>
<DIV>in MITA for interdependent development. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>METAMORPHOSIS IN OPERATION </DIV><BR>
<DIV>For political or other reasons, a growing number of alternative</DIV>
<DIV>spaces in the region are being renovated to spaces like</DIV>
<DIV>commercial galleries to disguise their avant-garde programs. Key</DIV>
<DIV>examples such as PKW (Singapore), Top Floor Gallery (Shanghai),</DIV>
<DIV>and Café@National Gallery (Kuala Lumpur) are integral to the</DIV>
<DIV>commercial fabric. While a great many alternative spaces have to</DIV>
<DIV>be self-supporting, or result in closing down their businesses,</DIV>
<DIV>many art groups run their spaces by selling artists' work,</DIV>
<DIV>loaning their premises, or collaborating with the big business</DIV>
<DIV>sector on project basis for rental income or for mutual</DIV>
<DIV>benefits. The trend of metamorphosis could be seen from how</DIV>
<DIV>Whashang Art Village is now being run by Hua Shan Cultural and</DIV>
<DIV>Creative Industry Center, instead of the former artists'</DIV>
<DIV>alliance chaired by Margaret Shu Tan. LOFT, Top Floor Gallery,</DIV>
<DIV>Courtyard Gallery in China also take up commercial strategies to</DIV>
<DIV>support their continued display of political art. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>INFRASTRUCTURAL CHANGE </DIV><BR>
<DIV>With poor educational back-up, the overall art and commercial</DIV>
<DIV>infrastructures in support of art remain fragile in East and</DIV>
<DIV>South-East Asia. Recently, there were organized participations</DIV>
<DIV>in international media events such as World Wide Video Festival,</DIV>
<DIV>well-planned presentation of city-based media festivals</DIV>
<DIV>(MICROWAVE 96-2004-HONGKONG), biennales (MEDIA-CITY Gwangju</DIV>
<DIV>Biennale 2000) and triennials, together with the introduction of</DIV>
<DIV>a well-accountable public funding system to Singapore, Hong</DIV>
<DIV>Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea by the respective</DIV>
<DIV>public bodies. They are not simply results of city</DIV>
<DIV>synchronization. What is spectacular is rather the phenomenal</DIV>
<DIV>outcome of the trans-national and cross-regional competitions in</DIV>
<DIV>the post-integration era especially in the delta zones (the</DIV>
<DIV>Pearl River Delta, the Long River Delta, the Mekong Delta, the</DIV>
<DIV>Yalu Delta, etc.). Another common scene is the systematic</DIV>
<DIV>devolution of power and resource by the central governments to</DIV>
<DIV>the community or the media sector (Video Power HONG KONG), in</DIV>
<DIV>the nurturing of a new working relationship with big businesses.</DIV>
<DIV>This reviews the shift of the European top-down socialist system</DIV>
<DIV>to the American bottom-up market-based operational model of</DIV>
<DIV>media art patronage. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>IN A NUTSHELL </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Regional integration across the region provides grounds for a</DIV>
<DIV>happy marriage of media art and market. The future of such a</DIV>
<DIV>marriage not only consolidates the position of "creative</DIV>
<DIV>industry", it opens up the possibility of fostering a mega power</DIV>
<DIV>- "media arts economy", in which case cultural professionals</DIV>
<DIV>such as developers, planners, architects, art educators,</DIV>
<DIV>environmental designers, web masters, industrialists,</DIV>
<DIV>entrepreneurs, and other media practitioners might take a</DIV>
<DIV>prominent position in the "World Political-Culture", where our</DIV>
<DIV>media art market is one of the envisioning and gearing tools on</DIV>
<DIV>the same pace as socio-economic progression in Asia. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>REFERENCES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>1. As pointed out by Stuart Hall (1986), post-modernism is</DIV>
<DIV>irrevocably Euro- or western centric in its whole episteme and</DIV>
<DIV>modernism was a decisively western phenomenon.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ANDREW H.K. LAM graduated with a BA, MPhil (CUHK), and Cert</DIV>
<DIV>(Catab). He is the Curator and Director of Hong Kong Museum of</DIV>
<DIV>Site, and Chairman of the Cattle Depot Artist Village. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Based in Shenzhen, Hongkong, Andrew is also the Curator of Hong</DIV>
<DIV>Kong Museum of Medical Sciences; Spokesman, Cultural Affairs,</DIV>
<DIV>the Democratic Party (HK); and Arts Advisor, Hong Kong Arts</DIV>
<DIV>Development Council, Hong Kong, China.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>He curated the Hong Kong Installation Art Festival in 1994 and</DIV>
<DIV>1995, Sovereignty & Beyond: Video From Chinese Artist</DIV>
<DIV>International Festival 1999 and 2000, and UP-ricing,</DIV>
<DIV>International Video and Performance Touring Program 2001. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Andrew was also involved in art writing and paper presentation</DIV>
<DIV>in ARCO International Art Expert Forum 2004, Madrid, SWIFT,</DIV>
<DIV>Media Conference 2004, Chiangmai, Theater Education Conference</DIV>
<DIV>2004, Seoul, ChineseArt.Com, 2003, Pause, Gwangju Biennale 2002,</DIV>
<DIV>Cang Xin in Sydney Biennale 2002, Beijing Contemporary Art,</DIV>
<DIV>2002, CUPPING 1997, Pushan, Taiwan Art 99, Variant, 21st Century</DIV>
<DIV>Art Forum, Kaoshung 2003, In-between Space Symposium, Hong Kong</DIV>
<DIV>2002, and Chinese Art Documentary Exhibition, Shanghai 1994</DIV><BR>
<DIV>He is researching and curating a media project entitled *Delta</DIV>
<DIV>Crisis*, which addresses cultural issues besetting delta zones</DIV>
<DIV>after regional integration. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ANDY TAM T. K. has an MA (Wimbledon) and MEd (HKOU).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>He was primarily trained in art/ design and education in Hong</DIV>
<DIV>Kong and London respectively. Currently he is teaching various</DIV>
<DIV>institutions in Hong Kong, mainly in the subject of art/ design,</DIV>
<DIV>theatre, and child psychology. He is also an active practitioner</DIV>
<DIV>in performing, installation, and media. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>His works of art are versatile and exhibited across Asian</DIV>
<DIV>cities, for example, in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing, HoChiMinh,</DIV>
<DIV>Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. His main research is focused on the</DIV>
<DIV>aspects of performance/ installation/ media art / media</DIV>
<DIV>aesthetics. He is also a chairperson of an interdisciplinary</DIV>
<DIV>arts group, Happening Group, which promotes art and theatre</DIV>
<DIV>education.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><A name=10></A>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ONE FROM THE VAULT: FROM THE LEA ARCHIVES</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>MOLTEN MEDIA AND THE INFILTRATION OF THE LAW</DIV>
<DIV>First published: (LEA 3:6), June 1995</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/TEXT/Vol_2/lea_v3_n06.txt">http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/TEXT/Vol_2/lea_v3_n06.txt</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Curtis E.A. Karnow</DIV>
<DIV>karnow [@] cup [dot] portal [dot] com</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The legal system infiltrates technology, like a thin mist</DIV>
<DIV>seeping under the door, staining it and turning technology into</DIV>
<DIV>a different animal. Programmers wonder if the code they write</DIV>
<DIV>was patented by someone else. Graphics loose their innocence,</DIV>
<DIV>and look like trademarks, trade names, and logos; they have that</DIV>
<DIV>old "look and feel" of someone else's product. Trademark law</DIV>
<DIV>reaches out its sticky hand to embrace color, sound, the overall</DIV>
<DIV>appearance of every product and packaging on the market.</DIV>
<DIV>Copyright law hovers like a specter, infecting every line of</DIV>
<DIV>code, every data structure, every animation, every sound,</DIV>
<DIV>graphic and screen layout.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>And while this law spreads, it thins out, too. The types of</DIV>
<DIV>properties that the law protects now were unknown just a few</DIV>
<DIV>decades ago. There is an unreality to the transient audio-visual</DIV>
<DIV>image, an insubstantiality to a user interface. There is</DIV>
<DIV>something very peculiar about patenting a three dimensional</DIV>
<DIV>cursor or a software retrieval system. Surely these are created</DIV>
<DIV>things, to be protected from theft, but most judges are</DIV>
<DIV>reluctant to tread too heavily here. These judges remember</DIV>
