[Nettime-bold] art mafia arikade

[integer@www.god-emil.dk]

+b






epistolaris@freemail.hu

>This time 

may i have a cigarette please. 


>it will be impossible that art institutions block or restrict net art and net culture by 
selection.


permit someone 2 be ultra invidious of dreamy scenarios comme ca. eeee oui.

art institutions have blocked - deja. the only `thing` art institutions 
+ addtl inkompetent korporat fascist konglomerates havent [kompletely]
blocked is nn [as far as am personally aware and am certainly not
taking credit as per usual] - mais ... that is because nn is funded
by someone [possibly +?] and totally disorganized [i.e. ultra distributed]
and someone [possibly +?] hasnt minded [what +?]]

nn - there is only 1 of me.




et apropos


hi,

here some info that the other speakers/artists submitted for the prague
conference on Purkinje we are taking part in _ this is not meant for
self-exposure, but only because I am totally into this Purkinje suddenly
and the fact that the information these people write in their abstracts
is interesting...

anyway, a link to my hometown hero joseph platteau and others seems
obvious ... but I was wondering what kind of other references people have
to pre-cinema researchers and inventors and charlatans...

For artists and homescientists like we are, audiovisual perception seems
fascinating, but what is really useful out there? Seems like persistence
of vision also exist in a way in auditory perception, but no-one I know of
has linked it before ... Then you have the McGurk effect which says when
you hear ba and you see someone saying ga you perceive it as someone has
said da! so our next performance will be called "auditory /ba/ + visual
/ga/ => perceived /da/"

Actually, Gert and me are going to play out there with our little
autonomous robot "Roving Walter Walter" .. but if you do things with early
experiments in audiovisual synthesis, or make use of perception research,
let us know and we can all join in. Seems fascinating we can do these
experiments over, with software like PD/GEM, max/msp/nato,
keystroke, etc...

best,
xgz 

-----

Invited speakers and participants of the conference E.F. Prague
December, 2,3,4,5 2001

contacts, information

initiator:

Jaroslav Andel, Writer and Artist, New York
Former director of the National Gallery in Prague's Museum of Modern Art,
the author of Avant-Garde Page Design and other books on 20th  century
art.
e-mail: jaroslavandel@hotmail.com


Jan Evangelista Purkinje: From Dromology to Moving Pictures
Jan Evangelista Purkinje, whose work provides a framework for the
conference, can be considered a precursor of dromology, a discipline that
studies speed and the perception of movement. The opening presentation
argues that the exploration of the perception of movement inspired the
rise and rapid advance of the technologies of moving image - a link
evident in Purkinje's work. His ideas and experiments serve as historical
reference for the six topical themes of the conference.

Michael Bielicky, Media Artist, Prague
Founder and head of The Media Dept. Of Academy of Fine Arts Prague
email:x@avu.cz



1.Gert Aertsen (and Guy van Belle)
M.Lemonnierlaan 63
1000 Brussels
0032 2 512 55 50
www.lahaag.org

ROVING WALTER WALTER -THE AUTONOMOUS ARTIFICIAL ARTIST -FIRST OF KIN

Walter Benjamin was convinced that technologically mediated artistic
achievements were simply inferior to the traditional arts because they
lacked authenticity and charisma.  William Grey Walter built the first
electromechanical behavioral species, which he named machina speculatrix.
His tortoises had a transparant plastic shell and were responsive to their
environment. They were undoubtedly authentic and truly charismatic.
Purpose:
to build a creature, and later on a species, that is strong, flexible, and
powerful
enought to execute nomadic art missions in earthlike and other critical
environments.

Are acoustic and visual information treated similarly at higher levels of
processing where the integration is presumed to occur (in the brain of
course)?

Are the socio-cultural and geographical differences within audiovisual
perception
relevant for the further development of an art[ificial]ist species (2AS)?

Is a mobile, responsive, behavioral, environmentally conscious, and
essentially
audiovisually perceiving, art[ificial]ist species able to create (maybe
for the first
time in history) a responsible art for all humans, animals and machines?
Roving Walter Walter consists of a set of 4 independently controlled
wheels, a
camera and 2 microphones. It races across the room, analysing perceived
audio + visual data.

