THE INTER-SOCIETY FOR THE ELECTRONIC ARTS ISEA NEWSLETTER #92 ISSN 1488-3635 #92 April - May 2003 _______________________________________________________________ * CONTENTS * * Editorial by Angela Plohman * "Art + Technology in Montreal: the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) and the maturing of an emergent technological art scene" by Magdalena Wesolkowska, SAT[meta_lab], SAT * "Montreal's web-based production" by Valerie Lamontagne, Mobile Gaze * "Montreal: good food, students, research and the DISFA programme" by Joanna Berzowska, Assistant Professor, Design/DISFA, Concordia University ************************************************** Editorial by Angela Plohman ISEA Coordinating Director ************************************************** We are pleased to introduce this current issue of the ISEA Newsletter (INL), guest edited by Magdalena Wesolkowska, coordinator and producer of the SAT[meta_lab] programme at the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. With a focus on Montreal, the host city of ISEA95, this issue is the fourth INL dedicated to electronic art practices in a particular region or city. ISEA NEWS-- In our effort to continue to offer more benefits to our members, we are pleased to announce a continued collaboration with Digital Creativity. The publishers are offering all ISEA members 25% off their 2003 subscription to the journal. In order to take advantage of this offer, please contact ISEA HQ <info@isea-web.org> for the subscription form. More information about Digital Creativity can be found here: <http://www.szp.swets.nl/szp/frameset.htm?url=/szp/journals/dc.htm> ISEA2004 NEWS-- ISEA2004 organizers have announced the next deadline for submissions: August 15, 2003. Information on the submission process for ISEA2004 is on the web site, which is available at <http://www.isea2004.net>. The submission forms will be online from June and you can also register at the site to receive email updates. We hope you enjoy this edition of the INL! ***************************************** Art + Technology in Montreal: the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) and the maturing of an emergent technological art scene By Magdalena Wesolkowska, SAT[meta_lab], SAT ***************************************** Technology revolutionizes the universe of our senses and as a consequence, the universe of our mind. We can no longer go back to the values of the past, nor to any way of seeing or judging things by traditional criteria. The destruction of tradition in all spheres, as a result of the impact of technology, means that a new aesthetic principle must be invented. - Augusto de Campos, "The Artist and Technological Society" Over the last decade Montreal has grown to be one of North America's hubs for technological innovation not only in biotechnology or aviation technology, but also in multimedia and electronic arts. Its art, music, design and industry communities tied to digital technologies are some of the most diverse and dynamic on the continent. Montreal's reputation as an international crossroads for research, innovation, and creation in digital technologies and electronic arts is cultivated in large part by the presence and synergy of electronic music and video festivals such as MUTEK (www.mutek.ca), MEG (www.megmontreal.com), FCMM (www.fcmm.com) and ELEKTRA (www.elektrafestival.ca); organizations such as the Foundation Daniel Langlois (www.fondation-langlois.org/); research institutes such as Hexagram (the Institute for Research and Creation in Media Arts and Technologies created jointly by Concordia and the Universite du Quebec a Montreal; www.hexagram.org) and various university-based research groups such as Interstices (www.interstices.ca), Teslab-Tec (www.unites.uqam.ca/teslab/) and Gradient; collectives such as Mobile Gaze (www.mobilegaze.com) and AE; and a number of dedicated centers such as Oboro/Oboro-Tech (www.oboro.net), StudioXX (www.studioxx.org), Videographe-PARC (www.videographe.qc.ca), and of course the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT, www.sat.qc.ca). Also, let's not forget that the ISEA organisation had its headquarters in Montreal up until the year 2000. In this newsletter, besides my contribution about the place of the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) in Montreal's digital art scene, you will find additional articles by Valerie Lamontagne on Montreal's web-based productions and her collective Mobile Gaze (www.mobilegaze.com), as well as by Joanna Berzowska (www.berzowska.com) on some of Montreal's innovative design research and a unique academic programme in digital media (digital.concordia.ca/). But before we go into the present and perhaps have a glimpse at the future of the SAT, let's turn back the clock just for a moment... In 1995, something big happened in Montreal, an event that would leave a permanent mark on the city's digital and technological art milieu: ISEA95, which brought about 1200 artists from all over the world to Montreal's diverse artistic and academic venues. The central theme of this great symposium was Emergent Senses. In the words of the organisers, it was "an