<DIV>"property" as tangible land, gold, cattle; this new stuff looks</DIV>
<DIV>ephemeral. Judges have a hard time giving a user interface the</DIV>
<DIV>same absolute, exclusive, protection provided to a house, a car,</DIV>
<DIV>or money.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>So the law expands its reach to govern the development of</DIV>
<DIV>advanced technologies, but at the same time its touch grows more</DIV>
<DIV>hesitant and uncertain. It is like an omnipotent Imperium in</DIV>
<DIV>nominal control of vast territories - every movement of the</DIV>
<DIV>inhabitants may be the subject of Imperial decree, but none</DIV>
<DIV>knows which actions, precisely, will invoke the Imperial</DIV>
<DIV>attention. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>This note discusses the apparent paradox of comprehensive but</DIV>
<DIV>uncertain protection for intellectual property, and the</DIV>
<DIV>consequences for companies engaged in high tech development.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>[THIS TEXT CAN BE VIEWED IN ITS ENTIRETY BY LEA/LEONARDO</DIV>
<DIV>SUBSCRIBERS AT: <A href="http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-">http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-</A></DIV>
<DIV>journals/LEA/archive.html]</DIV><BR><A name=11></A>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO REVIEWS</DIV>
<DIV>2005.6</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>This month Leonardo Reviews introduces a new panel member,</DIV>
<DIV>David Beer with his reflections on Tia DeNora's book, After</DIV>
<DIV>Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology. Currently researching in the</DIV>
<DIV>University of York, UK, Beer has published on social aspects of</DIV>
<DIV>digital technology. Jan Baetens is also featured here this month</DIV>
<DIV>as another of our newer members who has already made a</DIV>
<DIV>significant contribution to the Leonardo Reviews project. His</DIV>
<DIV>review of Jose van Dijk's book on medical imaging based on an</DIV>
<DIV>advance copy sent to Leonardo Reviews means we are able to</DIV>
<DIV>synchronise with the publication date. Staying with the</DIV>
<DIV>biological, Eugene Thacker's review of Liminal Lives: Imagining</DIV>
<DIV>the Human at the Frontiers of Bioscience completes the featured</DIV>
<DIV>reviews. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>On-line of course is the complete posting for the month as well</DIV>
<DIV>as the archive (<A href="http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu/">http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu</A>). If you would</DIV>
<DIV>like to receive advance notice of our upcoming postings please</DIV>
<DIV>contact me and I will make sure that you are added to our</DIV>
<DIV>monthly mailing list.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Michael Punt</DIV>
<DIV>Editor-in-Chief</DIV>
<DIV>Leonardo Reviews</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV><BR>
<DIV>REVIEWS POSTED MAY 2005</DIV><BR>
<DIV>After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology</DIV>
<DIV>by Tia DeNora</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by David Beer</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Charlotte: Life or Theatre</DIV>
<DIV>by Richard Dindo</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed</DIV>
<DIV>by Jared Diamond</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by George Gessert</DIV><BR>
<DIV>2nd Filmmuseum Biennale</DIV>
<DIV>Digital Technologies Meet Early Cinema</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Martha Blassnigg</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Hoover: The Fishing President</DIV>
<DIV>by Hal Elliott Wert</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Keeping It Real</DIV>
<DIV>by Sunny Bergman</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of Bioscience</DIV>
<DIV>by Susan Merrill Squier</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Eugene Thacker</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Looking Into Pictures: An Interdisciplinary Approach to</DIV>
<DIV>Pictorial Space</DIV>
<DIV>by Heiko Hecht, Robert Schwartz, and Margaret Atherton (Eds.)</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Fred Andersson</DIV><BR>
<DIV>La planète hyper. De la pensée linéaire à la pensée en arabesque</DIV>
<DIV>by Hervé Fischer</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Rise of Fashion: A Reader</DIV>
<DIV>by Daniel Leonhard Purdy (Ed.)</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Robert Smithson</DIV>
<DIV>by Eugenie Tsai (Ed.)</DIV>
<DIV>and</DIV>
<DIV>Robert Smithson: Learning from New Jersey and Elsewhere</DIV>
<DIV>by Ann Reynolds</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Amy Ione</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Stuff It: The Video Essay in the Digital Age</DIV>
<DIV>by Ursula Biemann (Ed.)</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Dene Grigar</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research; V. 1, N. 1,</DIV>
<DIV>2, & 3</DIV>
<DIV>by Roy Ascott (Ed.)</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Jan Baetens</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Wells, Renoir</DIV>
<DIV>by Irving Singer</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of Medical Imaging</DIV>
<DIV>by Jose Van Dijck</DIV>
<DIV>Reviewed by Jan Baetens</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV>AFTER ADORNO: RETHINKING MUSIC SOCIOLOGY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Tia DeNora</DIV>
<DIV>Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003</DIV>
<DIV>192 pp. illus. 12 b/w. Trade, £42.50; Paper, £15.99</DIV>
<DIV>ISBN:0-521-53724-X; ISBN: 0-521-83025-7.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Reviewed by David Beer</DIV>
<DIV>University of York and York St John College</DIV>
<DIV>david [dot] beer [@] britishlibrary [dot] net</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The writings of Theodor Adorno often attract fairly firm</DIV>
<DIV>criticism. His work is often dismissed on the grounds of its</DIV>
<DIV>deterministic, curmudgeonly, or elitist nature. This criticism</DIV>
<DIV>has perhaps snowballed as these dominant critical readings have</DIV>
<DIV>become increasingly ingrained in contemporary social theory.</DIV>
<DIV>With this in mind, it is perhaps surprising to find that in much</DIV>
<DIV>of the recent literature on popular music, music technology,</DIV>
<DIV>and, in the case of DeNora's work, music in everyday life, the</DIV>
<DIV>critique and application of Adorno's work has taken centre stage</DIV>
<DIV>in the development of new approaches and theoretical frameworks.</DIV>
<DIV>We have now reached a point, as foreseen by DeNora, where a</DIV>
<DIV>reappraisal of Adorno's legacy has become near essential for the</DIV>
<DIV>future of the sociology of music, and, more broadly, I would</DIV>
<DIV>argue, for a sociology of technology and culture.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Often, close readings of Adorno's work uncover new dimensions</DIV>
<DIV>and new intricacies that contradict both his own writings and</DIV>
<DIV>these dominant readings of his work. The contradictions inherent</DIV>
<DIV>within Adorno's work, and between dominant readings of his work,</DIV>
<DIV>make the construction of monological or totalising</DIV>
<DIV>interpretations extremely problematic.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In this text DeNora is concerned with reconsidering Adorno's</DIV>
<DIV>work by formulating a detailed critique of his theoretical</DIV>
<DIV>conceptualisations and then attempting to apply these within</DIV>
<DIV>empirical research practices. The objective of which is to</DIV>
<DIV>overcome the problems that DeNora identifies in Adorno's work,</DIV>
<DIV>which are, first, that he theorises on a level that is too</DIV>
<DIV>general, and, second, that his work is abstract and does not</DIV>
<DIV>attempt to access music in the everyday day lives of the</DIV>
<DIV>listener. The angle that DeNora is adopting here could well have</DIV>
<DIV>descended into an unconstrained celebration of Adorno's</DIV>
<DIV>failings. However, DeNora treats Adorno's work with a great deal</DIV>
<DIV>of care. Her critical evaluations of his work do not overly</DIV>
<DIV>dwell upon the perceived problems. Rather Adorno's work is used</DIV>
<DIV>here as a point of departure for a reassessment of DeNora's own</DIV>
<DIV>research projects. The problem that DeNora inevitably encounters</DIV>
<DIV>is that as she moves toward an analysis of her own data she</DIV>
<DIV>tends to leave Adorno behind. As a result the text feels like it</DIV>
<DIV>is constructed around two poles. On one side, we find the</DIV>
