Leonardo
Volume 31, Number 3
Contents
June/July 1998
Leonardo is a print journal, edited by Leonardo/the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, and published by the MIT Press. Subscriptions and individual issues can be ordered from the MIT Press.
TO ORDER.
Page 161
ISAST News
Pages 163-164
Editorial
Frieder Nake: Art in the Time of the Artificial
Pages 165-172
Artist's Article
Johannes Birringer: The Movement of Memory: Scanning Dance
Abstract
Dance, movement research and computer technology/digital arts are entering into a new relationship that redefines the parameters of choreography, composition and projection in multimedia performance. This article examines recent dance-performance research regarding the survival of physical bodies in Bill T. Jones's choreography and in the technological workshops given by AlienNation Co. that explore digital interfaces, interactive environments and projections of virtual memory in organic movement improvisations.
Pages 173-182
Artists' Notes
Hubert Duprat and Christian Besson: The Wonderful Caddis Worm: Sculptural Work in Collaboration with Trichoptera
This article is part of the Leonardo Art and Biology special project, guest-edited by George Gessert. The project consists of articles, artists' statements, a gallery section and a bibliography published in various issues of Leonardo and/or on the Leonardo On-Line Web site
Abstract
Since the early 1980s, artist Hubert Duprat has been utilizing insects to construct some of his "sculptures." By removing caddis fly larvae from their natural habitat and providing them with precious materials, he prompts them to manufacture cases that resemble jewelers' creations. Information theory, as explained by biologists such as Jacques Monod and Henri Atlan, helps us understand what seems to be the insect's aesthetic behavior. The activities of the caddis worm, as manipulated by Hubert Duprat, are prompted by the "noise"---beads, pearls and 18-karat gold pieces---introduced by the artist into the insect's environment. This article is based on a conversation between the artist and art critic Christian Besson.
Gottfried Jäger: Animato: The Work of Art in the Age of Potential Electronic Manipulation. Audio-Visual Paraphrases of the Painting KXVII (1923)
Abstract
Electronic technology today offers new and fascinating possibilities for reinterpretation of existing works in the fine arts, music and language. Works of art contain creative potential that challenges the participant to become involved. Works are open to interpretation and must constantly be subjected to new approaches in order to remain vital. Celebrating the occasion of the centennial of László Moholy-Nagy's birthday, the author and his colleagues created Animato, a 12-min multimedia performance for computer-animated video, piano and percussion based on Moholy's painting K XVII. This new work releases the material from its static state and renders it dynamic.
Pages 183-185
Artists' Statements
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I.L. Vanechkina and B.M. Galeyev: Prometheus: Scriabin + Kandinsky
- Dan Rose: The DNA-Photon Project
Page 187-193
General Article
Deborah Haynes, Mike Mandel and Rita Robillard: Curriculum Revolution: The Infusion and Diffusion of New Media
This article is part of the Leonardo special project entitled "Planetary Collegium: Towards the Radical Reconstruction of Art Education," guest-edited by Roy Ascott. This project features writings that address the present and future needs and nature of art education in light of contemporary developments in technology, science and the arts.
ABSTRACT
The authors raise questions and present options about how art education must change to more effectively help students meet the challenges of life with and beyond the computer screen. The thesis is simple: in the age of electronic media, artists need much more than training in the technologies of the <169>image world<170> in which we live. Students must become media philosophers, trained to reflect on the characters of electronic and other media and educated in the philosophical disciplines of epistemology, ontology and axiology. The article is organized around specific conceptual questions and discusses five proposed courses to aid students in addressing complicated questions raised by electronic media.
Pages 195-204
General Note
Maura C. Flannery: Images of the Cell in Twentieth-Century Art and Science
ABSTRACT
This essay examines the use of images of the cell in both science and art. In the twentieth century, many new imaging techniques have made intracellular structures more and more visible. The author examines several images of the cell drawn from scientific sources, to illustrate how the biologist's view of the cell has changed over time and how these images, like works of art, have aesthetic qualities. Many twentieth-century artists, beginning with the surrealists, have also used cellular forms in their work. Wassily Kandinsky is one artist for whom there is particularly good documentation relating to the influence of scientific cell images on his work. Diego Rivera painted realistic cells in several of his murals. The abstract expressionists were also interested in cellular forms, and this interest continues in the work of several contemporary artists. In this survey, images of the cell from art and science are found to complement each other and to enrich our understanding of the basic unit of life.
