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5. Venues for Information Technology and Creative Practices
Pages 118-150

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From page 118...
... Internet art (Net art) is a subset of new-media art, because the Internet is a subset of IT.
From page 119...
... Notes on the Renaissance Dammerung," The Renaissance: A Symposium, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. An accurate history of the 20th century would counter the widespread but false impression that there has been a renaissance of creativity enabled uniquely by the computer.
From page 120...
... in the development of modern studio-laboratories: art/design-driven technology development, public diffusion and critical debate, and industrially sponsored applied research. Taken together, the three classes theoretically form a continuum involving upstream experimentation, public diffusion of results, and downstream development.
From page 122...
... Experiments in Art and Technology EVL-Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois, Chicago GMD German Research Center for Information Technology 13 networks Intelligent Information Interfaces, program of European Commission Fifth Framework for Research IRCAM Institut de Recherche et Coordination en Acoustique et Musique {Institute of Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music}, Paris MIT-CAYS Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Center for Advanced Visual Studies NRC-NFB National Research Council Canada-National Film Board NTT-ICC Nippon Telegraph and Telephone InterCommunication Center, Tokyo PARC-PAIR Xerox Palo Alto Research Center-Artist in Residence Program V2 V2_0rganisation, Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam WDR West German Broadcasting Network WNET WNET Television Workshop Artist-in-Residence Program ZKM Zentrum fur Kunst und Medien {Center for Art and Medial, Karlsruhe, Germany Rauschenberg and Bell Labs physicist Billy Kluver in New York in 1966. The goal of E.A.T.
From page 123...
... Composer Pierre Boulez launched the IRCAM based on a conception of research/invention as the central activity of contemporary musical creation; Boulez invoked the "model of the Bauhaus" as cross-disciplinary inspiration for what he considered the necessary and inevitable collaboration between musicians and scientists.7 The modernist autonomy of the computer music research at IRCAM did not prevent it from also orienting its program toward a wider cultural public, aiming to put an otherwise forbidding musical language in the context of the history of 20th-century music and intellectual life. The second phase, which incorporated festivals, exhibitions, commissions, and competitions of electronic art, marked an increased commitment of both public administrations and private corporations toward exposing Me most radical media-based creativity to a wider public.
From page 124...
... For instance, the Swedish initiative of a network of six interactive insti tutes, loosely interacting but also differentiated according to technol ogy and artistic focus, grew in large measure out of a national initia tive to attract and retain a critical mass of researchers while still decentralizing the activity to both large and small cities.9 During the third phase, a number of technology companies at tempted to harness artistic expertise to further corporate goals. For example, Interval Research Corporation assembled an unusually di verse research staff, including artists and filmmakers as well as com puter and social scientists.
From page 125...
... STAN DALO N E C E NT E RS Among the most prominent standalone centers is the ZKM~3 (a collection of commonly housed institutions involved in new-media art) , which encompasses research and development institutes, a media art library, a media art museum, and a modern art museum.
From page 126...
... In addition to supporting art-oriented work, ZKM established two institutes with other foci one institute with a focus on basic research and another with a focus on socioeconomic research. Located within the mountains of Alberta, Canada, the Banff Centre hosts work that ranges from the visual arts to theater to music to media.
From page 127...
... Standalone new-media arts and design centers possess unique strengths and face special challenges. Among their strengths, they can offer both stability and freedom to creative people who need work space and technical support.
From page 128...
... These networks are a means of supporting cooperation and collaboration across disciplines and communities if they can overcome the communication problems, varying criteria for success, and other difficulties inherent in ITCP collaborations (as outlined in Chapter 2~. In Europe, as well as in Canada, hybrid networks have sought to assemble a critical mass of ITCP workers, coupled to industrial sponsors and public policy usually aiming to develop regional innovation Despite the lack of multifaceted new-media arts organizations in the United States, there are artists' residency programs within academia, such as at Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico, and smaller organizations such as Harvestworks in New York City.
From page 129...
... , dedicated to encouraging film, video, audio, and online/ multimedia arts and promoting the collaborations of individual media artists;25 and, at the regional scale, the BRIDGES Consortium (University of Southern California with the Banff Centre)
From page 130...
... Furthermore, all of the institutions involved in such networks need an awareness of the kind of research-application/art-design-technology hybridity exemplified by the Bauhaus.28 · ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ OTHER VENUES FOR PRACTITIONERS In addition to multifaceted new-media arts and design organizations, ITCP practitioners can access supportive resources through several mechanisms, principally virtual-space-based strategies and professional conferences.29 It is interesting to note that traditional arts and design organizations museums, galleries, art and design fairs, magazines, and so on are not the prime movers of these efforts. Rather, a patchwork of diverse entities has organized and funded the virtual strategies, and scientific and technical communities organize a number of the conferences.
From page 131...
... An example of a not-for-profit organization that leverages the use of IT to promote communication between professional and amateur new-media artists is Rhizome.org. Using the Internet as its primary medium, Rhizome carries out its mission of presenting artwork by new-media artists, providing a forum for critics and curators to foster critical dialogue, and archiving new-media art.32 The Rhizome ArtBase project provides selected Internet artists with dual-purpose server space to store their electronic art as well as the space to make it available for online viewing.
