<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 15, Number 9 - 10, 2007<br><a href="http://leoalmanac.org/">http://leoalmanac.org</a><br>ISSN #1071-4391<br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p><br>LEONARDO REVIEWS <br>----------------</p>
<p>< Introduction by Michael Punt ></p>
<p>< Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and<br>Seeing by Technical Means by Siegfried Zielinski, Gloria<br>Custance > reviewed by Sean Cubitt</p>
<p>< From Technological to Virtual Art by Frank Popper > reviewed<br>by Amy Ione </p>
<p>< Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater,<br>Dance, Performance Art, and Installation by Steve Dixon ><br>reviewed by Dene Grigar </p>
<p>< Leonardo Reviews, August 2007 ></p>
<p><br>LEONARDO<br>--------</p>
<p>< Table of Contents: Leonardo Vol. 40, No. 4, 2007 ></p>
<p><br>LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS<br>---------------------</p>
<p>< Leonardo/OLATS Awards the Leonardo-EMS Award for Excellence<br>to criticalartware ></p>
<p>< MutaMorphosis Conference Speakers Announced ></p>
<p>< Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) opens new Chinese language<br>database ></p>
<p><br>BYTES<br>-----</p>
<p>< Digital Humanities Chair Position available at Dartmouth<br>College ></p>
<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>LEONARDO REVIEWS, August 2007<br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Judging by the current publishing trend we are all fast<br>approaching middle age or even our dotage: by all, I mean those<br>of us who participated in the secessionist hey days of 'media<br>art' and thought that art, perception, and the world would be
<br>changed by new technologies. Now we know, at least from the<br>three MIT publications highlighted in Leonardo Reviews here,<br>that nothing changes. After the brief wild party, the historians<br>have come in to sweep up the pieces into a sensible heap. This
<br>is not to decry writing history, an enterprise that I hope I<br>also have contributed to. It is merely to point out that at<br>least as far as publishing in the field of science, art and<br>technology is concerned it is about time to quietly abandon the
<br>word 'new' when we talk of media - even when it is willfully<br>confused with technology.</p>
<p>The three featured reviews below identify distinct historical<br>methods for conceptualizing the relationship between art and<br>those technologies that some choose to call media. Our reviewers<br>collectively address this topic and their dialogue sets up the
<br>debate about how future histories are to be written. Histories<br>in which the assumptions, parallelisms and the tenuous<br>associations of coincidence of populist writing are replaced by<br>the rigor of researchers trained to avoid the seductions of
<br>their own rhetoric.</p>
<p>Not only in these three reviews but also throughout the recent<br>postings at <a href="http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/books.html">http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/books.html</a> the<br>maturation of our practices, discussions and reflections
<br>concerning the intersection of art, science and technology is<br>increasingly evident. We hope that the early warning radar of<br>this trend will be reflected in our future reviews for the<br>benefit of the<br>Leonardo community
</p>
<p>Michael Punt<br>Editor-in-Chief<br>Leonardo Reviews</p>
<p>< Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and<br>Seeing by Technical Means by Siegfried Zielinski, Gloria<br>Custance > reviewed by Sean Cubitt</p>
<p>Siegfried Zielinski offers a new take on the long history of<br>media technologies, taking his readers on a tour of forgotten<br>archives and forgotten innovators. Familiar names appear, among<br>them a fascinating repositioning of Athanasius Kircher. By
<br>refusing to accept the normative histories, Zielinski recovers a<br>lost trajectory that involves a long tradition of magical and<br>quasi-rational thought from Empedocles to the Illuminati and,<br>thence, to the late 19th century reinvention of time. Among
<br>those recovered from obscurity are Giovan Battista Della Porta,<br>Purkyne, Lombroso and the extraordinary Aleksej Kapitanovich<br>Gastev. In his conclusion, Zielinski not only draws together the<br>legacy of Ramon Llull, but proposes a new cartography of media
<br>'anarcheology', whose centres are no longer London, Paris,<br>Berlin and New York but Petersburg, Prague and places south and<br>east. It is a marvelous book in the most literal sense of the<br>word, and a wonderful read in its own right, quite apart from
<br>the scholarship and the revelation of new trajectories for media<br>historiography. One reason for this is that the book opens onto<br>a landscape of strangely familiar if obscure beauty: the history<br>of the magical tradition as an intellectual pathway now left in
<br>darkness, but once a shining path for intellectual and<br>technological enquiry.</p>
<p>Zielinski's passion for the hermetic tradition steers clear of<br>the worst excesses of Jungian mysticism while recalling the<br>line, from Robert Fludd to Vilém Flusser, that situates a<br>history of media in the gnostic tradition in Western Europe. He
<br>reminds us that Newton's dark obsession with alchemy is of a<br>piece with his physics and optics; and that Copernicus is as<br>much the heir of Pico della Mirandola's solar worship as he is<br>the ancestor of scientific rationalism. It is an attractive
<br>thought, that right knowing of material science sails so close<br>to the perennial philosophy; and that however materialist this<br>history is, it addresses, if only by rejection, the repressed<br>chronotope of the eternal wisdom.