<DIV>abstract, the theory, and the concept; on the other, we find the</DIV>
<DIV>microscopic analysis, the case study, and the analysis of music</DIV>
<DIV>in people's everyday lives. I would suggest that this is an</DIV>
<DIV>almost insurmountable problem, because, as it seems clear from a</DIV>
<DIV>reading of DeNora's text, Adorno did not intend for his writings</DIV>
<DIV>to be used in this type of research. DeNora must, therefore, be</DIV>
<DIV>offered a good deal of credit for facilitating such a successful</DIV>
<DIV>empirical application of Adorno's work, a practice that is</DIV>
<DIV>tantamount to inserting a square peg in a round hole.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>With this aside, and perhaps ignoring Adorno's own attempts at</DIV>
<DIV>empirical research - in his analysis of the symphony on the</DIV>
<DIV>radio or the opera on the long playing record - DeNora has</DIV>
<DIV>constructed a valuable text that, through the critical</DIV>
<DIV>evaluation of Adorno's writings, has created a pragmatic</DIV>
<DIV>reference point for the study of music, and for the study of the</DIV>
<DIV>ways in which music effects, either passively or actively,</DIV>
<DIV>people's everyday lives. This is not an easily obtainable</DIV>
<DIV>objective. Music is one of those black boxes, those hidden</DIV>
<DIV>elements, those concealed practices and cultural forms, that</DIV>
<DIV>cannot be illuminated without small scale case studies of the</DIV>
<DIV>type used by DeNora.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Overall, this is an interesting text that creates a variety of</DIV>
<DIV>opportunities for future research. The development of further</DIV>
<DIV>understandings of the ways in which music is appropriated in the</DIV>
<DIV>reflexive stimulation of memory and emotions is one amongst a</DIV>
<DIV>set of opportunities that emerge from a reading of this text.</DIV>
<DIV>However, I would like to suggest that the next step requires a</DIV>
<DIV>detailed critique of DeNora's approach, and of the empirical</DIV>
<DIV>techniques that form the foundation of the text, so that the</DIV>
<DIV>strategy of *critique and application* adopted by DeNora is</DIV>
<DIV>reflected back upon *After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology*.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>THE TRANSPARENT BODY: A CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL IMAGING</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Jose Van Dijck</DIV>
<DIV>University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA, 2005</DIV>
<DIV>208 pp., 20 illus. Paper, $24.95</DIV>
<DIV>ISBN: 0-295-98490-2.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Reviewed by Jan Baetens</DIV>
<DIV>KU Leuven</DIV>
<DIV>Faculty of Arts</DIV>
<DIV>Blijde Inkomst 21</DIV>
<DIV>B-3000 Leuven, Belgium</DIV>
<DIV>jan [dot] baetens [@] arts [dot] kuleuven [dot] ac [dot] be</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In the endlessly growing field of studies on the representation</DIV>
<DIV>of the body, Jose Van Dijck's book on medical imaging should be</DIV>
<DIV>welcomed for more than one reason. Written from the triple</DIV>
<DIV>background of literary studies, cultural studies, and science</DIV>
<DIV>studies (more specifically the SCOT or social construction of</DIV>
<DIV>technology-approach), The Transparent Body offers in a sense the</DIV>
<DIV>best of both worlds: on the one hand a series of seducing and</DIV>
<DIV>astute close readings of very concrete and highly diverse</DIV>
<DIV>cultural artefacts such as Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, the</DIV>
<DIV>classic science fiction film The Fantastic Voyage, or the</DIV>
<DIV>plastinated cadavers of the touring exhibition Bodyworlds, and</DIV>
<DIV>on the other hand an over-all theory of the way medical imaging</DIV>
<DIV>techniques such as X rays, endoscopy, or ultrasound imaging of</DIV>
<DIV>foetuses interact with cultural interpretations and reuses of</DIV>
<DIV>these techniques outside the medical world.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In seven concise and well-illustrated chapters, Jose Van Dijck</DIV>
<DIV>accomplishes the tour de force, first, to introduce her readers</DIV>
<DIV>to the (pre)history of the most currently applied technical of</DIV>
<DIV>medical imaging and their social representations; second, to</DIV>
<DIV>explain their main issues and stakes on a technical as well as</DIV>
<DIV>on an ethical and ideological level; third, to relate these</DIV>
<DIV>techniques to a broad set of cultural longing, hopes, fears,</DIV>
<DIV>(mis)understandings, and reconstructions. Following the basic</DIV>
<DIV>claims of the SCOT-approach, which already informed her two</DIV>
<DIV>previous books (Imagenation: Popular Genetics and Manufacturing</DIV>
<DIV>Babies and Public Consent: Debating the New Reproductive</DIV>
<DIV>Technologies), Van Dijck demonstrates the dialectical</DIV>
<DIV>relationship of society and technology, each of them</DIV>
<DIV>constructing, misconstructing, and reconstructing each other.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The major qualities of this book are rooted first of all in its</DIV>
<DIV>acute awareness of the very historicity of representation. If</DIV>
<DIV>The Transparent Body is much more than a work of cultural</DIV>
<DIV>studies, it is not only because it exhibits through a thorough</DIV>
<DIV>knowledge of the technologies involved in medical imaging, but</DIV>
<DIV>also because of the attention paid to the historical frameworks</DIV>
<DIV>that surround the invention and the use of specific techniques.</DIV>
<DIV>The Transparent Body is, hence, also a media history of medical</DIV>
<DIV>imaging, and the reader can only feel grateful for the clarity</DIV>
<DIV>of the author's journey through modern Western representational</DIV>
<DIV>techniques inside and outside medicine.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In order to avoid information overkill as well as the</DIV>
<DIV>temptation of overwhelming generalizations, Van Dijck has</DIV>
<DIV>rightly decided not to propose one single history, however. Each</DIV>
<DIV>chapter focuses neatly on one specific medical imaging</DIV>
<DIV>technique, following a simple but very efficient triadic scheme:</DIV>
<DIV>a historical introduction, a close reading of a particularly</DIV>
<DIV>well-chosen case study, a political reflection on the</DIV>
<DIV>contemporary cultural interpretations and implications of the</DIV>
<DIV>given technique. Although not necessarily presented in this</DIV>
<DIV>order, this schema provides the reader with an exemplarily</DIV>
<DIV>didactic framework that does never prevent the author from</DIV>
<DIV>giving many original insights on the phenomena studied.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The real pleasure the reader takes from this book is yet not</DIV>
<DIV>only intellectual. It should be stressed that Van Dijck's style</DIV>
<DIV>has a kind of elegance that has become too rare in current</DIV>
<DIV>scholarship. The Transparent Body displays from its very first</DIV>
<DIV>to its very last sentence a real sense of rhythm, of wit, of</DIV>
<DIV>rhetorical devices, a perfect balance of theory and anecdote, a</DIV>
<DIV>sound feeling of how to dispatch information without ever giving</DIV>
<DIV>the impression of being too slow or too fast, and finally a</DIV>
<DIV>strong moral and political commitment (yes, this is style too!).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Together with the wonderfully rich range of objects treated,</DIV>
<DIV>all these qualities make *The Transparent Body* a fascinating</DIV>
<DIV>book for all readers eager to learn about a crucial aspect of</DIV>
<DIV>their daily life and the technological culture that is</DIV>
<DIV>impregnating their body.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LIMINAL LIVES: IMAGINING THE HUMAN AT THE FRONTIERS OF BIOSCIENCE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Susan Merrill Squier</DIV>
<DIV>Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2004</DIV>
<DIV>368 pp., illus. 41 b/w. Trade, $84.95; paper, $23.95</DIV>
<DIV>ISBN 0-8223-3381-3; ISBN: 0-8223-3366-X.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Reviewed by Eugene Thacker</DIV>
<DIV>School of Literature, Communication, and Culture</DIV>
<DIV>Georgia Institute of Technology</DIV>
<DIV>Atlanta, GA. 30332-0165</DIV>
<DIV>U.S.A.</DIV>
<DIV>eugene [dot] thacker [@] lcc [dot] gatech [dot] edu</DIV><BR>
<DIV>"Biotechnology" is a strange term. Does it denote a set of</DIV>
<DIV>scientific practices (e.g. cloning, genetic engineering), an</DIV>
<DIV>array of new technologies (e.g. gene sequencing machines,</DIV>
