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Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 13, Number 10, October 2005
http://lea.mit.edu
________________________________________________________________
ISSN #1071-4391
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                           |            |
                           |  CONTENTS  |
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________________________________________________________________


CONTENTS
______________________________________________________

LEONARDO ABSTRACT SERVICE DATABASES (LABS)
_______________

Recent top-rated abstracts from the Spanish-language and
English-language databases:

< "Research arts: la interseccion arte, ciencia y tecnolog'a
como campo de conocimiento y de acci-n" by Stella Veciana >

< "El procŽs d'interacci- com a base de l'experi�ncia est�tica
en les propostes art'stiques que utilitzen la tecnologia de la
realitat virtual" by Roc ParŽs i Burgu�s >

< "Relations between Art and Science at Museums and Science
Centres from 1969 until 2000" by Maria do Ros‡rio de Assump�‹o
Braga >

< "The Kinesfield: a Study of Movement-based Interactive and
Choreographic Art" by Gretchen Schiller >

< "Almost Immortal: Aesthetic Ritual and Biological Mutation"
by Alex Metral >

< "Internal Networks: Telepathy Meets Technology in the Dream
Pod" by Camille
Baker >

< "Quantum Feminist Mnemotechnics: The Archival Text,
Electronic Narrative and the Limits of Memory" by Carolyn G.
Guertin >

< "Participatory Media: Visual Culture in Real Time" by Daniel
Palmer >

LEONARDO REVIEWS
_______________

< Art Since 1900: Modernism, AntiModernism, Postmodernism,
reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg >

< At a Distance-Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet,
reviewed by Mike Leggett >

LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL
_______________

< Contents: Leonardo Music Journal Vol. 15 >

LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS
_______________

< Leonardo Co-Sponsors Space Sciences Lab Artists-in-Residence
Semiconductor >

< Pacific Rim New Media Summit Experimental Publishing Project >

< In Memoriam: Bob Moog (a personal tribute by Marc Battier) >

BYTES
_______________

< Director, Institute for e-Learning and Research in the Arts
and Design College of Arts and Architecture, The Pennsylvania
State University >

< Director, School of Film and Digital Media, University of
Central Florida >

< Call for Proposals for upcoming trans-disciplinary conference
"CAMOUFLAGE" >

< INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: New Constellations: Art, Science
and Society >

______________________________________________________

LEONARDO ABSTRACTS SERVICE DATABASES (LABS)
______________________________________________________

TOP-RATED ABSTRACTS FROM SPANISH-LANGUAGE LABS DATABASE

PUBLISHED 2ND QUARTER, 2005

Leonardo is pleased to announce the first group of top-rated
thesis abstracts, all of which have been posted in the Spanish
LABS database during the 2nd quarter of 2005. The Spanish LABS
database is hosted by #Artnodes, a project of Universitat Oberta
de Catalunya. The top-rated authors, chosen by a panel of peer-
reviewers under the direction of Pau Alsina, are: Stella
Veciana, student of Universidad de Barcelona, for the thesis
titled "Research arts: la interseccion arte, ciencia y
tecnolog'a como campo de conocimiento y de acci-n"; Roc ParŽs i
Burgu�s, student of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, for the
thesis titled "El procŽs d'interacci- com a base de
l'experi�ncia est�tica en les propostes art'stiques que
utilitzen la tecnologia de la realitat virtual"; and Maria do
Ros‡rio de Assump�‹o Braga, student of House of Oswaldo Cruz at
Oswaldo Cruz' Foundation Institute, for the thesis titled
"Relations between Art and Science at Museums and Science
Centres from 1969 until 2000". Top rated thesis abstracts from
each quarter are published in Leonardo Electronic Almanac. More
about the Spanish language LABS database and how to submit
material can be found at:
<http://www.uoc.edu/artnodes/leonardolabs>http://www.uoc.edu/artn
odes/leonardolabs.

________________________________

Research arts: la interseccion arte, ciencia y tecnolog'a como
campo de conocimiento y de acci-n,

by Stella Veciana.

E-mail: veciana [@] ub [dot] edu

ABSTRACT

Ante el panorama de sociedades cada vez m‡s condicionadas por
los procesos de transformaci-n inducidos por la ciencia y la
tecnolog'a, el arte desarrolla nuevas estrategias creativas
interdisciplinarias: nos referimos al arte que trabaja con
mŽtodos cient'ficos e instrumentos tecnol-gicos con el fin de
generar nuevas formas de conocimiento. Por ello, el objetivo de
esta tesis es el estudio del arte como una forma de generar
conocimiento. La sociedad del conocimiento ofrece nuevas
posibilidades, pero tambiŽn requiere de nuevas estrategias
creativas a la hora de resolver las problem‡ticas emergentes
vinculadas a ella. Una de estas nuevas respuestas a la sociedad
del conocimiento es el arte que investiga con el fin de generar,
desarrollar, presentar y comunicar conocimiento. El "arte de
investigaci-n cient'fico-tecnol-gica", que la autora tambiŽn
denomina como "research arts", es un campo de investigaci-n
emergente del que se esperan impulsos importantes para la
ciencia y la tecnolog'a sobre todo en tanto que se plantea
cuestiones desconocidas o ignoradas. El research arts destaca
dos direcciones de investigaci-n art'stica-cient'fica-tecnol-
gica: la primera intenta producir y desarrollar nuevos mŽtodos,
objetos de estudio, interfaces o visualizaciones, es decir,
modelos de conocimiento heur'sticos. Con la ayuda de teor'as y
escenograf'as de experimentaci-n cient'fico-tecnol-gicas se
investiga la naturaleza y el entorno f'sico; se crean modelos de
representaci-n y simulaci-n de una naturaleza virtual o
hipotŽtica; incluso se plantean nuevos modelos de comunicaci-n y
acci-n, especialmente en el contexto multilocal y bidireccional
de Internet. Esta vertiente del research arts tambiŽn incluye la
redefinici-n y expansi-n de la actividad investigadora que surge
del trabajo en equipos interdisciplinares. La segunda rama de
investigaci-n del research arts se dedica a la creaci-n de un
campo comœn de traducci-n y comparaci-n entre arte, ciencia y
tecnolog'a. Es el caso de la comunicaci-n cient'fica como, por
ejemplo, la presentaci-n y distribuci-n de conocimiento a travŽs
de museos de la ciencia. Otra finalidad de esta vertiente de
investigaci-n art'stica est‡ relacionada con el an‡lisis de las
diversas formas o funciones de la memoria social en las
diferentes ‡reas de conocimiento y la detecci-n de l'neas de
investigaci-n ignoradas o no consideradas.

Fecha de recepci-n: 28.04.05

________________________________

"El procŽs d'interacci- com a base de l'experi�ncia est�tica en
les propostes art'stiques que utilitzen la tecnologia de la
realitat virtual"

by Roc ParŽs i Burgu�s

Email: rpares [@] iua [dot] upf [dot] edu.