invitation to examine and investigate the relationship between the viewer, technology and the works emerging from it. It was also intended to guide participants through a series of reflections on the development and exploration of new contents and the different forms of access to them." At that time there was a realization that the rapid development of media technologies intersected to create dynamic opportunities for the production of new meanings and experiences. ISEA95 Montreal was an opportunity to think about the implications of technology on media, on sensory perception, on aesthetic sensibility and on new means of relating and communicating among individuals. The merging of art and technology that characterized ISEA95 Montreal was conducive for taking stock of this fast- evolving scene. For Montreal, the organisers of ISEA and the artists working in this milieu, it was the beginning of something truly new... One of the direct results of ISEA95 was the founding in 1996 in Montreal of the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) by several of the ISEA95 organizers - among whom were Alain Mongeau, Artistic Director of MUTEK for the last several years, Luc Courchesne, professor at Universite de Montreal and current President of SAT, as well as Monique Savoie, current Director of SAT. Their decision to create the SAT stemmed from their shared desire to put new digital production tools at the service of artistic expression and from the realization that Montreal had a budding, yet very dispersed electronic art scene that needed integration. Thus, by providing a means for artists who work with digital technologies to exchange their knowledge, their research and their experiences in digital creation and production, the SAT's aim was to became a central node from which there was a possibility to develop new ways of doing and thinking that would be more in tune with the challenges and hopes of the promised digital age. The SAT was to become a unique cultural "petri dish" for Montreal-based and visiting artists interested in exploring emergent forms of technological arts: one which was not to be based on sterile techniques, but rather on "positive forms of contamination." So into what sort of habitat for digital culture has the SAT evolved since 1996? We can safely say that the SAT has become a transdisciplinary centre dedicated to the creation, dissemination and conservation of digital culture: a culture lying at the crossroads of three distinct sectors - computer science, communications and culture - and axed on creativity and innovation, on communication and networks, and on inter-action and experience. Thus the SAT is able to provide a stimulating research and production context for all creative domains, ranging from arts to music to design. Its members come from a variety of different artistic and technological disciplines and their creativity has been the raw material for a rapidly growing digital media industry seeking innovative and creative products as well as cultural content. For SAT's Director, "it is no longer possible to ignore the role of technological arts as an important sector of culture, for they are present in almost every artistic discipline and are at the heart of contemporary cultural developments. It is equally impossible to not recognize the contribution of young and highly educated researchers. It is for this reason that we wish to provide them with a stimulating 'extramural' (out-of-university) research and production context." Thus, the beginning of the 21st century, which brought about an increased interest in digital culture, particularly regarding "content creators" and the ultra-rapid evolution of this sector, coincided with SAT's effort to restructure its organization to better respond to the needs of the growing digital media community. In October 2000, the SAT readjusted its mandate from solely a creation and production center to also a dissemination center, having at its disposal a 14,000 square feet space in the heart of Montreal's cultural corridor, which has generated more than a hundred events in the last 28 months and produced more than fifteen creations through its Artists in Residency program. This dissemination and production space has contributed in placing the SAT as a key player on the world's electronic music scene, by partnering with festivals such as MUTEK, MEG and FCMM as well as with various renowned record labels such as Haute Couture or Ascend, and by presenting the now famous collective Epsilonlab, and DJs such as DJ Maus, Mightykat or Tiga. Through this space, the SAT lives by day and by night, animating the cerebral and aural bits and bytes of its young members who were born with digital technologies and its young-at-heart members who are now working and transforming them. The SAT includes several distinct elements that serve its programmes of digital art creation, dissemination and conservation: SAT[e-space], an 8,000 square foot multipurpose presentation space which has been at the center of Montreal's fervent electronic music scene; SAT[prod], a studio for research, production and commission of artwork that also serves as workspace