</p>
<p>What has always repelled materialists from the hermetic<br>tradition is not its whimsy but on the contrary the solemnity<br>with which its priesthood has historically erected ever more<br>complex cathedrals of theodicy and theogeny on the intuition
<br>that something 'more' inhabits, locates and frames the givenness<br>of the world. It is sad therefore to note that materialism has<br>often - though not universally - eschewed any address to the<br>sacred. By this I do not mean that materialism in any way fails
<br>for lack of a theology, nor that the sacred forms some<br>ontological ground on which the material world is more deeply<br>founded. Rather, what has been often lacking is a commitment to<br>understanding that affect which we recognise under the rubric of
<br>sacredness, an elevation beyond not merely the instinctual but<br>also the intellectual pleasures, a yearning apart from the<br>desire for justice, peace and plenty for all. Since the term<br>sacred has, moreover, been tainted by centuries of mouthing in
<br>institutions that have done little for justice, peace or plenty,<br>we need another term, one that might displace the materialist<br>reluctance to address affect in general and this affect in<br>particular. I propose a mediological enquiry into the nature of
<br>wonder, a task admirably launched by Zielinski's book.</p>
<p>Quite properly Zielinski calls this tradition 'magic'. It is<br>hard nowadays not to evoke Arthur C Clarke's dictum that any<br>sufficiently advanced technology appears as magic. What neither<br>Clarke nor Zielinski undertake is an analysis of the curiously
<br>braided destinies of magic and familiarity. As Don Ihde<br>observes, technologies that at their invention appear magical<br>can, with widespread adoption, become 'embedded' and<br>transparent, as signs written in one's native language are
<br>transparent. Embedded technologies like television, once<br>marvellous, become the invisible vehicles of messages whose<br>mediation we notice only when the machinery breaks down. The<br>braiding of magic and the mundane occurs when familiarity breeds
<br>contentment. The internet is a case in point. Early adopters not<br>only found the technology marvellous: we found it interesting.<br>The early adopter generation tended to be computer literate, at<br>least at the level of understanding (and wondering at) the
<br>processes of packet switching, the efficacy of html, even the<br>duplicity of cookie technology. But for the internet generation<br>who grew up with them, these marvels are the more truly magical<br>because they are not understood. Comprehension of how the net
<br>works is today a specialist discipline, or the domain of nerds,<br>and while nerds command a higher degree of peer respect than in<br>previous generations, their knowledge is regarded as arcane, and<br>only its instrumental use in problem solving genuinely prized.
<br>For the rest, the web, e-mail, IRC are apparitions whose arrival<br>might as well be the result of angels fluttering in Intel Core<br>Duos as of the massive infrastructure of satellites, fibre-<br>optics, domain name servers and internet access points.
</p>
<p>Not only does this leave internet governance at the mercy of<br>cultures of expertise; nor merely open the doors to the exercise<br>of power through control of code and protocol. It can also be<br>damned for condemning us to good-enough solutions, like web-safe
<br>colours. At the same time, this state of affairs echoes with the<br>same magical apparatuses that Zielinski points us towards. The<br>difference is that while embedded internet appears without<br>explanation or the need for it, it rarely evokes the sense of
<br>wonder that Zielinski's protagonists and their audiences so<br>graphically experienced. It is a task - perhaps preliminary, but<br>vital - of critical enquiry to restore that sense of wonder in<br>the face of technologies that have become banal.
</p>
<p>There is a further refinement required to the concepts of the<br>hermetic tradition and of magic that such a project requires.<br>Hermeticism's reliance on correspondences - on similarities held<br>to embody a deeper linkage between phenomena at some
<br>metaphysical level - has a tendency to proliferate connections,<br>drawing ragged collocations of words, numbers and things into<br>mystic configurations. Pilloried by Umberto Eco in his novels,<br>and defended as the root of radical (and contemporary) art
<br>practice by Barbara Maria Stafford, the practice of analogy can<br>be as ludicrous as it is illuminating. Critical studies of<br>technology seeking to induce a sense of the strangeness of their<br>objects need to be alert to both the poetic affordances of
<br>analogy and its capacity for mystification. The methodological<br>brush with magic reminds us that the world still has surprises<br>in store for us. Should the word 'surprise' seem too redolent of<br>fairground attractions, Tom Gunning has taught us that this is
<br>no bad thing. If we are to retain our capacity for amazement, we<br>have to remain open to the chance encounter of the sewing<br>machine and the umbrella stand on the operating table. If this<br>encounter explains nothing, we must place it alongside more
<br>licit engines of interpretation which, it appears, increasingly<br>can offer only approximations, intimations, abstractions of or<br>from reality. Fractal geometry, the uncertainty principle,<br>string theory all move away from claims to describe nature and
<br>natural processes. Without abandoning the claim to some kind of<br>relation to reality, such theoretical and mathematical models no<br>longer offer one-to-one transcriptions of the real. The relation<br>is neither one of utter deracination nor of simulacra lacking an
<br>original. On the contrary, such expressions mediate between<br>reality and ourselves using processes that often enough arise<br>equally from natural and artificial domains. Zielinski's book<br>traces processes of mediation that have found some material form
<br>that would allow some mode of conformation or congruence between<br>terms. His achievement is to have noted that proximity is no<br>guarantor of truth: the fleck in my own eye is as strange as, if<br>not stranger than, the beam in my ancestor's.
</p>
<p>< From Technological to Virtual Art by Frank Popper > reviewed<br>by Amy Ione</p>
<p>Technological and virtual art have become so prevalent in<br>recent years that I find it difficult to conceptualize a world<br>in which static media were the norm. Frank Popper's From<br>Technological to Virtual Art chronicles the trajectory that
<br>brought about this revolution. Defining virtual art as art that<br>allows us, through an interface with technology, to immerse<br>ourselves in the image and interact with it, the book surveys<br>the originality and power of recent projects and offers some
<br>historical antecedents as well. A well-respected art historian,<br>long at the forefront of art and technology studies, Popper is<br>an appropriate figure to present this material. Among those who<br>have taken the art/ science/technology interface from the
<br>fringes and into the mainstream, his expertise is vividly<br>translated into this well-documented and comprehensive study of<br>the paradigmatic change. Here he argues that the move toward<br>technologically based projects, largely begun in the twentieth
<br>century, has humanized technology due to an emphasis on<br>interactivity. It is also noteworthy that many of the artists<br>Popper focuses on see their commitment to art in larger terms.<br>As the book details, this brings them in touch with politics,
<br>the community, and various social dimensions. Reading through<br>the publication is like visiting an exhibition with a<br>smorgasbord of themes, a global sweep, and sensitivity to the<br>personal relationship artists establish with their projects.