ABSTRACT

L'objectiu d'aquest treball Žs desenvolupar una aproximaci- a
l'est�tica de les propostes art'stiques que utilitzen la
tecnologia de la realitat virtual. La meva tesi Žs que, per tal
de possibilitar el desenvolupament de l'experi�ncia est�tica, la
instalálaci- de realitat virtual - Žs a dir, el sistema format
pel conjunt de la infraestructura t�cnica i la interf'cie
audiovisual d'usuari - ha de respondre a la planificaci- dels
aspectes d'interacci- entre persona i sistema, interacci- entre
est'muls, aix' com d'interacci- interpersonal. En la primera
part, la tesi es fonamenta en l'estudi del debat dels anys
noranta sobre la interactivitat en l'art, en la identificaci-
dels seus precedents en els corrents est�tics de la recepci-, de
la comunicaci- i de la participaci-, aix' com en l'observaci- i
l'anˆlisi de propostes art'stiques destacades que utilitzen la
realitat virtual. El treball situa la realitat virtual en la
complexitat del panorama de la comunicaci- audiovisual, i
analitza l'actual desenvolupament d'infraestructures
muse'stiques i altres plataformes on l'art que utilitza aquest
mitjˆ entra en contacte amb el pœblic, prenent com a rerafons el
debat sobre cultura i mitjans tecnol˜gics. Aquestes idees
componen la base per a la part principal de la tesi, que
consisteix en la conceptualitzaci- i producci- experimental
d'una instalálaci- de realitat virtual multiusuari: "Lightpools
o el Ball del Fanalet" de Perry Hoberman i Galeria Virtual.
L'enfocament se centra en la interactivitat com una de les
principals propietats espec'fiques sobre les quals es fonamenta
l'experi�ncia est�tica de la realitat virtual, entesa com a
mitjˆ d'art i de comunicaci- audiovisual.

Fecha de recepci-n: 12 April 2005.

________________________________

"Relations between Art and Science at Museums and Science
Centres from 1969 until 2000"

by Maria do Ros‡rio de Assump�‹o Braga.

Email: duaia [@] aol [dot] com

ABSTRACT

The present work intends to be an exploratory research about
the relationships among Art and Science in the space of Museum
and Science Centers, in the period between 1969 and 2000. It is
focused in the institutions of four associations of museums and
science centers: the Brazilian ABCMC, the Latino-American Red
POP, the predominant American ASTC and the world wide ICOM. The
research was performed with actors of this field, and in the
process of understanding the answers, it was possible to notice
that a big number of institutions have these relationships with
Art as usual practice. It could be noticed also the occurrence
of three main relations, in spite of the kind of work of art was
chosen by the institution for being exposed, presented or
processed, (mainly of Visual Arts and Scenic Arts). The three
main categories reflects the existence of Art as a shown work
for decorative aesthetics or pleasure, establishing a relation
of environmental information, illustration or being; the use of
art as a media for contents of Science, and indicates also the
presence of a synergetic relation, when both Art and Science are
proposing or provoking experiences with the public of the
Museums and Science Centers. The work develops a thought based
on Bourdieu (1930-2003), theories of fields to understand which
may be the reasons for happening these three main categories. It
was based on bibliographic analyses and helps us to investigate
the individual and socio cultural perceptions, possibilities,
interests, determinations and necessities to indicate one of the
three categories in the practice of the museum or science
center. It objects also to think about the meaning of these
relationships to Art, to Science and to our societies as well as
perceive the dynamic of the artistic and scientific fields about
the question. The first results of the research were partially
presented at the 8th Meeting of Red POP in Leon Mexico, in 2003,
with the intention of developing a deep listening of the
different actors of this field. The debates about the theme
provided many tools for looking critically at the question,
which added the acquired knowledge in the History of Health
Science pos graduation.

Fecha de recepci-n: 30 April 2005.

__________________________________________________________


TOP-RATED ABSTRACTS FROM ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LABS DATABASE

PUBLISHED 1st QUARTER, 2005

Leonardo is pleased to announce the first group of top-rated
thesis abstracts, all of which have been posted in the English
LABS database during the 1st quarter of 2005. The English LABS
database is hosted by Pomona College, CA, USA. The top-rated
authors, chosen by a panel of peer-reviewers under the direction
of Sheila Pinkel are: Gretchen Schiller for: "The Kinesfield: a
Study of Movement-based Interactive and Choreographic Art"; Alex
Metral for: "Almost Immortal: Aesthetic Ritual and Biological
Mutation"; Camille Baker for: "Internal Networks: Telepathy
Meets Technology in the Dream Pod"; Carolyn G. Guertin for:
"Quantum Feminist Mnemotechnics: The Archival Text, Electronic
Narrative and the Limits of Memory"; and Daniel Palmer for
"Participatory Media: Visual Culture in Real Time". Top rated
thesis abstracts from each quarter are published in Leonardo
Electronic Almanac. More about the English language LABS
database and how to submit material can be found at:
<http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu/>http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu .

________________________________

"The Kinesfield: a Study of Movement-based Interactive and
Choreographic Art"

by Gretchen Schiller

Email: Gretchen [dot] schiller [@] univ [dash] montp3 [dot] fr

ABSTRACT

Through the exploration of practice and theory, this thesis
aims to elucidate the characteristics of movement-based
interactive art and the kinesfield, a term developed during the
course of the research to describe the publics' body-medium.
Movement-based interactive art is based on choreographed
movements of the body, media and specialized technologies which
facilitate new forms of participatory movement experience. This
emergent art form has initiated new methods of experiencing and
presenting dance in the public domain. It is argued that this
leads to new artistic developments which may constitute a
paradigm shift of the concept of the body-medium in the field of
dance. To understand whether the shift is indeed paradigmatic,
and to contribute to the development of dance and technology,
this study introduces and applies the concept of the kinesfield
to extend the theory of the body-medium as kinesphere, first
proposed by Laban, and to challenge its characteristics in the
context of movement-based interactive art. The concept of the
kinesfield is employed to describe the relational dynamic of
movement interactions which traverse the body and material forms
in unbounded space. By this account, the body-medium is not
defined geometrically, as in Laban's theory, but as a temporal
and spatial field. The kinesfield accounts for a complexity of
movement characteristics which pertain to the dynamic and
relational experiences which occur between the biological body
and its natural and atmospheric surroundings, natural forces,
and its socio-cultural milieu. The argument unfolds as a
triangulation of three movement-based interactive artworks
(Shifting Ground, trajets, and Raumspielpuzzle) presented during
the course of the thesis, my physical and experiential knowledge
in the field of dance and an interdisciplinary literature
investigation in the fields of dance,
physiology/psychology/cognitive science, philosophy and
sociology, plastic arts and cinema. This written document is
accompanied by a CD-ROM which serves as an electronic appendix
including images, videos and diagrams of the works referenced in
the written thesis.

