Archive for November, 1992

TISEA

Sunday, November 29th, 1992
The Third International Symposium on Electronic Art took place in Sydney,

from November 9-13. ISEA, the Inter-Society, was born during the first two

issues of this symposium, that both took place in Holland (1988 and 1990).

The first symposium was organized with the specific aim to found an

international and inter-disciplinary umbrella organization for the

electronic arts.

THE INTER-SOCIETY FOR THE ELECTRONIC ARTS

THE ISEA NEWSLETTER

NUMBER 12, DECEMBER 1992
__________________________________________________________________________
Editors: Wim van der Plas, Dirk Boon (Holland). Correspondents: Yoshiyuki
Abe (Japan), Roger Malina (US), Ivan Pope (UK),Leslie Bishko (US),Rejane
Spitz (Brazil). ISEA, POB 8656, 3009 AR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Tel 31-50-425254, Fax 31-75-701906, Email ISEA@RUG.NL or
A430WYNA@DIAMOND.SARA.NL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
TISEA Wim van der Plas
ISEA SURVEY AT TISEA
TISEA Yoshiyuki Abe
INTERNATIONAL ARTS SYMPOSIUM Roman Verostko
MACHINE QUEEN Virginia Barratt
THE COMPUTER IS NOT SORRY Reed Altemus
SURVEY Wim van der Plas
TAPROOT Luigi-Bob Drake
IEEE TASK FORCE Francesco Giomi
CALENDAR

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL

ISEA is moving. Not only in a figurative sense, but also literary. In this
issue you will find a new PO Box address in Rotterdam instead of Gronin-
gen, in the next issue a new phone number and (maybe) a new Email address.
Since ISEA is poor, we have to do everything ourselves, including painting
and decorating etc. That is why there isn't much in the way of an
editorial this time. We need to evaluate the results of the survey, done
at TISEA, and discuss the strategy we are planning to make ISEA stronger
and bigger in 1993. Our moving is part of this strategy. We will discuss
it with you in the next issue.
One last thing. The editors of this Newsletter are Dutch, and to some of
the correspondents English is not their native tongue either. We need a
volunteer! Somebody willing to correct our poor English. It has to be
someone connected to Email, who is able to do a very quick job. Most of
the announcements in this Newsletter are no problem: they come from
americans or brits. But pieces like these editorials need to be screened.
Who helps?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

TISEA
Wim van der Plas

The Third International Symposium on Electronic Art took place in Sydney,
from November 9-13. ISEA, the Inter-Society, was born during the first two
issues of this symposium, that both took place in Holland (1988 and 1990).
The first symposium was organized with the specific aim to found an
international and inter-disciplinary umbrella organization for the
electronic arts.
Understandably, we wanted to be present at TISEA (after next year the
Fourth symposium -FISEA 93 in Minneapolis- we will get rid of the con-
fusing abbreviations, and all symposia will be called ISEA). Thanks to the
Dutch Ministry of Culture's Film Department, a delegation of two was able
to go. The Ministry payed our air fares. The TISEA organization (Ross
Harley, director, Alessio Cavallaro, coordinator and Gary Warner, chair)
made sure we were accommodated and offered us great hospitallity.

Originally I was going to be accompanied by Dirk Boon, but he wasn't able
to go after all, due to his daily work situation (we still are all
volunteers for ISEA). Instead, my wife Heidi accompanied me. Heidi
organized the second symposium with me, in 1990. She is taking over the
ISEA administration from Dirk Boon, so that Dirk can devote himself more
fully to the Newsletter.

So, we left on a dreary November afternoon, to arrive on a nice morning in
Spring (two calendar days later) in Sydney. It appeared to be a beautiful
city. Stelarc, the Australian performer (who appeared both at SISEA and
TISEA) took us to the old Sydney harbour for breakfast, before disap-
pearing in the adjacent Museum of Contemporary Art to prepare for his
performance there the next day.