for artists in residence and houses SAT[webdif], a streaming media service for events presented at the SAT; SAT[meta_lab], a program for event-oriented network-building among academic and scientific communities which includes a programme of critical panel-discussions on the impact technology on culture; scientific and artistic presentations; an end-of-the-year inter-university exhibition and a summer school; SAT[ellite], program for international promotion and dissemination of artwork, representing more than 30 artists; SAT[a+i], a liaison office between Art and Industry; SAT[expo], a future permanent technological exhibition and conservation space with a wireless networked documentation centre. Thus, the SAT brings together artists and researchers who work with digital technologies, fostering collaboration among diverse artistic and scientific disciplines, establishing partnerships with industry and post-secondary educational institutions, and promoting its 'trans-generational' members at home and abroad through a variety of programmes. Some of SAT's current production and research projects include the Open Territories research project whose objective is to develop applications and content for the broad-band network (funded by Canadian Heritage through their New Media Network Research Fund), as well as a permanent interactive multimedia installation for one of Montreal's subway stations commissioned by the 'Direction des institutions scientifiques' of the City of Montreal (which groups the Biodome, Insectarium, Botanical Gardens and Planetarium). A few other projects are kept in its sleeve... It is of note that the SAT is a non-profit organization that is more than 90% self-funded through its production, touring and promotional activities. With a unique mandate in Quebec, the SAT connects its membership to an international network of centres and organisations with similar or complementary objectives, and since its inception, SAT-sponsored productions have been presented in more than twenty countries and fifty cities. The SAT currently has more than 350 active members (artists and researchers) listed in the media arts repertory on its website, and a subscriber base of 1,600 for its mailing list. Events that it has organized or co-produced have attracted more than 40,000 people since October of 2000. Of course, one very crucial event that will mark the future of the SAT is SAT's relocation to its newly acquired building on Saint-Laurent Boulevard at the beginning of June, thus giving a permanent home to Montreal's expanding community of digital nomads and explorers. What does the future hold for the SAT in this new home? We can only imagine and we hope you will imagine it with us... The SAT continues to live by its motto eagerly repeated by Monique Savoie "We want the world and we want it now!". Put the SAT in a petri dish and observe in vitro as media matter emerges and matures, only to grow into something else, a little different, a little new every time... In this newlsetter you were given a (mere) glimpse of Montreal's digital culture and how the SAT has situated itself within it, creating a unique niche in this fast-evolving and continually emerging and maturing domain. However, the best is that you come and visit Montreal at the beginning of this Summer whether for the NIME'03, the international conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (www.nime.org) to be held May 22-24; for the MUTEK festival on Music, Sound and New Technologies, May 28-June 1; for the FTA, Festival de Theatre des Ameriques, 22 May-8 June; or for SAT's Grand Opening to be held on June 5th, 2003. We hope to see you in town very soon! *** Magda Wesolkowska is the coordinator and producer of the SAT[meta_lab] programme at the SAT. In her spare time she is a petri dish anthropologist and cultural biologist who has founded recently the collective _base (with Jennifer Gabrys), as well as the IEEE-CS Task Force on Electronic Arts. *********************************** Montreal's web-based production By Valerie Lamontagne, Mobile Gaze *********************************** Setting the Montreal Stage: The collision on technology, the Internet and an effervescent cultural milieu has made Montreal a really exciting place to participate in / look at / discover emergent forms of art over the last decade or so. One should begin by noting that Montreal (and the province of Quebec) has always had a commitment to innovative forms of art and expression. It might come as no surprise that the specific French Canadian flavour of culture - which has defined itself in contrast to other cultures - should embrace a media-centric art form, one that is anchored in communication. After all, media-based technologies offer an unprecedented opportunity for self-representation, for mass-distributions and for various voices to be heard. Local contributions in the fields of video art, animation, experimental cinema and electro acoustic music over recent years have shaped the current effervescence in new media production and presentation. Recently, the Internet has played an influential role arts production in Montreal which is the result of