[LEAuthors] Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 13, Number 9, September 2005

[Leonardo Electronic Almanac]

  [image: The MIT Press] <http://mitpress.mit.edu/default.asp?mlid=477>

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Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 13, Number 9, September 2005
http://lea.mit.edu
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ISSN #1071-4391
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| CONTENTS |
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INTRODUCTION
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EDITORIAL
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< Explaining the Mandate, by Sheila Pinkel >

ABSTRACTS
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< The Virtual Geodesy. Proposal for a Multiplayer Role-playing Game, by
Mohammed Aziz Chafchaouni and Harold Brokaw >

< Egyptian Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age, by Fathi Saleh >

< Contemplations on Our Links to The Universe – Searching and Finding The
Hidden Harmony, by C. S. Unnikrishnan >

< From the Consciousness of Limits to the Limits of Our Consciousness, by
Philippe Boissonnet >

< The Science Behind Bacterial Art, by Eshel Ben Jacob and Neora >

< Technoetic Pathways to the Spiritual in Art, by Roy Ascott >

< Experience of Expression: Instances from Indian dramaturgy and a
discussion on 'consciousness', by Sangeetha Menon >

< Concepts, Boundaries, and Ways of Knowing, by Arnold G. Smith >

< Interstellar Altruism: Science, Art, and Communication with
Extraterrestrial Intelligence, by Douglas A. Vakoch >

< Poetic-Cubs, by Raquel Paricio and J. Manuel Moreno Arostegui >

< Convergence Between Art and Science. A Digital Artistic Creation, by
Chu-Yin Chen >

< Bridging Cultures in Electronic Communication. New Multiliteracy Models
for Interaction Design, by Patricia Search >

< Spacesuit: Space Craft, by Bradley M. Pitts >

< Self-Reflexivity in Science and Arts, by Anna-Maria Christoph-Gaugusch >

< Lessons from the Philippine Triad, by Fatima Lasay >

< Another Reading of the Greek myth of Orpheo through New Technologies:
Poetic Proposition About Artificial Life, by Kiss Jocelyne >

BONUS SECTION
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< Reflections from the International Festival of Cultures in Melilla, by
Judy Kupferman >

ONE FROM THE VAULT: FROM THE LEA ARCHIVES
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< Essay Concerning Human Understanding, by Eduardo Kac >

LEONARDO REVIEWS
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< Encounter: Merce, reviewed by Richard Kade >

< Talking Drum, and Rogue Wave, reviewed by René van Peer >

< Visionary Anatomies, reviewed by Amy Ione >

LEONARDO JOURNAL
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< Contents and Abstracts: *Leonardo* Vol. 38, No. 5 >

LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS
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< New Chairs Elected for Leonardo Education Forum >

< *LMJ* Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Collins Extends Contract>

< The Pacific Rim New Media Summit: A Pre-Symposium to ISEA2006 >

< PRNMS Working Group on Place, Ground and Practice >

< ISEA2006 Pacific Rim Directory, Organizations and Residencies Working
Group Meeting >

BYTES
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< CFP - Leonardo Music Journal 16 (2006) >

< School of Art Institute Chicago - Faculty Position in Film, Video And New
Media >

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INTRODUCTION
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In September's issue of LEA, Sheila Pinkel's editorial questions whether the
mandate of *Leonardo* can be expanded to explore the intersection between
art, science, technology and society.

We also continue our celebration of the Colloquium on
Art/Science/Spirituality Reconnections Within Emerging Planetary Cultures
and feature the final two sessions of the event.

This month, One From the Vault extracts Eduardo Kac's *Essay Concerning
Human Understanding*, which first appeared in LEA in August 1995.

Leonardo Reviews focuses on CDs, websites and exhibitions this month, with
Richard Kade's piece on *Encounter: Merce*, a contextualization of the
importance of the event staged at Stanford University in March this year.
*Talking Drum* and *Rogue Wave* both by Chris Brown are reviewed
collectively by René van Peer, one of our active music experts. Finally, Amy
Ione, a familiar name to Leonardo Reviews regulars, has written about
*Visionary Anatomies*, an event which although now history can be revisited
– at least in a restricted way – on the web.

Read about Leonardo Education Forum's new chairs and LMJ's editor extending
his contract in Leonardo Network News, and find out more about the place,
ground and practice working group in our ongoing series on *The Pacific Rim
New Media Summit: A Pre-Symposium to ISEA2006*. Further to this, there is
information about an ISEA2006 Pacific Rim Directory, Organizations and
Residencies Working Group Meeting to be held in Adelaide, Australia.

In our final section, Bytes, find out more about a call for papers for
Leonardo Music Journal's next issue and the availability of a full-time
faculty position.

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EDITORIAL
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EXPANDING THE MANDATE

by Sheila Pinkel
Leonardo International Co-Editor
Pomona College
Claremont, CA
U.S.A.
spinkel [@] earthlink [dot] net

Since its inception, *Leonardo's* mandate has been to explore the
intersection between the arts, sciences and technology. Now there is a
500-pound question on the table: Can the mandate of *Leonardo* be expanded
to explore the intersection between art, science, technology and *society*?

In the 19th century, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre of France and William
Henry Fox Talbot of Great Britain, credited individually with the invention
of photography, both happened to take photographs of their respective
collections during their initial investigations of photographic processes.
Daguerre photographed his fossil collection and Talbot his collection of
china. Subsequent commentary has positioned these choices in the context of
the intellectual and historical environment of the 19th century, a time of
cataloging the physical and biological world as the concepts of the
electromagnetic spectrum, the periodic table and phrenology were being
developed. Thus, what appeared at the time to be the incidental and
objective documentation of collections can be understood, in the context of
history, as reflecting the values of the time period.

In Weimar Germany, during the post-World War I 1920s, artists began
investigating the physical world from a new frame of reference, which they
termed *Neue Sachlichkeit*, or the new objectivity. These artists, including
Albert Renger-Patzsch, Karl Blossfeldt and T. Lux Feininger, photographed
the world from unconventional vantage points in an attempt to create a new
aesthetic, one that they viewed as apolitical and objective. Their subject
matter included the technology of the era's growing industrialization, and
many of their images of nature also reflect this industrial vision. When
juxtaposed against the history of the time - the growth of fascism and
decline of labor movements - these images are understood in a more complex
way as reflecting the values of the corporate industrial state.

In the United States, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Charles Sheeler and other
photographers were the counterparts to the German Neue Sachlichkeit artists.
From the vantage point of history we can read their images in several ways.
For instance, as Sally Stein pointed out in a public lecture when analyzing
Paul Strand's image of a white fence, we either can see it as an example of
Strand's ability to abstract the physical world, or, if we look at it in the
context of the time period, we can consider the point that the growth of
industrial capitalism was resulting in the promotion of single-family
homeownership, and fences suggested private ownership of property. So, while
the image can be read as neutral, as an abstraction, it also can be read as
reflecting the history and values of the time in which it was produced.

Today, can we look at the intersections of art, science and technology and,
with the understanding that we have gained from our dialogue with history,
begin to comment on and assess these intersections in terms of their
sociopolitical, economic and historic implications? Or must we wait for
future generations to do this? Given the conditions in the world today, in
which most of the world's population lacks adequate food, potable water,
health care or educational opportunities, the AIDS epidemic is spreading in
Africa and parts of Asia, and the war in Iraq rages on, some
contextualization of these explorations is critical in order to render them
historically and socially intelligible. The 500-pound question on the table
remains: Can the mandate of *Leonardo* be expanded to explore the
intersection between art, science, technology and society?

THIS EDITORIAL FIRST APPEARED IN *LEONARDO*, VOL. 38, NO. 4 (AUGUST 2005)

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ABSTRACTS
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INTRODUCTION TO SESSION 3

This session looked at the role of new technologies (telecommunication,
biological, etc.) in our future cultures, and asks how we will appropriate
them and what creative use can be made of them.

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THE VIRTUAL GEODESY. PROPOSAL FOR A MULTIPLAYER ROLE PLAYING GAME

by Mohammed Aziz Chafchaouni
Media Artist, Spain and Morocco
Al Andalus Foundation
Avenida Reyes Catolicos
10 3er Iz
52 002 Melilla
chaf_aziz [@] hotmail [dot] com

and Harold Brokaw
Al Andalus Foundation
Professor for digital music
Ashville University
U.S.A.
KEYWORDS
Role-playing game, scientific data, world culture

ABSTRACT

This project aims at creating new relationships between scientific data and
cultural content, as a basis for developing a multiplayer role-playing game.

Players of this game will explore an interactive, 3D, Virtual Geodesy
composed of geometric structures organized as habitats for a multitude of
data streams expressing the diversity and uniqueness of tangible and
intangible world cultural heritage art forms, events and expressions.

Within the new potentials of information technologies, the project will
utilize precise data gathered within the scientific domain, as 3D containers
for visualization of information. The preciseness, yet vastness, of
scientific data for building 3D sites will be well balanced by the symphonic
arrangements of world culture content elements into harmonics of spatial
locations.

The total Geodesy system will have its own life, as intelligent geometric
agents interact within it. They become the game's mind enabling multiple
players, with their avatars, to interact, communicate, learn and discover,
and for the game itself to evolve over time.

The sites within the Geodesy are the departure and arrival points of the
users who will be navigating through tridimensional animated highways of
universal interactive cultural content. The system will enable synergetic
multiplayer interactions, promoting cooperation over competition, livingry
over weaponry.

The project's singularity is the potential to model an ever-evolving
intelligent cyber habitat, where every precise site could be as simple as an
atom, or as complex as a virtual city.

The strength, coherence, and dynamics of its structural topologies will be
the backbone of the Geodesy. By the intelligence embedded in its design and
the physics characteristics of its life system, it becomes a playground for
infinite crossroads of data streams, taking root in the world culture
heritage databases.

BIOGRAPHY

Mohammed Aziz Chafchaouni holds several university degrees in sociology and
political science but decided to follow the path of the arts and the pure
sciences. He holds a Master's Degree in Arts and Design from Tsukuba
University, Japan and has also studied in U.S.A and France. A fundamental
issue concerns him: How to approach the worldwide globalization trend while
safeguarding cultural specificities.

He strongly believes that in a world where information has taken on a
quasi-mythical status, modern means of communication should contribute to
the blossoming of Arab Islamic arts. Indeed, most of Chafchaouni's works of
art are an attempt to shed new light on the artistic contribution of Islamic
civilization (especially in Al Andalus) to universal heritage under the
notion of Tawhid or unity between art, science and spirituality. His work
spans a wide variety of supports: electronic archival of vestiges of Arab
Islamic art on CD-Rom, virtual museum, film documentaries, 3D image
Installations.

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EGYPTIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE DIGITAL AGE

by Fathi Saleh
Director
CULTNAT
Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage
Smart Village
Km 28, Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road
Giza, Egypt
Tel: +(202) 534 3001
Fax: +(202) 539 2929
fsaleh [@] mcit [dot] gov [dot] eg
http://www.cultnat.org
KEYWORDS

cultural heritage, information technology, holistic vision

ABSTRACT

The Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage, CULTNAT, was
established in January 2000, as a program operating under the auspices of
the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. By presidential
decree, CULTNAT became, in February 2003, a centre affiliated with the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, thus asserting its identity and gaining physical
status.

This center has, among its targets, the following objectives:

- Documentation of Egyptian cultural heritage in both its tangible and
intangible aspects.

- Documentation of the Egyptian natural heritage, which includes the natural
reserves as well as the natural areas not yet inscribed under environmental
protection.

- Implementation of a national plan to execute this documentation program
using the latest information technology in collaboration with national and
international specialized organizations.

- Building awareness of this heritage using all available publishing media,
electronic and physical.

- Training of professionals in the field of preservation and documentation
of cultural and natural heritage.

Our projects so far have included the documentation and digitization of an
archeological heritage map of Egypt; the Arabic music heritage; Egyptian
natural heritage; the architectural heritage of 19th and 20th century Cairo;
and the folkloric and photographic heritage of the Egyptians.

The products of CULTNAT's efforts are books and electronic publications that
record Egypt's memory of its tangible and intangible heritage. Our way
forward is to achieve maximum accessibility and to enhance pride in our
global Egyptian Heritage by providing an easily accessible and reliable
chronicle of Egypt's tangible and intangible heritage on the web.

Despite the fact that CULTNAT is a relatively new center, it has already a
number of ongoing programs, in addition to a vast network of cooperation
with organizations that are concerned with heritage, such as UNESCO, UNDP
and the European Union. These programs, which cover many different aspects
of the Egyptian cultural and natural heritage, seek to document the tangible
and the intangible, i.e. archaeology, architecture, manuscripts, music,
folklore, natural resources.

CULTNAT has not only developed action plans to electronically document
Egyptian heritage but also contributes to safeguarding fragile treasures of
Egyptian history through their digitization. Among these are the manuscripts
of the National Archives and the stamps of the National Postage
Organization.
While applying new technologies to documentation, massive amounts of data
are digitally compiled and sorted, facilitating accessibility to data.
CD-ROMs, as well as books, guides and other paper publications, are
extracted from this huge database. For greater diffusion, CULTNAT has made
information accessible through its website at: http://www.cultnat.org.
CULTNAT has also developed in collaboration with IBM, a unique website in
the field of cultural heritage (http://http://www.eternalegypt.org/).

One of the recent achievements of the center is that it has developed a
multimedia presentation designed in a 3D-like manner called "Cultural
Heritage in the Digital Age: The Egyptian Experience".

Its purpose is to demonstrate how CULTNAT has manipulated ICT to document
and promote the many faces and riches of our heritage.

The purpose of this theatre presentation is to illustrate how ICT tools,
such as multimedia, GIS, and virtual reality, are innovatively employed in
the service of the documentation of the Egyptian cultural and natural
heritage.