We needed some rest after the 24 hours flight without sleep, but that
night we were caught by the TISEA spirit, that didn't leave us until a
week later. By symposium shuttle bus, we were transported from gallery to
gallery (five in total) to see the TISEA art exhibition, that was all over
town. Some galleries had mainly Australian electronic art on display,
others had only work from foreign artists. The general impression was very
possitive: the interest from all these galleries showed electronic art is
being taken serious in Australia.
We had an intensive program of meetings all week long and so we mainly saw
glimpses of TISEA, but enough glimpses to get a good impression. At least,
we saw a lot more than during SISEA. Then we were busy behind the screens
practically all of the time. We witnessed something of the workshops on
Virtual Reality in the Museum of Contemporary Art (Monday and Tuesday)
and of (key note speaker) Myron Krueger on Videoplace in the Powerhouse
Museum. We saw the Stelarc performance, this time together with an
industrial robot arm geared with lights and video cameras, on Tuesday
night. His second performance, because the first one sold out.
The next three days were devoted to the scientific symposium, mostly
parallel in the prestigious Art Gallery of New South Wales and a room in
the adjacent Botanical Gardens (between beautiful flowers, palm trees and
birds). In the world famous Sydney Opera House (the well known shell
shaped structure) was a daily showing of David Blair's 60 minutes video
"WAX or the discovery of television among the bees". Blair was present to
answer questions about this remarkable science fiction art piece.
On Wednesday, the Video Show (called Electronic Theatre this time) took
place in the Art Gallery of NSW. John McCormack's remarkable TISEA leader
(animated logo) was one of the high lights. On Thursday there was an
'Artists Reception' at the Performance Space (the name of a gallery). Here
we saw a very interesting exhibition of interactive pieces. One of my
favourites was "Light from Noise Sound" by Takuro Osaka from Japan. In a
small room, one could witness changes of colours that were triggered by
the changing sounds of the city outside of the gallery.
Friday night was performance night, in the ABC Ultimo Centre, which is
very well equipped for this kind of event. Very tasteful, although more
mechanical than electronic, was Pierre Bastin's "Mecanium". A number of
funny looking mechanical devices produce music, that Bastin accompanies by
playing trumpet.
Humourous and thought provoking was Yuji Sone's "Nonetheless Marinetti".
He sat in front of a lighted, but empty screen, while his 'thoughts' could
be read from a moving light display behind him. Some of the performances I
did not like, one or two were pathetic in my opinion, but then again,
others appeared to like them.

I haven't gone into the scientific part of the symposium here, I hope to
come back to that in the next issue of this Newsletter. The Inter-Society
held a plenary panel session during the last afternoon, that was well
attended. Roman Verostko invited everybody to come to Minneapolis in
November 93 for FISEA 93, the preparations of which are well underway.
Susanna Koskinen of the University of Industrial Arts Helsinki announced
Helsinki's plans for ISEA '94 and representatives of the University of
Quebec offered a bid for ISEA 95 in Montreal. Rejane Spitz and Yoshiuki
Abe elaborated on the relative difficult situation for artists from their
parts of the world (respectively South America and Japan/Asia) to par-
ticipate in symposia like these. Abe announced his intention to host one
of the future symposia in Japan. During the panel, a survey was held among
the audience. The results are included in this Newsletter. Next time we
hope to draw some conclusions from them.

In general, it must be said that the symposium was organized without a
flaw. I know the organizing committee had to overcome great last minute
problems. It didn't show. We are very glad we went. We met with an
exciting culture. TISEA was better than the first two symposia. Bigger
too: there were some 400 participants (SISEA had 300). A little bit of
critisism, just for balance sake: there wasn't enough music. The ISEAs aim
at being The interdisciplinary meeting place in the electronic arts and we
have to make sure that music is just as prominent as visuals. We will make
sure future symposia cooperate more closely with the International
Computer Music Association.

TISEA published an excellent catalogue/book of abstracts, partly in full
colour. Negotiations are going on concerning the publication of
Proceedings and a video tape. We hope to tell you more in the next
Newsletter.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISEA SURVEY HELD AT TISEA PANEL SESSION

Audience: approx. 100
N=42

These were the questions:

1. Had you heard of the Inter-Society (ISEA) before this panel?
2. Had you heard of the Inter-Society (ISEA) before TISEA?
3. Do you understand the aims of ISEA?
4. Do you agree with the aims of ISEA?
5. Are you a member of ISEA?
6. Will you become a member?
7. What do you think of the membership fees?
8. Do you want to actively participate in ISEA?