It localises sounds and objects for sampling, and keeps track of
collections of
data it acquired in the past on other locations.
Thus: his constitution is essentially nomadic in nature like most humans.
Based on the sampled material it generates series of audio and visuals,
within a
time-based composition. Cultural change is the keyword here.
Roving Walter Walter is able to compute the difference between previously
recorded audiovisuals and the currently acquired material. This is the
basis for new and intelligent synthesis.
The analysis, mobility, sampling, and synthesis algorithm is carried out
by a small portable computer on the chassis.
The continuous composition is displayed on an high quality lcd-screen and
mobile loudspeakers, integrated in the design.
Roving Walter Walter behaves like a smart pet, following visitors and
showing them the beauty of audiovisual realtime creations.  When Roving
Walter Walter's pedagogical functions get activated (critical
interaural+visual response to the environment) it computes a localised
version of the "internationale" (Eugene Pottier, Paris, 1871). Roving
Walter Walter can cite from memory 13 versions of this historical
composition, in most commonly spoken languages and in all popular
orchestrations.
On top of that, Roving Walter Walter can improvise on the theme, and
suggest viable future versions to a bewildered audience.  After simply
being switched on|off, Roving Walter Walter knows when to sleep and work
by himself on location, no additional assistance is needed. Roving Walter
Walter is an independent pioneering ar[tificial]ist, 01 of a new species,
authentic and charismatic.


2.PhDr. Miklos Peternak - Art Historian, Mediaartist
Director of the Center for Culture and Communication and
Founder of Intermedia Department
Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts

adress:
C_ Center for Culture & Communication
1014 Budapest, Országház utca 9.
H-1537 Budapest, Pf. 419
Tel: + 36-1-4887070, Fax: + 36-1-214-6872
E-mail: peternak@c3.hu
www.c3.hu
confirmed

The discovery, development and standardization of movie picures radically
changed not only our habits but also the ways of image-making and thus our
entire concept and perspective of the world. Naturally, this process
started earlier than the discovery was announced and it is also true that
the changes did not become apparent immediately. It took several years of
research, especially within the fields of experimental film and video
whose consciously used media resulted in the present situation, i.e. that
today the instrumental features and possible uses of the moving image
function as some kind of knowledge that is known to all of us. This
process eventually established the foundations of a non-linear,
interactive, virtual media world, which has already even reached beyond
the borders of its earlier described and further analyzed limits.
Within the period between the late 1910s and early 1980s a radical shift
occured in both the concept of perspective as well as in image-making
techniques. A parallel in the history of image-making could be drawn with
the period of the Renaissance if we want to understand the relevance of
these changes by means of an analogy. While there and then fixed
perspective and that of the picture world beyond an open window encouraged
the eye-sight directed toward the easel painting to find more similarities
between the image and the world (which was even more emphasized by the
growing interest of painterly practice to gradually adjust an exact
reconstruction of space to visual experience), in the recent past our
concept of time went through similar changes. Before the time of movie
pictures it would not have made much sense to render more detail about
time to the image than the date of creation - most often it was sufficient
to know whether a given piece was old or new. Cinematography has radically
changed this attitude. It became more important to know how long a video
piece or a TV broadcast was than details about their "size". The duration
of a film must be viewed in relation to real-time experience and it is not
only important for reasons of time-measurement or a comparison of real
time relations and the time of representation. The length of a film also
has its own rules, by which an efficient technique of setting limits to
time was created despite that earlier it was believed to be impossible.
Even if this did not make the definition of time easier it opened
possibilities of its manipulation and analysis. Our notion of time is
similar to the extent of knowledge we are able to depict and construct
space making it more tangible and transparent by means of perspective.
The limits to our ability to understand time are similar to the extent to
whi h we are able to depict and construct space-making it more tangible
and transparent through the use of perspective.In the case of audio-visual
media, especially in linear-narrative films and videos, the concept of a
central-perspective timeline was initiated recently. Time flows always in
the same forward direction, with the same speed between two fixed points
(i.e. the beginning and end of the given movie), and within this anything
can happen: to quote Dürer again "we are free to take a view through the
"canvas-window"-that is through projection. The gaze always rests on the
point in front of it -the center - and this same point, meanwhile, wanders
through the whole film along the horizon of projection, thus drawing a
horizon of meaning while the film winds out. This wandering point, i.e.
the point of sight is followed by the two eyes while the head is
motionless. (For monocular perspective one eye would be enough). It
constructs the istoria as the plot was once called by L.B. Alberti, which
is the depicted scene in the central perspective of the picture. The image
is ready when time is over, the lights are switched on and the empty
canvas appears in front of us. Projection is not a space phenomenon: it
can only be taken home as a memorial of time.
from Perspectives exhibition, Budapest