Date Submitted to Database: 11.14.04

________________________________

"Almost Immortal: Aesthetic Ritual and Biological Mutation"

by Alex Metral

Email: Alex [@] Alexmetral [dot] com

ABSTRACT

The recent developments in life extension continually reshape
our understanding of human lifespan. Due to the realities,
promises and fears of what we call the genetic revolution, our
perceptions of the limited human lifespan is changing.
Proteomics, transgenics, and anti-ageing technologies are the
new vehicles for the recontextualization of a human life.
Purpose and anxiety, historically rich areas for artists, have
ripened to override the desire for mere immortality as it has
been represented in previous artistic discourses. Art, having
had a precursory role in the materialization of immortality is
now foretelling a new possibility of life extension. In this new
techno-aesthetic discourse; representations of biology in media
such as digital motion, photography, cell culture, anatomy art,
and performance, bridge the ever-narrowing gap between the
scientific and aesthetic realms. Most importantly, these modes
of media allow a new model of being. With these developments,
art as a purveyor of immortality becomes absorbed by technology
as a discourse of life extension. I use the word purvey to
suggest the economic aspects of the problem, and indeed I will
trace the transition from immortality to life extension in terms
of shifts in modes of production, the advent of class jumping,
and discussing as well the ideological function of concurrent
art forms. This transition can be seen in the studio practice of
Vito Acconci, Roy Ascott, Helen Chadwick, Olafur Eliasson,
Patricia Piccinini, Karl Sims, the Tissue Culture and Art
project, Marilene Oliver and Dr. Gunthar Von Hagen, among
others. This thesis presents the historical trajectory of
aesthetic representations of immortality, and a current paradigm
shift resulting in a new aesthetic discourse of life extension.
It begins with the Greco-Roman period, follows through modes of
production in the historic times of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and
Galileo and brings us into late-capital and the advent of recent
life-extension biotechnology. Contemporary art and philosophy
will be presented in this study, as well as literature and
science writings. I will take us through this argument through
three key positions: We are now embedded in a new aesthetic
discourse which gives rise to an unprecedented possibility of
advancement in human mutation; Life extension overrides the
desire for immortality as represented in previous artistic
discourses; And finally I will show the shift away from
immortality to representation of life extension as a
spiritual/truth dynamic that represents technology, positioning
my own work as a recent contribution.

Date Submitted to Database: 11.13.04

________________________________

"Internal Networks: Telepathy Meets Technology in the Dream Pod"

by Camille Baker

Email: cbaker [@] sfu [dot] ca

ABSTRACT

This research project encompassed a media installation space
and a written document, exploring the concept of initiating a
mind/body to computer communication interaction, using a non-
local portal environment as the interface. The concepts play at
the boundaries of conventional science, in terms of human versus
computer capabilities, suggesting the potential for these
capabilities to work in tandem, through means still not widely
accepted. I explore recent findings in physics, psychology and
neuroscience, coupling them with developments in human computer
interaction, wireless communication and other technologies, to
envision an experiential means of connecting human consciousness
with technology systems. This research incorporated biosensors,
multimedia, yoga, meditation and attempts at telepathy within an
experiential media installation, an immersive physical space or
pod, positioning this work as bridge between art and technology.
My goal with this installation was to put the creative agency
into the mind and body of the participant, seeing myself as a
creative facilitator, focusing my role as the experience
designer not an artist per se. The Dream Pod project pushes
beyond purely superficial design or meaningless interactivity,
as I employ as many methods available to provide a fully
embodied experience. I have challenged myself as an experience
designer to tap into a deeper level of human experience, diving
into what it means to be an embodied participant, exploring
physical and emotional responses. With this project, I suggest
that we look within our embodied cognitive system to learn more
about what we have innately and continue to use technology as a
tool, to be used to aid in the rediscovery of ourselves and the
power of our own body/minds. I offer my dream pod as the
beginning of that rediscovery. In future iterations, I hope to
refine this prototype installation using discoveries learned
with this version to make it a more powerful interactive work.
Each discovery from this project could branch off into many
diverse directions, with equally fascinating outcomes, only
introduced here. This is just the beginning of potentialities in
this area, and perhaps, the seeds of a PHD project for the

future.

Date Submitted to Database: 12.04.04

________________________________

"Quantum Feminist Mnemotechnics: The Archival Text, Electronic
Narrative and the Limits of Memory"

by Carolyn G. Guertin

Email: carolyn [dot] guertin [@] utoronto [dot] ca

ABSTRACT

New technologies-- whether used for artistic or scientific ends-
-require new shapes to speak their attributes. Feminist writers
too have long sought a narrative shape that can exist both
inside and outside of patriarchal systems. Where like-minded
theorists have tried to define a gender-specific dimension for
art, Quantum Feminist Mnemotechnics demonstrates that feminist
artists have already built and are happily inhabiting this new
technological room of their own. This dissertation is an
exploration of the architectural shapes of mnemonic systems in
women s narratives in the new media (focusing on Shelley Jackson
s Patchwork Girl, M.D. Coverley s Califia and Diana Reed
Slattery s Glide and The Maze Game as exemplary models). Memory
is key here, for, what gets stored or remembered has always been
the domain of official histories, of the conqueror speaking his
dominant cultural paradigm and body. I explore at length three
spatial architectures of the new media: the matrix, the unfold
and the knot.

Within quantum mechanics, the science of the body in motion,
the intricacies of the interiorities of mnemonic time--no longer
an arrow--are being realized in the (traditionally) feminized
shape of the body of the matrix. This is the real time realm of
cyberspace where the multiple trajectories of the virtual
engender a new kind of looking: disorientation as an alternative
to linear perspective. Where women have usually been objects to
be looked at, hypermedia systems replace the gaze with the
empowered look of the embodied browser in motion in archival
space. Always in flux, the shape of time s transformation is a
Mšbius strip unfolding time into the dynamic space of the
postmodern text, into the unfold. As quantum interference, the
unfold is a gesture that is a sensory interval. In this in-
between space, the transformance of the nomadic browser takes
place; she performs the embodied knowledge acquired in her
navigation of the world of the text. Quantum space in hypertexts
is shaped as an irreducible knot, an entangled equation both in
and out of space-time, spanning all dimensions as a node in a
mnemonic system. Wanderlust is the engine driving the browser on
her quest through the intricately knotted interplay of time and
space in these electronic ecosystems. What the browser finds
there is rapture--an emergent state of embodied transformation
in the experiential realm. What she acquires is not mastery, but
agency, and an aesthetic interval of her own.

Date Submitted to Database: 12.14.04.

________________________________

"Participatory Media: Visual Culture in Real Time"

by Daniel Palmer

Email: e [@] danielpalmer [dot] com

ABSTRACT

This thesis argues that contemporary visual media culture is
characterised by unique forms that enable - and increasingly
demand - qualitatively distinct viewing relations. I offer
historical and theoretical explorations of various media
technologies and genres, and propose that today's visual culture
may be described as 'participatory', primarily in the sense that
its 'modes of address' function to blur the line between the
production and consumption of imagery. Furthermore, I suggest
that these participatory relations, underpinned by real time
media, are productive of 'performative' subjects - composed,
under the prevailing 'media imaginary', of increasingly
individualised exchanges. Thus, I argue that the phenomenon of
media participation must be considered in relation to defining
characteristics of contemporary capitalism - namely its user-
focused, customised and individuated orientation.