Results:

1. Had you heard of the Inter-Society (ISEA) before this panel?
yes: 35
no: 7

2. Had you heard of the Inter-Society (ISEA) before TISEA?
yes: 23
no: 19

3. Do you understand the aims of ISEA?
yes: 27
no: 2
not sure: 13

4. Do you agree with the aims of ISEA?
yes: 24
no: 0
not sure: 15
no answer: 3

5. Are you a member of ISEA?
yes: 4
no: 38

6. Will you become a member?
yes: 13
no: 2
maybe: 22

7. What do you think of the membership fees?
too much: 28
too cheap: 0
OK: 12

8. Do you want to actively participate in ISEA?
yes: 25
no: 11
maybe: 2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

TISEA
Yoshiyuki Abe

TISEA, this well-organized interdisciplinary meeting provided me the
fruits of communication with persons in neighbour genre as well as
computer graphics colleagues. Fortunately, we had a chance to see
numerous works of famous in publications at TISEA galleries and
performance sites. In paper/poster sessions, although opt-one-from-three-
venues was hard job for me, I could attend some important sessions.

It's a pleasure to talk to the author at his/her works. The openings
of galleries and performance space were this kind of places. For
artists, even for critics and scientists, this is the highlight and
happiest time of a symposium. It was to be regretted that the gallery
openings were busy to rush to the next and I actually didn't stay
at my gallery for long.

In my field, 2D display, Markus Riebe's large air brushed works were
absorbing for me. Making bigger display prints of computer graphics is a
challenge to many artists and resolution, color reproduction, durability,
etc. are the issues we have to clear up.
Including Brian Evans's great store of experiments on materials and
diverse techniques used by gathered artists, I've learned many from the
forerunners at TISEA.

One impressive work in another genre was Takuro Osaka's "Light from Noise
Sound." The combination of a street noise driven set and program driven
set of neon tubes created a fantastic color environment in a chamber. In
spite of using non-physical drive source, I felt a biological rhythm in
the shower of neon's pure lights.

I loved many works and time with colleagues from all over the world at
TISEA. The days of Wine and Electronic Arts, a happy trip it was.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERNATIONAL ARTS SYMPOSIUM
Roman Verostko

ELECTRONIC ARTS. Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art.
Nov 3-7, 1993. Hosted by the Minneapolis College of Art & Design,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Participating institutions include:
University of Minnesota School of Music, the Walker Art Center, and
the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

This Minneapolis symposium addresses current research, theory and practice
related to art and electronics, with an emphasis on "the art factor".
The term "art" applies broadly to forms that address sound, image, word
and body either specifically or as intermedia. This includes works by
visual artists, performers, musicians, and artists developing new
electronic formats.

Artists, scientists, arts critics, curators, educators, and others
interested in the use of electronics in the arts are encouraged to
participate. Beginning in 1993 this biennial series, first held in
Utrecht in 1988, becomes an annual event bringing together experts
from the worlds of art, science and technology.

This 1993 symposium will focus on artistic procedures and information
processing by artists. This includes technical procedures, related
research, and aesthetic/critical assessment of such art. Panelists and
speakers are encouraged to illustrate presentations with "works of
art". Practicing artists, who use electronic technologies, will be
welcomed to address procedures and applications. The symposium also
seeks to stimulate dialogue on arts criticism and foster an informed
critique of "the art factor" in the artist/machine dialectic.

Deadlines, 1993: Workshops, Courses, Papers, Panels: April 15;
Performance/Concert: May 15; Art Show, Electronic Theater: June 15;
Slide Show, Listening Room: July 15.