converging interests in technology and artist- run centres / festivals and artists. The Internet: The first major technological event to highlight new technologies in Montreal was the International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA) that took place in 1995 and subsequently set up its international headquarters in Montreal up until 2000. This international event was an unprecedented opportunity to meet and see artists from the word over working with new technologies. At around the same time the Centre International d'Art Contemporain de Montreal (http://www.ciac.ca) under the initiative of Sylvie Parent began its Electronic Magazine, which is devoted to art being made for the Internet. This magazine has been a huge influence on the developments and promotion of web art locally, nationally and internationally. It was also Sylvie Parent who curated a web art component at the occasion of the first (1998) and second (2000) "Biennale de Montreal." The second Biennale was particularly successful and featured many international artists. At this time Alex Galloway from Rhizome (http://www.rhizome.org) came to give a talk. Other organizations which have had an important impact on web art presentation and production include: Studio XX (http://www.studioxx.org) was begun in the late 90s as a meeting place for women wanting to develop skills and gain access to new technologies. I was involved as a member and curated the 2000 "Maid in Cyberspace Web Art Festival" where artist such as Zoe Beloff (http://www.zoebeloff.com) and Helen Thorington (http://www.turbulence.org) presented their work. Other Montreal-based organizations which have been vital to the development of new technologies is the FCMM - Festival International Nouveau Cinema Nouveaux Medias Montreal - (http://www.fcmm.com) ƒ~ which features web art during their event. The Montreal gallery Oboro (http://www.oboro.net) has been active in presenting video and digital works since 1997 and of course the SAT ƒ~ Societe des Arts Technologiques (http://www.sat.qc.ca) hosts a dynamic series of conferences and live techno- based evenings. MobileGaze: MobileGaze (http://www.mobilegaze.com) is an on-line artist collective dedicated to promoting, presenting and discussing digital media works, which was founded MobileGaze in August 1999 in Montreal, Canada by Brad Todd (http://www.mobilegaze.com/zero), Andrew Brouse and myself (http://www.mobilegaze.com/valerie). We had all worked in artist-run centers in Montreal, which were developing web-centric curating / events. MobileGaze also serves as a network for artists and critics interested in exchanging ideas around new media production. MobileGaze develops thematically curated selections of web art challenging the uses of images, sound, video and text on the web, as well as interviews with artists, critical texts about cyberculture, and other ephemeral on-line projects. Our aim with MobileGaze is to promote Canadian / Quebec artists on an international scale and create a bridge between the micro and macro web art communities. Our first 3 projects were "magazine" format websites with interviews (video and text). Issue #1 - launched October 2000 - featured written interviews with many artists that intrigued us and about whom we wanted to know more about. Many of the works were activist type and the artists were principally working independently such as: Teo Spiller (http://www.teo- spiller.org), Minerva Cuevas (http://www.irational.org/mvc) and [The User] (http://www.silophone.net). Issue #2 - February 2001 - highlighted local and international Biennales (Biennale de Montreal 2000 + ISEA2000). We featured video interviews with Olia Lialina (http://www.teleportacia.org), Igor Stromajer (http://www.intima.org), Gregory Chatonsky (http://www.incident.net) and Melinda Rackham (http://www.subtle.net). Issue #3 - August 2001 - focused on works made locally and internationally through organizations such as the Montreal-based GIV -Groupe Intervention Video (http://www.giv.org) - which promotes women and video work and New York City's Thundergulch, formerly located in the World Trade Centre. In May 2002 we produced our first online exhibition entitled "Matter + Memory" which presented 12 online projects by the following artists: Boredomresearch (UK), Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries (South Korea), Gregory Chatonsky (France), Lisa Cianci (Australia), Eric Deis (Canada), Peter Horvath (Canada), Jessica Irish (USA), Alice Jarry & Nicholas Lauzon-Timm (Canada), Waseem Khan (UK), Hidekazu Minami (Japan), Stanza (UK) and Igor Stromajer (Slovenia). "Matter + Memory" is divided into 4 thematic Nodes: Heart, Mind, Soul, Body. Inspired by Henri Bergson's book, Matter and Memory, in which the author states that "It is true that an image may be without being perceived - it may be present without being represented - and the distance between these two terms, presence and representation, seems just to measure the interval between matter itself and our conscious perception of matter." "Matter + Memory" aims at bridging the chasm between mind and body via the Web. Mind Node - explores representations