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Reviewer Biography
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Art, Technology, Consciousness mind@large
Edited by Roy Ascott Organized into five sections covering, roughly, technobiology, meaning and emotion, transmodal perception and art, the experience of space, and the theory of mind, the proceedings do include a number of essays that stand out as fully developed ideas, and others that are less developed but nonetheless provocative. Roy Ascott's essay, which opens the volume, seems emblematic of the latter: peppered with neologisms and ranging all over the map, it nevertheless conveys a sense of excitement that succeeds in penetrating our scepticism. Other essays, such as Michael Punt's historical framing of the critical value of technobiological art, Kathleen Rogers's investigation of the role of maize in Mayan society as paradigm for an ethical approach to biodiversity, or Ted Krueger's sharp critique "There is No Intelligence," induce us less to speculate than to launch into argument--as surely occurred at the conference. Unfortunately, there are a few essays that bog down in verbal collage or obscure jargon. These are largely redeemed by the artist presentations, including Eduardo Kac's brief but precise description of his techobiological artwork "Genesis," Tiffany Holmes's careful descriptions of her various interactive works, or Greg Garvey's statement on his split-brain interface to the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings in the U.S. Senate. In keeping with the speculative nature of the conference, a number of the artist essays describe works not yet created. Like so many of the ideas expressed in this book, they may yet materialize, or they may remain forever imaginary. |
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