For submission guidelines address: FISEA 93, Minneapolis College of
Art & Design; 2501 Stevens Ave S; Minneapolis, MN 55404-4343, USA.
Phone: 612.874.3754 FAX: 612.874.3732 E-mail:fisea93@mcad

Program Chair: Roman Verostko, Email: roman@mcad.edu
Phone: 612.825.2720

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MACHINE QUEEN
Virginia Barratt

Machine Queen is a new information bulletin by and for women artists into
technology.
The first issue is due out soon and will include artists profiles,
calendars, articles, information about projects which you may like to be
involved with, and will open up a forum for feminist users to discuss
issues which shape their technological environment.
A database of women artists into technology is being currently developed.
If you would like to be on the database and mailing list for MQ, please
send name and address to the address below. In issue #1 I would like to
publish brief comments by women artists into technology. If you have
something to say about the joys and difficulties of working in the area,
please include it.

Machine Queen, c/o Virginia Barratt,
122 Parramatta Road, Camperdown NSW 2050, Australia

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE COMPUTER IS NOT SORRY - FINAL INFORMATION ON THE SHOW
Reed Altemus

Artists talk and symposium: Nintendo and New World Narratives with Mary
Fuller and Henry Jenkins (assistant professors of literature at MIT)
and a hypertext performance / reading by Caroline Guyer from "Quibbling",
her new hypertext from Eastgate Systems

performance: Saturday, January 23, 8pm, Music by Neil Leonard
admission $6.00

In January, the Space will present a show of installation art, hypertext
literature, and interactive music, all of which utilize digital
technology. The "Computer Is Not Sorry" introduces the work of artists who
investigate the computer as artistic object. "Interactivity" is a primary
feature of computers. With applications and methods ranging from simulated
warfare to user-friendly interfaces, the computer is made to mimic human
response. Interactivity is a lie. The computer is not really sorry when it
apologizes, but this mimicry of manners fulfills our innate need for
complete cycles of communication. The Computer Is Not Sorry explores
various facets of this virtual humanity.

Installations

+ Jennifer Hall is the Director of Do While Studio, a Boston
non-profit work space dedicated to the education and creation of art and
technology, and teaches design, sculpture, and the media arts at the
Massachusetts College of Art. Her installation is a conversation between
two computers, and is a response to our anthropocentric perception of the
tools we develop. "Our culture wants to desperately to believe the
promises associated with what we have termed interactivity and virtual
reality. Is this obsession misdirected and why do we think these are new
ideas? After all, reading a good book is both an interactive and a virtual
experience."

+ Tim (Robots from Hell) Anderson is a researcher at MIT's
Laboratory of Manufacturing and Productivity, working on a 3D
printer/sculpture-making machine. Several of his robots are included in
the 1992 Small Computer and the Arts exhibition at the Franklin Institute
in Philadelphia. The Do While Gallery in Boston is currently hosting
"Robot Art", a one-person show of Anderson's work. His "Tissue Mobile"
installation at the Space will include a pendulum driven by muscle tissue.

+ Chris Burnett, a former Charlestown resident, is an artist and
critic who teaches media and computer art at the Kansas City Art
Institute. His books and computer interactive works have been exhibited at
the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Fuller Art Museum in Brockton,
Massachusetts, and elsewhere. His installation, "Muto[scape]: A Panorama
of Animation Specimens" explores the mixed culture of popular animation
within hypermedia and physical structures based on the zoetrope, an early
animation device.

+ Greg Garvey is Assistant Professor of Design Art at Concordia
University in Montreal teaching computer graphics and multi-media. He has
exhibited environmental installations in New York and Boston and has
collaborated with a number of choreographers producing dance videos. His
installation "Catholic Turing Test" challenges the sinner in the
confessional to decide whether or not a priest or a computer is hearing
the confession. In doing so the user/sinner can experience the ecstasy of
forgiveness in a Manichean system governed by binary logic.

Hypertext

The show will present recent hypertext literature published by Eastgate
Systems, Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts.

+ "Its Name was Penelope" by Judy Malloy. Malloy is a book,
electrographic, and computer artist as well as an associate editor of
Leonardo and Leonardo Electronic News. She believes that affordable
book-size computers will enable the proliferation of new types of
responsive books and collaborative storytelling. "Its Name was Penelope"
is based on books from Homer's Odyssey; the narrator is a woman
photographer. Malloy writes, "Every reader chooses how and when to enter
each file, and random record generation makes each file appear different
to each reader."