</p>
<p>Popper sets the stage with an impressive history of technology-<br>inspired work from 1918 to 1983 that immediately demonstrates<br>the wealth of material packed into this volume. Accounting for<br>about a third of the book, Part I includes historical
<br>antecedents and key figures. This section begins to make it<br>clear that the artistic imagination sometimes finds the "right"<br>technology through incremental experimentation. Surveying<br>technologies that include lasers, holography and eco-
<br>technological, computer and communication art, the overview also<br>offers a fine foundation for the coverage of contemporary<br>technological/virtual art and artists, which comprises the bulk<br>of the publication. Part II is subdivided into sections on
<br>materialized digital-based work, off-line multimedia and<br>multisensoral works, interactive digital installations, and<br>multimedia online works (net art). Covering 1983-2004, the<br>second part examines plastic and cognitive issues, sensory
<br>experiments, interactivity, and experimental modalities more<br>recently pursued. Well-crafted vignettes of key innovators, in<br>both sections, underscore that many practitioners who bring<br>science and technology into their research are sensitive to
<br>aesthetic values. What sets them apart is that formal elements<br>are addressed in tandem with investigations of everything from<br>politics to philosophical questions about the real, their own<br>virtual "space," connections between the real, the virtual, and
<br>the imagined, and multisensory experience. Indeed, the<br>juxtapositions of themes and formal goals accounts for the<br>work's strength and power.</p>
<p>Given its sweep, From Technological to Virtual Art is a hard<br>book to evaluate critically. Popper shows a willingness to let<br>the artists speak for themselves and honors their intentions by<br>explaining their aspirations non-judgmentally. This style of
<br>authorship successfully outlines artistic histories and the<br>movement's growth but does not contextualize the kinds of<br>critical themes that are apt to arise in a general academic<br>discussion of the art, science, and technology interface. It is
<br>my impression that when critical questions were introduced in<br>depth it was because an artist brought this dimension into a<br>discussion with Popper. This minimalistic approach led me to<br>relish the few parts where deeper issues were more fully brought
<br>into play. One of these exceptions was in the chapter on<br>Interactive Digital Installations; perhaps the strongest in the<br>book. Here there is some discussion of how the transcendental<br>approach of immersive, virtual projects (such as Char Davies)
<br>intersects with the historical view. Stepping aside from his<br>theme driven biographical survey style, Popper mentions how<br>transcendence, as discussed by Plato, Kant, and other<br>philosophers who have thought about this topic, differs from the
<br>common presentation of virtual art. Including more developed<br>commentary throughout the book on how the field has re-visited<br>philosophical issues and artistic questions would have added a<br>nice tension to the chapters.
</p>
<p>Overall, the book works best as a tribute to the<br>art/science/technology paradigm and as an invitation to seek out<br>the pieces presented. I was delighted with the background<br>material on a number of artists whose work I have encountered
<br>over the years, and on figures I know more by name than from<br>exposure to their contributions. For example, Leonardo readers<br>will particularly appreciate Popper's summary of the life,<br>inventive mind, and artistic contributions of Frank Malina. Also
<br>of note were summaries on Patrick Lichty, Nina Czegledy,<br>Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri, Roy Ascott, Orlan, and Rafael<br>Lozano-Hemmer. On the other hand, even a thorough introduction<br>cannot include the wealth of talent within this community. In
<br>this case, I was sorry there was no mention of Margaret<br>Dolinsky's work and wished that Victoria Vesna's research,<br>particularly with nanotechnology, had received a fuller<br>treatment. I also found myself surprised by some of the examples
<br>Popper chose. Jenny Holzer, for instance, is not someone I think<br>of in terms of technological or virtual art, although her neon<br>sign projects are well known and definitely qualify as<br>technological artifacts. Just as I was ruminating on the Holzer
<br>section, I learned that she now has new silk-screen works on<br>display at the Venice Biennial. Her latest turn to this older<br>technology is a reminder that as the virtual becomes more a part<br>of the art world, artists still move in and out of diverse
<br>media, at times returning to more traditional forms.</p>
<p>Perhaps the book's greatest contribution is its expansion of<br>the art/science/technology literature. Popper mentions early in<br>the book that his intention is to present the history of<br>technological and virtual art in a manner that goes beyond the
<br>contributions of Oliver Grau and Christine Buci-Glücksmann. In<br>this he is successful. Grau makes a compelling case that media<br>art has a history that is receiving more (well-deserved)<br>attention, and Buci-Glücksmann demonstrates that technological
<br>art now has a place at the table. By contrast, Popper highlights<br>the characters who have brought about our current vision. His<br>much-needed history of key players brings Vasari's sixteenth-<br>century Lives of the Artists to mind. This is not a trivial
<br>comparison. On the one hand, both authors present brief<br>overviews of the revolutionary artists of an era. On the other<br>hand, both authors offer presentations that need to accommodate<br>the technological realities of their time. Vasari's descriptions
<br>were primarily textually based due to the limitations in<br>printing visual images in the sixteenth century. Although the<br>second edition included woodcuts of the faces of most of the<br>artists mentioned, there were no reproductions of the artworks
<br>he described. Ironically, the Popper book is similarly limited<br>in relation to the artworks. One or two small black and white<br>static images accompany the short sketches of the various<br>artists. While numerous, these are a far cry from the actual
<br>installations.</p>
<p>Having said this, it should surprise no one that the distance<br>between an illustrated text and physical reality was foremost on<br>my mind as I read the book and prepared this review. During this<br>period, coincidentally, I visited Anthony McCall's installation,
<br>You and I, Horizontal (2005) at the San Francisco Museum of<br>Modern Art. Although McCall is a figure Popper does not include,<br>he could easily have found a place in the mix. Interacting with<br>this piece, which emphasized the sculptural qualities of a light
<br>beam as it comes in contact with a changing geometrical<br>projection and particles in the air - here, vapor from a<br>theatrical haze machine - I could not help but think how poorly<br>this active piece would translate if presented as a small black
<br>and white reproduction, even though it is a monochromatic work.<br>Spending time digesting its magical qualities, as the haze<br>seemed to continually change its "physical" form(s) in real time<br>and physical space, underscored how necessary the unfolding
<br>experience is to our comprehension of technological art, virtual<br>art, and art in general. To be sure, Popper's words convey that<br>he recognizes how hard it is to articulate all that "embodiment"<br>
adds in the book form. Fortunately he did try to address this<br>limitation through the artist list at the end of the volume,<br>which provides URLs that supplement the print medium.</p>
<p>Finally, it is important to underscore that a short review<br>cannot even begin to touch on the many wonderful tidbits of<br>information Popper packs into this history. Without a doubt, his<br>knowledge of the field and personal acquaintance with the range