Organised in terms of historical, theoretical and generic
sections, two opening chapters establish, respectively, the
technological and theoretical context of the inquiry, preparing
for four subsequent chapters concerned with media genres.
Chapter 1 argues that contemporary media are home to new image
forms that are, as a result of their participatory and networked
character, more performative than merely representational.
Chapter 2 introduces the concept of 'indivisualisation' -
referring to participatory visual environments in which the
performance of the individual viewing subject is crucial to the
nature of the viewing relationship. Drawing on a wide range of
media theorists including Jonathan Crary, Margaret Morse, Lev
Manovich and Manuel Castells, as well as contemporary
sociologists Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman, I make a connection
between the personalised address and coextensive temporal
performances characteristic of participatory media and a
pervasive social demand for compulsory, ongoing self-
transformation. Performative subjectivity, I argue, is the
logical counterpart to real-time screens, and its prevailing
mode is individualised. The remaining four chapters seek to
elaborate and substantiate the dynamics of participation and
indivisualisation by exploring a series of exemplary 'real-time'
media genres - news media, reality entertainment media (reality
television and webcams), computer games, and media art. As these
chapters demonstrate by a breadth of example, what is at stake
in contemporary real-time media may be nothing less than our
relation to mortality and 'otherness'

Date Submitted to Database: 12.19.04.

______________________________________________________

LEONARDO REVIEWS
October 2005
______________________________________________________

This Month Leonardo Reviews features a report on an heroic
enterprise by Thames and Hudson to publish a version of the
history of art since 1900 which responds to new modes of
engaging with information. Andrea Dahlberg greets this with some
mixed reaction in a full and stimulating review. Also featured
this month is Mike Leggett's review of 'At a Distance'. As one
of the early activists on the net Leggett is able to combine a
reaction with personal recollection and his contribution to
Leonardo Reviews this month makes for a fascinating insight.
Elsewhere at
<http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu/>http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu
there are new reviews by regular contributors; Rob Harle Michael
Mosher, Stefaan van Ryssen, Robert Pepperell, Eugene Thacker and
Mikhail S. Zalivadny and an extensive archive.

Michael Punt

Editor-in-Chief

Leonardo Reviews

________________________________

REVIEWS POSTED OCTOBER 2005

Art Since 1900: Modernism, AntiModernism, Postmodernism

by Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Blois and Benjamin HD
Bloch

Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg

The Art of Setting Stones & Other Writings from the Japanese
Garden

by Marc Peter Keane

Reviewed by Rob Harle (Australia)

At a Distance-Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet

by Annmarie Chandler & Norie Neumark

Reviewed by Mike Leggett

Charming Hostess

by Punch

Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher

Reconstructing Consciousness, Mind and Being

The Ninth Annual Conference of the Consciousness and
Experiential Psychology Section of the British Psychological
Society

Reviewed by Robert Pepperell

I wish you peace

by Paul Dunmall Moksha Big Band

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen

New Philosophy for New Media

by Mark Hansen

Reviewed by Eugene Thacker

Acousmatics and Interactive Music Festival

Pro Arte Institute, with support of the Ford Foundation

Reviewed by Mikhail S. Zalivadny

________________________________


Art Since 1900: Modernism, AntiModernism, Postmodernism

by Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Blois and Benjamin HD
Bloch

Thames and Hudson, London, 2005

704pp., illus. 224 b/w, 413 col. Paper, £45.00

ISBN: 0500238189.

Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg

andrea.dahlberg [@] bakernet [dot] com

Art Since 1900 is a survey of the ideas and particular approach
to art history of its authors--Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yves-
Alain Bois, and Benjamin Buchloh. These art theorists have
showcased their ideas in October, the art journal founded in the
U.S. in 1976. Art Since 1900 is an overview and a continuation
of the October project. This means that the essays, discussions,
and discrete entries on particular subjects that comprise the
book focus on the art of Europe and the U.S. and are preoccupied
with critical theory and conceive of art as "texts" to be
analysed and problems to be solved. Duchamp, of course, is the
towering figure in this view of art. To paraphrase Levi-Strauss,
these authors believe that 'art is good to think'. In 'thinking
art' the authors invoke the grand narratives of psychoanalysis,
structuralism, semiotics, modernism and postmodernism.

Unlike many, I have no quarrel with this theoretical focus. The
authors are instrumental figures in the development of this way
of looking at art; their work is extremely influential, and I
doubt that anyone could seriously claim that it is not worth
engaging with. My view is that this is one highly influential
approach to the study of how visual meaning is constructed and
that as much can be gained from rejecting aspects--or indeed,
all--of this approach as accepting it.

My expectation was that this survey would introduce the
undergraduate and the more serious general reader to this way of
engaging with visual art. In some respects this expectation is
met. The organisation of the material is a triumph. Some 107
essays are arranged chronologically from 1900 to 2003, each is
well illustrated and supplemented by detailed time lines and
side boxes on ancillary topics. Four theoretical essays on
psychoanalysis, the social history of art, structuralism and
formalism and post-structuralism and deconstruction are placed
at the beginning of the volume and lay the theoretical
foundations for what follows. Easy to follow symbols throughout
the text refer the reader to related essays and entries so that
non-chronological readings are possible. The reader can follow a
traditional art historical reading or break off at any point to
follow a series of linked ideas that cut across time. This
organisation of the material encourages multiple readings of
subjects with illuminating results. It is a way of reading that
is familiar to us because this is how the internet creates
relationships between ideas--by the use of hyperlinks--but it
takes a high degree of skill to emulate so effortlessly this way
of linking ideas in print and with a subject as complicated as
this.

The problems I perceive with this work are twofold. One is the
inability of the authors to communicate their ideas in plain
English. I see nothing intrinsic in the subject matter that
precludes this. The book, however, is full of sentences like
these:


"Matisse resisted Rodin's metonymic fragmentation, and in some
ways his sculpture represents the opposite approach."

The essays are full of jargon, such as "hierarchical
canonicity" and "hegemonic media apparatus" and contain much of
the vocabulary of Derrida and other theorists. Some of this
jargon can be understood if the introductory essays are read
first. But this precludes the kind of creative readings of the
book made possible by the constant references to related ideas.
A firm grasp of most of the complex theories the authors
subscribe to is necessary before most of the essays can be read,
and this is only very partly provided for in the introductory
essays. In addition, I simply cannot see why much of this jargon
is used. It seems possible to explain many of the authors' ideas
without recourse to it, and those passages that I found unable
to translate into jargon-free English were ones I suspected made
little sense to begin with.

While the essays suffer from this use of jargon and barely
comprehensible sentences, the text boxes within them on various
related topics are written in much clearer prose and offer many
illuminating insights.

The second problem is that while the authors are enthusiastic
proponents of the use of theories, such as Marxism, post-
modernism and psychoanalysis "to place criticism on a more
rigorous intellectual footing," they have, in practice, ignored
most of the (often quite devastating) critiques of these
theories launched from within the social sciences. Some of the
passages where the authors draw particularly heavily on concepts
from semiotics and deconstruction import the concept of visual
meaning as forms of linguistic or literary meanings with the
result that the construction of visual meaning is treated as
though it is strikingly akin to the construction of linguistic
or literary meanings. This, in turn, means that the works of art
under examination lose much of their specificity and a whole,
huge dimension of what defines them is under-analysed. One
cannot help wondering if the authors' disinterest in painting
after 1960 is not connected to this. This way of analysing art
marries much better with art that is pre-occupied with ideas and
far less so with art which is insistently visual.