+ Victory Garden by Stuart Moulthrop. Moulthrop, a former Yale
English Literature teacher, learned about hypertext in 1985, an event he
says changed his life. Now he "lives in the sunbelt and thinks about the
late age of print." With authors Michael Joyce, Nancy Kaplan, and John
McDaid, he is co-founder of the TINAC electronic arts collective.
Moulthrop's current projects include "Leni's Texts", a study of conspiracy
fiction, and "Grass", a multi-author hypertext. Victory Garden is a
portrait of the day the United States went to war in the sands of Kuwait
and Iraq.

Music

+ Neil Leonard is a saxophonist/clarinetist and assistant director
and instructor at the Massachusetts College of Art Computer Arts Learning
Center. For the past six years he has concentrated on composition,
creating works for interactive computer music systems, film, video, and
performance. Neil has harnessed chaos theory to create "an algorithmic
house band" that provided a set of compositions for an educational
television series, and he has developed systems in which computer software
varies musical output according to how Leonard is playing his saxophone.

"The Computer Is Not Sorry" catalog, with essays by Chris Burnett and
University of Florida professor and 1993 SIGGRAPH Art Show Chair Simon
Penny, will be available at the show or by contacting the Space. In
addition to the print catalog, both video and hypertext catalogs of the
show will be available. "The Computer Is Not Sorry" is curated by George
Fifield and Brian Wallace.

the Space is one of Boston's principal alternative arts centers. It is a
non-profit arts organization funded by the National Endowment for the
Arts, the LEF Foundation, the Engelhard Foundation, The Massachusetts
Cultural Council, The Andy Warhol Foundation and your generous
contributions. the Space is a member of the National Association of
Artists Organizations (NAAO). It provides a forum for innovative projects
in the the visual and performing arts. the Space has a tradition, in its
seven years, of presenting new voices from diverse backgrounds, show ing
visual, installation and performance art as well as presenting poetry and
video.

For more information contact:

the Space
107 South Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
Tel 1-617-451-0602, fax: 1-617-451-0621, e-mail: gwf@world.std.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------
SURVEY
Wim van der Plas

During the ISEA-panel on the Future of Computer Graphics at Montage 93
(see this Newsletter), I like to go into the relationship between
artists/designers on the one hand and scientists/technologists on the
other.
I would like to draw on the experience with this subject of our readers.
Anyone having any experience with or (grounded) opinion on this
relationship, is asked to reflect.
You are invited to write to me (by letter or Email) and tell me whatever
is on your mind concerning the cooperation between the two disciplines.
Please try to give me the following information:

-What is your education/occupation/background?
-Do you think cooperation between the two disciplines is necessary for the
development of electronic art? Why (not)?
-Have you got any relevant experience with this cooperation and can you
elaborate on it, either in a possitive or a negative sense?
-Please, give examples. Illustrations by way of video tape or other AV
materials is welcomed very much. They can illustrate both succesful
cooperation, failures, or illustrate the point of view that cooperation is
not necessary.
-Does education anticipate on the needs for cooperation or is there
anything you have to say concerning the relationship between the
disciplines in the light of education?

Thank you very much for your cooperation. I will keep you informed via
this Newsletter.

Wim van der Plas
POB 60103, 9703 BC Groningen, Holland
Email ISEA@RUG.NL

__________________________________________________________________________

Selected items from Fineart Forum, Volume 6 #12 and Leonardo Electronic
News, December 15, 1992. The Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts
contributes to Fineart Forum and republishes the items on electronic art
on behalf of its members. FAF is published by the Mississippi State
University/NSF Engineering Research Centre. LEN is published by the
International Society for Art, Science and Technology on behalf of The
Art, Science and Technology Network.
__________________________________________________________________________