CULTNAT's multimedia display includes:
- Running activities and programs of CULTNAT
- 3D Virtual Reality (a visit to the Mastaba of Qar)
- The continuum of civilizations: Scenes from Ancient Egyptian tombs matched
with present day images
- The continuum of knowledge
- Mathematics of the Ancient Egyptians and recent mathematics (Rhind
Mathematics Papyrus [RMP])
- Astronomy of the Ancient Egyptians and the Arabs and its relationship to
today's world knowledge of astronomy

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Fathi Saleh is currently professor of computer engineering at Cairo
University. In the meantime, he is the director of the Center for
Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage, which is affiliated to the
Library of Alexandria with the support of the Ministry of Communications and
information Technology.

He is also a member of the Supreme Council of Culture. Between 1995-97 he
was the Cultural Councillor at the Embassy of Egypt in Paris, and from
1997-1999, he was the Ambassador of Egypt to the UNESCO.

Dr. Saleh graduated from the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo University and
got his Ph.D from the University of Paris in France. His main interest is
the application of new technologies in the different fields of Cultural and
Natural Heritage.

_____________________________

INTRODUCTION TO SESSION 4

Session 4 tries to make explicit the cultural background of the speakers,
and explores how their own cultural and spiritual background has shaped
their approach to art and science. This session deals with the broader
discussion about art/science but integrates the cultural background of every
speaker.

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CONTEMPLATIONS ON OUR LINKS TO THE UNIVERSE – SEARCHING AND FINDING THE
HIDDEN HARMONY

by C. S. Unnikrishnan
Gravitation Group
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Homi Bhabha Road
Mumbai (Bombay) – 400005
India
unni [@] tifr [dot] res [dot] in

KEYWORDS

contemporary physics, harmony, universe

ABSTRACT

I discuss evidences, and consequences of our inseparable link to the entire
Universe. The foundations of present day physics are rooted in the theories
of relativity and the theory of quantum physics.

Majority of physicists think that there will ultimately be conflict between
these two foundations. They see this conflict in the concept of classical
causality broken by randomness in quantum physics, and in the concept of
classical locality, so essential and basic to relativity, again broken by
quantum phenomena.

Perhaps this is a problem with our understanding of quantum causality and
quantum locality, and not an indication of a genuine discord between two
successful theories. Theories are idealisations of our perception of the
physical world and not the physical world itself. In trying to comprehend
and explain the 'observables' we construct theories that depend on
'unobservables', hoping that there will be consistency and a full
understanding in future. If we ignore the role of these unobservables, we
can be misled by our own theoretical constructs.

During the course of my research, and in a determined effort to understand,
I have come to realise that the apparent conflict in our theories is not a
real conflict of the physical world. Looking deeper one can see the harmony,
and inseparability coexistent with locality. There is a tension between
inseparability on the one hand and locality and causality on the other, in
the language of physics, whereas such a tension is perhaps absent in our
philosophical discussions on these concepts.

Our attempt is to reconcile the two opposing notions by going deeper than
the level superficially suggested by the mathematical structures of the
present theories. The final result of this attempt will be important for the
pure physical theory since even apparent incompatibility between two
fundamental theories of physics is not a desirable feature for a consistent
description of the physical world.

This is also a very important aspect for the individual exploring the
physical universe since the worldview that emerges from the exploration
always has it roots and interpretation in terms of his cultural,
philosophical and linguistic backgrounds where such a strong tension between
inseparability of the whole and the local causal flow of events do not seem
to exist. The subconscious subjectivity influences and motivates, but does
not interfere significantly with the essential objectivity and clarity of
the view.

This search for harmony seems to take the explorer to new notions of space
and time – material, and causal, and yet inseparable from local. The
existence of the whole can be felt in the part, as real, measurable, and
undeniable. Despite the apparent randomness, the history and future of
motion reveals the whole, and one is able to see glimpses of a design that
is vast, and yet comprehensible. Its simplicity and harmony is spiritually
enriching, and emotionally moving, and its scale and intimacy makes one feel
secure in some strange way.

BIOGRAPHY

Born December 25, 1961, in Kerala, the southern coastal state of India.
Schooling and undergraduate studies in Kerala, and M.Sc. in Physics from
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Ph.D in Physics (1992) from Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay, in the search for a fifth
force.

Joined as faculty member in TIFR in 1993. Presently Associate Professor
(TIFR), Adjunct Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, and
Faculty Associate, Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science, Delhi.
Was part-time Visiting Professor, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris,
2001-2003.

Research interests are precision measurements related to foundational issues
in physics using cold atoms and torsion balances, nature of the quantum
vacuum, and foundational aspects of gravitation, quantum mechanics and
cosmology.

Have also been involved in advanced level physics teaching, especially in
undergraduate and graduate level summer schools. Lecturer at the Schools of
Cosmology and Gravitation, Ettore Majorana Centre, Erice, 2003-2005. Other
interests are films and music. Some expertise in Indian music on bamboo
flute and guitar.

Worked with Indian film directors Tapan Sinha as actor (*Wheel Chair* in
1994, language: Bangla)) and with Shaji Karun as assistant director
(*Vanaprastham* in 1998 - language: Malayalam)). Also worked (actor) in the
malayalam TV serial, *Legends of Kerala* (1992). Was also a weekly columnist
with the Malayalam daily from Bombay, *Kalakaumudi*, from 1999-2001.

_____________________________

FROM THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF LIMITS TO THE LIMITS OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS

by Philippe Boissonnet
Media Artist, Professor for Media Art
Université Québec Trois Rivières, Canada
philippe_boissonnet [@] uqtr [dot] ca

KEYWORDS

Earth, universe, representations, holography

ABSTRACT

Passing from drawing to holographic installation, Philippe Boissonnet courts
light by exploring its penetrating power and destabilization of vision. He
sculpts light, reflecting upon its power. The artist focuses on the
ambiguity and the attendant complexities inherent in the process of visual
perception, clarifying the relativity of viewpoints in a multiplicity of
faithful visual representations, often beginning with the terrestrial globe
as a model or motif, his research opens to a planetary abundance, and then
overflows beyond the traditional "landscape". What illuminates Boissonnet's
work–form and/or matter? Light? Earth? The Earth and ourselves?

In fact, his interactive holographic installations are built from a series
of intermixtures of drawing, photocopy and photograph- questioning one after
the other (one within another) our place on earth, our return to a world
essentially trapped by perception.

Adopting the cartographic paradigm within the conception of an "earth body",
Boissonnet's artworks integrate our ability to embrace the Earth as a
complex living entity interconnected to the image of our self, and to our
consciousness.

From *The consciousness of limits: Gaia*, a holographic and interactive
sculpture created in 1992, to his most recent project which explores the CBR
(Cosmic Background Radiation) *The limits of consciousness; Ouranos*, the
artist will present and comment to the audience on his videos and still
images of light, digital and holographic artworks, all from 1992 to 2004.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY JULIEN KNEBUSCH

_____________________________

THE SCIENCE BEHIND BACTERIAL ART

by Eshel Ben Jacob
Professor of Physics
and President of the Israel Physical Society, Israel
School of Physics and Astronomy
The Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems
Tel Aviv University
69978 Tel Aviv
Israel
eshel [@] tamar [dot] tau [dot] ac [dot] il
http://www.star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/
http://www.physicaplus.org.il)
http://www.star.tau.ac.il/~inon/baccyber0.html

and Neora
Cyberculture explorer and virtual reality worlds creator, Israel
16 Usishkin St
Tel-Aviv 62591
Israel
Tel: 972 3 544 0034
neoradotcom [@] gmail [dot] com
http://www.neora.com

KEYWORDS

structures, patterns, bacteria

ABSTRACT

This picture is one of a series of remarkable patterns that bacteria form
when grown in a petri dish. While the colors and shading are artistic
additions, the image templates are actual colonies of tens of billions of
these microorganisms. The colony structures form as adaptive responses to
laboratory-imposed stresses that mimic hostile environments faced in nature.
They illustrate the coping strategies that bacteria have learned to employ,
strategies that involve cooperation through communication. These selfsame
strategies are used by the bacteria in their struggle to defeat our best
antibiotics. Thus, if we understand the mechanisms behind the patterns, we
can learn how to outsmart the bacteria - for example, by tampering with
their communication - in our ongoing battle for our health.

The images come from the laboratory of Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob, of the
Tel-Aviv University (http://www.star.tau.ac.il/~inon/baccyber0.html) as part
of collaboration with Professor Herbert Levine of UCSD's National Science
Foundation Frontier Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (
http://www.ctbp.ucsd.edu). The goal of this research is to unravel the
adaptation secrets enabling bacterial survival against all odds. Their
efforts build upon progress in two disparate fields - pattern formation in
complex dynamical systems and the molecular biology and biophysics of
bacteria.

In a sense, the strikingly beautiful organization of the pattern reflects
the underlying social intelligence of the bacteria. The once controversial
idea that bacteria cooperate to solve challenges has become commonplace,
with the discovery of specific channels of communication between the cells
and specific mechanisms facilitating the exchange of genetic information.
Retrospectively, these capabilities should not have been seen as so
surprising, as bacteria set the stage for all life on Earth and indeed
invented most of the processes of biology. As we try to stay ahead of the
disease-causing varieties of these versatile creatures, we must use our own
intelligence to understand them. These images remind us never to
underestimate our opponent.

BIOGRAPHY

ESHEL BEN-JACOB is Professor of Physics at Tel Aviv University and the
President of the Israel Physical Society. He finished his Ph.D in 1982 on
the dynamics of coupled Josephson Junctions and spent 1981-1984 as a Post
Doctoral fellow at the KITP in Santa Barbara. He was Assistant Professor at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1984-1989, and Associate
Professor at Tel Aviv from 1987-1992. He is a world-renowned physicist who
has made outstanding contributions to the applications of mathematical and
physical perspective to the studies of biological systems from bacterial
colonies to neuronal networks. He is particularly well known for his new
approach to physical biology in which he integrates experimental
investigations with generic modeling and new analysis methods. Recently he
pioneered the idea of Complexity-Based Adaptability of biological systems
such as colonies of microorganisms and cultured neuronal networks. His
approach of "Let the Complex be Simple" led to the new functional holography
of biocomplexity as well as the development of new measures of regulated
complexity. Ben-Jacob is the Maguy-Glass Professor in Physics of Complex
Systems and is also well known for his bridging between "Bacterial Art" and
the idea of "Shaped to Survive".

NEORA is the designer and producer of several advanced interfaces for museum
sites, academic and commercial web sites. She is the creator of *Ayuni* -
telepresence in Nablus, *NYSE*- vr 3D interactive simulation of the trading
floor, and of *Medea_ex* (http://www.medeaex.org) - immersive/interactive
theatre play, which was performed in the Schiller Festival in Manheim,
Germany and Acco Theatre Festival 2003, Israel. Since then, she's been
experimenting with online worlds for remote learning, and pro-active
projected "cave-like installations" for large audiences. Neora teaches
cyberculture in Tel-aviv University, and VR in Shenkar College of
Engineering and Design.

Neora is involved with the open source movement in Israel, and is the
organizer of the first two hackers conferences in Israel (
http://www.y2hack4.org). In April 2000, Neora was chosen as one of the 10
most influential people on the Israeli Internet (published in Yediot
Aharonot newspaper. The other nine figures were tie/suited distinguished
men). She got this title for the insights in her novel, web works, several
publications and teachings – all of which were way ahead of her time.

In the last millenium, Neora was a UNIX programmer and PC support team
leader in Dec Ltd and CDC Ltd for several years, and co-founder/co-developer
in SGH, a startup in 1994, for multi-user games. She's the author of
*Digital Affair*(Hakibutz Hameuchad Publishing, 1993), journalist, editor
and columnist in a few professional magazines and newspapers over the years.

_____________________________

TECHNOETIC PATHWAYS TO THE SPIRITUAL IN ART

by Roy Ascott
Artist
Planetary Collegium
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth PL4 8AA
England
United Kingdom
roy [@] planetary-collegium [dot] net
http://www.planetary-collegium.net

KEYWORDS

technoetics, nanofield, biophotonics

ABSTRACT

As the new media art paradigm of interactivity unfolds, with telematics and
mixed reality systems becoming ubiquitous and commonplace, artists working
at the forward edge of speculative research will become increasingly
involved in pursuing the nature of consciousness, the complexity of living
systems, and the potential of biophysics, nanotechnology, and quantum
science for the development of artistic theory and practice.

The substrate for this work is to be found at the convergence of digitally
dry and biologically wet systems, constituting what can be called
*moistmedia*. At the same time there is increasing interest in the psychic,
spiritual and mystical aspects of traditional cultures, and holistic models
of being which challenge the West's materialist paradigm. For example,
ethnobotany identifies societies across the world that have developed a
technology of consciousness from psychoactive plants, while biophysics
researches the significance of biophotonic emission from DNA molecules and
the information network of light which gives living organisms coherence.

There is a compelling analogy to telematic information networks that
permeate the planet as a whole. The emergent field of *technoetics* attempts
to address issues of this kind, and to provide perspectives on
post-biological culture. This in turn presents ontological and
epistemological challenges that call for subtle understandings of mind and
spirit.

BIOGRAPHY

Roy Ascott has worked with issues of art, technology and consciousness since
the 1960s. Seminal projects include: *La Plissure du Texte*, Electra, Paris
1983; *Planetary Network*, Venice Biennale, 1986; *Aspects of Gaia*, Ars
Electronica Linz, 1989. He directs the Planetary Collegium, and is editor of
Technoetic Arts. His theoretical work is published in many languages,
including, (Japanese) Art & Telematics: Toward the Construction of New
Aesthetics. Tokyo: NTT, 1998; (Korean) Technoetic Arts, Yonsei University
Press. 2002; and Telematic Embrace: visionary theories of art technology and
consciousness, (ed) Edward A Shanken. University of California Press, 2003.
*Engineering Nature* will be published late 2005.