<DIV>artificial wombs), a research field that produces particular</DIV>
<DIV>kinds of knowledge (e.g. including genomics, proteomics), a</DIV>
<DIV>discipline linked to institutions and industry, or is it simply</DIV>
<DIV>something that is, in the most relativistic way (e.g. farming,</DIV>
<DIV>breeding, fermentation), isomorphic with human civilization</DIV>
<DIV>itself? Today, in an era in which "twice dead" human beings kept</DIV>
<DIV>alive by medical technologies make news headlines, an era in</DIV>
<DIV>which individual cells with the capacity for regeneration</DIV>
<DIV>polemicize political elections - biotechnology seems to be at</DIV>
<DIV>once the most visible and yet the least legible aspects of</DIV>
<DIV>technologically-advanced cultures. We "see" biotechnology</DIV>
<DIV>everywhere, even in science fiction, cartoons, and TV</DIV>
<DIV>commercials, and yet its pervasive visibility always seems to</DIV>
<DIV>point to its inherent illegibility as a specialised discourse.</DIV>
<DIV>In a nutshell: You, the average consumer, are free to try</DIV>
<DIV>Celebrex, but this is always on the condition that you first</DIV>
<DIV>"ask your doctor" for more information.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Susan Merrill Squier's book *Liminal Lives* is a welcome</DIV>
<DIV>intervention in this cultural landscape. Her book takes a look</DIV>
<DIV>at the inescapably biocultural aspects of new medical</DIV>
<DIV>technologies, from stem cell research, to new reproductive</DIV>
<DIV>technologies, to regenerative medicine. But, Squier does not</DIV>
<DIV>simply take these scientific fields as self-evident; her method</DIV>
<DIV>is to consider how a multiplicity of narratives, metaphors, and</DIV>
<DIV>imagery are an inseparable part of how "life itself" is</DIV>
<DIV>recontextualized and redefined. Squier's book combines</DIV>
<DIV>approaches from literary studies, feminist science studies, the</DIV>
<DIV>history of medicine, and cultural analyses of gender, age, and</DIV>
<DIV>the practice of science fiction. Her analyses are not simply the</DIV>
<DIV>scientific fields in themselves, but the variable lenses through</DIV>
<DIV>which science co-emergence with culture. Thus biotechnology</DIV>
<DIV>cartoons, poem-writing scientists, science fiction from *Amazing</DIV>
<DIV>Stories*, anatomical art, and a storytelling seminar for those</DIV>
<DIV>living with Alzheimer's are all part of her "biomedical</DIV>
<DIV>imaginary". The focus of *Liminal Lives* is, as Squier notes,</DIV>
<DIV>"in the ways literature and science collaborate on, and contest,</DIV>
<DIV>a new vision of human life" (p. 3). Squier's approach is welcome</DIV>
<DIV>because it asks us to carefully not distinguish between</DIV>
<DIV>"narrative" as a practice exclusive to literature or film.</DIV>
<DIV>*Liminal Lives* prompts us to consider the ways in which</DIV>
<DIV>"science fiction" is a verb, and not simply a literary or film</DIV>
<DIV>genre. "Science fictioning" would therefore be a way of</DIV>
<DIV>understanding a practice in which the very relation between</DIV>
<DIV>medicine and culture, science and fiction is constantly</DIV>
<DIV>expressed, reflected, distorted, and worked through. This</DIV>
<DIV>science fictioning is, by turns, melodramatic, ironic, critical,</DIV>
<DIV>playful, and above all performative.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The concept Squier develops to describe this negotiated zone is</DIV>
<DIV>the "liminal life": "those beings marginal to human life who</DIV>
<DIV>hold rich potential for our ongoing biomedical negotiations</DIV>
<DIV>with, and interventions in, the paradigmatic life crises: birth,</DIV>
<DIV>growth, aging, and death" (p. 9). The liminal life is the life</DIV>
<DIV>that is at once biological and more-than-biological (legal,</DIV>
<DIV>ethical, cultural, economic), the life that is at once unmoored</DIV>
<DIV>from the determinism of age and death and yet redetermined via a</DIV>
<DIV>host of medical interventions, the life that hovers between</DIV>
<DIV>being unbelievable and yet everyday. Squier's chapters consider</DIV>
<DIV>a kind of "liminal life span," ranging from stem cells, to</DIV>
<DIV>tissue cultures, to hybrid embryos, to organ transplantation, to</DIV>
<DIV>the 'rejuvenate' and finally to the idea of "regenerative</DIV>
<DIV>medicine" and renewable life. Above all, the concept of the</DIV>
<DIV>liminal life points to the way in which we are all liminal</DIV>
<DIV>lives, and this is indeed one of the broader effects of Squier's</DIV>
<DIV>book. Certainly there is a sense in which "biotechnology" is</DIV>
<DIV>inevitably abstract, surreal, and "science fictional." Yet, at</DIV>
<DIV>the same time, biotechnology is also narrated in many different</DIV>
<DIV>ways outside of the so-called specialist discourses, and popular</DIV>
<DIV>culture is one domain in which this is especially true.</DIV>
<DIV>Furthermore, each of us is also a "virtual" patient, a medical</DIV>
<DIV>subject in potentiality, and we exist in some relation to the</DIV>
<DIV>everyday, even banal, reality of health insurance, diet,</DIV>
<DIV>fitness, visits to the doctor, reproduction, aging, prescription</DIV>
<DIV>drugs, "medical" TV shows, and a broader "care of the self"</DIV>
<DIV>contextualized by this intersection between medicine and culture.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><A name=12></A>
<DIV>LEONARDO JOURNAL</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO, VOL. 38, NO. 4 (AUGUST 2005) - </DIV>
<DIV>TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SELECTED ABSTRACTS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>EDITORIAL</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Sheila Pinkel: Expanding the Mandate ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>ARTISTS' STATEMENTS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Leo Contini: The Anasculpture - An Alternative to Visual</DIV>
<DIV>Perception ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Wayne Dunkley: Creating Space: Web Art Practice ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>SPECIAL SECTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< College Art Association Papers ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Edward A. Shanken: Special Section Introduction: Artists in</DIV>
<DIV>Industry and the Academy: Interdisciplinary Research</DIV>
<DIV>Collaborations ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Julio Bermúdez, Jim Agutter, Stefano Foresti, Dwayne</DIV>
<DIV>Westenskow, Noah Syroid, Frank Drews and Elizabeth Tashjian:</DIV>
<DIV>Between Art, Science and Technology: Data Representation</DIV>
<DIV>Architecture ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Ruth West, Jeff Burke, Cheryl Kerfeld, Eitan Mendelowitz,</DIV>
<DIV>Thomas Holton, J.P. Lewis, Ethan Drucker and Weihong Y an: Both</DIV>
<DIV>and Neither: *in silico* v1.0, *Ecce Homology* ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Dana Plautz: New Ideas Emerge When Collaboration Occurs ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Rebecca Allen: The Emergence Project: *The Bush Soul* ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Greg Niemeyer: *PING*: Poetic Charge and Technical</DIV>
<DIV>Implementation ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Bill Seaman: The Hybrid Invention Generator ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Victoria Vesna and James Gimzewski: *NANO*: An Exhibition of</DIV>
<DIV>Scale and Senses ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Vibeke Sorensen: Global Visual Music Jam Project ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>SPECIAL SECTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< ArtScience: The Essential Connection ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Robert Root-Bernstein: Desmond Morris's Two Spheres ></DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Tamar Schlick: The Critical Collaboration Between Art and</DIV>
<DIV>Science: *An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump* and the</DIV>
<DIV>Ramifications of Genomics for Society ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>GENERAL ARTICLE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Eduardo Reck Miranda and Andrew Brouse: Interfacing the Brain</DIV>
<DIV>Directly with Musical Systems: On Developing Systems for Making</DIV>
<DIV>Music with Brain Signals ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>GENERAL NOTE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Norbert Krüger and Florentin Wörgötter: Symbolic Pointillism:</DIV>
<DIV>Computer Art Motivated by Human Brain Structures ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Elisa Giaccardi: Metadesign as an Emergent Design Culture ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO REVIEWS</DIV>