TAPROOT
Luigi-Bob Drake

TapRoot is a quarterly publication of Independent, Underground, and
Experimental language-centered arts. Over the past 10 years, we have
published 40 collections of poetry, writing, and visio-verbal art in a
variety of formats. In the Summer of 1992, we began assembling contact
information and reviews of like-minded publications, and distributing them
as part of a local (Cleveland Ohio) poetry tabloid, the Cleveland Review.
This posting is an experiment, to test the practicality of (and interest
in) distributing this information through the Net. Your response and
comments are vital in determining the fate of this project.
Further details from Luigi-Bob Drake at: au462@cleveland.freenet.edu

Hard-copies of The Cleveland Review are available from: Burning
Press, PO Box 585, Lakewood OH 44107--$2.50.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
IEEE TASK FORCE ON COMPUTER-GENERATED MUSIC
Francesco Giomi

The IEEE Computer Society has approved the creation of a new Task Force on
Computer Generated Music.

I. General goals.

In a real sense, this TF has been in existence since the publication of
the IEEE Computer July 1991 issue and the tutorial book "Readings in
Computer Generated Music", to which some of you have contributed. These
efforts have helped define the term "Computer Generated Music" and the
scope of our group. It is part of a professional engineering society and
will try to avoid duplicating any existing efforts by other organizations
dedicated to apparently similar goals, but wishes to provide a forum for
all those projects that are neither "strictly "artistic" music - such as
pieces produced with computers and the like - nor "straight" engineering
- such as audio signal processing or artificial intelligence - without
excluding either.
In particular, because of its efforts to promote Computer Generated Music
up to the level of an established discipline, within engineering and
scientific institutions, academic and research departments, the group
hopes to provide an answer to students who look for places to get a degree
in this field, as well as to prospective faculty members looking for a
computer science department that tolerates research in music and
musicology. All this, hand-in-hand with industrial contacts and ties to
international organizations working on standards. At the risk of a gross
simplifications, Computer Generated Music stands to Music as Computer
Graphics to Painting.
Info: Francesco Giomi

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALENDAR
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEOUL INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER ART FESTIVAL '92 (SICAF'92)
Symposium with Y.Kawaguchi, M.Century, S.Ohashi, P.Henon, M.Lee, J.Kim and
J.Son for the panelists.
Digital Art Gallery includes works of 50 artists from the world over.
Dec. 21-22 Symposium
Dec. 24-28 Exhibition
Korea Exhibition Center, Seoul, KOREA
further info: SICAF'92
tel +82-2-575-8131 fax +82-2-576-2861

NIGHTMARE AT THE HELMSLEY PALACE, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis, MN USA
18 December 1992 - 31 January 1993
A multi-media installation by Minnesota artist Judith Yourman that
examines the American fascination with celebrity and scandal and the role
of media in transforming news into entertainment
Contact: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Avenue South,
Minneapolis, MN 55404 USA, tel: 1-612-870-3000

NOMAD
1 Januari 1993 is the Proposal Deadline for a project entitled NOMAD at
the Banff Centre for the Arts Television & Video Residency Program.
NOMAD runs from the summer of 1992 through June 1994
For more information contact: Program Coordinator, Media Arts
The Banff Centre for the Arts, Box 1020, Station 8 Banff, Alberta
TOL OCO CANADA

THE MISFORTUNE OF THE IMMORTALS.
4 - 30 Januari 1993
A multi-media collaborative theater work. Featuring the work of
Power Boothe, Mark Coniglio, Joan La Barbara and Morton Subotnick
Contact: Atlantic Center for the Arts, 1414 Art Center Avenue,
New Smyrna, FL 32168 USA, tel: 904-427-6975

5TH ANNUAL DIGITAL ART BE-IN
8 Januari 1993
Fashion Center, 699 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA
6pm - 3am
Advance tickets are available at BASS Ticket, Outlets and the
VERBUM Booth (3561) at the, MAC World Expo San Francisco.

THE COMPUTER IS NOT SORRY
9-31 January, A group show of computer installation art
Contact: the Space, 107 South Street, Boston, MA, 02111, tel:
617-451-0602, fax: 617-451-0621, E-mail: gwf@world.std.com

VISIONARY COMPUTER ART
As part of the International Futire Images Exhibition
July, 1993, Toky, Japan
Info:
Toshihiro Yatsumonji, Fuji Television Network Inc., Special Events
3-1 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
phone: 81-3-33531111, fax: 81-3-33594224

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALLS FOR PARTICIPATION
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

KNOWBOTIC RESEARCH Simulation Room - Mosaic of Mobile Sound Data

Call for international participation in new art/science project.