<br>of artwork discussed elevates his exposition of motives,<br>technology, and the creative problem-solving involved in moving<br>a piece from idea to actuality. Even given the distance between<br>the publication and the actual experience of the work,
<br>Technological to Virtual Art (particularly with the<br>supplementary material) provides a nice overview of the field.<br>It would be a wonderful choice for a textbook in a course<br>exploring the professionals who have nurtured the current
<br>art/science/technology climate. Educators could enlarge the book<br>with the URLs, onsite visits, and other media examples that more<br>fully convey the artistic projects outlined in the text. Indeed,<br>and to Popper's credit, much of the material about the work has
<br>genuineness to it that came about through his extensive reliance<br>on personal interviews rather than secondary sources. Crafted to<br>touch upon key themes within the work and the creative problem<br>solving that motivated the artistic imagination and
<br>technological development needed to bring an aspiration to<br>fruition, the book is a welcome addition to the field. Those who<br>are new to the art/science/technology discipline will find the<br>sweeping survey offers a nice map. Those who know the terrain
<br>will no doubt learn more about groundbreaking practitioners and<br>appreciate the wealth of detail that illuminates how we got to<br>this point in time. Libraries now building collections that<br>cover the emergence of recent virtual and media projects should
<br>definitely put this book on their shelves. From Technological to<br>Virtual Art is a book that marks the arrival of the<br>art/science/technology perspective and presents the work of many<br>of the innovative people responsible for its ascendancy. I
<br>highly recommend it.</p>
<p>< Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater,<br>Dance, Performance Art, and Installation by Steve Dixon ><br>reviewed by Dene Grigar</p>
<p>It's hard to imagine a bolder or more in-depth book on digital<br>performance than Steve Dixon's Digital Performance: A History of<br>New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation.</p>
<p>Exhaustive without being exhausting, Digital Performance<br>includes 800 pages that outline histories as well as theories<br>surrounding digital performance, with large sections of the book<br>paying detailed attention to such topics as the "body," "space,"
<br>"time," and "interactivity." Along with providing a history of<br>digital performance, Dixon addresses assumptions and critiques<br>views taken by some at face value. Little escapes Dixon's lens,
<br>for it is a book with roots in a long-running research project<br>undertaken, from 1999-2001, by Dixon and Barry Smith that<br>"document[ed] developments in the creative use of computer<br>technologies in performance." Called The Digital Performance
<br>Archive (DPA), the web-based archive included "live theater and<br>dance productions that incorporate[d] digital media to<br>cyberspace interactive dramas and webcasts. . . [and] collate[d]<br>examples of the use of computers technologies to document,
<br>discuss, or analyze performance, including specialist websites,<br>e-zines, and academic CD-ROMs" (ix).</p>
<p>The book begins with a revised perspective of the postmodern<br>take on art, challenging Lev Manovich's stance on new media art,<br>which Dixon says "fetishizes the technology without regard for<br>artistic vision and content" (5) and views that ignore the
<br>influence of Italian Futurism (and those movements connected to<br>it) on digital performance (47). Section one of the book traces<br>this influence as well as the development of digital performance<br>in three periods, looking first at the avant-garde in the early
<br>20th C, then to multimedia theater from 1911-1959, and finally<br>to technology infused performance work from 1960 onwards.</p>
<p>Section two concerns itself with the "Theories and Contexts"<br>surrounding digital performance, starting with the "liveness<br>problem" (115), then "Postmodernism and Posthumanism," "The
<br>Digital Revolution," and "Digital Dancing and Software<br>Developments." Here Dixon critiques postmodern theories that he<br>says "can . . . operate doctrinally to impose specific and<br>sometimes inappropriate ideas onto cultural and artistic works"
<br>(135) - and takes on the theorists who propose them. Jay David<br>Bolter and Richard Grusin's "remediation," Dixon says, though<br>not a new idea (it is itself repurposed from the "disposal and<br>recycling industries") does shed light on "inherent dialectical
<br>tensions at play within computer representations and<br>simulations" (136). George Landow, Dixon tells us, possesses<br>"evangelical zeal typical of the writers at the time" (137).<br>Dixon points to Diane Gromala's utilization of Lyotard's
<br>language game to talk about new technologies and, then, Deleuze<br>and Guttari's theories to explain her views of virtual reality<br>and, next, to Gregory Ulmer's focus on Derrida, Lacan, and<br>Wittgenstein for theories of hypertextuality. A whole section is
<br>devoted to Jean Baudrillard, whose nihilistic and cynical view<br>of technology, while "seductive and compelling," is "over the<br>top" and in the end offers a view that is for the most part one-<br>
sided and incomplete (140-143). There is a section, also, on<br>Derrida, whose theory of deconstruction (particularly, that the<br>"world [is] constant flux") does not really fit "the liveness of<br>theater," which "conspires to fix time and space" (author's
<br>emphasis, 145).</p>
<p>It would be easy to react to Dixon's critique of theory as<br>simply as one of a Monday morning quarterback able to make<br>better claims in hindsight than those living in the moment of<br>action, as he picks apart past ideas, showing them to be
<br>hyperbolic or faulty. When he writes, for example, that "an<br>inescapable fact about the progression of software is that after<br>the initial miracle of new computer 'life,' a certain sameness<br>and staleness creeps in through the repetition that replaced the
<br>initial awe and wonderment" (208), we have to ask, isn't this<br>problem true for all new things? Is it just a problem with<br>software? I say this because I remember having to explain to a<br>roomful of college students why Piet Mondrian's Composition in
<br>Blue, Yellow, and Black is, paraphrasing their comments, "a big<br>deal, considering that the painting was just lines and squares<br>that anyone can do with PhotoShop." The fact does remain that<br>postmodernism does (or did, depending on one's perspective)
<br>offer an alternative to ancient Greek philosophy and worldviews<br>that have dominated the Western world for over two thousand<br>years and don't necessarily work for a contemporary world that<br>is vastly larger and more technologically advanced than that of
<br>5th century Athens. At some point we do get excited about<br>something new and must be able to map new views onto our new<br>world. But the question Dixon forces us to remember is, when and<br>which ones?</p>
<p>But this questioning of Dixon's perspective on postmodernism<br>does not mean that his insights are off base. Far from the<br>truth: They are right on target for those performers and<br>performance scholars who have long wondered about the wisdom of
<br>placing so much importance on theories not born out of<br>performance practice. Dixon's views will be perceived as<br>sensible and be felt as breaths of fresh air.</p>
<p>The next sections, as stated previously, look at the body,<br>space, time, and interactivity. There is a lot to like in the<br>next 600 pages, starting with Dixon's position that "bodies are<br>not animated cadavers . . . . Bodies embody consciousness"
<br>(212), to the dream quality of performance (337), to the notion<br>of "media time" (517), to his definition of and categories for<br>interactivity (563), to cite just a few of the hundreds of pages<br>of ideas and insights he offers.