<DIV>Reviews by René Beekman, Roy R. Behrens, Andrea Dahlberg, Dene</DIV>
<DIV>Grigar, Rob Harle, Coral Houtman, Amy Ione, Mike Leggett, Robert</DIV>
<DIV>Pepperell, Michael Punt, Stefaan Van Ryssen</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>COMMENTARY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>< Bulat Galeyev: Are "Cognitive Fossils" Significant for Art</DIV>
<DIV>Studies of Synesthesia in Normal and Abnormal Cases ></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO 38:4 - ABSTRACTS</DIV>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SPECIAL SECTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>BETWEEN ART, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: DATA REPRESENTATION</DIV>
<DIV>ARCHITECTURE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Julio Bermúdez, Jim Agutter, Stefano Foresti, Dwayne</DIV>
<DIV>Westenskow, Noah Syroid, Frank Drews and Elizabeth Tashjian</DIV><BR>
<DIV>As our civilization continues to dive deeper into the</DIV>
<DIV>information age, making sense of complex data becomes critical.</DIV>
<DIV>This work takes on this challenge by means of a novel method</DIV>
<DIV>based on complete interdisciplinarity, design process and built-</DIV>
<DIV>in evaluations. The result is the design, construction, testing</DIV>
<DIV>and deployment of data environments supporting real-time</DIV>
<DIV>decision-making in such diverse domains as anesthesiology and</DIV>
<DIV>live art performance. Fundraising success, technology licensing,</DIV>
<DIV>market implementation and many live art performances provide</DIV>
<DIV>evidence of the great potential of committed interdisciplinary</DIV>
<DIV>work for advancing science, art and technology while benefiting</DIV>
<DIV>society at large. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SPECIAL SECTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>BOTH AND NEITHER: *IN SILICO* V1.0, ECCE HOMOLOGY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Ruth West, Jeff Burke, Cheryl Kerfeld, Eitan Mendelowitz,</DIV>
<DIV>Thomas Holton, J.P. Lewis, Ethan Drucker and Weihong Yan</DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Ecce Homology*, a physically interactive new-media work,</DIV>
<DIV>visualizes genetic data as calligraphic forms. A novel computer-</DIV>
<DIV>vision user interface allows multiple participants, through</DIV>
<DIV>their movement in the installation space, to select genes from</DIV>
<DIV>the human genome for visualizing the Basic Local Alignment</DIV>
<DIV>Search Tool (BLAST), a primary algorithm in comparative</DIV>
<DIV>genomics. *Ecce Homology* was successfully installed in the UCLA</DIV>
<DIV>Fowler Museum, 6 November 2003 - 4 January 2004. *in silico</DIV>
<DIV>v1.0* is a collaboration composed of eight artists and</DIV>
<DIV>scientists representing bioinformatics, computer science,</DIV>
<DIV>engineering, molecular biology, performance, proteomics and new</DIV>
<DIV>media. The authors are developing *Ecce Homology* through this</DIV>
<DIV>collaboration.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SPECIAL SECTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>NEW IDEAS EMERGE WHEN COLLABORATION OCCURS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Dana Plautz</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This paper provides some examples demonstrating the value for</DIV>
<DIV>industry of funding and working with artists on research</DIV>
<DIV>projects. It discusses how art research and industry can</DIV>
<DIV>mutually benefit from working together at the research and</DIV>
<DIV>development level. While artistic practice has long been</DIV>
<DIV>recognized for its innovation and creativity, the potential of</DIV>
<DIV>artistic research and the collaborative nature of artistic</DIV>
<DIV>practice are currently underutilized by high-tech industry.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SPECIAL SECTION</DIV><BR>
<DIV>THE CRITICAL COLLABORATION BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE: *AN</DIV>
<DIV>EXPERIMENT ON A BIRD IN THE AIR PUMP* AND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF</DIV>
<DIV>GENOMICS FOR SOCIETY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Tamar Schlick</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Inspired by a famous 18th century painting by Joseph Wright,</DIV>
<DIV>the author discerns similarities between issues relevant then</DIV>
<DIV>and the public's current reception of scientific ideas from</DIV>
<DIV>modern biology in the wake of the Human Genome Project. She</DIV>
<DIV>proposes educational and scientific initiatives and advocates</DIV>
<DIV>more positive and balanced portrayals of scientific themes in</DIV>
<DIV>the arts to help engage the public in a discourse about the</DIV>
<DIV>ramifications of genomics science and technology for our lives.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>GENERAL ARTICLE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>INTERFACING THE BRAIN DIRECTLY WITH MUSICAL SYSTEMS: ON</DIV>
<DIV>DEVELOPING SYSTEMS FOR MAKING MUSIC WITH BRAIN SIGNALS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Eduardo Reck Miranda and Andrew Brouse</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The authors discuss their work on developing technology to</DIV>
<DIV>interface the brain directly with music systems, a field of</DIV>
<DIV>research generally known as Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI).</DIV>
<DIV>The paper gives a brief background of BCI in general and surveys</DIV>
<DIV>various attempts at musical BCI, or Brain-Computer Music</DIV>
<DIV>Interface (BCMI) - systems designed to make music from brain</DIV>
<DIV>signals, or *brainwaves*. The authors present a technical</DIV>
<DIV>introduction to the electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures</DIV>
<DIV>brainwaves detected by electrodes placed directly on the scalp.</DIV>
<DIV>They introduce approaches to the design of BCI and BCMI systems</DIV>
<DIV>and present two case study systems of their own design: the BCMI-</DIV>
<DIV>Piano and the InterHarmonium.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>GENERAL NOTE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SYMBOLIC POINTILLISM: COMPUTER ART MOTIVATED BY HUMAN BRAIN</DIV>
<DIV>STRUCTURES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Norbert Krüger and Florentin Wörgötter</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The authors introduce a new kind of computer art motivated by</DIV>
<DIV>cortical structures in the human visual system. This type of</DIV>
<DIV>computer art is related to the sub-group of the impressionist</DIV>
<DIV>art movement called pointillism. However, while pointillism</DIV>
<DIV>visualizes and makes use of processes that have been associated</DIV>
<DIV>with the human eye, Symbolic Pointillism also makes cortical</DIV>
<DIV>processes explicit. The visual representations underlying this</DIV>
<DIV>art have been developed during a project that aims at the</DIV>
<DIV>transfer of functional aspects of human vision to artificial</DIV>
<DIV>systems. The authors have applied their findings in such an</DIV>
<DIV>artificial vision system and in a sound/vision installation.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>METADESIGN AS AN EMERGENT DESIGN CULTURE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Elisa Giaccardi</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The concept of metadesign was adopted in the 1980s regarding</DIV>
<DIV>the use of information technologies in relation to art, cultural</DIV>
<DIV>theories and design practices (from interactive art to</DIV>
<DIV>biotechnological design). This article introduces theories and</DIV>
<DIV>practices of metadesign and contributes to the unfolding of</DIV>
<DIV>metadesign as an emergent design culture, calling for an</DIV>
<DIV>expansion of the creative process in the new design space</DIV>
<DIV>engendered by information technologies.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><A name=13></A>
<DIV>ISAST NEWS</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>*LEONARDO* EDITORIAL OFFICE MOVES TO SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE</DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Leonardo's* San Francisco editorial office is moving! The new</DIV>
<DIV>office space, on the main campus of the San Francisco Art</DIV>
<DIV>Institute (SFAI) in the North Beach neighborhood of San</DIV>
<DIV>Francisco, is part of a partnership secured this spring between</DIV>
<DIV>*Leonardo* and SFAI.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The partnership includes internships for Art Institute</DIV>