A group of artists and scientists at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne,
Germany, will be showing a Virtual Reality installation in February 1993
at the MEDIALE 93, (Festival for Media Arts and Media Future) in Hamburg,
Germany. The installation, housed in the freight ship "Cap San Diego" in
Hamburg harbour, has three main areas.

Section one is a sophisticated self-organizing database made up of a
collection of sound samples from around the world, which will be used to
produce a virtual 'sound room'. The sound data will correspond to the
second section, a physical room, where visitors will be able to navigate
through the space with the aid of a mobile ultrasonic sensor and an
artificial eye display.

Sound, from the data base, will be used to perform a real time concert
which reacts to the movements and location of the visitor navigating
through the virtual and real rooms. They will become the composer and
conductor for this sound space.

Progress and actions of the visitors, within this 'virtual organism,' will
be displayed on a video screen shown in a control room (the third area).

To participate in this international project, please send a cultural sound
statement of about 6 seconds in length, reflecting your personal attitude
towards the "world". This should take the form of a musical, noise or
verbal (mouth sound) statement (music, tone or noise would be more
interesting than a coherent verbal language statement). Contributions can
be sent via e-mail, ftp, audio cassette or digital audio tape.

All participants and institutions will be credited in a publicly displayed
database during the exhibition.

For more information by e-mail, and full details of how to send your
statement electronically, contact: kr+cf@khm.uni-koeln.de or write, send
your Cassette or DAT to:

Christian Hubler or Andrew Pepper
Department of Media Arts
Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Peter-Welter-Platz 2, 5000 Cologne 1, Germany

Switchboard 49 221 201 89 0
Office 49 221 201 89 144
Fax 49 221 201 89 124

PERSPECTIVES, PROXIMITIES, PERCEPTIONS: EXPRESSION IN
3-DIMENSIONAL GRAPHIC AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA

Artists working in any stereoscopic three-dimensional graphic or
electronic media are encouraged to submit work to and internationally
juried exhibition entitled PERSPECTIVES, PROXIMITIES, PERCEPTIONS:
EXPRESSION IN 3-DIMENSIONAL GRAPHIC AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA.
This exhibition is presented as part of Montage 93: International Festival
of the Image to be held in Rochester, New York, in the Summer of 1993.
PERSPECTIVES will focus on the creative use of new and established
dimensional imaging systems as modes of artistic expression. Individual
and collaborative artists are encouraged to submit their work to this
landmark exhibition.

Submission deadline 15 January 1993
Exhibition dates 11 July - 7 August, 1992
For more information contact: Lance Speer, 60 Shepard Street, Rochester,
NY 14620 USA, tel: 716-442-9843 OR Louis Brill, 1223 7th Avenue, San
Francisco, CA 94122

******************* A n n o u n c e m e n t ***************

a n d

-------- CALL FOR PROPOSALS, ABSTRACTS, AND PAPERS ---------

3 C Y B E R C O N F
THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CYBERSPACE
MAY 14 and 15, 1993

AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
**********************************************************************

The Third Conference on Cyberspace will be held May 14 and 15, 1993 at
The University of Texas at Austin. This is a call for proposals for
performances and demonstrations as well as for extended abstracts and
papers, approximately twenty four of which will be selected by the Program
Committee for development and presentation at the Conference.
Selected papers, abstracts, and proposal documents will be published as
The Collected Papers of the Third Conference on Cyberspace and available
at the Conference. Arrangements are being made to broadcast parts of the
Conference on National Community Cable Television.
Papers should be around 6,000 words. Abstracts and proposals for
performances and demonstrations should be between 800 and 1000 words,
with illustrations and photographs where necessary. All are due in hard
copy and digital form at the address below by January 1, 1993. Videotapes
and recordings are also encouraged. Selectees will be notified by
February 15, 1993.

In the interests of vigorous participation by all, attendance at the
Conference is limited. Priority will be given in the following order.