The Record of the Gaze.
>From perspective to "vision in motion" and beyond:
Remarks and examples on vision from an artistic point of view: preparatory
notes to C3 new research/exhibition project.
The history of vision can be reconstructed on the basis of (visual)
artistic inventions, examinations and especially the use of new image
types. From the diary of Albrecht Dürer to László Moholy-Nagy's book,
vision in motion there are a lot of examples where one find artists in
search of new kind of views. Image making in its experimental form derives
not only from new sensations in the visual field, but also creates new
exercises for eye/mind/visual cognition. The experiences during the course
of the evolutionary (hi)story of new media tools created new type of
interface(s) between history and its human recognition. From Alberti's
window-picture definition to the Microsoft windows, the direct link is the
need for a non-moving gaze.

3.Prof. Siegfried Zielinski - Media Historian and Director of
Kunsthochschule für Medien Koeln
das Sekretariat der Fächergruppe Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften
Peter-Welter-Platz 2
D-50676 Köln
http://www.ctheory.com/global/ga111.html
Tel. +49 (0)221 20189-130
Fax +49 (0)221 20189-230
E-Mail kmwoffice@khm.de

- Purkyne and the tradition of natural philosophy ( NATURPHILOS0PHIE,
magia naturalis)
- the idea and concept of  self-experiment (including drugs)
- towards an economy of friendship (panel 6)


4.Prof. Tom Gunning - Art History Department and the College, New York
University. Cinema & Media Studies
Department of Art History
The University of Chicago
5540 South Greenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Office: (773) 702-0264
Fax: (773) 702-5901
tgunning@midway.uchicago.edu
www.nd.edu/~jgodmilo/gunning.html
http://media-in-transition.mit.edu/articles/index_gunning.html
Tom Gunning works on problems of film style and interpretation, film
history and film culture. His published work (approximately one hundred
publications) has concentrated on early cinema as well as on the culture
of modernity from which cinema arose, relating it to still photography,
stage melodrama, and magic lantern shows as well as wider cultural
concerns such as the tracking of criminals, the World Expositions, and
Spiritualism. His concept of the "cinema of attractions" relates the
development of cinema to other forces than storytelling, such as new
experiences of space and time in modernity, and an emerging modern visual
culture. His book D.W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative
Cinema traces the ways film style interacted with new economic structures
in the early American film industry and with new tasks of story telling.
His forthcoming book on Fritz Lang deals with the systematic nature of a
director's oeuvre and the processes of interpretation. He has also written
on avant-garde film, both in its European pre-World War I manifestations
and the American avant-garde film up to the present day, and on the
relation between cinema and technology. The historical factors of
exhibition and criticism and spectators' experiences throughout film
history are recurrent themes in his work.
"Mobile Bodies in the Realm of the Senses: The Experiments  of Symbolism
and Chronophotography."

 At the turn of the century both artists and scientists converged on a
 new exploration of the human body and its senses.  This involved new
 technological modes of recording and representation, many of them
 exploring the previously unexamined aspects of sight and hearing and
 its technological recording and analysis.  I want to explore the way
 Symbolist poets like Rimbaud and Charles Cros and painters such as
 Burne-Jones, Fernand Khnopff and Kupka both drew on new scientific
 technologies and even contributed to them in their attempt to create
 a modern art of the senses. The intersection between this  artistic
 experimentation and the scientific experimentation on the body in
 motion by such photographer researchers as Muybridge, Mary, Albert
 Londe, and Demeny would form the center of my talk.