<DIV>students, collaborations on lecture series and symposia, and</DIV>
<DIV>other joint endeavors still under consideration.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>As of 9 July 2005 the new address for the *Leonardo* editorial</DIV>
<DIV>office will be:</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Leonardo/ISAST</DIV>
<DIV>c/o SFAI</DIV>
<DIV>800 Chestnut Street</DIV>
<DIV>San Francisco, CA 94133</DIV>
<DIV>U.S.A.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>BRAINSTORMING FOR *LEONARDO'S* 40TH ANNIVERSARY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>*Leonardo* was conceived in Paris in 1966 and the first issue</DIV>
<DIV>was born in 1968. The rest is history - or rather the rest is</DIV>
<DIV>future!</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The *Leonardo* team is interested in ideas and input on how</DIV>
<DIV>best to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2006/2007/2008.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Celebrations will begin around ISEA 2006 in San Jose,</DIV>
<DIV>California as they are co-organizing the Pacific Rim New Media</DIV>
<DIV>Summit that will take place there.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Leonardo/ISAST Governing Board of Directors will begin</DIV>
<DIV>thinking and discussing at the Board of Directors meeting in</DIV>
<DIV>August 2005. Please email your ideas or proposals by 2 August</DIV>
<DIV>2005 to:</DIV>
<DIV>isast [@] leonardo [dot] info.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO@SIGGRAPH TOWN HALL MEETING</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Roger Malina, Leonardo/ISAST chair, and Pamela Grant-Ryan,</DIV>
<DIV>*Leonardo* Managing Editor, invite all members of the *Leonardo*</DIV>
<DIV>organization and all those interested in the intersection of the</DIV>
<DIV>arts, sciences and technology to join us for an open meeting to</DIV>
<DIV>discuss current *Leonardo* projects and future directions. The</DIV>
<DIV>meeting will take place at SIGGRAPH, on Wednesday, 3 August</DIV>
<DIV>2005, from 4 to 6 p.m. This meeting is open to anyone interested</DIV>
<DIV>in meeting with members of *Leonardo* boards, committees and</DIV>
<DIV>projects.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>We will also officially award the 2005 Frank J. Malina Leonardo</DIV>
<DIV>Lifetime Achievement Award to pioneering Brazilian artist</DIV>
<DIV>Abraham Palatnik. Beginning in the 1940s, Palatnik played a key</DIV>
<DIV>role in the Brazilian art scene by bringing to pictorial art the</DIV>
<DIV>potential of light and motion in time and space. Since that</DIV>
<DIV>time, Palatnik has continued to explore the fusion of art,</DIV>
<DIV>science and technology in creative ways, and he is still</DIV>
<DIV>actively working on the conception and production of new art</DIV>
<DIV>forms.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS COORDINATOR: Kathleen Quillian</DIV>
<DIV>isast [@] leonardo [dot] info</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>THE PACIFIC RIM NEW MEDIA SUMMIT (PRNMS)</DIV>
<DIV>A PRE-SYMPOSIUM TO ISEA2006</DIV>
<DIV>7-8 August 2006, San Jose, California</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The ISEA2006 Symposium is being held in conjunction with the</DIV>
<DIV>first biennial ZeroOne San Jose Global Festival for Art on the</DIV>
<DIV>Edge in San Jose, California, 5--13 August 2006. As part of the</DIV>
<DIV>ISEA2006 Symposium, the CADRE Laboratory for New Media at San</DIV>
<DIV>Jose State University will host a 2-day pre-symposium entitled</DIV>
<DIV>the *Pacific Rim New Media Summit*, co-sponsored by Leonardo.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>With a purview encompassing all states and nations that border</DIV>
<DIV>the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Rim New Media Summit is intended</DIV>
<DIV>to explore and build interpretive bridges between institutional,</DIV>
<DIV>corporate, social and cultural enterprises, with an emphasis on</DIV>
<DIV>the emergence of new media arts programs. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>In preparation for the summit, seven working groups are</DIV>
<DIV>currently laying the groundwork for the main areas of</DIV>
<DIV>investigation to be pursued in depth at the summit: Creative</DIV>
<DIV>Community, Curatorial, Education, Directory, Eco-Social</DIV>
<DIV>Activism, Mobile Computing and Urbanity, and Latin American-</DIV>
<DIV>Pacific/Asia New Media. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Following is another statement from one of the working group</DIV>
<DIV>chairs, in the continuation of our ongoing series as a build-up</DIV>
<DIV>to the conference. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>PRNMS WORKING GROUP ON ORGANIZATIONS/SYMPOSIA-PACIFIC RIM</DIV>
<DIV>RESIDENCIES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Julianne Pierce, Organizations Chair</DIV>
<DIV>Executive Director</DIV>
<DIV>Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)</DIV>
<DIV>julianne [@] anat [dot] org [dot] au</DIV><BR>
<DIV>SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Residency and exchange programs, networks and formal structures</DIV>
<DIV>support the ability for practitioners, curators, writers and</DIV>
<DIV>academics to meet with each other, create new work and develop</DIV>
<DIV>new ideas. This panel aims to research and gather data on what</DIV>
<DIV>programs are in place across the Pacific Rim region. To what</DIV>
<DIV>extent are these networks, organizations and programs already in</DIV>
<DIV>dialogue with each other? What possibilities are there to create</DIV>
<DIV>new connections and forge new relationships? This international</DIV>
<DIV>working group looks at shared programming, residencies,</DIV>
<DIV>exhibition and research opportunities.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>GROUP MEMBERS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Julianne Pierce (Australia)- julianne [@] anat [dot] org [dot] au</DIV>
<DIV>Executive Director</DIV>
<DIV>Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Kim Machan (Australia) - kim [@] maap [dot] org [dot] au</DIV>
<DIV>She has worked in the area of contemporary art, nationally and</DIV>
<DIV>internationally, for the past 18 years as curator, arts producer</DIV>
<DIV>and consultant. She is the founding Director of MAAP (Multimedia</DIV>
<DIV>Art Asia Pacific).</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Zhang Ga(USA) - z [@] apiece [dot] net></DIV>
<DIV>He is an artist and director of the Netart Initiative, a</DIV>
<DIV>loosely knit, open source-based, hub-styled, forum-oriented,</DIV>
<DIV>action-enabled consortium. In 2004, he was the Artistic Director</DIV>
<DIV>of the First Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition and</DIV>
<DIV>Symposium, a two-year-long project he initiated and co-organized</DIV>
<DIV>with Prof. Lu Xiaobo, vice dean of the Academy of Arts and</DIV>
<DIV>Design, Tsinghua University.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Shuddha Sengupta (India)- shuddha [@] sarai [dot] net></DIV>
<DIV>Shuddha is a member of the RAQs Collective and is a founder of</DIV>
<DIV>Sarai, a space for research, practice and conversation about the</DIV>
<DIV>contemporary media and urban constellations in New Delhi.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Gridthiya 'Jeab' Gaweewong (Thailand) - gg304 [@] yahoo [dot]</DIV>
<DIV>com></DIV>
<DIV>She received her MA in Arts Administration from the School of</DIV>
<DIV>the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. She is co-founder and</DIV>
<DIV>director of "Project 304", a non-profit art space based in</DIV>
<DIV>Bangkok, focusing on multidisciplinary and cross-cultural</DIV>
<DIV>contemporary art projects by local and international artists.</DIV>
<DIV>Gridthiya Gaweewong's is very much interested in working with</DIV>
<DIV>regional and international networking and on collaborative art</DIV>
<DIV>projects.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>BYTES</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>***** CALL FOR PAPERS *****</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL 16 (2006)</DIV>
<DIV>NOISES OFF - SOUND BEYOND MUSIC</DIV><BR>
<DIV>These days sound is more than just music. Museums, galleries</DIV>
<DIV>and artists' studios are getting noisier: it's not that there is</DIV>
<DIV>so much more "Sound Art," but rather that so much more art has</DIV>
<DIV>sound. Cellphone ringtones generated four billion dollars in</DIV>
<DIV>sales worldwide in 2004. Incoming email and outgoing popcorn</DIV>
<DIV>announce themselves with plops and gongs and boops and beeps -</DIV>
<DIV>the emerging field of "sonification" addresses this</DIV>