</p>
<p>Readers looking to consult the DPA database introduced at the<br>front of the book will be disappointed that it is not currently<br>available. Some may wonder why Dixon did not cite Mike Phillips'<br>wry work concerning Shakespeare's works and monkeys but simply
<br>alluded to it (166) or question his spelling of Margarete<br>Jahrmann and Max Moswitzer's work, the "nibble-engine-project"<br>(611) when they themselves write of it as "nybble-engine." Women<br>
who have been working with computers for decades may take<br>umbrage at Dixon's own assumption that the internet was<br>populated by cowboys, forgetting about us cowgirls (160) or<br>grrls, as many of us called ourselves.
</p>
<p>Despite these issues, Dixon's book possesses both depth and<br>breadth that performance theorists and practitioners will find<br>not only useful but also necessary for research and teaching. As<br>such Dixon's book is not a history of digital performances but
<br>rather a book about the whole concept of digital performance.</p>
<p>_______________________</p>
<p>Leonardo Reviews, August 2007</p>
<p>< Bullshit by Pea Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian > Reviewed<br>by Jonathan Zilberg </p>
<p>< Cartographic Cinema by Tom Conley > Reviewed by Jan Baetens </p>
<p>< Clarence John Laughlin: Prophet Without Honor by A.J. Meek ><br>Reviewed by Allan Graubard </p>
<p>< Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and<br>Seeing by Technical Means by Siegfried Zielinski and Gloria<br>Custance > Reviewed by Sean Cubitt</p>
<p>< Design Anarchy by Kalle Lasn > Reviewed by John F. Barber </p>
<p>< Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater,<br>Dance, Performance Art, and Installation by Steve Dixon ><br>Reviewed by Dene Grigar </p>
<p>< Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae by<br>Michael E. Veal > Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen </p>
<p>< The Face of Evil by David Tosco, Director > Reviewed by Roy<br>R. Behrens </p>
<p>< Forever by Heddy Honigann > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens </p>
<p>< From Technological to Virtual Art by Frank Popper > Reviewed<br>by Amy Ione </p>
<p>< Imagining MIT: Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First<br>Century by William J. Mitchell > Reviewed by Dr Eugenia<br>Fratzeskou</p>
<p>< Jules Kirschenbaum: The Need to Dream of Some Transcendent<br>Meaning<br>by Thomas Worthen > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens</p>
<p>< Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science by Margaret<br>Boden > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens </p>
<p>< Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940-1960 by Bill<br>Anthes > Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg </p>
<p>< Notes on Marie Menken by Martina Kudlacek > Reviewed by Roy<br>R. Behrens </p>
<p>< Ohne Schnur: Kunst und Drahtlose Kommunikation Edited by<br>Katja Kwastek > Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen </p>
<p>< Our Daily Bread by Nikolaus Geyrhalter > and < The Gleaners<br>and I by Agnes Varda > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens </p>
<p>< Shigeru Ban: An Architect for Emergencies by Michel Quinejure<br>> Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens</p>
<p>To read all the reviews posted for August 2007, visit Leonardo<br>Reviews at: <<a href="http://www.leonardo.info/ldr.html">http://www.leonardo.info/ldr.html</a>>. </p>
<p>______________________________________________________</p>
<p>LEONARDO, VOL. 40, No. 4 (July 2007)<br>TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SELECT ABSTRACTS<br>______________________________________________________</p>
<p>Editorial</p>
<p>< Research on and from within Creative Practice > by Ernest<br>Edmonds</p>
<p>_______________________</p>
<p>Special Section: The Fire Arts of Burning Man</p>
<p>< Introduction: A Passion to Burn > by Louis M. Brill</p>
<p>< Curator Overview: Playing with Fire > by Christine Kristen<br>(a.k.a. LadyBee)</p>
<p>ABSTRACT: Fire as an art form is evolving in the Black Rock<br>Desert of Nevada, where many Burning Man artists explore the<br>creation and manipulation of fire in their installations.<br>Sculptors, engineers, geeks and pyromaniacs experiment with open
<br>fires, pressurized gases and pyrotechnics to produce mesmerizing<br>and beautiful works of art.</p>
<p>< Burning Man Artists' Statements > by Joe Bard and Danya<br>Parkinson, Tim Black, Larry Breed, Paul Cesewski and Jenne<br>Giles, Bill Codding, Dan Das Mann, Wally Glenn, Lucy Hosking,<br>Syd Klinge, Tamara Li, Dan Ng, Andrew Sano, Jack Schroll, Eric
<br>Singer, Nate Smith, Charlie Smith and Jaime Ladet, Kal<br>Spelletich, Kasia Wojnarski</p>
<p>_______________________</p>
<p>General Note </p>
<p>< The Use of Artistic Analogies in Chemical Research and<br>Education > by Balazs Hargittai and Magdolna Hargittai</p>
<p>ABSTRACT: This compilation presents examples of artistic<br>artifacts that have served as successful visual analogies to<br>aspects of chemistry. The authors have used them in various<br>college-level chemistry classes, outreach programs and chemistry
<br>textbooks, as well as in journals and monographs. They include<br>ancient Chinese, Turkish and Thai sculptures, modern sculptures<br>and a medieval fresco. These examples illustrate the chemical<br>concept of chirality, the periodic table of the elements and
<br>molecular systems such as buckminsterfullerene, nanotubes and<br>quasicrystals.</p>
<p>_______________________</p>
<p>Transactions</p>
<p>< Interactive Experience in Public Context: Tango Tangle > by<br>Zafer Bilda</p>
<p>< Constraints and Creativity in the Digital Arts > by Linda Candy</p>
<p>< Interaction as a Medium in Architectural Design > by Joanne<br>Jakovich and Kirsty Beilharz</p>
<p>< A Pleasure Framework > by Brigid Costello</p>