of the human psyche on the Web as articulated through networks, memory, spaces and sounds. Works that deal with issues of collective and individual intelligence, and the mapping of minds were selected for this Node. Body Node - unveils the representations of the body in its most meta/physical incarnations. Selected projects for this Node looked at issues of representation, movements in space and analogies between the somatic and cyberspace. Heart Node - explores modes of communication, exchanges of information, love, and various forms of attachment on the Web. Projects reunited for this Node plumbed the world of desire, confession, romantic encounters and the quest for hyper-connectivity. Soul Node - investigates the representation of the soul, spirit and 'ghosts' in cyberspace. Projects included in this Node reflected notions of immortality, life after death and the embodiments of the soul from beyond. Each thematic Node is accompanied by a theoretical text: Heart Node: Pierre Robert; Mind Node: Esther Bourdages; Soul Node: Sylvie Parent; and Body Node: Valerie Lamontagne. One of our upcoming projects is an online exhibition entitled <PAUSE> which will be presented online and showcased with a conference / concert event at the SAT in Montreal. <PAUSE> will address the notion of time as experienced in art and through technology. Most technological equipment (VCRs, CD-ROMs, Cassette players, DV and Hi-8 cameras) are equipped with a "pause" button offering a momentary stop in the flow of information. The Web, in contrast, is a mediator for all digital media (sound, video, hypertext and images) that has historically been compared to a highway (Baudrillard) and exists through the constant ebb of information. <PAUSE> will aim at intercepting this stream of information in order to provide a disruption within this endless expanse of data - by providing the viewer with a vantage point, a moment of reflection and a slowing down in his/her interactive viewing habits. For more information on <PAUSE> you can consult our website. Curating the Web: Apart from MobileGaze, there have been many other opportunities for the presentation of local web art. "Location / Dislocation" (http://www.deplacement.qc.ca) was curated by myself and Sylvie Parent, was presented at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City and showcased web art from Quebec artists. Featuring works by AE Lab, Atelier in Situ, Yan Breuleux, Jean Ranger + Bill Sullivan, [The User], Nancy Tobin and Brad Todd the exhibition looked at notion of geography and identity as expressed on the Internet. Also, the recent exhibition "Ellipse" I curated at the Musee du Quebec (http://www.mdq.org/ellipse) showcased Canadian Web art and was presented in an installation context in the former prison cells of the museum as well as online. The exhibition featured new commissioned works by Yan Breuleux, Peter Horvath, I8U, Vincent Leclerc, Stephanie Shepherd and Brad Todd. The exhibition traced links between analog strategies for art making (collage, photography, cinema, design) and current digital trends which are expanding these possibilities. Artistic Expression on the Web: My own artistic production on the Web has centered on performance and email / exchanges on the Web. My "Advice Bunny" performance / website (http://www.mobilegaze.com/advicebunny) has been showcased as installations and online webcasts in Canada and Italy. "The Advice Bunny" connects with a series of performances in which the artist dresses up as a rabbit and dispenses advice to people. In a sense, the site extends the performances into cyberspace, as it strives for the same goals. While the performances occur on particular occasions, as part of exhibitions and spontaneous or planned contemporary art events (during which the bunny "pops out of the box"), the Web site stands in for The Advice Bunny's "residence," where it can be found at all times, allowing the whimsical being to sustain an active (and interactive) existence. The project is founded on people's predilection for testing and changing their identity in cyberspace, for experimenting anonymously with role-playing. The Advice Bunny suggests that cyberspace is a place of self-invention, of expression, fantasy and transformation. With humour - and the critical distance that accompanies it, the fictional character comes to life in its environment, but it also invites self-questioning and self-creation - the redefinition of who we are. (Sylvie Parent CIAC Magazine) "Better Homes", presented in StudioXX's "Science Fair - Feminist Configurations in Cyberspace" (http://www.studioxx.org/sciencefair) features an exploration into the representation of homes of the "future" as depicted through popular media. "Better Homes" is a critique and homage to the way our mothers were led to believe the future would be. Images, film clips, and various documents culled from popular 1950s-60s media such as advertising, film and magazines coalesce in their creating of this virtually futuristic environment. Conclusion: One can see that web production is alive and well in Montreal. With the overlapping of medias and artists on the Internet one