Leonardo
Volume 29 Number 4 (1996)
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.
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Issue Contents
EDITORIAL: The Latest Developments in
Media Art
HERBERT W. FRANKE
Observers of media art notice that a new turning
point has been reached. Perhaps this will lead to
a decisive breakthrough. Art critics and
philosophers are proclaiming the dawning of a new
epoch, a "second modernism" characterized
by the application of new media. The Austrian
Pavilion at the Biennale in Venice in 1995, which
was completely dedicated to media art, can be seen
as proof of that development. The recognition of media art has its
repercussions, however. Judging from first-hand
impression, one could well speak of a final
legitimation of what had so far been allocated to
the field of computer graphics/computer art. Among
other effects, this forces us to look at events of
the past from different angles, to judge many of
the works created since 1963 under a different
light.
WORDS ON WORKS
by ANNA COUEY, JEFF GATES, JOANN GILLERMAN, TIMOTHY
O'BRIEN, ANA RICHARDSON, PATRICIA TAVENNER, FRED
TRUCK, PAUL DEMARINIS
ARTISTS' ARTICLES
The
Feminine, the Hermaphrodite, the Angel: Gender
Mutations and Dream Cosmogonies in Multimedia
Projection and Installation (1976--1994)
by MARIA KLONARIS AND KATERINA THOMADAKI
ABSTRACT
The authors describe their long-term collaborative
multimedia projection-and-installation practice in
which they address issues of gender and
technology. Early projects questioned the feminine
through body works and self-portraiture; more
recent pieces contest the male/female binarism by
focusing on hermaphroditism and intersexuality.
Their artistic production ranges from films and
expanded projections challenging cinematic norms,
to immersive visual and auditive environments.
Their interests in a range of diverse
technologies---mechanical, chemical, electronic,
digital---raises issues of interdisciplinarity and
mobility within the various technological
potentials available to artists today.
Presenting Scientific Concepts
with Forms and Methods from Primal Cultures: Mixed
Media and Installation Works
by DENNIS SUMMERS
ABSTRACT
The author argues that scientific information is
not objective, but is in fact a product of our
culture. As such, there is a need to incorporate
science into the arts. In doing so, artists can
strive to create a complete world-view similar to
that found within other cultures. The author
describes selected projects showing his evolution
toward this goal.
GENERAL ARTICLES
Bastard Flowers
by GEORGE GESSERT
Gardeners and plant breeders judge ornamental
plants by their aesthetic characteristics.
However, horticulture does not accommodate the
discussion of many key questions in plant
selection. For example, what are the roles of
class and culture in determining taste? Does
ornamental plant breeding debase wild plants and
contribute to the war against wild nature? What
are the effects of the market on plant aesthetics?
The author surveys teh
history of such questions; he claims that by attending
to them, we can lay groundwork for a consciuos art of
evolution.
Reflexivity, Contradiction,
Paradox and M.C. Escher
by LAURENCE GOLDSTEIN
The paradoxes that have been studied by philosophers
and logicians are arguments that lead from plausible
premises to impossible conclusions. For example, in the
Liar Paradox, the assumption that "This statement
is false" is either true or false leads to the
conclusion that it is both true and false.
Depictions of so-called "impossible objects" in
the late works of M.C. Escher are visually
paradoxical. There are deep similarities between visual
and logico-semantic paradoxes. In the case of the
visual paradoxes, knowledge of various means of
representing distance enables us to explain how the
paradoxical effect is achieved. A novel approach to
solving the Liar and other logico-semantic paradoxes
consists of coming to understand how the impossibility
of their conclusions arises by means analogous to those
by which visually impossible objects are produced.
ARTISTS' STATEMENTS
JOHN SINDELAR: Printing and Writing
THOMAS A. TROMBLEY: Shadow's Doubt
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
FRANK POPPER: Visualization, Cultural Mediation
and Dual Creativity
SPECIAL SECTION
A CONFERENCE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE ARTS: THE IMPACT OF NEW
TECHNOLOGIES, PART II
Foreword
PAUL LECLERC: How Technology Is Transforming the
Role of the New York Public Library
STANLEY ROTHENBERG: Ninety Years of New Uses and
Conflicting Rights
ELIZABETH BROUN: Art, Electronic Outreach and
American Democracy
TIMOTHY GUNN: The Effects of New Technologies on
Independent Film and Video Artists
ALAN J. FRIEDMAN: Summary: Five Solutions to
Intellectual Property Issues in a Digital Age
ROGER F. MALINA: Summary: The Need for Cooperation
among Disciplines: Artists, Presenters, Producers
and Distributors
Appendix: Conference Program and Acknowledgments
ART/SCIENCE FORUM
MARK EFIMOVICH BELADUBROVSKY: The Annual Bryansk
Nicolai Roslavets and Naum Gabo Festival
POSY JACKSON SMITH: The 1995 Shearwater Foundation
Holography Grants
YU-TUNG LIU: A Course on Cognition and Computation
of Design at National Chiao Tung University
VLADIMIR M. PETROV: Art and Science Serve Each
Other: The Russian Branch of the International
Association of Empirical Aesthetics
JOZSEF SCHERER: Creative Design: The Foundation
Institute of the Hungarian University of Craft and
Design
REVIEWS
HARRY RAND, ROGER F. MALINA