<p>< Fundamental Insights on Complex Systems Arising from<br>Generative Arts Practice > by C. Burraston<br> <br>_______________________</p>
<p>Special Section: ArtScience: The Essential Connection</p>
<p>< Deconstructing the Genome with Cinema > by Gabriel A. Harp</p>
<p>ABSTRACT: Evidence from language, history and form suggest an<br>analogy between the cinema and the genome. The author describes<br>some of the relationships between cinema and the genome and<br>points to opportunities for discovering unmarked categories
<br>within the genome and new methods of representation. This is<br>accomplished by evaluating existing metaphors presented for the<br>understanding of genetics and revealing how current scientific<br>understanding and social concerns suggest a cinematic
<br>alternative. The formal principles of function, difference and<br>development mediate discussion and serve as heuristics for<br>investigating creative opportunities.</p>
<p>< Fractal Graphic Designer Anton Stankowski > by Vladimir A.<br>Shlyk</p>
<p>ABSTRACT: The author introduces an outstanding master of<br>graphic design and photography, Anton Stankowski, as a fractal<br>artist. Stankowski saw his challenge as inventing a visual<br>graphic language capable of depicting natural and technological
<br>processes and abstract notions in an aesthetic and<br>comprehensible way. Many of Stankowski's works demonstrate<br>fractal-like characteristics. Analysis of his theory of design<br>provides convincing evidence that this is not accidental.
<br>Stankowski used these features consciously. He devised and<br>applied a principle of organizing forms in pictures by means of<br>two components, branching and regeneration, both of which are<br>properties of self-similarity and the underlying bases of
<br>fractals.</p>
<p><br>_______________________</p>
<p>From the Leonardo Archive</p>
<p>< Introduction > by Darlene Tong and Roger F. Malina</p>
<p>< Caricature Generator, the Dynamic Exaggeration of Faces by<br>Computer and Illustrated Works > by Susan Brennan (Reprinted<br>from Leonardo Vol. 18, No. 3, 1985)</p>
<p>ABSTRACT: The author has researched and developed a theory of<br>computation for caricature and has implemented this theory as an<br>interactive computer graphics program. The Caricature Generator<br>program is used to create caricatures by amplifying the
<br>differences between the face to be caricatured and a comparison<br>face. This continuous, parallel amplification of facial<br>features on the computer screen simulates the visualization<br>process in the imagination of the caricaturist. The result is a
<br>recognizable, animated caricature, generated by computer and<br>mediated by an individual who may or may not have facility for<br>drawing, but who, like most human beings, is expert at<br>visualizing and recognizing faces.
</p>
<p>_______________________</p>
<p>Leonardo Reviews</p>
<p>Reviews by Kathryn Adams, Wilfred Niels Arnold, John F. Barber,<br>Martha Blassnigg, Andrea Dahlberg, Sean Cubitt, Amy Ione, Mike<br>Leggett, Michael Punt, Eugene Thacker, Stefaan Van Ryssen,<br>Jonathan Zilberg</p>
<p>______________________________________________________</p>
<p>LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS<br>______________________________________________________</p>
<p>< Leonardo/OLATS Awards the Leonardo-EMS Award for Excellence<br>to criticalartware ></p>
<p>We are pleased to announce that Leonardo/OLATS and the<br>Electroacoustic Music Studies Network (EMS Network) have awarded<br>the Leonardo-EMS Award for Excellence to criticalartware (Jon<br>Cates, Ben Syverson and Jon Satrom) for their paper "likn: A
<br>Flexible Platform for Information and Metadata Exchange" which<br>they presented at the Electroacoustic Music Studies Conference<br>in Beijing, October 2006. </p>
<p>criticalartware's likn project is an artware application that<br>addresses the nature of knowledge, ideas and language in the era<br>of globalization. More specifically, likn is a functional online<br>collaborative environment which wages a persistent critique of
<br>the desire to standardize and universalize meaning, and offers<br>an alternative by applying postmodern and postcolonial theories<br>to the challenge of organizing discourse and media. The paper<br>can be accessed online at
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.leonardo.info/isast/announcements/LeoEMS2006_announce">http://www.leonardo.info/isast/announcements/LeoEMS2006_announce</a><br>.html</p>
<p>The Leonardo-EMS jury convened on Thursday, October 26 after<br>the official closure of the third Electroacoustic Music Studies<br>Conference. The Leonardo-EMS jury, consisting of Marc Battier,<br>Kenneth Fields and Ricardo dal Farra, was thrilled at the high
<br>quality of presentations by young researchers during the Beijing<br>event and the final decision was difficult to reach.</p>
<p>The EMS Network has been organized to fill an important gap in<br>electroacoustic music, namely focusing on the better<br>understanding of the various manifestations of electroacoustic<br>music. Areas related to the study of electroacoustic music range
<br>from the musicological to more interdisciplinary approaches,<br>from studies concerning the impact of technology on musical<br>creativity to the investigation of the ubiquitous nature of<br>electroacoustic sounds today. The choice of the word "network"
<br>is of fundamental importance, as one of the goals of the EMS<br>Network is to make relevant initiatives more widely available.<br>More about the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network can be<br>found at <a href="http://www.ems-network.org/">
http://www.ems-network.org</a></p>
<p>Leonardo/OLATS has established a collaboration with the EMS<br>network through which annual Leonardo-EMS Awards for Excellence<br>will be made for the best contribution to the EMS symposium by a<br>young researcher as decided by a joint jury.