This kind of engagement with visual art can be understood as a
response to Duchamp's question: 'what is art?' and his attempt
to dissolve it. It turns art criticism into an intellectual
exercise, requiring it to justify itself, question itself, and
look at the conditions of its own making and display. Many of
its strengths and limitations can be seen in this volume, and
this raises the question: What other approaches to art might
there be at this point in time? The book is a summation of the
October project that will speak most clearly to those already
familiar with the work published in that journal but, at the
same time, it invites the reader to stand back from that project
and assess its significance and imagine what lies beyond.

________________________________

At a Distance-Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet

by Annmarie Chandler & Norie Neumark

The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005

496pp., illus. 50 b/w. Cloth, $ 39.95

ISBN: 0-262-03328-3.

Reviewed by Mike Leggett

University of Technology Sydney

PO Box 123

Broadway NSW 2007

Australia

mike [dot] leggett [@] uts [dot] edu [dot] au

The temporal focus of At A Distance is the 1970s and 1980s, a
period in the Western art world when the immaterial was made
present. This collection of essays commissioned of a stellar
line-up by Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark illuminate from a
variety of perspectives the work propelled by artists, writers,
curators, and audiences that was to materialise for the coming
of the Net, its emergent behaviours and discourses.

The editors introduce the book and each of its three sections
with succinct and perceptive analysis, providing a context for
events that many of us will find hard to realise is now a part
of a formative history. More than a recollection of goings on,
engaging and fascinating as this is, it helps the reader to
comprehend both the development and the potential of electronic
networks through the uses technological systems of the period
were put. The book describes the widening use by artists of
spoken and written language, expressed through the distribution
affordances of the time: the mail system, the telex, and later
the fax machine. These tools were used to distribute work and
extend the use of language by practitioners whilst in a state of
extreme physical dispersal.

Tilman Baumgartel describes the prescient work in the late 60s
of the Baxters and their N.E.Thing Co Ltd with telex networks.
The creation of pseudo-identities and--entities, which in the
context of the French philosophers and the Les ImmatŽriaux
exhibition co-curated by Lyotard some 15 years later, helps to
describe ". . . the classic problem of the unity of body and
soul shifts".

Mail Art and Fluxus are the touchstones in this volume of the
movement toward the modern networks. Robert Filliou's 'Eternal
Network' envisioned ". . . a coterie of friends and artists
participating in an ongoing open exchange of art and ideas."
John Held's account of the intertwining of Fluxus members with
the aspirations of the later group of Mail artists is
exhaustive, (though temporally confusing), giving an account of
the international scope of their pursuits. In 1986 we learn,
incredibly given the premise, that ". . . Mail Artists convened
over 80 international face-to-face meetings in a series of
Decentralised World-Wide Mail-Art Congresses, celebrating and
examining the meaning of Mail Art." The presence of flesh then
as now, trumps its absence.

Fluxus gets further attention from two of its notable
apologists, Owen F. Smith and Ken Friedman, who together in
separate essays provide a detailed overview. Contradictions
abound; Smith's claim that Fluxus is "...a community and a
philosophy rather than an art historical movement. . . ", whilst
inflecting the pith of ideas in the design and publishing
industries is advanced in the face of four decades of being
exhibited in art houses and discussed in art journals. If Fluxus
forms a part of the celebrity section of the information economy
and is the test bed precursor for remote networking, does the
Net also mirror the tendency for the anonymous or emergent work
to be occluded by the Pantheon? Friedman's claim that financing
a network is more difficult than resourcing individual artists
misses the point in the contemporary setting if not in the
settings of yesteryear, and his take on global inequality is
obscuration entirely. (As Sean Cubitt observes in the flourish
of a concluding essay, "Nomadism is a privilege of the wealthy.")

The second section of the book is the turn of practitioners to
reflect upon their earlier uses of communication technologies.
Galloway and Rabinowitz reconsider in conversation the Hole in
Space and the Electronic CafŽ, ". . . a real-time
improvisational creation . . . about social spaces that
accommodate the physical reality and the virtual" that brought
together ". . . a community of users and a community of
enthusiasts. . . ". Here art and activism are tested on the
streets--or the airwaves. Negativland entered the hotly
contested space of IP and music copyright discovering " . . .
the term recontextualised as a legally understandable defense
against copyright restrictions on reuse in new art", which they
carried into their collage radio show, Over the Edge.

Tetsuo Kogawa is interviewed by the editors over email distance
and as experienced practitioners, (Neumark with sound and radio,
Chandler with film and video); their questions extract a
fascinating story from a very engaging interlocutor. It is about
the mini-FM micropowered transmitters in Japan in the 80s,
operating with a range of about a kilometre. Linked together,
they could operate a little like the wi-fi zones of today. As in
the US, parts of Europe and Australia, they provided the kind of
community radio service addressing issues of culture and
politics ignored by the mainstream. Of the 50 odd wonderful
illustrations in the volume--pity there were not more--my
favourite is of Felix Guattari slumped on the floor of Radio
Home Run looking, (or more correctly listening), philosophically
pensive.

The chapter helps define vividly the editor's use of the term
'activist', where animateur, mentor, provocateur, avant-gardist
or collectivist might have also applied to describing a
particular kind of cultural production. Kogawa, critical of the
banzai-collectivity of his corporate culture, despairing at the
state of the world, describes vividly the complexities of
seeking the means, as an individual and as a member of the post-
War generation of the industrialised countries, to avoid
contributing to the corrupted social infrastructure whilst
building the basis of another. Language was part of this: the
use of a word 'otaku'--literally, your house, but also 'you, at
a slight distance'--was a form of address within emerging youth
culture. Also, building the electronic devices, from mini-FM to
music and 'noise' instruments used in performance as a means to
reconsider art and body, space and time, where sound and aural
space offer in embodiment a state of integration.

Activism in the USA recovers the history of the alternative
media network as a forerunner of the indiemedia movement on the
Net. In the context of an oppressive corporate information
regime, Jesse Drew's account of the Gulf Crisis TV project
(GCTV) illustrates the difficulty public broadcasters have when
it comes to criticism of the governments and corporations who
fund television and radio networks and how GCTV's most reliable
network was "in effect an American electronic samizdat" where
tapes were copied and passed hand to hand.

Which brought to the mind of this reader the absence from this
volume of reference to the Eastern samizdat movement of the
period covered. Traditional literary forms, from the first
appearance of literacy to now, are as much about remote
networking as about coding. The samizdat phenomena, in it
various national formations, is a measure of how effective
oppressive regimes can be in suppressing memory, how without the
exposure to others activism, for reasons of language but
overridingly for reasons of maintaining anonymity, the 'otaku'
of activity is nullified.

Roy Ascott in quoting Barthes' "generative idea that the text
is made", (whilst also being an appropriate description of this
book), journeys across the globe in various formulations,
textual, physical and electronic, in the process of defining the
telematic art for which he is well known, citing 'the potential
for continuity and connectivity' as his continuing purpose.