5.Prof. Erkki Huhtamo - Mediatheorist, University of Lapland, Finland,
Los Angeles

email: erhuhta@ucla.edu

Media researcher Erkki Huhtamo's collection of pre-cinema items is an
invitation to a magical journey back in time. The collection comprises a
representative selection of magic lanterns and lantern slides, peep show
boxes, zoetropes, praxinoscopes, kaleidoscopes, stereo viewers, early film
projectors and other fascinating items.
He works currently as professor of media studies at the University of
Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland and as visiting professor at Art Institut Los
Angeles.
http://www.urova.fi/home/ttk/media/ihmiset/emmi/edoor.htm
6.Barbara Maria Stafford
William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor
contact:Department of Art History
Cochrane-Woods Art Center
5540 S. Greenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
(773) 702-0268 (Office) (773) 702-5901 (Fax)
http://home.uchicago.edu/~bms6/index.html
abstract:
INTENSIFIED REALITY: Visual Devices and the Remaking of
Worlds--Barbara Maria Stafford, professor, department of art history,
University of Chicago and co-curator of the "Devices of Wonder"
exhibition, explores the visual history of instrumentalized
perception and its links with magic and illusion, transformation and
alternative realms.  By examining optical devices from the pre-modern
to the contemporary period, she traces the continuities and slippages
between earlier and emergent media.
info:
The Getty exhibition Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images
on a Scree, .co curated by B.M. Stafford explores the fascinating world of
visual illusion, with the Getty Research Institute's collection of 18th-
to 20th-century optical games, toys, prints, and ephemera forming the core
of the exhibition. Additional materials include scientific instruments,
rare natural history books, trompe l'oeil paintings, trick furniture, a
Wunderschrank (cabinet of wonders), and Lucas Samaras' Mirrored Room.
Imaginative, interactive installations reveal engaging and compelling
apparatus that produce visual information on the stage, at the studio or
laboratory, and in the home. Magic lanterns, miniature peepshows,
panoramas, moving dioramas, stereoscopes, Jeff Wall's cibachrome light
boxes, and computers display how the "natural" eye can be transformed
through sensory technology. Conversely, the exhibition reveals how these
optical devices brought about new forms of consciousness at different
historical moments.

7.Christian Huebler
Knowbotic Research - Swiss-German Media Collective
knowbotic research,
Klosbachstrasse 45, 8032 Zürich,
phone + fax: 41-1-2616412
email: krcf@khm.de,
huebler@hgkz.ch
http://www.krcf.org/
confirmed

Knowbotic Research, KR+cF (Yvonne Wilhelm, Alexander Tuchacek, Christian
Huebler); was established in 1991, and since then the media art group has
been experimenting with formations of information, interface and networked
agency. Their more recent projects present artistic practice with media as
an attempt to find viable forms of intervention in the new public domain.
Since 98 KR+cF is teaching New Media at University of Art and Design
Zurich. KR+cF has got major international Awards. (Hermann Claasen Prize
for Media-art and Photography 2001, internat. Media-art award ZKM
Karlsruhe 2000 and 1997; August Seeling-Award of Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum
97, Prix Ars Electronica, Golden Nica 94 and 98).
latest project "Mental imMigration" - a collective networked environment
which allows on a playful level experiental approaches to new forms of
global teleworking.


abstract:
Reclaiming public domain as sites of constructive conflicts

Public domains are increasingly required to demonstrate their interests in
the face of technology, i.e. they have to acquire a presence inside the
programs and technological models, If this presence is not achieved, then
the public quality will waste away at the user interfaces.
Media technologies with all its universalising and standardizing
mechanisms undermine the essence of the  public domain as a zone of
uncontrollability.
But the instability of the public domain is the condition of its active
potential. Reclaiming public domains as sites of constructive conflict and
developing forms of collaborative agency for the new intersections of
virtual and physical public environments are therefore imperatives of the
current situation. The projects of Knowbotic Research put to the test not
the freedom of opinion but the freedom of action within networked
environments.