<DIV>proliferation of all these "earcons" and other representational</DIV>
<DIV>uses of sound. Sound design is a vital part of Hollywood films</DIV>
<DIV>and computer games. While CD sales shrink with the proliferation</DIV>
<DIV>of peer-to-peer file exchange, the creative use of sound is</DIV>
<DIV>expanding in almost every other part of our lives.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>For the next issue of Leonardo Music Journal we invite papers</DIV>
<DIV>on the expanded role of sound in art, science, business and</DIV>
<DIV>everyday life. Topics could include (but are not limited to):</DIV>
<DIV>audio art, radio art, phonography; sound design for video, film,</DIV>
<DIV>and gaming; the role of sound in performance art, theatre,</DIV>
<DIV>dance; sonificitation; architectural acoustics; instrument</DIV>
<DIV>design.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>DEADLINES</DIV><BR>
<DIV>15 October 2005 - Rough proposals, queries</DIV>
<DIV>1 January 2006 - Submission of finished article</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Address inquiries to Nicolas Collins, Editor-in-Chief, at:</DIV>
<DIV>ncollins [@] artic [dot] edu.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Finished articles should be sent to the LMJ Editorial Office at</DIV>
<DIV>lmj [@] leonardo [dot] info.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Editorial guidelines and information for authors can be found</DIV>
<DIV>on our Information for Authors page.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Note: LMJ is a peer-reviewed journal. All manuscripts are</DIV>
<DIV>reviewed by LMJ editors, editorial board members and/or members</DIV>
<DIV>of the LMJ community prior to acceptance.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>***** CALL FOR PAPERS *****</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LEONARDO ABSTRACT SERVICE (LABS)</DIV><BR>
<DIV>LABS is seeking PhD, Masters and MFA thesis abstracts for its</DIV>
<DIV>next publication cycle. Authors of theses interested in having</DIV>
<DIV>their thesis abstract considered for publication should fill out</DIV>
<DIV>the Thesis Abstract Submittal form at: </DIV><BR>
<DIV><A href="http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu/">http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu</A> </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Deadline for submission is 15 June 2005. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>What is LABS? LABS is a comprehensive database of Ph.D, Masters</DIV>
<DIV>and MFA thesis abstracts in the emerging intersection between</DIV>
<DIV>art, science and technology. Individuals receiving advanced</DIV>
<DIV>degrees in the arts (visual, sound, performance, text), computer</DIV>
<DIV>sciences, the sciences and/or technology, which in some way</DIV>
<DIV>investigate philosophical, historical, or critical applications</DIV>
<DIV>of science or technology to the arts, are invited to submit an</DIV>
<DIV>abstract of their thesis for publication consideration in this</DIV>
<DIV>database. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The LABS project does not seek to duplicate existing thesis</DIV>
<DIV>databases but rather to give visibility to interdisciplinary</DIV>
<DIV>work that is often hard to retrieve from existing databases. The</DIV>
<DIV>abstracts are available online at Pomona College, </DIV>
<DIV>Claremont, California, so that interested persons can access</DIV>
<DIV>them at no cost. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>The English language peer review panel for 2004/2005 are Pau</DIV>
<DIV>Alsina, Jody Berland, Sean Cubitt, Frieder Nake, Sheila Pinkel</DIV>
<DIV>and Stephen Petersen. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL - DIGITAL PRINTS</DIV><BR>
<DIV>New York Hall of Science Juried Exhibition - DIGITAL'05: "E X</DIV>
<DIV>Q U I S I T E" is the 7th Annual International Digital Print</DIV>
<DIV>Competition & Exhibition organized by Art & Science</DIV>
<DIV>Collaborations. It will be held from 1 October 2005 - 15 January</DIV>
<DIV>2006 at The New York Hall of Science, NYC. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Digital'05 invites an examination of the nature of "exquisite"</DIV>
<DIV>in all of its ramifications. This year's juror is Lynn Gamwell,</DIV>
<DIV>Director of the Binghamton University Art Museum, Binghamton,</DIV>
<DIV>New York, and Curator of the Gallery of Art and Science at the</DIV>
<DIV>New York Academy of Sciences, New York City. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>There will be a fee of $5.00 per image submission. The online</DIV>
<DIV>entry form can be found at <A href="http://www.asci.org/artikel685.html">http://www.asci.org/artikel685.html</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>Deadline: 1 August 2005</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV><BR>
<DIV>JACQUES MANDELBROJT AT THE 17TH ANNUAL EARAGAIL ARTS FESTIVAL</DIV><BR>
<DIV>With Letterkenny Arts Centre and the Glebe Gallery, Earagail</DIV>
<DIV>Arts Festival in Donegal, Ireland presents a series of unique</DIV>
<DIV>exhibitions on the theme of "Time" exploring the relationship</DIV>
<DIV>between art and science in the Centenary of Einstein's Theory of</DIV>
<DIV>Relativity, and coinciding with the United Nations Year of</DIV>
<DIV>Science. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Instigated by Jacques Mandelbrojt, a highly regarded Marseille-</DIV>
<DIV>based painter and physicist in collaboration with Roger Malina,</DIV>
<DIV>editor *Leonardo* magazine and chair of Berkeley's Physics</DIV>
<DIV>Department it presents arts/science explorations in several</DIV>
<DIV>locations, and is the first retrospective exhibition of</DIV>
<DIV>Mandelbrojt's work.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>This exhibition covers two distinct periods in Mandelbrojt's</DIV>
<DIV>artistic career. The first covers the years 1943 - 1970 and</DIV>
<DIV>traces his development from figurative landscape paintings of</DIV>
<DIV>Brittany and Provence inspired by Cézanne, to more abstract</DIV>
<DIV>works. The second exhibition focuses on Mandelbrojt's more</DIV>
<DIV>recent work from 1989 - 2005. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>He conceives his paintings as mental images and then paints</DIV>
<DIV>swiftly with no going back (just as time doesn't reverse). "Time</DIV>
<DIV>is an essential element of my paintings hence a natural</DIV>
<DIV>encounter with music, the art of time."</DIV><BR>
<DIV>TIME</DIV>
<DIV>Paintings by Jacques Mandelbrojt (1943- 1970)</DIV>
<DIV>Date: 4 July - 12 August 2005</DIV>
<DIV>Time: Mon - Fri 10am - 4.30pm Sat 1 - 4.30pm</DIV>
<DIV>Also open on 10 and 17 July 2pm - 4.30pm</DIV>
<DIV>Venue: Donegal County Museum Letterkenny</DIV>
<DIV>FREE ENTRY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Paintings by Jacques Mandelbrojt (1989 - 2005)</DIV>
<DIV>Date: 4 July - 19 August 2005</DIV>
<DIV>Time: Tues - Fri 10.30am - 5pm, Sat 10.30am - 1pm</DIV>
<DIV>(Also open 4-17 July every day 10.30am - 5.30pm)</DIV>
<DIV>Venue: Letterkenny Arts Centre Central Library</DIV>
<DIV>FREE ENTRY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Festival proper runs from 4-17 July 2005. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>For more information, visit <A href="http://www.mandelbrojt.com/">http://www.mandelbrojt.com</A> and</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.eaf.ie/">http://www.eaf.ie</A></DIV><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><A name=14></A>
<DIV>OBITUARY</DIV>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>INSPIRED BY THE STARS AND EARTH: JOAN BRASSIL, ARTIST, TEACHER,</DIV>
<DIV>MENTOR 1919-2005</DIV><BR>
<DIV>by Jill Sykes</DIV><BR>
<DIV>KEYWORDS </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Joan Brassil, The Breath of Psyche, Australian artist</DIV><BR>
<DIV>ABSTRACT</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Australian Joan Brassil passes away. Her exhibition history is</DIV>
<DIV>impressive, spanning over three decades but most notably in</DIV>
<DIV>1981, she participated in the first Australian Sculpture</DIV>
<DIV>Trienniale in Melbourne, as well as participating in Perspecta,</DIV>
<DIV>Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney in 1985. More recently the Museum of</DIV>
<DIV>Contemporary Art, Sydney curated a retrospective exhibition of</DIV>
<DIV>her work, "Liquid Sea" in 2003. Joan also has a Doctorate of</DIV>
<DIV>Creative Arts from Wollongong University, Australia.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>_____________________________</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB></X-TAB></DIV><BR>
<DIV>Joan Brassil, who has died at 85, was an artist of unique</DIV>