There is one account by Andrew Garton, an Australian artist,
tracing his career from the earliest electronic games machines,
through community radio to the early BBS networks. Whilst the
impact of the structural changes made by a radical federal
government in the 70s on an individual is engaging, the changes
to communication facilities and networks across Australia
affected a large number of artists. The editor's country of
domicile being Australia may account for this singular
representation, which thereby misses accounting for the
internationally recognised pioneering work in the development of
radio for distance learning and remote communities.

Estridentistas is the intriguing expression, (not translated
anywhere but colliding the Spanish words for dentist and
shrill), used by a group of Mexican artists in the 1920s. Much
influenced by the Futurists, Maria Fernandez recounts this
aspect of the revolutionary period, when much was written about
'sound', 'electricity', 'the telephone' ". . . and the social
costs of that modernity" which, had they pondered more
critically at that point would have prepared us better for the
communication technologies in which we are immersed today.
(Another aspect of the period would have been battling the
ageless, ahistorical communication networks of the Catholic
Church!).

Sound and noise are, like Mail Art, other touchstones in this
collection. "Computer network music aims to reveal the voice of
the system itself..." and Chris Brown and John Besought lead us
through this manifestation of chamber music, populated by
electronics and systems specialists with rules-based scenarios
and the electric to sonify and delight. Like musicians across
many ages, what emerges as distinct from other network
populations is a level of sociability based on physical
proximity, object tuning and intense concentration--some
networks function better when they are contained in the same

room.

At a Distance is very much more than a listing of related
activities responsible for our perceptions of the Net, if not
its practice-based development. In folding and crossing the
narratives, the discourse and its impact both then and now
become more transparent. One of the satisfactions of hindsight
is that this account may be valuable for understanding the
process of recognizing and assessing tendencies as they arise in
the new online domains. The computer and Net were the central
tools in compiling these viewpoints and the presentation of the
material keeps this in mind.

For the most part, the technology of these opportunities, (in
the same way as most of us use the Net today), is kept at arms
length. Apart from an exotic moment of access to television
network satellites, we learn little of the more mundane
machines, far-reaching in their affect on artists' networks,
such as the Phillips cassette recorder, the Polaroid camera, the
off-set litho printer, the film and video camera and the VCR.
For an artist to prepare to work with printers of paper or of
film for instance, required communities of interest to organize,
plan, raise resources and engage in realpolitik in order to
acquire the material means with which to pursue a different kind
of creative practice.

The resulting collaborative networks that spread across
regional, national and international boundaries built audiences
in festivals and distribution systems. Film-makers occupied the
no-man's-land between cinema and museum, print artists the
spaces between the bookshop and the museum, all depending on the
assuredness of a distribution system vectored toward an audience
active in creating the links with artists. Expanded Cinema, in
fitting handily as performance events into museum spaces, was a
worthy if small part of this activity and is a brief part of the
vivid histories which Johanna Drucker and Reinhard Braun

describe.

There is a useful timeline list, a feature of this Leonardo
series, (from which it modestly omits itself and ISEA as
founding forces in arts networks). The Index is 'abridged' and
there is an excellent approach to design with clear text and
layout and a ravishing dust-jacket. Is that J.J. Gibson's image
of a tree framed in the middle of a field on a summer's day, an
'affordance' to those who seek its cool shade and an
illustration of ". . . resources, which are only revealed to
those who seek them"?

______________________________________________________

LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, VOL. 15 (DECEMBER 2005)
TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SELECTED ABSTRACTS
______________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

The Word: Voice, Language and Technology

In the beginning of music there was the Word---whether "hush"
(little baby) or "hosanna"---but from the knife that kept the
great castrato Farinelli forever boyish to the harmonizer that
made Laurie Anderson temporarily mannish, technology has been
used to tweak the human voice and to color the stories it tells.
The advent of electronic amplification, radio and recording
allowed a single microphone to convey the lip-brushing intimacy
of the whisper and croon far beyond the first row of the concert
hall. The evolution of pop vocal styles from the 1950s onward
cannot be separated from such innovations in recording
technology as tape echo, double tracking, electronic
reverberation and, most recently, the ever-expanding palette of
digital effects. Vocal cut-ups and processing have been
essential tools of the avant-garde, from Walter Ruttman's film
soundtrack experiments in the 1930s through Cage and Reich to
Ashley and Sonami, while artists from Kurt Schwitters to Jaap
Blonk have created purely acoustic vocal works that mimic the
aural artifacts of technology.

The power of the semantic content of a text when combined with
the melodic possibilities of the voice have made "song" the
world's most common musical form, and technology-driven vocal
innovations have often triggered the emergence of new musical
genres (rap being the most conspicuous example). Between the
much-touted "abstractness" and "universality" of music and the
seductive specificity of words there exists a poignant and
powerful lacuna. The voice may be our first and most "natural"
instrument of art, but art is artificial, and the link between
technique and technology is more than a pun.

For the current issue of LMJ, we invited contributions that
address the interplay of the voice, words and technology in
music. The responses present a dynamic diversity of approaches,
from technology-driven texts to text-driven technology. Eduardo
Reck Miranda and Timothy Polashek discuss computer programs for
generating texts: For his opera Sacra Conversazione, Miranda
created a sophisticated artificial phonological system that not
only creates its text content but synthesizes these new vocal
sounds directly from the computer based on "syllabic stress
contour analysis," while Polashek's elegant algorithm produces
"babble-ish" poetry and text/sound music. Gil Weinberg's Voice
Networks is a musical installation that allows the general
public to engage in ensemble musical performance based on the
exchange and transformation of voice "motifs." Robert Gluck's
installation Sounds of a Community, on the other hand,
encourages visitors to explore relationships between traditional
cultural identity, religious identity and musical expression
through interaction with a series of sound sculptures modeled on
traditional Jewish ritual objects.

Observing the hyper-intelligibility of whistled languages such
as el Silbo (from the aptly named Canary Islands), which are
used for long-distance communication in mountainous areas, Marc
Bšhlen and J.T. Rinker sidestepped the thorny problems of
computer recognition of spoken language when they designed their
Universal Whistling Machine: Their computer program senses the
presence of living creatures (human or animal) in its vicinity,
attracts them with a "signature whistle" and incorporates any
response into an extended whistled composition. Basile
Zimmermann draws another linguistic analogy: He writes about the
adaptation of Western music technology in contemporary China,
with a focus on the significance of Chinese language in the
incorporation of Western software into local musical culture.
English composer and critic David Toop examines his own work in
relation to "the hinterland that exists between vocal utterance
and music," including discussion of his collaborations with
sound poet Bob Cobbing and artist John Latham.

M. Sumner Carnahan, David Hahn and Ed Osborn each contribute
statements on works about the use and abuse of language.
Carnahan documents her collaboration with J.A. Dean's "conducted
improvisation" ensemble, in which a collection of her stories
serves as a source for real-time group composition. Hahn, who
worked for a background music company, describes his day-job--
driven hybridization of corporate babble and background music
into compositions combining meaningful text and extra-verbal
utterances. Osborn writes about his repurposing of primitive
language-instruction machines for live performance. Dutch music
journalist RenŽ van Peer interviews Jaap Blonk (the CD curator
for this issue) on the incorporation of electronics into his
virtuosic vocal performances. New York composer Daniel Goode is
represented by the bittersweet libretto from his recent
composition Interpreting, in the Composer's Notebook section of
the journal.

