Leonardo
Volume 32, Number 4
Contents
August 1999
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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Pages 243-259
Special Section
Leonardo Electronic Almanac
Craig Harris and Patrick Maun: Introduction: Leonardo Electronic Almanac
The Leonardo Gallery
Patrick Maun, curator: LEA Gallery
- Eugene Thacker: embody_dissolve 2.0
- Natalie Bookchin: BAD
- Carl DiSalvo: Blinded . . . as I Stared into the Sun
Leonardo Electronic Almanac Abstracts
Stephen Wilson, Miroslaw Rogala, Paul Hertz, Maureen Nappi, Eduardo Kac, Josephine Anstey, Nathania Vishnevsky
Leonardo Electronic Monographs
David Rosenboom: Extended Musical Interface with the Human Nervous System: Assessment And Prospectus
Michael Century and Thierry Bardini: Towards a Transformative Set-Up: Banff Center for the Arts' Art and Virtual Environments Program
Pages 261-268
Artists' Article
Matthew Kirschenbaum: Lucid Mapping: Information Landscaping and 3D Writing Space
ABSTRACT
This paper documents an interactive graphics installation entitled Lucid Mapping and Codex Transformissions in the Z-Buffer. Lucid Mapping uses the Virtual Reality Modeling Language to explore textual and narrative possibilities within three-dimensional (3D) electronic environments. The author describes the creative rationale and technical design of the work and places it within the context of other applications of 3D text and typography in the digital arts and the scientific visualization communities. The author also considers the implications of 3D textual environments on visual language and communication, and discriminates among a range of different visual/rhetorical strategies that such environments can sustain.
Pages 269-271
Artists' Statements
- Lynn Hershman: Difference Engine #3
- Charles Csuri: Queenly Gestures: A Living Art Object
Pages 273-279
Historical Perspective on the Arts, Sciences and Technology
David Stairs: Design and Deforestation
ABSTRACT
Throughout their history, Americans have utilized technology to convert wilderness to civilization. Much of this development has been historically described as "progressive." The author examines one example of this---the reduction of the Michigan pineries in the nineteenth century---in detail in an effort to reconcile design advances with our changing perceptions of wilderness. The author also discusses the development of tools and design techniques together with the evolution of the environmental movement.
Pages 281-291
General Article
Susan Metros: Making Connections: A Model for On-Line Interaction
ABSTRACT
The overuse of visual imagery and the redundancy of information in traditional and new communication media have desensitized our society, resulting in an emotional bankruptcy. The World Wide Web communication medium, with its highly visual interface and virtual environments, perpetuates and aggravates this situation. The "new designers" of the twenty-first century must partner with technology experts, content specialists and common users to reinvigorate imagination and rekindle emotions. To this end, we can identify and extract the six essential ingredients of engagement from the traditional performing arts, communication and design theory and recast them to support new media that are both visually stimulating and emotionally provocative.
Pages 293-298
Technical Note
Mooson Kwauk: From Conceptualization of Motion in Space to Rational Design
ABSTRACT
The author uses geometrically definable shapes for mobile members in such a way that equations can be written for moment balance to yield analytical solutions for determining the suspension points of the members. This avoids the need for trial-and-error construction. Geometrically definable shapes also make it possible to use jigsaw layout of mobile members to minimize waste of materials. The author finds that these two "constraints" add an intellectual dimension to mobile-making. To facilitate the realization of a mobile maker's conceptualization of shape and motion in space, the author recommends small indoor mobiles, which can be made to respond to weak air currents such as those produced by body movement and human breath.
Pages 299-323
Special Section
The Aesthetic Status of Technological Art, Part 2
Introduction: Jacques Mandelbrojt
Colloquium Presentations
- Jean-Paul Allouche: How New Is Technological Art?
- Jacques Mandelbrojt: The Pencil and the Mouse
- Luc Rondeleux: The Digital Computer as an Instrument of Musical Creation: 1957--1997
- Michel MendĪs France: Do All Roads Really Lead to CD-ROM?
Colloquium Articles
Philippe Bootz: The Functional Point of View: New Artistic Forms for Programmed Literary Works
ABSTRACT
This essay analyzes the functioning of a text that was designed to be read in a private context, that uses the computer as an active tool during the reading, and that can be published on a permanent medium such as CD-ROM. The work is approached in its dual functioning mode: synchronic and diachronic. A functional model is proposed, which involves an analysis of the functions that operate in the communication process between the reader and the author. In this model, the work appears as a process and no longer as an object. The reading and the materialization of the object read become interdependent. The author analyzes the relationships between readability and faithfulness in the resulting work, properties that may be incompatible in the final text.
Pascal Gobin: Sound Material: A New Reception
ABSTRACT
The author offers new approaches to sound material and composition made possible by advances in technology and modern musical theory. He then discusses the use of Semiotic Temporal Units (USTs) as a method of organizing sound material into morphologically based categories in an attempt to reenvisage Western notions of musical composition. Finally, the author presents recent examples that illustrate the need for a rethinking of compositional rules and methodologies.
Pages 325-328
Extended Abstracts
Stine Vogt: Looking at Paintings: Patterns of Eye Movements in Artistically Na ve and Sophisticated Subjects
Beryl Graham: A Study of Audience Relationships with Interactive Computer-Based Visual Artworks
Pages 329-330
Leonardo On-Line Bibliographies
Pages 331-338
Reviews
Roy R. Behrens, Istvan Hargittai, Curtis E.A. Karnow, Kasey Rios Asberry, Sonya Rapoport and Barbara Lee Williams, Rahma Kazam
Pages 339-343
Endnote
Gary R. Greenfield: The Next Computer Art
Pages 345-348
Leonardo/ISAST News