<DIV>character and singular talents. She was enigmatic about some</DIV>
<DIV>things, unequivocally direct about others. She could seem</DIV>
<DIV>detached yet her focus was always sharp, intellectually and</DIV>
<DIV>emotionally.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Her art was not the sort that hangs on walls and brings high</DIV>
<DIV>prices at auction. She created sculptures and installations that</DIV>
<DIV>explored many ideas. Leaf litter - collected from her bush</DIV>
<DIV>studio in the artists' colony at Wedderburn, on the fringe of</DIV>
<DIV>Sydney - rocks and moss might be lined up with cores of diorite</DIV>
<DIV>rock from the depths of the Earth and a sophisticated array of</DIV>
<DIV>electronic equipment to express esoteric concepts.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>"Deceptively simple and yet utterly confounding" was the</DIV>
<DIV>description given to one of her installations, *The Breath of</DIV>
<DIV>Psyche*, by Dr Susan Best, senior lecturer in in art at the</DIV>
<DIV>University of NSW. It sums up Brassil's work: its physical</DIV>
<DIV>elements accessible but its meaning an invigorating intellectual</DIV>
<DIV>challenge.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Brassil embraced technology as she sought the help of</DIV>
<DIV>scientists to capture the sound of dead stars singing - pulsars</DIV>
<DIV>recorded at the Parkes radio telescope - and the sound of</DIV>
<DIV>whistlers picked up by satellite. Her research involved</DIV>
<DIV>mathematicians, musicians, farmers and dancers.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>In an interview for the *Herald* in 1995, she said: "You always</DIV>
<DIV>know a lot of remarkable people. If you are working</DIV>
<DIV>holistically, you must consult a wide range of people in varying</DIV>
<DIV>disciplines. All you have to say is, 'What are you doing?' and</DIV>
<DIV>they always tell me and I like to continue the song. We all</DIV>
<DIV>leave our voices in the minds of others."</DIV><BR>
<DIV>One of the scientists who worked on projects with Brassil,</DIV>
<DIV>Stewart Whittlestone, had been in her art class at high school.</DIV>
<DIV>"Utterly hopeless," he says of his artistic skills. But as an</DIV>
<DIV>adult who had "a long association with radio activity", he was</DIV>
<DIV>ideally qualified to help her when she ventured into the cosmos</DIV>
<DIV>in the early 1980s.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>"It was great to work with an artist who wanted to understand</DIV>
<DIV>science," he says. "It was my task to get the scientific</DIV>
<DIV>integrity into it. This was an installation about cosmic rays,</DIV>
<DIV>so we said, let's have some real cosmic rays. I got some</DIV>
<DIV>obsolete Geiger tubes." It was the start of Brassil's</DIV>
<DIV>fascination for randomness and a long association with</DIV>
<DIV>Whittlestone.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Another scientific collaborator, the late Brian Robinson, wrote</DIV>
<DIV>of her in 1999: "There are similarities between Joan's creative</DIV>
<DIV>process and my own as an astronomer. There is a common link in</DIV>
<DIV>sharp observation, imaginative interpretation, leaps beyond</DIV>
<DIV>established dogma. She grasps the underlying significance of</DIV>
<DIV>some new idea, while I am still groping around for</DIV>
<DIV>understanding." He referred to her "insatiable curiosity" and a</DIV>
<DIV>comment from her about the process of research: "It's good fun,</DIV>
<DIV>isn't it? Deeply resonant fun." </DIV><BR>
<DIV>"Why not?" was one of Brassil's characteristic remarks. It</DIV>
<DIV>answered suggestions as different as meeting for a coffee,</DIV>
<DIV>launching into a new project or going into the Australian</DIV>
<DIV>desert, which she loved to do - taking a video camera and</DIV>
<DIV>gathering thoughts for the poems that accompanied her</DIV>
<DIV>installations. She was a treasured travelling companion for her</DIV>
<DIV>clarity of observations and opinions.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Brassil's career as</DIV>
<DIV>an artist was that she didn't take it up as a full-time</DIV>
<DIV>occupation until she was 55. As a young widow, she had brought</DIV>
<DIV>up her two sons by teaching art, mostly at Campbelltown High</DIV>
<DIV>School. She always talked about serendipity in her life: one of</DIV>
<DIV>those moments was when the school told her with immense regret</DIV>
<DIV>that new regulations meant she wasn't fully qualified for her</DIV>
<DIV>job - the same week she was offered a studio to work in.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>She exhibited at the Bonython Gallery, the Sculpture Centre and</DIV>
<DIV>the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, plus venues from Tokyo and Tuscany to</DIV>
<DIV>Wollongong and Orange. Her work has been featured in the</DIV>
<DIV>Biennale of Sydney, Perspecta, the Adelaide Festival, in</DIV>
<DIV>Melbourne, at the Art Gallery of NSW and Museum of Contemporary</DIV>
<DIV>Art.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The Campbelltown Arts Centre was her beloved local gallery,</DIV>
<DIV>venue for temporary installations and a permanent work.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>By the end of her life, Brassil had added the qualifications of</DIV>
<DIV>a doctorate in creative arts from Wollongong University, an</DIV>
<DIV>honorary doctorate from the College of Fine Arts, University of</DIV>
<DIV>NSW, and an Order of Australia honour (AM), art awards and</DIV>
<DIV>grants, as well as high esteem from the top echelons of art in</DIV>
<DIV>Australia.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>The head curator of international art at the Art Gallery of</DIV>
<DIV>NSW, Tony Bond, recalls how she "leapt from sophisticated craft</DIV>
<DIV>objects to high technology. Although she was fascinated by the</DIV>
<DIV>technology, she was always poetic in her application of it.</DIV>
<DIV>There was that mysterious quality about her: she sort of wafted</DIV>
<DIV>through the world. But in creating work, she was fiercely in</DIV>
<DIV>control."</DIV><BR>
<DIV>She never lost her exceptional ability to nurture people's</DIV>
<DIV>talents. The actress Heather Mitchell, whose family was close to</DIV>
<DIV>hers, recalls "her incredible insight into people's gifts. It</DIV>
<DIV>didn't have to have anything to do with the arts. She knew how</DIV>
<DIV>to pinpoint it and how to celebrate it, reminding people of</DIV>
<DIV>their strengths. She once wrote me a card saying 'You have a</DIV>
<DIV>gift of unstinted giving' - at the age of 11. I still have that</DIV>
<DIV>card."</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Russell Dumas, choreographer and director of Dance Exchange,</DIV>
<DIV>would discuss ideas and concepts with Brassil. "She was very</DIV>
<DIV>fair. It wasn't that she avoided saying difficult things.</DIV>
<DIV>Somehow she managed to get you to think you had thought about it</DIV>
<DIV>yourself."</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Artist Robyn Backen says: "Joan was a really great</DIV>
<DIV>inspirational colleague. She was always there, always thinking</DIV>
<DIV>and always interested. She was always able to find the positive -</DIV>
<DIV>but also a great criticality. 'I like your work, we must talk,'</DIV>
<DIV>she would say in these floaty tones, as if she was hovering</DIV>
<DIV>above Earth. And the way she answered the phone, her 'Good</DIV>
<DIV>morning' meant 'I am here and I am here for you."'</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Brassil is survived by her son Greg, an art teacher, and his</DIV>
<DIV>sons Liam - who has a fine arts degree - and Owen, who has taken</DIV>
<DIV>up the skills of his great-grandfather as trumpet player and</DIV>
<DIV>stonemason. Her other grandchildren are Patrick, a chef, and</DIV>
<DIV>Tony, who works in the mining industry; their father, Peter,</DIV>
<DIV>predeceased her.</DIV><BR>
<DIV>First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia (10 May</DIV>
<DIV>2005)</DIV>
<DIV>URL: <A href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/Obituaries/Inspired-by-the-">http://www.smh.com.au/news/Obituaries/Inspired-by-the-</A></DIV>
<DIV>stars-and-earth/2005/05/09/1115584907017.html?oneclick=true</DIV><BR>
<DIV>AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Jill Sykes is a freelance arts writer, dance critic for the</DIV>
<DIV>Herald, editor of Look for the Art Gallery Society at the Art</DIV>
<DIV>Gallery of NSW.</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>________________________________________________________________</DIV><BR><A name=15></A>
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