For the CD, Blonk chose quixotic vocal work from a dozen
artists---both well established and emerging---hailing from
Europe, Japan, and North and South America: Tomomi Adachi,
Vincent Barras and Jacques Demierre, Christian Bšk, Anne-James
Chaton, Ricardo Dal Farra, Kenneth Goldsmith, Daniel Goode,
Lasse Marhaug, Jelle Meander, Julien Ottavi, Jšrg Piringer,
AmŽrico Jorge M. Rodrigues, and Sprechakte X/Treme. 

Voltaire once said, "If it's too silly to be said, it can
always be sung." It is clear that in the 21st century, as in the
18th, the trappings of music---the deference to melody and
rhythm, the reprieve from conversational decorum, the happy,
face-saving support of technology (whether harpsichord or
karaoke machine)---frees us to say things we cannot in the
normal run of life. There are words that need more than WordŠ.

Nicolas Collins

Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Music Journal

_______________________

Articles

< Eduardo Reck Miranda: Artificial Phonology: Disembodied
Humanoid Voice for Composing Music with Surreal Languages >

< Timothy D. Polashek: Beyond Babble: A Text-Generation Method
and Computer Program for Composing Text, Sound Music and Poetry >

< Gil Weinberg: Voice Networks: The Human Voice as a Creative
Medium for Musical Collaboration >

< David Toop: Sound Body: The Ghost of a Program >

< Robert J. Gluck: Sounds of a Community: Cultural Identity and
Interactive Art >

< Marc Bšhlen and J.T. Rinker: Experiments with Whistling
Machines >

< Basile Zimmermann: Technology Is Culture: Two Paradigms >

< Daniel Goode: Composer's Notebook: Interpreting >

< Jaap Blonk with RenŽ van Peer: Sounding the Outer Limits >

Artists' Statements

< M. Sumner Carnahan: One Inch Equals 25 Miles: Prose Generates
Music >

< David Hahn: Corporate Coitus: Disfluencies as Compositional
Building Blocks >

< Ed Osborn: Language Master: Its Master's Voice >

_______________________

LMJ15 CD COMPANION

< Vox ex Machina >

Jaap Blonk: CD Curator's Introduction on Vox ex Machina

TRACKLIST AND CREDITS

CD Contributors' Notes

Tomomi Adachi: KANA

AmŽrico Rodrigues: O som que circula nas veias

Christian Bšk: Mushroom Clouds

Sprechakte X/Treme: Vielleicht

Vincent Barras and Jacques Demierre: OOA

Ricardo Dal Farra: . . . due giorni dopo

Jelle Meander: Al Amin Dada

Jšrg Piringer: en do

Kenneth Goldsmith: Eighteen Earrers

Julien Ottavi: voix imprrsonel

Daniel Goode: Juicy Cantata---Violence in America

Anne-James Chaton: Extraordinary Voyages

Christian Bšk: Synth Loops

Lasse Marhaug: May Rap Bonk Bonk---MAJAAP Pudding Mix

2005 Leonardo and Leonardo Music Journal Author Index

2005 Leonardo Electronic Almanac Author Index

______________________________________________________

LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS
______________________________________________________

Leonardo Co-Sponsors Space Sciences Lab Artists-in-Residence
Semiconductor

Following upon the success of Liliane Lijn's summer 2005
artist's residency at University of California at Berkeley's
Space Sciences Lab (SSL), Leonardo is pleased to welcome the
SSL's new artists-in-residence: U.K. artists Ruth Jarman and
Joseph Gerhardt. Jarman and Gerhardt, who work collaboratively
as Semiconductor, will spend 4 months at SSL, working at the Lab
as part of Isabel Hawkins's Center for Science Education. Work
by Semiconductor includes films and digital animations made out
of sound, using abstract landscapes and architecture as a means
to describe aural and visual interpretations of the world. Live
digital performance is one strand of Semiconductor's output;
they also produce surround sound installations and single-screen
Sound Films that are exhibited at galleries, festivals and
biennials worldwide. Examples of their work can be found on-line
at: <www.semiconductorfilms.org>.

_____________________________

Pacific Rim New Media Summit Experimental Publishing Project

How are information technology and creativity shaping new
directions in the arts and sciences around the Pacific Rim? 
What challenges face organizations and individuals in the region
who are working in the fields of architecture, design,
literature, theater and music?  How do academic research and
information-technology--based industry fit into this picture?

The political and economic space of the Pacific Rim represents
a dynamic context for innovation and creativity. Experimentation
in the many disciplines that encompass art, science and
technology is resulting in the emergence of new forms of
cultural production and experience unique to the region. The
complex relations and diversity of Pacific Rim nations are
exemplified as well throughout the hybridized communities that
compose Silicon Valley.

The Pacific Rim New Media Summit will be a gathering of
organizations and representatives from the Pacific Rim and
elsewhere Asia to investigate the complex relations and
diversity of Pacific Rim nations while focusing on the
development of partnerships in order to address the multiple
challenges faced throughout the region as it develops its art-
and-science networks in tandem with its increasing economic
influence.  This transdisciplinary event will have a specific
focus on educational methodologies and practices.

The summit is organized into seven working groups according to
the following topic areas: 

* Container Culture (Chair: Steve Dietz) 

* Education (Chair: Fatima Lasay) 

* Place, Ground and Practice (Chair: Danny Butt) 

* Urbanity and Locative Media (Chair: Roh Soh-Yeong) 

* Latin American/Asia-Pacific New Media Initiatives (Chair:
Jose-Carlos Mariategui) 

* Directory, Organizations and Residencies (Co-Chairs: Julianne
Pierce and Nisar Keshvani) 

* Piracy, Ethics and Community (Chair: Steve Cisler)

For more information on the Pacific Rim New Media Summit, visit
<http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/prnms.html>.

Leonardo Publishing Initiative

In conjunction with the Pacific Rim New Media Summit, Leonardo
will undertake a multifaceted publishing initiative directly
related to its role as co-sponsor of the summit event. This
initiative has three components:

Hybrid Print and DVD Journal Issue of Leonardo

To coincide with the summit, Leonardo is publishing a special
hybrid issue based on the work of the seven Pacific Rim working
groups, featuring new media educational programs and artists
from the Pacific-Asia region.  The print issue of the journal
will include statements by artists as well as articles by
cultural theorists looking at issues germane to the seven
working-group topics, plus introductory texts by the working-
group chairs.  The accompanying DVD will feature short video
works by artists from around the Pacific Rim.

LEA Special Sections on Working Group Topics

As a lead-up to the summit, the Leonardo Electronic Almanac has
been publishing on a regular basis materials submitted by the
working groups as each develops its mandate.  Working-group
statements, names of working-group members and contact
information for the working-group chairs have been available in
issues of LEA since March 2005 (on the Web at
<http://lea.mit.edu>).  Additional materials will continue to be
published in LEA as the working groups define and refine their
focus in preparation for the summit.

