This document builds on the discussion among art and industry representatives documented in “The Souillac Charter for Art and Industry: A Framework for Collaboration” (Leonardo 31, 3 [1998]). Specific projects and project ideas are presented, with the aim of increasing collaboration between artists and the telecommunications industry. Such increased collaboration will result in greater recognition and protection for artists and in greater innovation and creativity for industry.

The author presents the idea that all human attempts to reproduce natural objects (“exemplars”) or their functions—that is, to build artificial objects or processes—unavoidably result in a transfiguration of the exemplars. After introducing the main concepts of a theory of the artificial, the author extends the theory to communication and the arts, both of which provide compelling examples of the generation of artificial objects or processes.

An artist and a biologist have collaborated on the sonification of protein data to produce the audio compact disc Life Music. Here they describe the process by which this collaboration merges scientific knowledge and artistic expression to produce soundscapes from the basic building blocks of life. The soundscapes may be encountered as aesthetic experiences, as scientific inquiries or as both. The authors describe the rationale both for the artistic use of science and for the scientific use of art from the separate viewpoints of artist and scientist.