_____________________________

EXPERIENCE OF EXPRESSION: INSTANCES FROM INDIAN DRAMATURGY AND A DISCUSSION
ON 'CONSCIOUSNESS'

by Sangeetha Menon
National Institute Of Advanced Studies
Indian Institute of Science Campus
Bangalore, India 560 012
prajnana [@] yahoo [dot] com
smenon [@] nias [dot] iisc [dot] ernet [dot] in
http://www.geocities.com/prajnana

KEYWORDS

representation, human body, consciousness

ABSTRACT

*Natya*, the Indian concept of dance-drama means visual representation
(*abhinaya*) in fourfold forms such as using parts of the physical body
(*angika*), verbal utterances (*vacika*), costumes and ornaments (*aharya)
and physical signs of mental states (*satvika*). The rigorous and specified
rules together with an integral approach to emotions, first-person
experience of the actor and the spectator make *natya* belong to a higher
order of cognition and experience. There is a wholesome representation of
human emotions through a complex act of the external body (physical body
gestures, costumes, music and plot) and the spiritual body (emotions, states
of mind and unique relationship between the one who is presenting the
re-representation and the one who is enjoying it).

The fulfillment of *natya* is achieved through the effective and joint
performance of different kinds of *abhinaya* and *mudra* (representation of
objects, emotions and ideas through single hand and combined hand gestures),
the theme of the play, music and involvement of the spectators.

The role of spectators is considered to be an active event that mutually
influences the performance of the actor in terms of the representation of
feelings. Intersubjectivity is a key concept in the discussion on *natya*.
One of the unique features of *natya* is that the epistemological and the
experiential, the theory and technique are coordinated to form a mutually
benefiting factor of the whole. Equal importance is given to detailed and
specific physical and mental factors involved, and each of their
transcendences is specified, at the same time, broadening the scope of
experience both for the actor and the spectator.

This presentation will discuss some of these ideas and also some
implications of these in understanding 'consciousness'.

BIOGRAPHY

Sangeetha Menon is a philosopher with a doctorate awarded for the thesis
entitled "the concept of consciousness in the *Bhagavad Gita*". After
graduating in zoology she took her postgraduate degree in philosophy from
University of Kerala. A gold-medallist for postgraduate studies, she
received a University Grants Commission fellowship for her doctoral studies
for five years. She joined National Institute of Advanced Studies in 1996
and is currently a Fellow in the Unit of Culture, Cognition and
Consciousness.

Dr Menon has been working in the area of consciousness studies for over 10
years and has given numerous talks, lectures and presentations at various
national and international fora. Recently, Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology published an article on her research work (2002). She has a book
co-authored with H H Swami Bodhananda entitled *Dialogues: Philosopher meets
the Seer* (2003, Srshti Publishers) which is a set of nine dialogues on
socio-cultural issues of contemporary importance. Her research interests
include Indian ways of thinking in classical philosophical schools, Indian
psychology and Indian dramaturgy in the context of current discussions on
'consciousness'.

Dr Menon has edited three books: *Consciousness and Genetics* (NIAS, 2002),
*Scientific and Philosophical Studies on Consciousness* (NIAS, 1999), and
*Science and Beyond* (NIAS, 2004). She has also authored a few monographs on
consciousness in the context of Indian thought and has also published in
refereed journals. In 2002, the Indian Council of Philosophical Research
garnered her with the "Young Philosopher Award" for her research work. She
is also an avid photographer, artist and web designer. She occasionally
writes poetry and has an interest in classical Indian dance.

_____________________________

CONCEPTS, BOUNDARIES, AND WAYS OF KNOWING

by Arnold G. Smith
Associate Director
Pari Center for New Learning
Via Savonarola, 1
58040 Pari (GR)
Italy
Tel: +39 339 8179 108
Fax: +39 0564 908654
arnold [dot] smith [@] paricenter [dot] com
arnold [dot] smith [@] gmail [dot] com
KEYWORDS

artificial intelligence, right brain, categories, language, knowing

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence has, in terms of its original goals, failed. And its
failure can point to some deep and interesting lessons about how we humans
see the world—how we function, what kinds of knowledge we pay attention to,
and what kind of creatures we are.

In this talk I look at some of the tacit assumptions that underlie not only
the research enterprise of artificial intelligence, but science more
generally, and even our culture as a whole.

In its quest to create intelligent computers, and robots that replace human
beings in many roles, artificial intelligence (AI) has looked primarily at
cognition as the essential human faculty. More importantly, even when
considering aspects of humanness that are not strictly cognitive, such as
emotion and low-level perception, it has unconsciously adopted the stance of
the whole of science — to look at its subject from an abstract, conceptual
perspective.

But in doing so, so much of what it is to be human is missed that the
resulting models and programs and robots fall far short of replicating human
nature. It is certainly interesting that computers can now beat human grand
masters at chess. But it is also important that there is much in the
behavior of a two-year-old child that we cannot explain well enough to allow
us to build machines that exhibit similar behavior.

Key to the problem is the sophisticated categories that we have developed to
explain the world to ourselves. We use language and facts to analyze and
represent the world, labeling objects and relationships, drawing boundaries,
and grouping things and people into types and nationalities. In doing so, we
come to think that this process is completely natural and obvious, and that
this story that we tell ourselves is what the world is really like.

Although this habit has great advantages, and perhaps coincidentally gives
us great power of a certain kind, we fail to notice that there is constant
projection of what we have created in our minds back onto the world. While
we consciously imagine that this world of clear objects and obvious
relationships is what the world "out there" consists of, we actually rely
all the time on a deeper, much more intuitive and richly-connected sense of
what is there and what is going on. Somehow our conceptual models, including
the ones that science provides us with, occupy centre stage in our
consciousness, while our non-conceptual intuitive and embodied awareness,
which is crucial for much of our survival and participation in the world,
stays in the shadows and often escapes conscious notice.

Only as we learn to pay attention to these other aspects of ourselves do we
have any chance of seeing the larger picture. In the process we are likely
to discover much that we did not know we were missing. We can begin to
recover our own wholeness, and at the same time see why AI has experienced
such difficulties and why science will tell us only some of the stories we
need. We can begin to see how incomplete are the dominant stories of our
culture.

BIOGRAPHY

Arnold Smith received his undergraduate degree in applied mathematics at
Harvard and did his doctoral research in artificial intelligence (natural
language processing) at the University of Sussex. For many years he worked
as a research scientist in artificial intelligence, human-computer
interaction, and artificial life at the University of Sussex, at SRI
International, and at the National Research Council o Canada.

He is currently Associate Director of the Pari Center for New Learning,
located in a small village not far from Siena in Italy. He is working these
days on the challenges of exploring and articulating much broader and more
comprehensive worldviews than the standard one offered by science, that can
accommodate insights into the nature of reality from the mystical and
shamanic traditions without relinquishing the achievements and open values
of the scientific tradition.

_____________________________

INTERSTELLAR ALTRUISM: SCIENCE, ART, AND COMMUNICATION WITH EXTRATERRESTRIAL
INTELLIGENCE

by Douglas A. Vakoch
Director of Interstellar Message Composition
SETI Institute
515 North Whisman Road
Mountain View, CA 94043
U.S.A.
Tel: +1 650 960 4514
Fax: + 650 968 5830
vakoch [@] seti [dot] org
http://www.seti.org/messages

KEYWORDS

interstellar communication, SETI, interstellar messages

ABSTRACT

If some day astronomers detect signals from intelligent life around distant
stars, some of the most critical questions facing humankind will be "Should
we reply?" and if so, "What should we say?" and "What /could/ we say that
would be meaningful to an independently evolved civilization, separated from
Earth by vast interstellar distances?" I will suggest that we may be able to
communicate something about our science, our artistic sensibilities, and
even what it is like to be human.

This paper will examine some of the proposals for interstellar message
composition being developed at the SETI Institute in conjunction with the
Leonardo network, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the
International Association of Semiotic Studies. I will focus on a way of
viewing the relationship between art and science that reflects in part my
own professional and cultural background as a psychologist from the United
States.

A dominant view in American psychology is that human actions can be
explained in terms of basic scientific principles. I will review ways that
the SETI Institute, in conjunction with an international group of artists,
scientists, and other scholars from the humanities, is using this approach
to create interstellar messages of the kind that may some day be transmitted
by electromagnetic signals to other worlds. In brief, I will suggest that
some basic scientific principles that might be shared by many technological
civilizations may provide a foundation for describing human notions of
aesthetics, human behavior, and even ethical ideals such as altruism.

BIOGRAPHY

Douglas Vakoch is the Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the
SETI Institute. As the Deputy Chair of the International Academy of
Astronautics Study Group on Interstellar Message Construction, Vakoch had
led recent workshops in Croatia, France, Germany, and the United States. He
serves on the Editorial Board of *Leonardo*, as well as the Space and the
Arts Advisory Committee of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences
and Technology. Vakoch is the editor of *Between Worlds: The Art and Science
of Interstellar Message Composition*, a book to be published by The MIT
Press in Spring 2006. As a member of the International Institute of Space
Law, he examines international policy issues related to interstellar
communication. In addition to being a clinical psychologist (Ph.D., State
University of New York at Stony Brook), Vakoch has formal training in
comparative religion (B.A., Carleton College) and the history and philosophy
of science (M.A., University of Notre Dame).

_____________________________

POETIC-CUBS

by Raquel Paricio
Media Artist, Spain
and Ph.D candidate
Technical University of Catalunya (UPC)
Barcelona
Spain
Tel: +34 620 43 03 23
raquel [@] clonclon [dot] com
http://www.poetictissue.org
http://www.clonclon.com/raquelparicio

and J. Manuel Moreno Arostegui
Associate Professor
Technical University of Catalunya (UPC)
Department of Electronic Engineering Advanced Hardware Architectures Group
Campus Nord, Building C4
c/Jordi Girona 1-3
08034 – Barcelona
Spain
Tel: +34 93 401 56 91
Fax: +34 93 401 67 56
moreno [@] eel [dot] upc [dot] es
http://www-eel.upc.es/aha/

KEYWORDS

apperception, bioinspired technologies, multisensorial installation

ABSTRACT

Goals of the installation: The use of bio-inspired techniques in the
development of POETIC-CUBS [1] responds to offer environments that help the
exploration of the mind. Such environments help to feel new perceptions or a
higher consciousness.

The development of perception and awareness is the first step in the
exploration of other mental spaces, and in expanding consciousness.

Starting from a bio-inspired electronic tissue, based on the POETIC devices,
the main goal will consist in the development of an application where
technical/scientific and artistic features are to be demonstrated.
POETIC-CUBS will be the outcome of this process.

Ongoing work: POETIC-CUBS will be a physical installation, a sculptural
setup, able to self-organise and to adapt its shape driven by the stimuli
coming from its direct environment.

The installation consists of nine autonomous robots constructed in the form
of cubes with displays in five out of their six sides. The cubes are in a
room, so that when the room is empty they are grouped together as a 3 x 3
array, constituting a cell. When a person or a group of people enter the
room the cubes start to move and place themselves around the people (holding
the same distance between them). Therefore, the cell divides itself and
differentiates to create an organism. If the person or the group of people
move in the room (or even if one person moves the arms) the cubes move and
the colours that are depicted in the displays change. Therefore, in this
installation the people can observe how their actions determine the physical
aspect of the organism (constituted by the set of 9 cubes), i.e., the
phenotype, being thus a clear illustration of the genotype to phenotype
mapping process. Learning (epigenetic) mechanisms can also be demonstrated
since the reaction of the cubes (i.e., their movement) can be modulated
depending on the actions done by people. The cubes also determine
autonomously the state of the battery, and upon detecting a low battery
threshold they go to a specific place in the room where the battery may be
charged.

The POETIC electronic tissue: The use of the POETIC electronic devices in
the installation is justified by their capabilities to provide adaptation to
the environment and/or the user using evolutionary, learning, growth,
self-repair and self-replication techniques. These features permit to
produce an optimal response in dynamic environments or in the case this
response has to be adapted to the requirements of a user or a group of
users.

The POETIC devices are structured around three basic subsystems: the
environment subsystem, the organic subsystem and the system interface. The
environment subsystem is in charge of managing the interaction of the
electronic tissue with its direct environment. It also takes care of the
artificial evolutionary processes.

The organic subsystem is constituted by a bi-dimensional array of
programmable cells, called molecules. The molecules can locally communicate
with their 4 direct neighbours. By grouping molecules it is possible to
construct cells with a complex functionality. On top of the molecular level
the organic subsystem contains a routing level, permitting the communication
between cells. One of the most salient features of the routing level
consists in the possibility of establishing dynamic communications in real
time between the cells that are implemented in the organic subsystem.

REFERENCE

1. POETIC is the name used for the electronic devices that constitute the
hardware substrate of the installation, and CUBS is the word in catalan
language equivalent to CUBES in English.

BIOGRAPHY

RAQUEL PARICIO GARCIA, graduate in Fine Arts, and currently a Ph.D candidate
at the Technical University of Catalunya (UPC) about Art, Science and
Technology: Sensory interfaces and apperception. She has been teaching in
different University schools of Barcelona (ESDI, ELISAVA, UB). She has
participated in exhibitions held in Mendel Art Gallery Saskatoon, Fundacio
Tapies, Media Festival Canarias, Digital Culture Festival, Festival at the
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Eliterature Festival, Primavera Sound,
Barcelona, Agora Mobius and University of Valencia. Her research interests
include body consciousness and expression, and multi-sensory environments
and interfaces.

DR. JUAN MANUEL MORENO AROSTEGUI, Ph.D in Telecommunications Engineering,
currently holds and Associate Professor position at the Department of
Electronic Engineering, Technical University of Catalunya (UPC), in
Barcelona, Spain. He is the coordinator of the POETIC 1st project, and in
the past he has participated in other projects funded by the EC in the area
of programmable devices (RECONF2 and FIPSOC projects) and artificial neural
networks models (ELENA project). His research interests include bio-inspired
computing techniques, artificial neural networks models and architectures
for programmable devices.