----Category 1: Participants who have been selected and invited to
present their papers, perform, or demonstrate their work.

----Category 2: Participants not selected to present but who have
submitted papers, abstracts, and proposals judged by the Program
Committee to be serious and of particular interest to the Conference.

----Category 3: Participants with creative and clearly stated
interests, experience, and expertise in the Topics listed below, as
submitted in writing in advance of the registration deadline.

----Category 4: Visitors & Observers who are not actively working in
the field at this time but who have expressed interest in the subject
in writing in advance of the registration deadline.

Like the First Conference at Austin in 1990, and the Second Inter-
national Conference in Santa Cruz in 1991, the Third Conference on
Cyberspace is not only about the enabling technology of virtual reality,
3-D user interfaces, networking, data visualization, high speed computer
graphics, and so on, but also the nature of cyberspace as such, conceived
of as an independent realm, a shared virtual environment whose in-
habitants, objects, and spaces are data, visualized, heard and (perhaps)
touched. It seeks to reach an understanding of how the components of
cyberspace already "under construction" in the development and design of
graphic user interfaces, scientific visualization techniques, video games,
CAD, abstract architecture and architectural design theory, knowledge
navigation, "cyberpunk" discourse, cultural studies, film and narrative
theory, virtual and artificial reality systems, MU*s, INTERNET, USENET and
other networks, groupware, and hypermedia might someday function
together to create a true, public cyberspace, as well as private,
special-purpose cyberspaces: viable, 3-dimensional, alternate realities
providing the maximum number of individuals with the means of com-
munication, creativity, productivity, mobility, and control over the
shapes of their lives within the new information and media environment.

The Third Conference on Cyberspace is scheduled to take place over two
days and two nights, two sessions held concurrently. In addition, there
will be an evening ROUND TABLE on the night of the 14th and a DINNER on
the night of the 15th. The attempt will be made to match Topics to
Sessions, but the number, nature, and quality of submissions will be the
deciding factor in scheduling.

The following is a representative list of the general topics of interest
to the Conference. OTHER, is also an option. The organizers ask only
that rampant speculation be accompanied by "concrete" accomplishment.

I. COMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA, AND THE CITY
II. VIRTUAL WORLD AND WORK/PLAYSPACE DESIGN
III. PERSONHOOD, COMMUNITY, AND AGENCY
IV. COMPUTATION: SPEED, SYNCHRONY, AND OTHER PROBLEMS
V. INTERFACES: IMMERSION, INTIMACY, IMMENSITY
VI. POETICS AND PERFORMANCE
VII. THE NATURE OF INFORMATION
VIII. THE QUESTION OF ECONOMICS

DEADLINES: <> for submission of papers, abstracts and
proposals for inclusion in the Conference: Postmarked on before
January 1, 1993. Notification date of selection for presentation:
February 15, 1993. <> for Category 3 applications: March
3, 1993. <> for registration for the Conference: March 15,
1993 (Late registration will be available as space permits and at an
extra charge). <> for submission of final papers (if
abstract was accepted) and for all arrangement-documentation for
demonstrations and performances: May 1, 1993.

3CYBERCONF
The Third International Conference On Cyberspace
Submissions
School of Architecture
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712

Email: 3cyberconf@bongo.cc.utexas.edu
Phone: 1-512-471-6619, fax: 1-512-471-0716

Scholarships.
A limited number of registrations and accommodations will be made
available at reduced rate to students and others demonstrating
financial need.

________________________________________________________________________
ISEA distributes a hard copy version of this Newsletter in order to keep
its members, who have no access to Electronic Mail, informed. Those
members can, if they desire, get in touch with the Email addresses
mentioned in this Newsletter by contacting ISEA.

The Inter-Society aims at joining a world-wide network of artists,
scientists and their institutes, making it easier for the institutes and
individual members to share expertise with each other. The aims of the
Inter-Society are to promote a structured approach to electronic art and
to help finance worthy electronic art projects. For membership information
contact ISEA at the address on the front page.

Support: Groningen University, Amsterdam University, De Fabriek/Hollandia.

End of Newsletter