8.Doc. Ji_i Fiala - The Faculty of Mathematics, Charles University Prague
Doc. RNDr. Ji_í Fiala (*1939) vystudoval P_írodov_deckou fakultu MU v
Brn_. Na kated_e filozofie matematiky Matematicko-fyzikální fakulty UK v
Praze se zab_vá filozofií matematiky a logiky. P_edná_í analytickou
filozofii a epistemologii na Západo_eské univerzit_.
fiala@volny.cz


9.Roy Ascott. - Artist and Theorist, CAIIA Institute, UK
Founder and Director of Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive
Arts
Newport School of Art & Design
University of Wales College, Newport
Gwent NP6 1XJ, Wales
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)633 432174
email: Roy_Ascott@compuserve.com

Roy Ascott has pioneered the place of cybernetics, telematics and
interactive media in art, with such projects as Terminal Art  1980, La
Plissure du Texte: a planetary fairytale, Electra, Musee d'Art Moderne,
Paris, 1983; Aspects of Gaia: digital pathways across the whole earth at
Ars Electronica Linz, 1989; Planetary Network, Venice Biennale, 1986;
Telenoia, V2 Holland, 1992. His concept design for an interactive
televator , Apollo 13, is permanently  installed in the Ars Electronica
Centre, Linz. His most recent network art project Art-ID/Cyb-ID premiers
at the Biennal do Mercosul in Porto Alegre Brazil in November 1999.

ABSTRACT

PLANETARY TECHNOETICS: art, technology and consciousness.
Starting from the implications of the 9-11 massacre, I would like to look
at the question of planetary consciousness, in the context  of art
practice, with its  emergent moistmedia, and the constructive function of
mixed reality  technologies in both western and non-western cultures. In
the present crisis of contesting  ideas of reality, only new, creative
metaphors can be expected to bridge the ideological divide. The artist is
metaphor builder par excellence. A cultural shift has taken place which
returns us in an important sense to much older world views, while
enabling us to create structures and behaviours fitting the 21st century.
The dematerialisation of art in the 20th century becomes a
re-materialisation in our era, with the advent of nanotechnology and moist
media. Our focus is on  Art, technology and consciousness, from which  a
technoetic planetary culture could emerge , based on the Three VRs :
Validated Reality: involving reactive, mechanical technology  in a
prosaic, Newtonian world; Virtual Reality: involving interactive, digital
technology in a telematic, immersive world; Vegetal Reality:involving
psychoactive plant technology in an entheogenic, spiritual world. To this
end, collaborative and transdisciplinary research is needed for which
entirely new organisms of learning and production must be engendered. In
our search of an interactive paradigm, CAiiA-STAR and the Planetary
Collegium are an initial  response to this need.


10.Prof. Ryszard W. Kluszcynski - Arthistorian and Curator
Professor of University of Lodz, Head of Electronic Media Dept.
Professor of Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz and Poznan
In 1990-2001 Chief Curator of Film, Video and Multimedia Art in the Center
for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
contact: rwk@krysia.uni.lodz.pl

Ryszard Kluszczynski is a media art scholar, critic and curator who
teaches at the Film and Media Department of the University of Lodz and as
a curator for media art at the Ujazdovski Center for Contemporary Art,
Warsaw. In his lecture he will describe the development of media art in
Poland, from experimental cinema, through video art, up to interactive,
multimedia works and projects nowadays


11.Erik Davis - Writer, Researcher, San Francisco
email: erik@techgnosis.com

abstract
"Astral Avatars: Tracing the Electronic-Etheric Body"
In order to investigate the linements and characteristics of virtual
bodies -- at once the digital masks known as avatars and the fantasies and
sensibilities that energize and animate these simulacra  -- this paper
will explore the emergence of the "etheric"
and "astral" body in late nineteenth century theosophy and occultism. Not
only do these notions continue to influence popular images and conceptions
of the non-corporeal or virtual body, consciously or otherwise, but they
have always been bound up with a particular technocultural transformation:
the redeployment of electricity and electro-magnetism as communication
media. The subsequent need to translate the body into this new realm of
signals and vibrations can help account not only for contemporary
fantasies of virtual bodies, but also relate the issue of virtuality to
the vast and complex "alternative" tradition of electrical and
electromagnetic healing.
http://www.levity.com/figment/bio.html
http://www.levity.com/techgnosis/

12.Bohuslav Bla_ek - Social Ecologist, Mediatheorist, Prague
Ostrovni 6
Praha 1
bohuslav.blazek@hrad.cz
http://diskuse.hrad.cz/cgi-bin/toISO-8859-2.en/bb.html
confirmed