_____________________________

CONVERGENCE BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE. A DIGITAL ARTISTIC CREATION

by Chu-Yin Chen
Professor
Departement Arts et Technologies de l'Image
Université Paris 8
France

KEYWORDS

nature, Chinese thought, artificial life, animations

ABSTRACT

The relations between art and science take roots in the remote origin of
civilizations and in their philosophy which models along centuries the
attitude of the people about the physical and social phenomena in which they
live.

The Chinese thought conceives the universe as a great organization in which
the state of each part depends on the others' one. To foresee and act, it is
necessary to observe the phenomena of Nature while adapting oneself with
flexibility and by respecting their properties so as to preserve a total
balance. Impregnated with this belief, my first step towards knowledge and
artistic creation is the observation of Nature.

Following the scientists' wake, I probe the world deeply to understand the
truth hidden into the messages of Nature. The mechanisms and the operation
of the Life penetrated my digital artistic creation through the use of
Artificial Life. This enabled me to seize certain processes of the living
systems, and at the same time, to create Virtual Creatures endowed with
intuitive and evolving moves. *Thanks to new technologies, I do not paint
anymore the still life; I program some living nature*.

The creatures that are animated on the computer's screen are virtual,
potential and released by my innumerable software writing endeavors. Within
this new dimension of the virtual space and time, the actions and the
evolutions of this Artificial Life intermingle themselves. Driving all the
elementary parts belonging to my creatures constitutes the origin of the
intrinsic relations that we can watch into their animations.

Consequently, these animations cannot be satisfied anymore with an
interpolation between two positions fixed in advance, but permanently
requires an extrapolation upon the future, unceasingly questioned by its own
contents. Using behavioral animation, each virtual creature has its own
genes and its own form of intelligence enabling it to adapt itself, to
anticipate the variations of its environment, and to evolve consequently.
Thus, the pictorial shapes are embodied into this Artificial Life. For me,
to animate pictures mean to project their life in the future!

On the "Convergence Arts and Sciences" program's basis, the organization
"Centre Sciences" of the French National Center for Scientific Research
(CNRS) offered me the opportunity to be an artist in residence in a biology
research laboratory at the INRA of Tours (France). This enabled me to
confront two forms of research, and to associate scientific creation,
artistic creation and communication for a large audience.

My film *Ephemere* based on 3D computer graphics animation is not an account
or a scientific statement. This artwork exposes a lived track, the results
of a contact between the vision of scientists and the vision of an artist.

Science is always very present in our life and remains faithful to reality,
while art always plays with its phantasms, each one according to its
direction: Science advances, Art invents.

As in Saint Exupéry's book *Le Petit Prince*, the scientists try to draw a
true sheep; the artists are satisfied with its box. The sheep enhances our
knowledge; the box contains dreams!

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Taiwan in 1962, Chu-Yin Chen arrived in France in 1987 and received
her diploma from the Beaux-Arts school of Paris in 1991. Then, she directed
her research towards new technologies, and became Doctor in Aesthetics,
Science and Technologies of Arts in 2001. Currently, she is a Professor in
Departement Arts et Technologies de l'Image, Université Paris 8.

Strong in her cultural origins, Chu-Yin Chen belongs to a very original
current that lies at the crossroad of artistic creation, biology and
Artificial Life. Her movies and her interactive installations result from
programs based on the theory of complexity and on software technologies
enabling to study the process of the living.

_____________________________

BRIDGING CULTURES IN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION. NEW MULTILITERACY MODELS FOR
INTERACTION DESIGN

by Patricia Search
Professor
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York 12180
U.S.A.
Tel: +1 518 276 6467
Fax: +1 518 276 4092
patriciasearch [@] yahoo [dot] com

KEYWORDS

interaction design, cultural interface, intercultural grammar

ABSTRACT

Indigenous cultures have a spiritual foundation that is built on
social-community interaction and intimate relationships with the physical
environment. These interrelationships are defined by aural and visual
communication techniques that represent pluralistic perspectives. Research
has revealed similarities in the symbols of these early cultures that
suggest similar mental models and logical structures across cultures.
Psychology research has also indicated that these symbols transcend time and
convey similar underlying meanings in contemporary cultures.

With electronic communication it is possible to use digital media to create
interactive spaces that simulate the social values and cognitive models of
these early oral cultures. There is a great deal of talk about bridging the
digital divide by making electronic hardware and software available to
underdeveloped communities. Little focus, however, has been given to the
need to develop computer interfaces that are appropriate for the diverse
learning and communication styles in different cultures. Such interfaces
need to reflect pluralistic, aural-visual, community-based communication
styles that differ from Western perspectives of temporal sequencing, logical
analysis, and fixed hierarchies. Just giving underdeveloped communities
traditional computer hardware and software will not bridge the digital
divide. The human-computer interface must reflect the user's cultural and
social methods of interaction and communication.

In my research I am developing new multiliteracy models for computer
interface design. The interfaces use HyperGlyphs, design concepts derived
from dynamic, time-based communication structures used in oral communication
in Indigenous cultures. The research uses visual patterns to represent the
changing semantic structures in an interactive information space where there
are numerous networks of associations. These multiliteracy models integrate
the semiotics of early oral cultures with the semiotics of modern electronic
communication. The interface designs reflect the pluralistic, aural-visual,
community-based communication styles of Indigenous cultures. This research
will be incorporated into a collaborative project with two universities in
Australia. For this project I am designing the computer interface for an
online course in Indigenous studies. The course analyses the cultural
interface between Indigenous and Western societies.

Background information about my research is available in two papers at:
http://www.rpi.edu/~searcp/HyperGlyphs.pdf
http://www.rpi.edu/~searcp/Transformations.pdf

BIOGRAPHY

Patricia Search is a multimedia artist and professor at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. She was awarded a Fellowship in Computer
Arts from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is a Fulbright scholar
who received a grant to work with two universities in Australia.

Her artwork has been featured in 22 solo exhibitions, over 150 group
exhibitions, and several documentaries on electronic art. She received best
paper awards for her research in interaction design from the International
Visual Literacy Association and the World Conference on Educational
Multimedia and Hypermedia. She served on the executive boards of the
Inter-Society for Electronic Art and the International Visual Literacy
Association.

_____________________________

SPACESUIT: SPACE CRAFT

by Bradley M. Pitts
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Man-Vehicle Lab; Rm 37-219
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
U.S.A.
bmpitts [@] mit [dot] edu
http://www.space-craft.info
http://www.mit.edu/~bmpitts/BMP.html

KEYWORDS

spacesuits, design, metaphysical objects

ABSTRACT

Often described as a "spacecraft for one", spacesuits exist as highly
complex, technical systems. For the wearer of a spacesuit, it represents
protection, a life-line extending into the depths of outer space, but for
the public, who never see the spacesuit in person, it exists as a symbol
embodying dreams and beliefs about who and what we are, and what we may
become. It suggests our connections to our larger environment of earth,
solar system, and universe.

These concepts are not just projected onto the material spacesuit, but are
contained in its physical construction. Designers are themselves individuals
with their own notions of what the spacesuit is and what its function should
be. These beliefs and philosophies are made material through the spacesuit's
design and construction. Once in operation, the physical object projects
these philosophies onto the world, literally shaping the reality of the
individual inside the spacesuit. The spacesuit is a highly charged,
metaphysical object.

This presentation explores the concept of a spacesuit from many points along
the spectrum of its existence from art, to engineering, to mathematics.
Cultural explorations of the spacesuit, the body, and space have been
performed, installed, written about, and documented as part of a masters
thesis (MIT, 2003).

These explorations have recontextualized the role of the spacesuit and the
entire endeavour of human spaceflight, leading to alternative spacesuit
concepts. Refining these concepts required engineering methods including
mathematical modelling, model validation, and tests on the human body. In
the end, a vision of a culturally invested Mechanical Counterpressure
spacesuit is developed along with some of the design tools necessary for its
realization. In this way, the spacesuit serves as an object of inquiry
fostering thought about the connections between the internal and external
universe.

It is from this holistic exploration that new (or recontextualized)
spiritualities emerge, moulding the foundation for future work. By
approaching even the most technically demanding, life-threatening situations
in this way, we enter into "space craft," an artistic mode of investigation
and realization capable of producing artefacts for the cultural advancement
of humanity. Due to the embodied beliefs and philosophies, these artefacts
facilitate new possibilities for the people around (and in) them.

Biographical note: http://www.space-craft.info

_____________________________

SELF-REFLEXIVITY IN SCIENCE AND ARTS

by Anna-Maria Christoph-Gaugusch
Media Artist, Austria
andanchr [@] indiana [dot] edu
http://www.members.chello.at/andrea.g/philosophisches/philosophisches.htm

KEYWORDS

self-reflexivity, digital technologies, arts

ABSTRACT

To "observe" something scientifically usually means to observe something
that exists "outside", independently of human conceptions. Scientists tend
to ignore the world "inside" – their conceptions, projections and
presuppositions.

Instead of overlooking already acquired concepts a self-reflexive mirror
will be developed in order to observe how concepts are build up in the first
place. This mirror will not merely reflect visible light, however. It does
not even require our eyes but rather forces us to close them.

A self-reflexive mirror requires to look "inside" and to observe how our
mind-reflections i.e., our rule-guided thoughts, our sound- as well as
taste-, smell- and touch-sensations arise and vanish. Digital technologies
in combination with arts serve as a tool in order to virtually (re)construct
a self-reflexive mirror of non-dualistic mindfulness/awareness.

Once we are able to observe in a self-reflexive fashion how our concepts
evolve, we may realize that the distinction between our concepts and our
meaningfully formed reality is a concept in itself. A self-reflexive mirror
may provide arguments for the view that subjects as well as objects arise
hand in hand with linguistic concepts and rule-guided reciprocal actions,
just as virtual realities require code as well as interaction with a user
for their existence.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Andrea Gaugusch was born in 1977 and received her M.A. in Psychology
(specializing in Music Psychology) in 2001, and her Ph.D. in Philosophy in
2003, from the University of Vienna, Austria.

She was the recipient of the "Schrödinger Scholarship" on the project
"Non-Dualism and its Implications for Cognitive Science". She is currently
pursuing Postdoctoral Research at Indiana University, Bloomington (U.S.A.),
and is a postdoctoral fellow of the "Planetary Collegium" (CAiiA-STAR),
University of Plymouth.

_____________________________

LESSONS FROM THE PHILIPPINE TRIAD

by Fatima Lasay
Media Artist, Philippines
College of Fine Arts
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
1101 Philippines
Tel: +632 920 53 01 to 99 local 7024 to 7026
Mobile : +(63) 0920 3616 220
fats [@] up [dot] edu [dot] ph
http://www.digitalmedia.upd.edu.ph/digiteer/

KEYWORDS

Philippine society, tripartite structure, art-science

ABSTRACT

In my practice as artist and educator of art motivated by technologies, I
have found a place in a mythical way of thinking in and about technology.
Eventually, this led me to a vivisection of binary oppositions that seemed
always to make difficult the intersections between science and art.

I found a powerful tool of vivisection in the tripartite structure of
ancient Philippine society: the Datu, Blacksmith and Babaylan. The role of
the Babaylan in this triad, which contemporary society has nearly completely
bombed and "educated" into oblivion, is most crucial. In the binarism of the
Datu and Blacksmith, it is the Babaylan who strikes the balance.

Being a completely integrated individual, the Babaylan is traditionally
endowed with the power to thread the physical, social, spiritual and
psychological ties of a community in thinking, and eventually extricating,
its people out of the oppressive relationship with a dangerously bi-polar
world.

In a culture where art has ritual value, recovering the Philippine triad is
to recover art as a living ritual. It is a process of defining in cultural
terms a deeply rooted meaning of both art and technology. This presentation
is a visual/aural journey, through art, science and technology, to the
recovery of the Philippine triad, and the difficult but crucial remembrance
and practice of the ritual and philosophy of the Babaylan.

BIOGRAPHY

Fatima Lasay is an artist, educator and independent curator of digital media
art. She obtained her degree in Industrial Design (1991) and Master of Fine
Arts (2002) at the University of the Philippines, College of Fine Arts.

In 1995, she was invited to develop and implement digital media courses for
the studio arts department at the College. She is currently Assistant
Professor of digital media at the University of the Philippines. Her
artistic and research concerns include the intersection of technology-based
art with Asian mythologies, Spanish colonial religious art, electronic
literature and sound.

_____________________________

AN ANOTHER READING OF THE GREEK MYTH OF ORPHEO WITH THROUGH NEW
TECHNOLOGIES: POETIC PROPOSITION ABOUT ARTIFICIAL LIFE

by Kiss Jocelyne
SISAR-Université de Marne La Vallée, France.
University Marne La Vallée
6 cours du Danube
77 700 Serris
Tel: + 00 33 6 62 54 58 03
Fax: + 01 60 07 17 83
kissjocelyne [@] aol [dot] com
http://www.pixelcreation.fr/news/news.asp?code=1724947516
http://www.clubopera.com/lesnews/index.php3?debut=20
http://www.zazieweb.fr/archives/2001/imprimer.php?num=16225

KEYWORDS

computer music, virtual orphism theatre, interactive drama

ABSTRACT

This multimedia play rests on poetic and musical variations with settings,
singers, real and virtual instrumentalists. This scenic device proposes an
interpretation of the myth of Orpheo, around a reflection on the problems of
the border between the life and virtuality, namely that we explore the
oddness of this impression of reality produced by data-processing
simulations, this sensory perception comparable with that which would create
the entities, the processes or the environments real or imaginary which are
simulated. This proposition of representation of one part of the story of
Greek cosmology with through a virtual environment is held within
interactive dramaturgy.

The story begins with the moment where Orpheo goes down to the hells to try
to save Eurydice and meets Cerbere, the dog with multiple heads, which keeps
the door of the kingdom of the God Hades. This character is represented by a
network of inter-connected computers whose each screen posts an animated
head with a personality, and a speech decorated with declamation of
onomatopoeical sentences, which have him clean and with almost human
appearance.