</p>
<p>< MutaMorphosis Conference Speakers Announced ></p>
<p>The MutaMorphosis conference is part of the Leonardo 40th<br>Anniversary celebrations and of the e n t e r 3 festival. The<br>festival will feature performances, screenings and exhibitions<br>at various locations around Prague 8 - 11 November 2007,
<br>including the first retrospective of Frank J. Malina (artist,<br>scientist and founder of Leonardo).</p>
<p>Scheduled Plenary Speakers at this time are: </p>
<p>Roy Ascott<br>Terror Incognito: Steps toward an Extremity of Mind </p>
<p>Albert-László Barabási<br>The Architecture of Complexity </p>
<p>Louis Bec</p>
<p>Václav Cílek<br>Climate as the Last Wilderness </p>
<p>David Dunn & James P. Crutchfield<br>Insects, Trees, and Climate: The Bioaocustic Ecology of<br>Deforestation and Entomogenic Climate Change </p>
<p>Roger F. Malina<br>Limits of Cognition: Artists in the Dark Universe </p>
<p>Stelarc <br>Alternate Anatomical Architectures: Extruded, Empty and Absent<br>Bodies </p>
<p>Victoria Vesna & James Gimzewski<br>The new territory of nano </p>
<p>Plenary speakers abstracts are available on line at:<br><a href="http://www.mutamorphosis.org/">http://www.mutamorphosis.org</a></p>
<p>Join us in Prague November 8 - 10, 2007 for this outstanding<br>international event! </p>
<p>MutaMorphosis concentrates on the growing interest - within the<br>worlds of the arts, sciences and technologies - in EXTREME AND<br>HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS. More than 60 renowned practitioners in the<br>arts, sciences, engineering and humanities will speak about the
<br>limits and extremes in our conceptions of life, space and<br>cognition. </p>
<p>Feel free to BROWSE the abstracts at our web site<br><a href="http://www.mutamorphosis.org/">http://www.mutamorphosis.org</a> where you can also REGISTER and<br>BOOK your hotel at special conference prices. Please note
<br>that the capacity of the conference halls is limited. </p>
<p>- Early registration: June 1, 2007 - July 31, 2007 <br>- Regular registration: August 1, 2007 - October 15, 2007 </p>
<p>The international conference MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts<br>and Sciences is organized by CIANT - International Centre for<br>Art and New Technologies in Prague and co-organized by<br>Leonardo/ISAST, Hexagram - Institute for Research/Creation in
<br>Media Arts and Technologies and Pépiničres européenes pour<br>jeunes artistes. </p>
<p>Should you require further information do not hesitate to<br>contact us at <a href="mailto:mutamorphosis@ciant.cz">mutamorphosis@ciant.cz</a>.</p>
<p>< Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) opens new Chinese language<br>database ></p>
<p>Leonardo is delighted to announce the opening of the Chinese<br>language <br>Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) database, following the<br>establishment <br>of the English language and Spanish language LABS databases.
</p>
<p>The Chinese language LABS, organized by Ken Fields at the China<br>Electronic Music Center at China's Central Conservatory of<br>Music, is for abstracts of art/science/technology MA or PHD<br>theses written in Chinese and can be found at:
<a href="http://china/">http://china</a>-<br><a href="http://labs.daohaus.org">labs.daohaus.org</a> </p>
<p>The Chinese-language peer review panel for 2006/2007 includes: </p>
<p>Ma Gang, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing <br>Zhang Peili, China Academy of Fine Art, Hangzhou <br>Zhang Xiaofu, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing <br>Zhu Qingsheng, Peking University, Beijing <br>Lothar Spree, Tongji University, Shanghai
<br>Kenneth Fields, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing </p>
<p>Thesis Abstract submittal forms for Chinese language abstracts<br>can be <br>found at: <a href="http://china-labs.daohaus.org/">http://china-labs.daohaus.org</a>. </p>
<p>Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) <br>Bi-annual submission deadlines (on-going) are: 30 June and 31<br>December </p>
<p>Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS), consisting of the English-<br>language <br>database, Spanish-language database and Chinese-language<br>database, is <br>a comprehensive collection of Ph.D., Masters and MFA thesis<br>
abstracts <br>on topics in the emerging intersection between art, science and <br>technology. Individuals receiving advanced degrees in the arts <br>(visual, sound, performance, text), computer sciences, the<br>sciences <br>
and/or technology that in some way investigate philosophical, <br>historical or critical applications of science or technology to<br>the <br>arts are invited to submit abstracts of their theses for <br>consideration. </p>
<p>Further information on LABS:<br><a href="http://www.leonardo.info/isast/journal/calls/labsprojectcall.html">http://www.leonardo.info/isast/journal/calls/labsprojectcall.html</a></p>
<p>_____________________________</p>
<p><br>LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS COORDINATOR: Kathleen Quillian<br>kq [@] leonardo [dot] info<br>______________________________________________________</p>
<p>BYTES<br>______________________________________________________</p>
<p>< Digital Humanities Chair Position available at Dartmouth<br>College ></p>
<p>Dartmouth College invites applications for a newly endowed<br>chair in the Digital Humanities. The successful candidate should<br>be committed to interdisciplinary collaboration, technological<br>innovation, and creating curricular links within the Humanities
<br>and across divisions. The position offers the opportunity to<br>define a new area of research and teaching, and to build on<br>Dartmouth's existing strengths in the Humanities and Computing.</p>
<p>The field of research and teaching is open; we seek candidates<br>with practical and/or theoretical expertise in one or several of<br>the following fields in the Arts and Humanities: visual arts,<br>visual culture, new media, screen studies, performance arts,
<br>music and sound, film, TV/Video, literature, and human-computer<br>interaction. Expertise in computer hardware and/or software will<br>be welcome but is not essential. </p>
<p>The role of the Chair in Digital Humanities is intended to be<br>broad in scope, potentially incorporating current or future<br>initiatives in cyber-culture and the creation, performance, and<br>critical study of digital arts, including a consideration of the
<br>socio-political and theoretical implications of new artistic<br>technologies. The endowment for this Chair provides additional<br>funds for projects involving research, teaching, and program<br>building in the Digital Humanities.