can only speculate at the possibilities for the future. *** Besides being the co-founder of the collective MobileGaze, Valerie Lamontagne is a Montreal artist, freelance art critic and curator. She is a regular contributor to such art publications as Parachute, Mix Magazine, and Etc Montreal. *********************************************** Montreal: good food, students, research and the DISFA programme By Joanna Berzowska, Assistant Professor, Design/DISFA, Concordia University *********************************************** I've lived in Montreal before, between 1989 and 1995, when I simultaneously completed undergraduate degrees in mathematics at McGill and design at Concordia. I later pursued a Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) working on "computational expressionism" and remained in Cambridge, working in research and industry, for several years before returning to Montreal. One of the main factors that drew me back to Montreal is the Digital Image/Sound & the Fine Arts (DISFA) program at Concordia University. I was offered a faculty position and the opportunity to help develop and shape the program into a fun, exciting new thing. It is a challenging project and there are many snags to overcome, but this opportunity was what is called too good to refuse. The DISFA program is one of the first in the world (honestly, the first I've ever heard of) that incorporates Computer Science and Fine Arts curriculum at the undergraduate level. This is being done in various ways at the graduate level by places such at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU, the Media Lab at MIT, what used to be called Computer Related Design (CRD), now called Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA), the Interaction Institute Ivrea and others, but Concordia leads the way for such education at the undergrad level. This is truly a fantastic thing and I believe it will impact the Montreal art/design research milieu in fundamental ways. One of the classes I teach is called Networks and Navigation. We study, implement and navigate networks from aesthetic, technical, social, theoretical and political perspectives. Students develop projects concentrating on information dissemination and communication (interface and back-end architecture). Students do not make "websites" - they implement new models for communicating online. Last year, projects included proprietary email software that sends colors and fancy typography based on semantic analysis of text and a virtual presence visualization tool called the Frustration Outlet where remote users can torture a graphical stuffed animal in order to communicate emotional state. These students are fantastic. They challenge accepted models of using digital technologies for art/design. They have the necessary technical skills to do something about it. And they are doing it at the undergraduate level! A new class I am developing for next fall is called Physical Computing and Tangible Media. The focus of this class will be on "soft computing" (conductive cloth, conductive yarns, conductive epoxy etc... plus some hard components) to construct simple interactive or "smart" artifacts. We will talk of simple circuit design as a medium akin to wood or paper, and experiment with materials that can enable simple expressive computational forms. There will be a focus on unusual materials and processes. Students will be expected to work with Basic Stamp microcontrollers and various sensors/outputs as well as simple circuits. This is much closer to my own work. I have been conducting research and making projects in tangible Media and Electronic Textiles for the past six years. I am a founder of International Fashion Machines (IFM) a Cambridge based company whose goal is to bridge the gap between the world of fashion, consumer electronics and emerging technologies. In Montreal, I have recently started the "XS LABS for extra-soft computation". The research we pursue encompasses electronic textiles (e-textiles) work as well as other kind of soft computation such as a new project on soft electronic foods. The term Electronic Textiles usually refers to a textile substrate that incorporates capabilities for sensing (biometric or external), for communication (usually wireless), power transmission or interconnection technology to allow sensors or things such as information processing devices to be networked together within a fabric. In my work, I try to stay quite close to the history and the reality of fibers and textiles. I work with traditional textile techniques and technologies such as weaving, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting etc. to create textiles that can sense, transmit power or data, and change state (such as the "Electric Plaid" technology for addressable color- change fabrics I developed at IFM). I use various conductive and resistive yarns as well as newly developed dyes and inks but construct my soft hardware using the tools and techniques that textile makers have been using for centuries. Most of my research focuses on the central concept of using Technology as a Design/Art Medium through an intimate knowledge and understanding of its potential and limitations. This does not mean that we need to break with traditional methods and materials. On the other hand, I do believe that artists/designers need to develop more familiarity with electronics and emerging technologies. For the last five or six years there has been a strong push by pioneers such as John Maeda to start thinking of "computation" as a design tool for 2D. I believe that object makers need to start thinking in similar ways about physical computation. I teach all of my students about circuit design even if they plan to work on furniture for the whole semester. 