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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Times;">NEW from The Leonardo
Book Series and MIT Press<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="pagetitle1"><span
style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Times;">FROM TECHNOLOGICAL TO
VIRTUAL ART
by Frank Popper</span></span><span class="bodycopy1"><span
style="font-family: Times; color: windowtext;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In From <i style="">Technological
to Virtual Art</i>, respected historian of art and technology Frank
Popper
traces the development of immersive, interactive new media art from its
historical antecedents through today's digital, multimedia, and
networked art.
Popper shows that contemporary virtual art is a further refinement of
the
technological art of the late twentieth century and also a departure
from it.
What is new about this new media art, he argues, is its humanization of
technology, its emphasis on interactivity, its philosophical
investigation of
the real and the virtual, and its multisensory nature. He argues
further that
what distinguishes the artists who practice virtual art from
traditional
artists is their combined commitment to aesthetics and technology.
Their
"extra-artistic" goals -- linked to their aesthetic intentions --
concern not only science and society but also basic human needs and
drives.<br>
<br>
Defining virtual art broadly as art that allows us, through an
interface with
technology, to immerse ourselves in the image and interact with it,
Popper
identifies an aesthetic-technological logic of creation that allows
artistic
expression through integration with technology. After describing
artistic
forerunners of virtual art from 1918 to 1983 -- including art that used
light,
movement, and electronics -- Popper looks at contemporary new media
forms and
artists. He surveys works that are digital based but materialized,
multimedia
offline works, interactive digital installations, and multimedia online
works
(net art) by many artists, among them John Maeda, Jenny Holzer, Brenda
Laurel,
Agnes Hegedus, Stelarc, and Igor Stromajer. The biographical details
included
reinforce Popper's idea that technology is humanized by art. Virtual
art, he
argues, offers a new model for thinking about humanist values in a
technological age.<br>
<br>
Frank Popper is Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the Science of Art
at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Paris VIII</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>. He
is the author of <i style="">Origins and Development of Kinetic Art</i>,
<i style="">Art, Action, and Participation</i>, <i style="">Art of the
Electronic Age</i>, and other
influential works on art and technology.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times;">To order this
book and to learn more about other titles in
the Leonardo Book Series visit the Leonardo Book Series website at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.leonardo.info/isast/leobooks.html">http://www.leonardo.info/isast/leobooks.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">MEMBER
DISCOUNT! Leonardo/ISAST Associate Members are eligible for 20% off all
Leonardo Book Series titles as well as a number of other membership
benefits! Visit <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://leonardo.info/members.html">http://leonardo.info/members.html</a> for more details.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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