The plurality of these various natures constituting the character of Cerbere
authorizes a kind of "interior" dialogue. This scenic principle is used here
like a poetic metaphor of the principles of emergence and artificial life.
Orphism and virtuality: Iannis Xenakis, was the first on who propose
bringings together between the virtual one and the music. The exercise of
formalization which constitutes the musical transcription thought of a
thought formalized for data-processing application brought closer from its
point of view of work of the Old Greeks. "When only states that spirit is
deposed God, ektasis, (left oneself), can reveal its true nature.

It is necessary to escape the wheel from the Birth by purifications
(Karthamoi) and sacraments (orghia), instruments of the ektasis. The
katharmoi are done by the music and medicine". One can foresee, here, a
direct reference to orphism. This exit of self-orphic symbolizes for him the
control of humans on nature, this universal gift of creation. It represents
the field of possible which works with the raising of age of computer. It is
the reason of the musical revival.

We propose here a second reading of this myth in comparison with new
technologies in order to give in debate an old question about the notion of
the "alive" one. The myth of Orpheo poses the problems of existence of
border between living and the "nonalive" one, enters animated and
inanimated. In another words, it raises the following question can one know
qualities prone alive compared to an object which is not, between what is
natural and artificial. Or in other words to take again the problems of
Jacques Monod: "Would it be in fact possible to define by objective criteria
and Generals the characteristics of the artificial objects, produced
conscious projective activity, in opposition to natural objects, resulting
from the free play of the physical forces?".

Without however answering these questions we present a metaphorical
interpretation on this set of themes. The character of Cerbère is the
central character of the part, which will support in a brief way of these
theses. It incarnates to some extent, problems. It represents at the same
time the world of the gods, which in imaginary of orphic is symbolized by
the paramount seed, being defined as an entity integrating a plurality of
qualities.

By opposition, human is just an individualization of these qualities; it is
a degradation of this initial entity. Cerbère constitutes here a whole of
different personalities gathered in networks of computers each unit with a
clean behavior, however it is released from the device of the emergent
properties of the system making it possible to put in his work a unit within
the network. This property constitutes here, a metaphor and represents that
of the feeling and more precisely that of the feeling in love. It is thus,
because Cerbère is in love of Eurydice that this one will remain into the
shadow. It thus achieves to solidify Eurydice in this space out of the
lifetime, achieving a certain way him also phonographs (act which deprives
of the life a being). Do the problems presented by the personification of
the networks of computers by the character of cerbère raise the question to
know if an entity has gifted of action and of feeling which evolves in time,
perhaps qualified the alive one?

This part carried out in collaboration with the team of INREV directed by
Monique Nahas and of CICEP directed by Philippe Tancelin of the University
Paris 8 was presented at the European House Photography in Paris, at the
time of the festival @rt outsiders organized by Jean Luc Soret.

BIOGRAPHY

A doctor in aesthetic, science and technology of Arts, Kiss is also a
professor-assistant in computer music in the University of Marne La vallee
and a researcher in the CNRS Aesthetic Institute of Contemporary Arts. She
explores through various media the potentialities of the connexionist
filters within interactive systems dedicated to numerical arts. In her
publication *Musical Composition and Cognitive Sciences* she reports these
process.

________________________________________________________________

BONUS SECTION
________________________________________________________________

REFLECTIONS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CULTURES IN MELILLA

by Judy Kupferman
Theatre Department
Tel Aviv University
Israel
Tel and Fax: + 972 3 528 3120
kupfer [@] post [dot] tau [dot] ac [dot] il

The city of Melilla recently held its first International Festival of
Cultures. This included a colloquium on Science and Art, which took place in
Melilla on July 18-20, as well as an art exposition, and nightly concerts on
the beach. It was sponsored by the City of Melilla together with Leonardo
and the Al Andalus Foundation. Melilla is a surprising town. It is located
on the north coast of Morocco but has belonged to Spain since 1497. It
features the most spectacular display of modernist architecture outside
Barcelona, along with an ancient fortress and a lovely seafront. Perhaps its
main distinction is the fact that many cultures live there in harmony:
Moslems, Jews, Christians, Hindu and Gypsies walk through its streets with
no apparent tension. The conference reflected this diversity and was,
therefore, unusual. In addition to the colloquium the festival featured an
exposition of art and concerts on the beach, representing the various local
cultures.

The subject of the colloquium was science, art and Mediterranean culture.
Participants varied accordingly; rarely have I seen such a variegated set of
people, and the remarkable experience of the conference was in getting to
know people from areas both geographic and professional with whom I would
never otherwise have come into contact. In addition, we were from very
different cultural and religious backgrounds, and thus meeting on neutral
ground provided a rare opportunity to begin to understand the different
cultures and world-pictures. After all, the main theme behind the varied
subject matter was the world-picture, how we grasp the universe and our
place in it, be it as scientists, artists, people of various faiths and
disciplines.

The moving spirits behind the conference were Mohammed Aziz Chafchaouni of
Morocco; Roger Malina of Marseille, astrophysicist and editor of Leonardo;
and Julien Knebusch of Leonardo/OLATS in Paris. Participants at the
conference included scientists, artists, and scholars from India, France,
Spain, the UK and the US, Jordan and Egypt. Our Israeli contingent was large
as it was thought this would help in bridging between the cultures. It
included Prof. Eshel Ben Jacob, physicist and President of the Israel
Physical Society; Yael Katzir, former student who now works with bacterial
art; Neora, digital artist; and I, a theatre lighting designer and physics
student who have one foot in each world, so to speak.

We did not know quite what to expect when we were invited, and were
impressed and surprised by the experience. For us, as for many of the
others, it was a rare opportunity to meet people from very different
cultures and viewpoints. This situation involved a certain amount of strain
at times and was not always an easy experience. However, the festival
activities smoothed out this strain in many ways. Strolling together through
the art exposition and listening together under the stars to a thrilling
flamenco performance - all these helped in bridging barriers that were not
at all trivial. The warm and special atmosphere of the city contributed a
great deal. Melilla is a relaxed place. Drivers don't honk their horns.
Women in full Moslem dress stroll side by side with girls in strapless tops,
and nobody seems disturbed by this sight. People smile easily and are
friendly to strangers.

The conference included four sessions: The first dealt with the relationship
between art and science, and the second with the role of computer software
in future culture. The third focused on Islam, and on art and science within
the Arabian-Spanish world. The fourth centered around the influence of
cultural background on approaches to art and science. A few examples of the
lectures may offer some idea of the content. This brief survey necessarily
omits other interesting presentations, but I have tried to give some idea of
the variety offered.

Roger Malina's lecture dealt with the tension between the different cultures
of art and science as well as those of engineering and technology, of
different views and religions, and of regionalism. Other lecturers embraced
technology as embodied by the internet: Mohammed Aziz Chafchaouni together
with American Harold Brokaw described their "Virtual Geodesy", an
interactive computer program which attempts to create relationships between
scientific data and cultural content. Karla Schuch-Brunet of Brazil gave a
survey of the use of the Internet as a vehicle for social reform in Brazil.
Dr. Fathi Saleh of Egypt described the website he has set up of Egyptian
heritage (http://www.cultnat.org).

Some lectures focused on arts and literature. Leila Khalifa of France spoke
of the concepts of time and space in the work of Ibn 'Arabi. Neora (
neora.com <http://neora.com>) of Israel described her experimental theater
production of "Medea_Ex." This piece used a virtual 3D mythological universe
projected around the audience, and the audience, represented as the chorus,
influenced the action using SMS messages. Dr. Sangeetha Menon of India spoke
of consciousness research in light of Indian dance drama.

Dr. Ahmed Moustafa, renowned Islamic researcher and artist, discussed the
geometric form of Arabic script and its implicit significance. Dr.
Moustafa's talk focused on the square shaped dot and its relationship with
the shapes of letters. In accordance with the system of Arabic script
devised by Abbasid Wazir Ibn Mugla in the 9th century, this reflects images
of Islamic mystical thought. Dr. Moustafa also spoke of the cube, and,
indeed, his own artwork, a multicolored structure of cubes on cubes, was on
view in the exposition. Professor Eshel Ben Jacob's lecture involved a link
between science and art. He described self-organization among bacteria, as
evidenced by the beautiful artistic patterns they produce. This lecture had
unexpected drama: The computer that was to project the Power Point
presentation would not function, and Professor Ben Jacob finally decided not
to wait for its repair, placed one slide that he had prepared in an overhead
projector and improvised a beautifully clear presentation around the single
slide, which may even have proved more effective than his original carefully
prepared lecture.

An interesting insight into the relationship of art and culture was provided
on the last day. In the morning Indian physicist C.S. Unnikrishnan gave a
talk which basically dealt with general relativity in terms accessible to
the layman.. Professor Unnikrishnan's current work involves measurements of
the Casimir effect. He prefaced his lecture with talk about his own
background and the personal spiritual motivation behind his scientific
career. I contrasted this with two lectures later in the day, which were
given by western artists. Philippe Boissonnet of Montreal described his work
with holograms in technical detail. (The lecture and pictures were
interesting but it would have been nice to see the holograms themselves!)
Roy Ascott, a British artist with an impressive record of academic positions
who has spent years of work on digital art, spoke of the new vistas opening
up to the artist inspired by biophysics and biophotonics. This talk too had
a distinct analytic and technical flavor.

In the two days preceding the event, there had been several comments about
the opposition or dichotomy of art and science. These three lectures seemed
to contradict that. I doubt very strongly whether Western scientists would
have prefaced a description of their work with talk about their personal
spiritual motivations, and yet clearly there is strong personal motivation
behind any such work; otherwise one wouldn't engage in something so
difficult! Similarly the Western background of the two artists probably
contributed to the clearly articulated conceptual framework and methodology
they described; yet surely few artists of any culture create without a
conceptual framework and methodology. One could see that, in fact, art and
science are not inherently different activities but that the cultural
background of the speaker influences the way he describes his work to
others.

Many of the participants seemed to find new food for thought in the meeting
with people of such different backgrounds and fields. Artists don't usually
attend conferences together with scientists; Moslems don't often talk about
the Qur'an with Jews. There was much private discussion of the various
issues.

I asked my Israeli companions their impressions of the conference and the
festival. All agreed that a major part of the experience was the variety of
people and ideas we met. This multiplicity of cultures and religions were
reflected in the city of Melilla itself with its multicultural harmony, and
lent significance to the choice of this particular venue for the conference.
Eshel Ben Jacob pointed out that in most scientific conferences the audience
outnumbers significantly the lecturers: Each session includes a few
presentations before the public, followed by questions. In this case the
participants of the conference were themselves the audience, and often were
not of the same field as the lecturer. This situation provided an
opportunity for widening horizons and for more immediate discussion than is
usual in more formal public situations. It was thus possible to create a
much stronger relationship between the various participants. In addition,
the formal structure of the conference included much time together aside
from the lecture sessions. The informal discussions at the two-hour
mealtimes customary in that country provided a rare chance to get to know
each other.

The material presented at the conference was interesting and valuable,
enabling a profound examination of values, of the relationship of art and
science, and of man's place in the universe. But perhaps the most valuable
and unusual aspect for all the participants, I think, was the opportunity to
form relationships of friendship and respect with people from significantly
different backgrounds and thus gain some insight into extremely different
visions of our world. It must be stressed that this is just the beginning:
This first Melilla conference has shown that such a meeting of different and
even conflicting elements can succeed, and it seems of first importance to
continue such events on an annual basis.

BIOGRAPHY

Judy Kupferman is a leading Israeli lighting designer. She has worked in
hundreds of productions in theater, dance, opera, son-et-lumiere,
exhibitions, outdoor spectaculars and more. She is on the faculty of the
Theater Department at Tel Aviv University. Years of working with light
led to insupportable curiosity about physics, and eventually to a BSc in
physics at Tel Aviv University. She is now working towards an MSc, and
trying to juggle this along with a lighting career and teaching. Though this
is not easy she generally finds it to be a lot of fun.

________________________________________________________________

ONE FROM THE VAULT: FROM THE LEA ARCHIVES
________________________________________________________________

ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING
First published: (LEA 3:8), August 1995
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/TEXT/Vol_2/lea_v3_n08.txt

by Eduardo Kac
Assistant Professor of New Media
University of Kentucky, Department of Art
College of Fine Arts
207 Fine Arts Bldg.
Lexington, KY 40506-0022
Department of Art Tel: (606) 257-8151
Department of Art Fax: (606) 257-3042
ekac1 [@] pop[dot] uky [dot] edu

The title of this article refers not to Locke's philosophical work, but to
the live, bi-directional, interactive, telematic, inter-species sonic
installation I created with Ikuo Nakamura between Lexington (KY), and New
York. This piece was presented publicly from October 21 to November 11,
1994, simultaneously at the Center for Contemporary Art, University of
Kentucky, and the Science Hall, in
New York. The installation is scheduled to be presented publicly again at
the Susquehana Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in September of 1995.

Ikuo, a New York-based Japanese artist and holographer, and I met very
briefly in 1990, during the opening of my solo exhibition at the Museum of
Holography, in New York. A common friend re-introduced us again online via
e-mail in 1993, and since then we started to develop a very stimulating
dialogue, primarily over e-mail.

Ikuo and I discovered many interesting points in common. The most striking
coincidence was that we were working independently on similar concepts for
an interactive installation. He once described a piece in which two cactuses
would exchange signals live over a modem connection. I told him about a
piece I was working on in which two caged birds would have a live telephonic
conversation. After we met again personally in 1994, during the Fifth
International Symposium on Display Holography at Lake Forest College,
Illinois, we decided to merge the two concepts and create a piece in which
my canary dialogues over a regular phone line with his plant 2,000 miles
away.

Instead of the cactus, the plant of choice was the Philodendron. The piece
was exhibited in the context of my show Dialogues, realized partially on the
Internet, in connections with other museums and galleries, and in the Center
for Contemporary Artat the University of Kentucky.