Page 205-224
Technical Notes
Bernard Vonnegut: Adventures in Fluid Flow: Generating Interesting Dendritic Patterns
ABSTRACT
Electrical discharge patterns produced by dielectric breakdown in transparent plastic blocks provide insights into the phenomenon that causes a gush of rain after a lightning flash. In simulations of thunderclouds, aluminum pigment particles dispersed in kerosene make visible thermal convection patterns. In the course of repairing a damaged Kalliroscope used to demonstrate convection, the author discovered that a variety of decorative, dendritic designs can be formed by first squeezing wet paint between two flat, smooth surfaces and then pulling the surfaces apart. The patterns produced by these very different physical processes satisfy the eye and challenge the mind.
Clifford A. Pickover: Cavern Genesis as a Self-Organizing System
Historical Perspective on the Arts, Sciences and Technology
ABSTRACT
The author describes cavern synthesis---a simple computational recipe for creating digital simulations of caverns. This system is reminiscent of self organizing systems, where large-scale patterns arise from simple rules operating on tiny components of a system. The artistic and unpredictable shapes should be of interest to artists and virtual-reality system programmers who create graphically rich , explorable three-dimensional worlds
Allan A. Mills: Vermeer and the Camera Obscura: Some Practical Considerations
Theoretical Perspectives on the Arts, Sciences and Technology
ABSTRACT
The remarkable precision in Vermeer's paintings has led to the claim that he used a "room-type" camera obscura. However, the most readily available convex lenses available in the seventeenth century were those used for spectacles; these lenses had diameters of about 4 cm. The author shows that the use of such lenses in a large scale camera obscura results in images of interior scenes that are too dim for effective visual inspection. Problems of inversion, reversal and depth of focus further complicate the images. It is concluded that Vermeer could not have traced his interiors directly at full size from the screen of a camera obscura. Vermeer's composition and approach to linear perspective could have been simulated by use of a small camera obscura, but his final works must have been painted right-side up and in good light.
Vladimir M. Petrov: The Evolution of Art: An Investigation of Cycles of Left- and Right-Hemispherical Creativity in Art
ABSTRACT
The author studied the historical cyclical behavior of creativity by employing art and music experts to categorize the stylistic orientation of European and Russian artists such as painters and composers. The results obtained describe the prevalence of left- or right-brain hemispherical features in each studied artist's work. In accordance with theoretical assumptions, periodic cycles of about 50 years of left- and right-brain creative dominance were observed in various art media. Moreover, cycles in different kinds of art appear to coincide. The data obtained is useful not only for studies of the evolution of art, but also for forecasting future creative cycles.
Pages 225-230
Document
Don Foresta with Jonathan Barton: The Souillac Charter for Art and
Industry: A Framework for Collaboration with Introductions by Don Foresta and Fernando Lagraña.
ABSTRACT
A new communication space is growing from a merger of video, computer and telecommunications technologies, coalescing into a system---roughly called "the network"---searching for its own logic and a cultural, social and political identity. What this space will mean to society is not yet clear, it's final content is uncertain, and how it will affect culture is open to healthy speculation and necessary experimentation before its final specificity is defined. Surprisingly, the two sectors most concerned with building this space have been artists and the telecommunications industry. Finding a way to increase collaboration between the two would accelerate the development of the network. Points considered include (1) the artist is a researcher expanding the potentials of the tools, (2) industry interfacing with art could mean more innovation, and (3) governments and international institutions can help such innovation happen. The Souillac Charter presented here is a blueprint for beginning.
Pages 231-233
Invited Review
Roy R. Behrens: Rudolf Arnheim: The Little Owl on the Shoulder of Athene
Pages 234-235
Art/Science Forum
Hasnul Jamal Saidon: UNIMAS c.r.e.a.t.e.s. (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Computer-Related Experiments in Art and Technology Studio)
Page 236
Extended Abstract
Randy Lee Cutler: The Songs of Science
Page 237
Leonardo On-Line Bibliographies
Page 238
Reviews
Roy R. Behrens, George Gessert