From page 132...
... 34A syndication model is used in which an Internet art news "module" is added to Web sites for free. This module contains an introduction to a top story and a link to the Rhizome Web site, where the complete story is located.
From page 133...
... There are international symposia that touch upon ITCP, such as ArtSci,38 which explores how the discoveries of scientific research can combine with the powerful metaphors of art to influence society. Multimedia presentations have featured collaborative projects such as brain waves transmitted via the Internet; the presenters also have discussed issues relevant to ITCP, such as the opportunities and pitfalls of collaborating across disciplines.39 Another example is the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC)
From page 134...
... and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, including its Computer Society.4~ Of particular relevance are the ACM's annual conferences for the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) and Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI)
From page 135...
... VENUES FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND CREATIVE PRACTICES 135 Harvard University Art Museums jointly sponsored an invitational workshop in 2001 called "Digital Imagery for Works of Art."44 The 44The final report of the workshop is available at . This Web page also contains a link to a comment form seeking feedback, including links to ongoing efforts in the various areas emphasized in the report, as well as pointers to resources (collections, tools, and so on)
From page 136...
... By constructively adapting their space to include new-media art, both offline inside conventional exhibition spaces and online through the Web, and by commissioning work of this kind, these organizations are experimenting with new frameworks for display and presentation. For instance, since Internet art debuted at the 2000 Biennial, the Whitney Museum in New York city49 has increasingly supported new media inside its physical location (and on its Web site)
From page 137...
... Its Zenith Media Lounge is dedicated to the exhibition and exploration of digital art, experimental video, and sound works. This unique space, modest in physical size and budget, draws praise for its adequate technology infrastructure (i.e., computers, projectors, wiring, and so on)
From page 139...
... Increasingly, it is the strategies being tested, as opposed to whether they are doing any ITCP work at all, that differentiates these organizations from one another. Examples of such efforts include the Whitney Museum's ArtPort, which provides a portal to digital art and art resources on the Internet and also functions as an online gallery space for commissioned Internet and new-media art.54 This approach creates a dual strategy of supporting artists directly by commissioning projects, but also promoting the development of the Internet art domain in general by providing artists with cataloged resources.
From page 140...
... Examples include the new-cinema theater of the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Techat least a limited nology (DLF) in Montreal, where seats can be fixed or folded under to alter the more conventional cinema setup for special presentations and brea kdown of the which has a state-of-the-art digital projection system.
From page 141...
... Performance art ~ also going online. Franklin Furnace/° a nonproAt arm organization Mat has long supported performance art and over aHernadve practices in We downtown New York art scene' Went digital in We late 1990s and began supporting digital art group commiss10ns and residences.
From page 142...
... Similarly, the Walker Art Center is focusing not on how virtual space enables the display of content, but rather on how it facilitates information sharing and collaboration in the creation of art a kind of Internet-based creative research and development.64 Built in 1971, the center concentrates on supporting the development and exhibition of modern art. By supporting film/video, performing, and visual arts, the center takes a global, cross-disciplinary, and diverse approach to the creation, presentation, interpretation, collection, and preservation of art.65 The new-media initiatives of the center seek to achieve two goals: Its Gallery 9 project promotes project-driven exploration through digital-based media, whereas the SmArt project concentrates on information architecture and the role that it might play in facilitating access to the collections and activities of the center.
From page 143...
... What is ownership? 67 · ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ CORPORATE EXPERIENCES WITH I N FORMATION TECH NOLOGY AND CREATIVE PRACTICES A number of industries depend heavily on, and derive substantial profits from, ITCP activities.
From page 144...
... Research on visual programming languages, interactive graphics, real-time systems, and audio identification provided a diverse backdrop for the core music composition work. Although the CMC was ultimately closed, it contributed to product development, public relations, and the company's portfolio of intellectual property.7~ The QSketcher system, for example, developed in close collaboration with faculty and composers affiliated with the Berklee College of Music, pioneered several HCI mechanisms.72 The 68Established in 1997, ICC sought to "encourage the dialogue between technology and the arts using a core theme of 'communication"' and "to become a network that links artists and scientists worldwide, as well as a center for information exchange." Both a museum open to the public and a research lab, ICC was a place for the conceptualization, introduction, and testing of advanced media art communication technologies.
From page 145...
... . 73The discussion of the IBM Computer Music Center is based on the personal account of a committee member.
From page 148...
... The motivations of outside artists and designers, in the right context, can drive technology forward in unexpected ways. Artists reconfigure unlikely materials for unexpected purposes.75 Designers understand that commercial products alone do not determine their value as professionals; they often sustain elaborate extracurricular work to demonstrate their creativity.
From page 149...
... 84One comparison might be to the efforts of companies such as Apple Computer to designate roaming specialists as evangelists, such as its use at one time of Bruce Tognazzini as its Evangelist to Human Interface to promote attention to usability across the company.
From page 150...
... 150 BEYOND PRODUCTIVITY There could be irresistible pressure to institutionalize outsiders into an organization especially if the outsiders are successful. Formal structures, titles, budgets, and other processes may evolve.


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