[THIS TEXT CAN BE VIEWED IN ITS ENTIRETY BY LEA/LEONARDO SUBSCRIBERS AT:
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/archive.html]

________________________________________________________________

LEONARDO REVIEWS
2005.9
________________________________________________________________

This month we are featuring three reviews chosen as much for their quality
as diversity. Although the majority of our work at Leonardo Reviews deals
with books and sometimes journals we do have a number of very active
reviewers who focus their attention of CDs, websites and exhibitions.

This is precisely the selection this month as we start with Richard Kade's
review of *Encounter: Merce* is not so much a critique as a
contextualization of the importance of the event staged at Stanford
University in March this year. *Talking Drum* and *Rogue Wave* both by Chris
Brown are reviewed collectively by René van Peer, one of our active music
experts. In a long review van Peer provides both background information and
an informed and reasoned account, which, in itself, reads as though it is
music.

Finally Amy Ione, a familiar name to those who follow Leonardo Reviews, has
written about the overview of an event which although now history can be
revisited – at least in a restricted way – on the web. Her review of
*Visionary Anatomies* at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC,
2004 also includes the url at which it is archived. As usual she has
identified one of the important discussion currently going on our field and
triangulates *Visionary Anatomies* in a wider fascination with the boundary
between art and science.

Among other reviews posted this month there is Yvonne Spielmann's review of
the Venice Biennale. This is an event that she now covers regularly for us
and as you will read, she feels raises some rather profound problems.

All these reviews together with the archive can be found at
http://www.leoanrdoreviews.mit.edu

Michael Punt
Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Reviews

_____________________________

REVIEWS POSTED AUGUST 2005

Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power
by Ron Eglash, Jennifer Croissant, Giovanna Di Chiro, and Rayvon Fouché,
Eds.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen

Artificial Life IX: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the
Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems
by Jordan Pollack, Mark Bedau, Phil Husbands, Takashi Ikegami and Richard A.
Watson, Eds.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen

La Biennale di Venezia
51st International Art Exhibition
Reviewed by Yvonne Spielmann

Carnal Art: Orlan's Refacing
by C. Jill O'Bryan
Reviewed by Rob Harle (Australia)

The Curvature of Spacetime: Newton, Einstein, and Gravitation
by Harald Fritzsch; translated by Karin Heusch
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen

Disruptive Pattern Material: An Encyclopedia of Camouflage
by Hardy Blechman
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen

Encounter: Merce
Event website: http://encountermerce.stanford.edu.
Reviewed by Richard Kade

Hans Haacke
by Walter Grasskamp
Reviewed by Artur Golczewski

Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati
by Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen

Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art
by Susan L. Aberth
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens

Proteus: A Nineteenth Century Vision
by David Lebrun
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens

Qatar Foundation
Innovations in Education: the Art and Science Partnership
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher

Shades of Black: Assembling Black Art in 1980s Britain
by David A. Bailey, Ian Baucom & Sonia Boyce, Eds.
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher

Symmetry 2000: Part 1 and Part 2
I. Hargittai & T.C. Laurent, Eds.
Reviewed by Rob Harle (Australia)

Talking Drum
by Chris Brown
and
Rogue Wave
by Chris Brown
Reviewed by René van Peer

Technology as Experience
by John McCarthy and Peter Wright
Reviewed by John Knight

Them: A Memoir of Parents
by Francine du Plessix Gray
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens

Visionary Anatomies
by Harvey Fineberg, J.D.Talesk, and Michael Sappol
Reviewed by Amy Ione

_____________________________

ENCOUNTER: MERCE

Stanford's interdisciplinary exploration through the arts, focusing on the
life and art of Merce Cunningham, legendary choreographer, dance innovator,
and artistic thinker
Event website: http://encountermerce.stanford.edu.

Reviewed by Richard Kade
Ubiquitous Iconoclast - Xerox Corporation
Stanford, CA 94305-6004
U.S.A.
ubiq_icon [@] hotmail [dot] com

Most of March 2005 at Stanford University was billed as "Merce Immersion,"
replete with the premiere performance of the newest ballet written
especially for the occasion by the noted choreographer, Merce Cunningham.
The celebration culminated in an unlikely collaboration between members of
the school's dance, computer sciences, and medical departments in an
outlandish attempt at disambiguating the so-called "vocabulary of
'traditional' ballet" as in contradistinction to that developed by
Cunningham and his company over the course of the past quarter- to
half-century.

In much the same way Stravinsky could be said to be the "Picasso of music"
(or, similarly, C. S. Forester observed Puccini to be the "Wagner of
opera"), one could postulate plausibly that Cunningham has long been the
"John Cage of dance" - were it not for the fact that these two had actually
performed simultaneously on the same stages, in the same numbers, for a
number of years.

Use, twice, of the word "same" in the previous sentence might be misleading
in the larger sense as one easily might conclude erroneously that some
collaborative effort was under way. Yes, Cage and Cunningham often traversed
the nation together in a beat-up VW van but, once on stage, any idea of
planning a coherent work - where two art forms (music and ballet) were fused
to convey any notion of a united aesthetic effort — seemed an abhorrent
violation of spontaneity.

In fact, at the height of their performances together, the concept of
freeform knew no limits. Cunningham decided that, in addition to Cage and
himself, the lighting crew ought also to partake in the free-for-all. The
most memorable, if not noteworthy, result of this stroke of "genius" was
that, at a key point where Merce was at the apogee of one of his leaps, a
bright spotlight temporarily blinded him causing his fall into the pit.
Alas, this did not deter him from continuing his choreographic pursuits that
persist to this day.

While ample instances of the work of Merce Cunningham (old notes and the
like) abound on this and other of the Stanford pages referenced on this
site, the bottom line is simple. That which we humans regard as "classic" —
be it music, sculpture, poetry, gastronomy, painting, origami, folding
photons, etc - is what we continue to return to because it ignites a spark
within our soul. Such creativity is almost never a matter of happenstance.
Even the most talented artists in the realm of jazz improvisation work
within the context of an understood framework.

To see how firmly rooted in vacuity the creations of Merce Cunningham are,
and always have been, one need look no further than the works of Mark Morris
(*Falling Down Stairs* or *Hard Nut*) or Michael Smuin (*Starshadows* or
*Stabat Mater*). Unplug the virtual-reality sensors and forget the
pretentious and nonsensical nano-analyses of every component of the work. As
Yogi Berra so aptly put it, "You can see a lot by observing!"

_____________________________

TALKING DRUM

by Chris Brown
Pogus Productions, New York, 2005
CD, P21034-2, $14.00
Distributor's website: http://www.pogus.com/.

ROGUE WAVE

by Chris Brown
Tzadik, New York, 2005
CD, TZ 8014, $14.00
Distributor's website: http://www.tzadik.com/

Reviewed by René van Peer
Bachlaan 786
5011 BS Tilburg
The Netherlands
r [dot] vanpeer [@] wxs [dot] nl

Chris Brown, pianist, computer music composer and co-director of the Center
for Contemporary Music at Mills College in Oakland, California, showed a
special attention for rhythm and percussion in earlier works of his, such as
*Lava* (released on the Tzadik label in 1995) and a series of collaborations
that he compiled on the 1996 *Duets* album on Artifact Recordings. While he
was completing the latter, he started developing an interactive spatial
setup for linking drum machines with live percussion, which he called
Talking Drum. He published a detailed technical description of this
installation work in *Leonardo Music Journal* Vol. 9 (1999). On an album
with the same title, Brown recently released recordings of a number of these
installations, interspersed with location recordings he made in Bali, Cuba,
Turkey and the Philippines.

It is exactly the juxtaposition between the different types of situations
that makes *Talking Drum* a wonderful listening experience. What all
recordings share is a strong sense of informality and spatiality. On the
other hand, there is a marked difference between the intentional character
of improvisation in the installation recordings and the looser interaction
in the other takes. The interplay of the musicians (percussionists as well
as players of other instruments) with the computer driven percussion does
sound intriguing, initially almost like a ball being hit back and forth in a
game of tennis until players and machines start to interlock, or move apart
into separate patterns that drift through each other but don't audibly get
together into a superstructure. What is very clear to the ear (especially
when listening through a headset) is how the sounds are distributed over the
space and move through it. Still, these pieces somehow tend to sound
restrained and forced, as if the musicians always need to be prepared for
the unexpected, to pit their wits against the imperturbability of the
systems they are facing.

The location recordings are quite different in that respect. Several of
these were made during dances and ceremonies, in which percussion plays a
major role. The Cuban and Balinese tracks just bristle with musicians going
at it full tilt, dancers and standers-by charging the atmosphere with their
response. Here, too, the spatial quality of the recordings draws you into
the action. Actually not all these environmental recordings are percussive.
You can hear people milling about on a market, traffic in the background,
sometimes passing by at close range. There are takes of frogs and birds. But
because of being interspersed with the ostensibly percussive pieces, their
rhythmical aspects are brought to the fore. One of the most enchanting
recordings was done in the Hagia Sophia mosque, where you can hear the
measured hammering of carpenters, amplified by the grand domed hall and
shrouded in the thick veils of its reverb.

What makes this album outstanding is how Brown has achieved in weaving these
very different recordings together. He has created transitions that are
remarkably smooth and logical, making one grow out of the other, often by
using some rhythm pattern or timbre that they share, as a bridge. Thus this
entire CD is a complex of interplay between all these various strands.
Despite the contrastive quality of the various components Brown makes it
work as one large-scale composition.

The four recent and two older pieces on *Rogue Wave* show that
characteristics apparent in *Talking Drum* are interests Brown has pursued
throughout the years - the interaction between electronic systems and live
musicians, the distribution of sounds around a space as part of his
compositions and recordings, and his predilection for rhythm as a major
driving force for his music. *Rogue Wave* does, however, present a far
broader sampling of Chris Brown's multifaceted work. It includes computer
network music, which he pioneered with his colleagues of The Hub; his piano
playing; his work with self-built and adapted instruments; collaborations
with other musicians and composers, such as the virtuoso percussionist
William Winant who is featured on three of the tracks; and even a piece of
symphonic instrumentation, scaled down by necessity, but impressive
nonetheless. Called *Alternating Currents*, it was commissioned by Kent
Nagano for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in 1983. This piece seems to
foreshadow Lava being likewise scored for percussion, brass and live
electronics. Written over twenty years ago it already shows Brown's use of
complex and irregular rhythms (which may expand and contract) as central to
his compositional work.

sEven more spectacular is the most recent piece, after which the CD was
called. The dense buzz of a bull-roarer serves as a ground layer on which
Brown, Winant and turntable player DJ Eddie Def throw percussive sounds from
the various sources in their respective domains — electronic, acoustic and
vinyl. The intensity of the patterns mounts and subsides. Trying to follow
in detail what is going on you stand a serious chance of getting swept off
your feet by the powerful density of the texture, which does indeed feel as
if a wave of sound is crashing into you.

Brown himself performs in all the pieces on the *Rogue Wave* album, mostly
doing live electronics. Apart from the *Rogue Wave* piece he is most
perceptibly present in *Transmission Tenderloin* and *Retroscan*. The former
was taken from a live broadcast, which is part of an ongoing series of
collaborations between Brown and Guillermo Galindo, in which their
electronic music improvisations are broadcast over different frequencies, to
be picked up by people in an outdoor audience on receivers they bring with
them. This turns the environment into one large performance space full of
moving sound.

On *Retroscan* Brown plays the piano that is in its entirety a source of the
sounds generated and then transformed by an interactive computer program.
The music bounces back and forth between the playing and the modifications -
the program responding to the input of sound, and Brown responding to what
comes out of the system. On the one hand there is a continuous dialog that
resembles a conversation, in which new views are introduced into the
thoughts that develop. On the other hand, the electronic sounds become a
layer separating itself from the acoustic sounds, turning into a changeable
blanket of drones and riffs on which Brown drops single tones, snatches of
melody and resonant bangs and taps on the frame.

These two CDs complement each other beautifully, one focusing on this
interactive electronic installation that Brown developed, which is presented
as a large composition; the other compiling different aspects of his work.
Together they are a showcase of his versatility as a composer and player of
electronic music, and of his capability to set up musical dialogs through
intelligently and sensitively designed electronic systems.

_____________________________

VISIONARY ANATOMIES

by Harvey Fineberg, J.D.Talesk, and Michael Sappol
National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, 2004
40 pp., illus. $N/C
Exhibition website:
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/arts/Visionary_Anatomies.html

Reviewed by Amy Ione
The Diatrope Institute
ione [@] diatrope [dot] com

One of the best-kept secrets in Washington D.C. is the National Academy of
Sciences gallery space, where exhibitions that explore relationships among
the arts and sciences, engineering, and medicine are regularly mounted.
Given my enthusiasm for this venue, I was excited to learn a small catalogue
accompanied their recent exhibition Visionary Anatomies.

Excellent, and yet concise, this 40-page overview is a treasure. It includes
full color reproductions of each artist (or collaborative team), brief
statements about the printed works, and introductory essays that place
current fashions within the history of art and anatomy. As a whole, the book
brings to mind several recent exhibitions (Dream Anatomy at the National
Library of Medicine, 2002', The Hayward Gallery, London's Spectacular
Bodies, 2000-2001: and Revealing Bodies at the San Francisco Exploratorium,
2000). These exhibitions similarly highlighted how artists have translated
the collective advancements in medicine, anatomy and technology into their
own projects.

Indeed, J. D. Talesek acknowledges that "Visionary Anatomies" is a part of
the dialogue begun in these earlier venues. Talesek also reminds us the
dialogue between artists and scientists has an extended history. Some of the
details of this history are outlined in Michael Sappol's contribution:
"Visionary Anatomies and the Great Divide: Art, Science and the Changing
Conventions of Anatomical Representation 1500-2003."

Sappol, a Curator-Historian with the National Library of Medicine,
introduces a series of long-standing issues in the history of anatomical
representation that include the conventions that govern collaborations among
artists and anatomists. He speaks of both the boundaries and dialogue
between them. Beginning with the assertion that we think of ourselves as
anatomical beings, Sappol then moves to how the subject of anatomical
representation, like the placement of "boundaries" between art and science,
is not purely academic. It also has reference to our own experience.