3D artists/designers need to understand how electricity works and how different materials can be used to transmit power or data. They need to understand latest sensor technologies, wireless technologies and embedded computing concepts in order to create the art and design the objects/environments of the future. There are many different ways to navigate the enormous field of intersections of technology research and art practice. I have been thinking about this for several years and have come up with several models or classifications to help map out the territory. One of them is to roughly arrange the artists who incorporate science/technology research into their work into three groups: those who use existing technologies, those who misuse (or abuse) and thus transform or re-contextualize existing technologies and, finally, those who develop or invent new technologies. There has been a proliferation in the past few years of accessible microcontrollers and hardware prototyping environments, but it is still rare to find artists/designers who create their hardware or software from scratch, as was expected of us at the Media Lab. The MIT approach solidly placed us in the middle of the third category, wherein work was inconsequential unless it exhibited a strong aspect of technological innovation. As can be expected, this often compromised aesthetic or conceptual aspects of the pieces we made. The interesting thing is that nobody talked of "art" in the Media Lab. The closest word we were allowed to use was "expression". This is one of the reasons my thesis work was called Computational Expressionism. Perhaps not surprisingly, since the Media Lab sits inside a science/engineering school, it's been difficult to find a similar level of technophilia in the outside world. It is rare to hear of artists-researchers who really develop new video segmentation algorithms or a new capacitive sensing board that can be fitted into their interfaces. Instead, there is a lot of talk of "collaboration" in the science/technology/art projects. This is interesting because any collaboration is problematic. Especially problematic are collaborations between artists and scientists/technologists pursuing a common project: power structures shift and people get stuck in questions about titles, credit, defining competence, struggling with different languages, mythologies and values. I come from a perspective where the lines between the roles are really starting to blur. This is why I was so attracted to the DISFA program in Montreal. This is why I expect all my students to do their own programming and understand electronics. Of course, we cannot afford to specialize in every field. Nobody can be an expert in all aspects of art/design/science/technology/research/practice. However, I believe that we all need a fundamental understanding of the technologies we use on our work. We cannot ignore the fact that technology is a MEDIUM. It shapes content and concept development. We tend to oppose art and science, but is this still necessary? The methodologies of both worlds are converging. We are starting to share a common artistic/scientific imagination. If we can afford to avoid specialization, we can comfortably float between these two worlds that were until recently presented in opposition to one another. We can study color theory and C++ simultaneously. We can wear many hats and in Montreal, a new generation emerges. *** Joanna Berzowska is Assistant Professor in the Digital Image Sound and the Fine Arts Programme at Concordia University. Joey holds undergraduate degrees in Pure Mathematics and in Fine Arts, and a Masters degree from the MIT Media Lab. She co-founded International Fashion Machines where she serves as Chief Creative Officer. ************************************************** ISEA Newsletter Contributors: Magdalena Wesolkowska, Valerie Lamontagne, Joanna Berzowska and Angela Plohman ISEA Board Members: Peter Anders, Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Nina Czegledy, Gunalan Nadarajan, Anne Nigten, Julianne Pierce, Wim van der Plas, Cynthia Beth Rubin, Mark Tribe. ISEA HQ: Angela Plohman, Coordinating Director ISEA LISTSERV: To subscribe, send a message to: Majordomo@pd.org - no subject heading, with this message in the body: subscribe isea-forum ISEA, Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts Pieter de Hoochstraat 38-2 1071 EG Amsterdam, The Netherlands Phone: +31 20 6120297 Fax: +31 20 6182359 info@isea-web.org http://www.isea-web.org ============================================end of newsletter