</p>
<p>Our intention is to hire at the rank of associate or full<br>professor with tenure. The successful candidate will be located<br>in a single Dartmouth department or program, or jointly<br>appointed to one or more departments or programs. Considerable
<br>flexibility exists regarding joint appointments, which may cross<br>departmental or even divisional boundaries.</p>
<p>Dartmouth College combines a commitment to innovative<br>scholarship, creative practice, and excellent teaching,<br>primarily but not only of undergraduate students. One of the<br>most diverse institutions of higher education in New England,
<br>Dartmouth College is an equal opportunity/ affirmative action<br>employer and has a strong commitment to diversity. In that<br>spirit, we are particularly interested in receiving applications<br>from a broad spectrum of people, including women, persons of
<br>color, persons with disabilities, and veterans. </p>
<p>The Search Committee will begin reviewing applications after<br>October 1, 2007. Applications will be considered until the<br>position is filled. </p>
<p>Applications should be submitted in digital form. Please send<br>letter of application, CV, and the names of three references to:<br><a href="mailto:digital.search@dartmouth.edu">digital.search@dartmouth.edu</a></p>
<p>Please contact Mark Williams, Chair of the Search Committee<br>with any questions<br>Mark Williams (<a href="mailto:Mark.J.Williams@Dartmouth.edu">Mark.J.Williams@Dartmouth.edu</a>)<br>Dept. of Film and Television Studies
<br>317 Wilson Hall<br>Dartmouth College<br>Hanover, NH 03755 USA<br>_____________________________</p>
<p><br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * CREDITS * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Nisar Keshvani: LEA Editor-in-Chief<br>Natra Haniff: LEA Editor<br>Nicholas Cronbach: LEA Editor<br>Kathleen Quillian: LEA e-news Digest Coordinator<br>Michael Punt: LR Editor-in-Chief<br>Andre Ho: Web Concept and Design Consultant
<br>Roger Malina: Leonardo Executive Editor<br>Stephen Wilson: Chair, Leonardo/ISAST Web Committee<br>Craig Harris: Founding Editor</p>
<p>Editorial Advisory Board:<br>Irina Aristarkhova, Roy Ascott, Craig Harris, Fatima Lasay,<br>Michael Naimark, Julianne Pierce</p>
<p>Gallery Advisory Board:<br>Mark Amerika, Paul Brown, Choy Kok Kee, Steve Dietz, Kim Machan</p>
<p>fAf-LEA Corresponding Editors:<br>Lee Weng Choy, Ricardo Dal Farra, Elga Ferreira, Young Hae-<br>Chang, Fatima Lasay, Jose-Carlos Mariategui, Marcus Neustetter, <br>Elaine Ng, Marc Voge </p>
<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * LEA PUBLISHING INFORMATION * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * <br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p><br>Editorial Address:<br>Leonardo Electronic Almanac<br>PO Box 850<br>Robinson Road<br>Singapore 901650<br>keshvani [@] leoalmanac [dot] org</p>
<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Copyright (2007), Leonardo, the International Society for the<br>Arts, Sciences and Technology<br>All Rights Reserved.</p>
<p>Re-posting of the content of this journal is prohibited without<br>permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and<br>events listings that have been independently received.<br>Leonardo/ISAST and the MIT Press give institutions permission to
<br>offer access to LEA within the organization through such<br>resources as restricted local gopher and mosaic services. Open<br>access to other individuals and organizations is not permitted.</p>
<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>< Ordering Information ></p>
<p>Leonardo Electronic Almanac is a free supplement to subscribers<br>of Leonardo and Leonardo Music Journal.</p>
<p>To subscribe to Leonardo Electronic Almanac e-news digest,<br>visit: <a href="http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/leon_e_almanac">http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/leon_e_almanac</a></p>
<p>To subscribe to Leonardo, visit:<br><a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/leon">http://www.mitpressjournals.org/leon</a></p>
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<p>For Leonardo and LMJ subscription queries contact:<br>journals-orders [@] mit [dot] edu </p>
<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ADVERTISING * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * <br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published monthly -- individuals<br>and institutions interested in advertising in LEA, either in the<br>distributed text version or on the World Wide Web site should<br>contact:</p>
<p>Leonardo - Advertising<br>211 Sutter Street, suite #501<br>San Francisco, CA 94108</p>
<p>phone: (415) 391-1110<br>fax: (415) 391-2385<br>E-mail: kq [@] leonardo [dot] info<br>More Info: <a href="http://leonardo.info/isast/placeads.html#LEAads">http://leonardo.info/isast/placeads.html#LEAads</a></p>
<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ACKNOWLEDGMENTS * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p><br>LEA acknowledges with thanks the Rockefeller and Ford<br>Foundations for their support to Leonardo/ISAST and its projects.</p>
<p>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>< End of Leonardo Electronic Almanac ><br>________________________________________________________________</p>
<p> </p>