What I liked most about these short essays was the chronology it provided.
Also of great interest were the engravings included to illustrate the text.
For example, although I am acquainted with the history from Galen through
Vesalius, the Scottish anatomist John Bell, and contemporary imaging
technologies, I had never clearly delineated how the uses of anatomical
representations shifted as artistic/scientific conventions, meanings, and
audiences altered their perspective on the world. Whereas Vesalius' bodies
are often placed in a scene, and other illustrations cited (or parodied)
iconic traditions and subjects, by the eighteenth century conventions had
changed. The essay further explains that by the end of this century Bell
truculently denounced "the vitious practice of drawing from the imagination,
" instead of "truly from the anatomical table."

The plates of the artwork convinced me that this is an excellent exhibition,
while reminding me of how much is lost when we look at reproductions rather
than the works themselves. Some of the art worked better in the small format
than others. I loved the sinewy quality and the way the light/dark contrast
accentuated it in Mike and Doug Starn's Blot out the Sun #1, which used a
combination of techniques found in both the history of photographic
processes as well as tools of today's digital age. Katherine du Tiel's
Inside/outside series also effectively translated despite the small format.

Images reproduced include a Spine/Back and Muscle/Hand that were printed so
that it is difficult to separate the within from the without. Each confuses
the lines between anatomy and physical reality, and combines an elegant
aesthetic with a subdued whimsy.

The limitations of seeing art through a publication were more obvious in
Stefanie Bürkle's Panorama Paris Lambda print. It was immediately evident
that her work follows in the epic style that has become associated with
contemporary German photographers (e.g., Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth,
Thomas Ruff, and Candida Hofer). This piece contrasts the Musée National
d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris with a terminal in Charles de Gaulle airport.
Bürkle places an anatomical model of a man standing on his head in the
museum room, which is stacked full of encased creatures, objects of natural
history.

Visually the juxtaposition is intended to prompt a comparison between
cultural and social values in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries.
Impressive as I assume it is in the physical space, the contrast was
primarily in my mind when pondering it in the catalogue.

The reduction of a 31.5x78 inch piece to a two-page spread that measured 13"
across mitigated its power. Similarly, Richard Yorde's piece looked
impressive, but it was too large to read in the small size provided.

I was particularly grateful that contributors included statements about each
work. As someone who enjoys knowing the process and how the artist "sees"
the project, I found this information helped round out the book as well as
my understanding of what I was actually looking at when viewing the flat
reproductions. For example, (art)n's contribution Pet Study 2 (Lung Cancer):
Man Ray/Picabia Imitating Balzac is a virtual sculpture modeled on a
photograph of the painter Francis Picabia taken by Man Ray.

I would not have conceptualized the image at all without the statement that
explained that when it is viewed through a backlit barrier screen the
assembled images are perceived by the viewer to exist in three dimensions.
The statement also explains that similarity exists between the way that
(art) builds up the multiple layers of the virtual sculpture and the way
that contemporary medical scanning technologies deconstruct the body in a
series of planes.

In closing, the "Visionary Anatomies" catalogue is a splendid overview of
contemporary work that references the body. It is available in its entirety
at http://www.nationalacademies.org/arts/Visionary_Anatomies.html. I highly
recommend it, with the footnote that those who can visit the show will no
doubt find the actual works offer more when seen full size in the physical
world. Although no longer showing at the NAS, the show will be on display at
the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, New Jersey from 17 September – 27 November
2005.

________________________________________________________________

LEONARDO JOURNAL
________________________________________________________________

LEONARDO, VOL. 38, NO. 5 (OCTOBER 2005) –
TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SELECTED ABSTRACTS

EDITORIAL

< Jean Gagnon and Alain Depocas: Documentation and Conservation of the Media
Arts Heritage >

SPECIAL SECTION

< Space: Science, Technology and the Arts Workshop >

< Annick Bureaud: Did You Say Space Art? Leonardo's Commitment to Space Art,
35 Years On >

< Daniel E. Goods: Revelations: An Artist in Residence at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory >

< Adam Nieman: *Welcome to the Neighbourhood*: Belonging to the Universe >

< Andreas Vogler and Jesper Jørgensen: Windows to the World, Doors to Space:
The Psychology of Space Architecture >

COLOR PLATES

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

< Liliane Lijn: *Starslide*: A Symbiosis of Form and Function >

SPECIAL SECTION

< California Art Association 2004 Conference Papers >

< Sara Diamond: Degrees of Freedom: Models of Corporate Relationships >

< Edward A. Shanken: Artists in Industry and the Academy: Collaborative
Research, Interdisciplinary Scholarship and the Creation and Interpretation
of Hybrid Forms >

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

< Bojana Kunst: Liberation or Control: Disobedient Connections in
Contemporary Works >

LEONARDO REVIEWS

Reviews by Peter Anders, Wilfred Niels Arnold, Jan Baetens, Roy R. Behrens,
Martha Blassnigg, Andrea Dahlberg, Maia Engeli, George Gessert, Dene Grigar,
Rob Harle, Craig Hilton, Nisar Keshvani, Martha Patricia Niño Mojica, Aparna
Sharma, Eugene Thacker, Stefaan Van Ryssen

LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS

_____________________________

LEONARDO 38:5 - ABSTRACTS
_____________________________

SPECIAL SECTION

DEGREES OF FREEDOM: MODELS OF CORPORATE RELATIONSHIPS

by Sara Diamond

The author discusses three models of corporate partnership that support the
creation of new-media art: directed altruism, skunk works (product
development), and regulated self-interest. Similar activities can occur
across these models, but expectations, criteria for assessment and final
outcomes may differ. Clarifying the rules of engagement for arts
organizations and artists when they work with corporations is critical to
success for both artists and companies. This essay provides a framework and
examples for each model from Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom and the
United States. It evaluates failures as well as successes.

_____________________________

SPECIAL SECTION

REVELATIONS: AN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AT THE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

by Daniel E. Goods

The author's two years as an artist in residence at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory have led him to an appreciation of how similar his thinking and
work process are to those of the laboratory's engineers and scientists. For
both, certain ideas and processes at first appear crazy and impracticable,
but vision and persistence bring them to realization. The three
installations described in this article pertain to a future mission that, if
successful, will locate a planet similar to earth and once again change
humanity's understanding of its position in the universe.

_____________________________

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

LIBERATION OR CONTROL: DISOBEDIENT CONNECTIONS IN CONTEMPORARY WORKS

by Bojana Kunst

The concept of connection has assumed a very ambivalent status today. Being
connected exposes the liberating potential of connected public
participation, which has changed our understanding of political and intimate
life. At the same time there is also a strong fear at work that this very
potential could result in a more rigid form of contemporary life.
Connection, as understood in this article, is something procedural that can
at the same time be disobedient to its own procedure. This disobedience can
be concretely observed in certain contemporary artistic works, for example
in the project *wPack* from Intima Virtual Base.

_____________________________

SPECIAL SECTION

*WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD*: BELONGING TO THE UNIVERSE

by Adam Nieman

Space travel could be an experience available to everyone. This paper
describes *Welcome to the Neighbourhood*, a combination of sculpture and
multimedia designed to help people inhabit the solar system (without leaving
the earth). The project aims to empower astronomers and non-astronomers
alike to form an authentic conception of their place in the cosmos. The
author discusses the sculptures that inspired the idea for the project,
including the largest known kinetic sculpture ever built (60 light-years
across), and then outlines *Welcome to the Neighbourhood* in the context of
a broader discussion of public engagement with science and the role of space
art in transforming people's experience of "being in the universe."

_____________________________

SPECIAL SECTION

ARTISTS IN INDUSTRY AND THE ACADEMY: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH,
INTERDISCIPLINARY SCHOLARSHIP AND THE CREATION AND INTERPRETATION OF HYBRID
FORMS

by Edward E. Shanken

The author surveys contemporary artist-engineer-scientist collaborations in
industry and the academy and considers a variety of theoretical and
practical issues pertaining to them. Given the increasing dedication of
cultural resources to engage artists and designers in science and technology
research, the author concludes that more scholarship must analyze case
studies, identify best practices and working methods, and propose models for
evaluating both the hybrid products resulting from these endeavors and the
contributions of the individuals engaged in them.

_____________________________

SPECIAL SECTION

WINDOWS TO THE WORLD, DOORS TO SPACE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPACE ARCHITECTURE

by Andreas Vogler And Jesper Jørgensen

Living in a confined environment with minimal external stimuli available,
such as a space habitat, is a strain on normal human life and puts great
pressure on groups and individuals. Designers working on a space habitat not
only must work on its functional role, but also must integrate functionality
with mental representation and symbolic meaning. Space-connection interfaces
such as doors and windows act as "sensory organs" of a building. They allow
inside-out communication, but also allow the user to control the flow of
light and air, which in a direct or indirect way are communication mediums.
In this paper the authors advocate a closer connection among architecture,
anthropology and psychology in designing space habitats as part of a new
concept of environmental design strategy in space architecture.

________________________________________________________________

LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS
________________________________________________________________

NEW CHAIRS ELECTED FOR LEONARDO EDUCATION FORUM

Three new chairs and co-chairs have been elected to lead the Leonardo
Education Forum through the next three College Art Association conferences.
Yianni Yessios was elected for a 1-year term and will chair the group for
the 2006 conference in Boston, MA; Amy Ione was elected for a 2-year term
and will chair the group for the 2007 conference in New York, NY; and Eddie
Shanken was elected for a 3-year term and will chair the group for the 2008
conference in Dallas, TX.

The Leonardo Education Forum consists of artists, scientists, engineers and
scholars who belong both to the Leonardo Network and to the College Art
Association. The purpose of the Leonardo Education Forum is to develop joint
actions between the two organizations, such as promoting the work of artists
and art historians in the art-science and art-technology interdisciplinary
fields.

The working group will develop, among other things, proposals for sessions
at the CAA meetings and mentoring programs for students in the field.
Information about the Leonardo Education Forum and activities including
information about the 2005 CAA conference in Atlanta, GA, can be found on
the Leonardo web site at:
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/events/leonardocaa.html.

Students, faculty and professionals working in the art/science/technology
field are encouraged to join the working group to help build the activities
of this dynamic community. To join the working group, visit the discussion
list at: http://webexhibits.org/about/leocaa.html. The discussion list is
open to any person both a member of CAA and of Leonardo/ISAST.

_____________________________

*LMJ* EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NICOLAS COLLINS EXTENDS CONTRACT

Leonardo/ISAST is pleased to report that Nic Collins has agreed to extend
his contract as editor-in-chief of *Leonardo Music Journal* (LMJ) through
2007.

New York-born (1954) and -raised, Collins studied composition with Alvin
Lucier at Wesleyan University, worked for many years with David Tudor and
has collaborated with numerous soloists and ensembles around the world. As a
composer he helped pioneer the use of microcomputers in live performance and
has made extensive use of "home-made" electronic circuitry, radio, found
sound material and transformed musical instruments. From 1992 to 1995 he was
Visiting Artistic Director of Stichting at STEIM in Amsterdam and in
1996-1997 a DAAD composer in residence in Berlin. In September 1999, he
joined the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as the
chair of the sound department. Collins has long been active as a curator of
concerts and sound installations (The Kitchen, PS1, the Clocktower,
Podewil). His recordings are available on the Lovely Music, Nonesuch, Trace
Elements, PlateLunch and Periplum record labels.

Collins began serving as *LMJ* editor-in-chief beginning with Volume 8 in
1998. Collins expects to see evolutionary change in both form and content in
*LMJ* in the coming years. The appointment of features editors will broaden
the purview of the journal while providing continuity from issue to issue.
An active web component whereby all authors would be invited to incorporate
audio (MP3) and video (MPEG) illustrations, as well as active web links, in
their submissions is planned. Closer integration between *LMJ* and the other
Leonardo publications - *Leonardo*, *Leonardo Electronic Almanac* and the
Leonardo Book Series - is also currently under exploration. Forthcoming
volumes of *LMJ* include *The Word: Voice, Language and Technology* (2005)
and *Noises Off: Sound beyond Music* (2006).

*LMJ* is published annually by the MIT Press. *LMJ* is devoted to aesthetic
and technical issues in contemporary music and the sonic arts. Each thematic
issue features artists/writers from around the world, representing a wide
range of stylistic viewpoints and fostering connections between the
contemporary arts, sciences and new technologies. *LMJ* provides a
scholarly, international, peer-reviewed forum for musicians, composers,
sound artists, scientists, researchers, theoreticians, technicians and
instrument builders to discuss and present their work in a context of mutual
influence and exchange. Each volume of *LMJ* is accompanied by an
independently curated audio or multimedia CD.

For more information, visit http://www.lmj.mit.edu or contact Nic Collins at
ncollins [@] artic [dot] edu.

LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS COORDINATOR: Kathleen Quillian
isast [@] leonardo [dot] info

_____________________________

THE PACIFIC RIM NEW MEDIA SUMMIT (PRNMS)
A PRE-SYMPOSIUM TO ISEA2006
7-8 August 2006, San Jose, California

The ISEA2006 Symposium is being held in conjunction with the first biennial
ZeroOne San Jose Global Festival for Art on the Edge in San Jose,
California, 5--13 August 2006. As part of the ISEA2006 Symposium, the CADRE
Laboratory for New Media at San Jose State University will host a 2-day
pre-symposium entitled the *Pacific Rim New Media Summit*, co-sponsored by
Leonardo.

With a purview encompassing all states and nations that border the Pacific
Ocean, the Pacific Rim New Media Summit is intended to explore and build
interpretive bridges between institutional, corporate, social and cultural
enterprises, with an emphasis on the emergence of new media arts programs.

In preparation for the summit, seven working groups are currently laying the
groundwork for the main areas of investigation to be pursued in depth at the
summit: Creative Community, Curatorial, Education, Directory, Eco-Social
Activism, Mobile Computing and Urbanity, and Latin American-Pacific/Asia New
Media.