On the Web

Simultaneous with the release of the Leonardo special issue,
the Leonardo On-Line web site <www.leonardo.info> will include
video-clip teasers from the Pacific Rim DVD.

_____________________________

In Memoriam: Bob Moog

A Personal Tribute by Marc Battier

Robert A. Moog died on 21 August 2005. He had been diagnosed
with a brain tumor in the spring. Sadly, the disease spread
rapidly despite all the support and care of his family and from
the Duke Cancer Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

Some time before Bob's passing, a list was set up by his family
on the Internet. It was amazing to watch the message list grow
by the hour. People from all over the world expressed their
appreciation, often saying that Bob's instruments had changed
the course of their lives.

I was able to witness an outpouring of this feeling at the May
2004 Moogfest in New York City as I sat in a booth with Bob that
evening. People approached quietly and expressed their
gratitude. Bob took this very soberly and with great dignity.

Bob Moog, born in 1934, began his career at an early age. Born
to a father who was a passionate radio amateur, Bob grew up
amidst electronic equipment. It is from this fertile soil that
he started to build theremin instruments to support his
engineering studies. His theremins became popular and Bob, very
naturally, became a full-time musical instrument builder. In
1964, he presented to the Audio Engineering Society an initial
prototype of an electronic synthesizer. While the idea of such
an instrument came from discussions with composer Herbert
Deutsch, Bob brought to life a number of decisive innovations.
The following year, the modular synthesizer began to sell. A few
years later, the instrument entered the public realm through the
craft and talent of Wendy Carlos and Switched on Bach. Other
brilliant designers invented various types of electronic
instruments, but none became as popular as the synthesizers Bob
invented. As Marcel Duchamp once wrote, "The invention of new
musical instruments changes the whole sensibility of an era."
Eventually, Moog met the man through whom he was led to
designing instruments, Leon Theremin. Composer and computer
music pioneer John Chowning was a witness when Bob and Leon met
at Stanford in 1991: "Moog quietly thanked Theremin for having
inspired him and so many others. Theremin understood and so did
Bob."

Bob Moog's instruments changed the way music was made in the
20th century. Even today, more than forty years after his first
modular synthesizers were commercialized, people gather to
celebrate the moogs. Bob Moog was the recipient of numerous
awards for his innovative work as an instrument maker. There
have been Moogfests, where famous performers as well as emerging
ones met and played for the fun of it. In September 2005, Tokyo
will host a second Moog Day. It is likely that people will
continue celebrating the man and his instruments.

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

______________________________________________________

BYTES
______________________________________________________

Director, Institute for e-Learning and Research in the Arts and
Design
College of Arts and Architecture
The Pennsylvania State University

The Director of the new e-Learning and Research in the Arts and
Design initiative in the College of Arts and Architecture at
Penn State shall be responsible for providing leadership and
overall coordination of digital imaging and technology in the
arts and design in three primary areas: 1) online instruction,
2) stimulating research in these allied fields, and 3) grant
writing/fundraising to support the projects of the Institute.

The mission of the Institute is to take a leading position in
the future of the disciplines represented in the College of Arts
and Architecture in the global advancement of digital practice,
implementation, and research.

The director shall supervise a staff comprised of two
instructional designers, an online course manager, and clerical
staff and shall be the primary point of contact for the
Institute.  The director shall serve as the liaison with the
academic leaders of the College, shall establish and/or build
upon internal and external collaborations in the areas of e-
learning and research in digital technologies in the arts and
design, and shall be responsible for proposal development for
external support of research in these areas.

For application details, a more complete position description,
and information regarding this initiative, please see website:
http://www.artsandarchitecture.psu.edu/e-learning/

Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal
opportunity and the diversity of its workforce.

_____________________________

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. 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.

_____________________________

CALL FOR PROPOSALS for upcoming trans-disciplinary conference
"CAMOUFLAGE: Art, Science, and Popular Culture," to be held at
University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls) April 22, 2006.

Proposals are invited for 30-minute slide talks, panel
discussions, demonstrations, or other events on any and all
dimensions of camouflage.

There will be a $20 registration fee for conference
participants, with the exception of all students, UNI faculty,
and all session presenters, who will be admitted free.

Please e-mail all proposals (include title and brief paragraph
description) to conference organizer Prof Roy R. Behrens at
ballast [@] netins.net, with "Camouflage Conference" in the
subject line. Deadline for submissions is January 10, 2006.

_____________________________

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

New Constellations: Art, Science and Society

17-19 March 2006

Museum of Contemporary Art

Circular Quay West, Sydney Australia

New Constellations: Art, Science and Society - an international
conference charting the ways in which art and science are
gravitating towards one another within contemporary culture.

The Conference will present the latest thinking about
collaboration between artists and scientists and examine how the
worldwide trend towards interdisciplinary engagement is changing
the definitions, methodologies and practices they use and how
they view the social implications of their work.

Key Speakers:

Ruzena Bajcsy, Immediate Past President, CITRIS (Centre for
Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society),
University of California, Berkeley, California;

Elizabeth Grosz, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Visiting
Professor of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, New
Jersey;

Steve Kurtz, Founding Member, Critical Art Ensemble; Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;

Roger Malina, Chairman, Board, Leonardo, the International
Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology; Co-Chair,
International Advisory Board, Inter-Society for the Electronic
Arts.

The Conference has grown out of a collaboration between artist
Mari Velonaki and The University of Sydney's Australian Centre
for Field Robotics, an Australian Research Council - Australia
Council for the Arts Linkage Project. 

The Conference is supported by Artspace, Australian Network for
Art and Technology and Patrick Systems and Technologies and The
University of Sydney.

Conference enquiries: 61 2 9245 2484 or email [@] education
[dot] mca [dot] com [dot] au

For further program details and information go to
http://www.mca.com.au/newconstellations

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government
through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory

body.

______________________________________________________

___________________
CREDITS
___________________

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

______________________________________________________

_________________
LEA
PUBLISHING
INFORMATION
_________________

Editorial Address:
Leonardo Electronic Almanac
PO Box 850
Robinson Road
Singapore 901650
lea [@] mitpress [dot] mit [dot] edu

______________________________________________________

Copyright (2005), Leonardo, the International Society for the
Arts, Sciences and Technology
All Rights Reserved.

Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by:
The MIT Press Journals,
238 Main Street, Suite 500
Cambridge, MA 02142
U.S.A.

Re-posting of the content of this journal is prohibited without
permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and
events listings which have been independently received.
Leonardo/ISAST and the MIT Press give institutions permission to
offer access to LEA within the organization through such
resources as restricted local gopher and mosaic services. Open
access to other individuals and organizations is not permitted.

______________________________________________________

_______________
ADVERTISING
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Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published monthly - individuals
and institutions interested in advertising in LEA, either in the
distributed text version or on the World Wide Web site should
contact:

Leonardo Advertising Department

c/o SFAI
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______________________________________________________

_______________________
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
_______________________

LEA acknowledges with thanks the Rockefeller and Ford
Foundations for their support to Leonardo/ISAST and its projects.

______________________________________________________
< End of Leonardo Electronic Almanac Vol. 13, No. 10 >
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