Following is another statement from one of the working group chairs, in the
continuation of our ongoing series as a build-up to the conference.

_____________________________

PRNMS WORKING GROUP ON PLACE, GROUND AND PRACTICE

by Danny Butt, Place, Ground and Practice Chair
danny [@] dannybutt [dot] net

The Place, Ground and Practice Working Group undertakes cultural and
artistic investigations at the limits of collaborative practice. Central to
the Working Group is an interest in the critique of imperial power and
innovative practices that foster progressive change in the new media
environment.

Recognition of indigenous practices and cultural politics suggest
alternative ways of thinking about location-specific new media work, and
influence our understanding of the Pacific Rim as a geographical formation
with a rich pre-European history of cultural exchange. Through curatorial,
artistic, media and residency activities, the Working Group draws
inspiration from this history to propose alternative visions of dominant new
media themes (global culture, intellectual properties, disembodied
knowledge), with a commitment to politics that is critical, progressive, and
reflexive, while maintaining a vision of optimism and enjoyment.

GROUP MEMBERS

Danny Butt - danny [@] dannybutt [dot] net

Danny Butt is an independent consultant and researcher in the new media,
arts and education fields. Previously, he was founding Director of the
Creative Industries Research Centre at the Waikato Institute of Technology,
Hamilton, where he also lectured in digital media and established the
Digital Media Design program. His research interests centre on the social
impact of new media technologies; colonization and settler culture; and the
development of the creative industries sector in the Asia-Pacific region.
For more information: http://www.dannybutt.net

Ashok Mathur - http://www.amathur.ca

Ashok is a Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry (Thompson
Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada). He is a novelist,
poet, publisher, and cultural organizer.

Candice Hopkins

Candice (Me'tis, Tlingit) is the curatorial fellow at the Walter Phillips
Gallery. She has an MA from The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College,
NY. Her recent curatorial project, Every Stone Tells a Story: The
Performance Work of David Hammons and Jimmie Durham, opened at the Berrie
Center Art Galleries, Ramapo College, NJ in November 2004. Her writing is
featured in http://www.horizonzero.ca, FUSE Magazine and in the books
Transference, Tradition, Technology: Native New Media Exploring Visual and
Digital Culture, and Making a Noise! Aboriginal Perspectives on Art, Art
History, Critical Writing and Community, both published by the Walter
Phillips Gallery. Hopkins has presented on her practice at Tate Britain,
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK, Dak'Art_Lab, Senegal
and in Canada at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Cheryl L'Hirondelle - http://www.ndnnrkey.net

Halfbreed (metis, cree, german, polish) interdisciplinary artist (musician,
net.artist, performance artist, storyteller) and educator currently residing
in Vancouver B.C.

Jason De Santolo - http://www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au

Jason is a descendent of the Barunggam and Garawa peoples. He works in the
legal-policy and creative research realms and has collaborated on various
projects with Indigenous peoples in Australia, Aotearoa and more recently
the U.S. Jason is currently a research fellow within Jumbunna Indigenous
House of Learning at University of Technology, Sydney.

Jenny Fraser - http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/cybertribe/

Jenny was born in Far North Queensland and her family hails from the
Yugambeh and Munuljahli of the Bundjalung Nation in South East Queensland
and the Clans Fraser and McNamara on her other side. Because of the diverse
creative mediums Jenny uses, much of her work defies categorization. More
recently her work takes iconic and everyday symbols of Australian life and
places them into a context that questions the values they represent. With a
laconic sense of humor she picks away at the fabric of our society, exposing
contradictions, absurdities, and denial. Jenny founded and curates
cyberTribe, an Indigenous online Gallery that aims to encourage the
production and exhibition of Indigenous Art with a focus on the digital.

Her commitment to spreading the word about new media arts and its potential
as an expressive medium for Indigenous artists is reflected in the
development of this website Blackout, that showcases and promotes the work
of participants to the world. Jenny's work on this site has seen it evolve
into an important resource for people interested in Indigenous new media
practitioners in Australia.

Rachel O'Reilly

Rachel currently works as a curator of film, video and new media at the
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, home of the Asia Pacific
Triennial. Prior to this she was involved in the independent media and arts
festival *This Is Not Art* (Newcastle, Australia) as a festival manager, and
as a program manager of the independent National Student Media Conference.
She writes for the Australian new media arts publication, *RealTime*, and
was also managing editor of the Australia Council's *How To Where To* guide
to independent arts project management for early career artists and cultural
workers. She has a background in comparative literature and cultural
studies, and an ongoing critical interest in cross-cultural and sub-cultural
curatorial and programming initiatives, and emerging artforms.

Lisa Reihana - http://www.lisareihana.com

Lisa is a Maori artist who has played a leading role in the development of
film and multimedia art in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her work demonstrates a
keen interest to communicate complex ideas about indigenous identity and
bi-cultural living, and a desire to address and engage with contemporary
experience through diverse media. Her installations are collages drawn from
eclectic sources. Her examination of cultural histories uses photography;
sculpture and time-based arts.

_____________________________

ISEA2006 PACIFIC RIM DIRECTORY, ORGANIZATIONS AND RESIDENCIES WORKING GROUP
MEETING
Artists' Week/Media State, Adelaide Festival of Arts 2006, South Australia
3 –19 March 2006

The biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts is Australia's leading multi-arts
festival. Artists' Week is the major visual arts component of the Festival
and features a program of free artist talks, panel discussions and
workshops. Media State is a special initiative that will focus on new media
projects and collaborations.

In the lead-up to the ISEA2006 Pacific Rim New Media Summit (San Jose,
California, August 2006), members of the Directory, Organizations and
Residencies Working Group will meet in Adelaide as part of the Artists'
Week/Media State program and provide a public platform to introduce the
Pacific Rim New Media Summit and Working Group initiatives.

________________________________________________________________

BYTES
________________________________________________________________

***** CALL FOR PAPERS *****

LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL 16 (2006)
NOISES OFF - SOUND BEYOND MUSIC

These days sound is more than just music. Museums, galleries and artists'
studios are getting noisier: it's not that there is so much more "Sound
Art," but rather that so much more art has sound. Cellphone ringtones
generated four billion dollars in sales worldwide in 2004. Incoming email
and outgoing popcorn announce themselves with plops and gongs and boops and
beeps - the emerging field of "sonification" addresses this proliferation of
all these "earcons" and other representational uses of sound. Sound design
is a vital part of Hollywood films and computer games. While CD sales shrink
with the proliferation of peer-to-peer file exchange, the creative use of
sound is expanding in almost every other part of our lives.

For the next issue of Leonardo Music Journal we invite papers on the
expanded role of sound in art, science, business and everyday life. Topics
could include (but are not limited to): audio art, radio art, phonography;
sound design for video, film, and gaming; the role of sound in performance
art, theatre, dance; sonificitation; architectural acoustics; instrument
design.

DEADLINES

15 October 2005 - Rough proposals, queries
1 January 2006 - Submission of finished article

Address inquiries to Nicolas Collins, Editor-in-Chief, at:
ncollins [@] artic [dot] edu.

Finished articles should be sent to the LMJ Editorial Office at
lmj [@] leonardo [dot] info.

Editorial guidelines and information for authors can be found on our
Information for Authors page.

Note: LMJ is a peer-reviewed journal. All manuscripts are reviewed by LMJ
editors, editorial board members and/or members of the LMJ community prior
to acceptance.

_____________________________

SCHOOL OF ART INSTITUTE CHICAGO
FACULTY POSITION IN FILM, VIDEO AND NEW MEDIA

The Department of Film, Video, and New Media at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago invites applications from artists working in video to
teach and expand an innovative curriculum in moving image media. We are
looking for artists who work with various applications of video/digital
media, experimental narrative and non-fiction forms, installation, video
performance, interactive environments and web-based work.

Candidates should have a strong conceptual and historical grasp of
contemporary issues in the intersecting worlds of independent video
production, experimental filmmaking, and new media. The department is
committed to alternative forms and practices that emphasize experimentation,
innovation, and the hybridization of existing media and modes of
presentation. Candidates should demonstrate the ability and desire to
participate in curricular initiatives; should be able to work with
undergraduate and graduate students in an interdisciplinary, fine arts
context; and should have advanced proficiency in one or more areas of the
media arts. Applicants must have an active professional creative practice.
Teaching experience preferred. The position is full-time, tenure-track and
begins in the fall of 2006. Rank and salary are commensurate with
experience.

Please send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, artist's statement,
teaching philosophy, portfolio samples which may include CD-Rom, DVD, VHS,
mini-DV, and/or website URLs, names and contact information for three
references, and an SASE (if you wish to have the materials returned) by
November 15, 2005 for priority consideration to:

FVNM Search/LEA
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Office of Deans and Division Chairs
37 South Wabash Avenue
Chicago, IL 60603

For more information on the School and its programs, available faculty
positions, and details regarding application, consult
http://www.artic.edu/saic/public/jobs. For additional assistance, questions
may be directed to Shanna Linn at slinn [@] artic [dot] edu, 312.899-7472.

_____________________________

CHAIRPERSON, DEPARTMENT OF ART, MUSIC & TECHNOLOGY

Applications and nominations are requested for the position of Chairperson
in the Department of Art, Music, & Technology at Stevens Institute of
Technology. The department has two newly developed programs: Art &
Technology and Music & Technology. The Chair will be responsible for working
with the Directors of the Music and Art Programs in matters of curriculum
development, policy, and fundraising. The applicant must have a substantial
international or national presence in the art or music community beyond the
Institute. The position will start as soon as the candidate is available.
Deadline to apply is December 15, 2005, but applicants will be considered
sooner. For further information about the department, see
http://www.hum.stevens.edu/ArtMusicTechnology/. Nominations and letters of
application should be sent to Dean Erich Kunhardt, Imperatore School of
Sciences and Art, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030, U.S.A.

_____________________________

NEW MEDIA/INTERMEDIA
Purdue University.
Entry level Assistant Professor. Tenure track.
Begins August 14, 2006.

Applicant must be practicing New Media/Intermedia artist with strong
theoretical basis. M.F.A. or equivalent professional experience required.
Professional experience and university teaching preferred. Teach
cross-disciplinary courses and develop curriculum in New Media/Inter-media
across four divisions (Art & Design, Dance, Music, and Theatre) of Patti and
Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/vpa/ and Envision Center
http://www.envision.purdue.edu. Continue professional work in creative
endeavors and/or research beyond Purdue University and participate in usual
departmental activities. Send letter of introduction, resume of professional
and academic experience, digital portfolio of representative work, copies of
reviews of art works, statement of teaching interests and previous teaching
experience, three names and contact information of current references, and
SASE for the return of visual materials to Star Brown, Pao Hall, 552 West
Wood Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2002, U.S.A. Purdue University is an
Equal Opportunity/Equal Access/Affirmative Action employer. Women and
minority candidates are especially encouraged to apply. (preferential):
1/31/06 or until filled.

_____________________________

DIRECTOR, SCHOOL OF FILM AND DIGITAL MEDIA
University of Central Florida

The School of Film and Digital Media at the University of Central Florida
seeks a visionary Director to lead its growth into an internationally
prominent center for creative innovation and scholarship in film and digital
media.

The Ph.D., M.F.A. or comparable industry experience is required. The
successful candidate must have a record of either scholarship or
professional creative activity consistent with the standards for appointment
as a tenured associate or full professor.

A significant record of accomplishment as a successful cinema or media
professional, or in a related academic field, is required. The Director must
have demonstrated leadership skills, a clear understanding of the potential
of the field and the ability to work effectively with the important
constituencies of the university, community and industry.

The School of Film and Digital Media consists of the Film and Digital Media
Divisions, the Center for Research and Education in the Arts, Technology and
Entertainment (CREATE) and the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy
(FIEA). The Director would oversee all of these components.

The University of Central Florida is a growing metropolitan research
university in Orlando, enrolling nearly 45,000 students.

The School of Film and Digital Media has more than 1,200 students and 37
faculty members with facilities on the main campus in East Orlando as well
as a new graduate and professional center in downtown Orlando where CREATE
and FIEA are housed. There is also a Downtown Media Arts Center.

Bachelor of Arts degrees in Cinema Studies and World Cinema, a B.F.A. in
Film (including Production and Screenwriting) and a B.A. and B.S. in digital
Media (Visual Language, Internet and Interactive Systems) are offered. A
graduate program beginning Fall 2005 offers the M.F.A. in Entrepreneurial
Digital Cinema and the M.A. in Visual Language and Interactive Media. The
M.S. in Interactive Entertainment will be offered pending approval.

Applicants for the position should submit: 1) a letter of application, 2) a
complete vita and 3) the names and contact information for three references.
Applications should be sent to Dr. Mary Alice Shaver, Chair, Director
Search, School of Film and Digital Media, P.O. Box 163120, University of
Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-3120, U.S.A. Review of applications will
begin on October 4 and continue until the position is filled. UCF is a
culturally diverse university and an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity
Employer. Search documents may be viewed by the public upon request, in
accordance with Florida statute.

________________________________________________________________

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Nisar Keshvani: LEA Editor-in-Chief
Natra Haniff: LEA Editor
Michael Punt: LR Editor-in-Chief
Andre Ho: Web Concept and Design Consultant
Roger Malina: Leonardo Executive Editor
Stephen Wilson: Chair, Leonardo/ISAST Web Committee
Craig Harris: Founding Editor

Editorial Advisory Board:
Irina Aristarkhova, Roy Ascott, Craig Harris, Fatima Lasay, Michael Naimark,
Julianne Pierce

Gallery Advisory Board:
Mark Amerika, Paul Brown, Choy Kok Kee, Steve Dietz, Kim Machan

fAf-LEA Corresponding Editors:
Lee Weng Choy, Ricardo Dal Farra, Elga Ferreira, Young Hae-
Chang, Fatima Lasay, Jose-Carlos Mariategui, Marcus Neustetter,
Elaine Ng, Marc Voge

________________________________________________________________

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< End of Leonardo Electronic Almanac 13 (09) >
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