13.Andrej Smirnow - Artist and Director of The Teremin Center, Moscow
email: theremin@msm.ru
not confirmed

Founder and director of the Theremin Center (studio for electro-acoustic
music) in 1992. Graduated from Physics Institute Moscow (subject:
Automatics and Electronics). Worked at the Physics Institute Moscow.
Research in modules for a sound synthesizer. Several articles for Soviet
magazines. From 1982, co-operation with the audio-visual team of the Space
Museum, investigating on systems of space and sound. From 1992, lectures,
workshops with composers at Theremin Center Studios. Numerous conferences
and workshops in the U.S. and Europe. 1995 foundation of the "Cross-Media"
Studio in co-operation with the SCCA.


14.Prof.Richard Kriesche - Artist and Theorist,
teaches at Hochschule fuer Gestaltung, Germany
adress:
Trauttmansdorffg.1
8010 Graz
Austria
email:richard.kriesche@stmk.gv.at
confirmed
Richard Kriesche lectures at the Technical University of Vienna on
"Aesthetics of Scientific-Technical Operations," and is a professor at the
College of Design in Offenbach, Main. He is active internationally as an
artist and curator and writes regularly on art and technology including
radio art.

Up until now, we have been confronted with the creation of a machine-based
environment outside ourselves. now we are faced with the info-based
environment inside ourselves, with the creation of a self, interfacing our
own inner-world with the outer, with the creation of a cybernetic
organism. (to quote Donna Haraway: with a cyborg.) this is the search of
the eternal 'meta-individual,' which the eremites in the desert of Syria,
the monks in Christian monasteries were striving for, it has been the
struggle for a one-ness combined with the whole-ness. socially alone,
mentally united, technologically omnipresent. this is the fresh new field
of dialectic action for a true information-based art.


15. Guy van Belle - Artist, researcher, educator Antwerpen/Rotterdam

Guy.VanBelle@rug.ac.be, chip.kali@mxhz.org

Institute for Psycho-acoustics and Electronic Music, Ghent University
Institut for Old and New Media De Waag + Keyworx, Amsterdam
Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Multimedialab, Antwerp

http://www.mXHz.org
http://www.ipem.rug.ac.be
http://www.no-sinc.org
http://www.hisk.edu
http://www.keyworx.com
http://www.waag.org
http://www.nMn.be

confirmed

machine centered humanz

"It is clear that we have to pick up where science and art once were
divided. We have to rethink our current state of the arts, and revamp the
old sciences of audio and visual perception. After the commercial take
over leading to similar consumer products, it is time to shift the
research program from these frozen foundations, add a cognitive science
angle, define "from analysis to synthesis", and do research into new
audiovisual analysis and synthesis techniques: there are many to be
discovered yet! Paul Demarinis' dictum "music is sound to the ears" can
easily be extended in an audiovisual common context. An additional set of
interest programs are to be developed to investigate expressivity and
performativity. Together with participation and interaction, these
cognitive activities are basic constituents of any cultural activity, and
we need to crack the code behind this through further research, experiment
and development, and establish a more exact view on the relatedness to
human behavior. Technological art tends to be cultural, dynamic,
non-linear, multidirective, timeless and chaotic, aesthetic and most of
all: autonomous!"

16.Prof.Dieter Daniels - Art Historian, MediaTheorist /Leipzig
Professor für Kunstgeschichte und Medientheorie
Hochschule fuer Buchunst und Graphik
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig
Fon (03 41) 21 35-0
Fax (03 41) 21 35-166

e-mail: daniels@hgb-leipzig.de
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/theorie/xxjahre_daniels.html

"Media as continuation of art by other means,
S. F. B. Morse and J. L. M. Daguerre 1839"

Telegraphy and photography are the starting points for everything called
today "new media" - ranging from TV to the internet. S. F. B. Morse and J.
L. M. Daguerre where artists, which stoped painting and became famous as
inventors of telegraphy and photography. What does that mean for the
common
ground of art and media in todays perspective?

17.  Prof. PhDr. Ji_í Hoskovec, CSc. Psychologist, Historian of Science/
Prague
Moskevská 32
Praha 10
101 00
Czech republic
E-mail: hoskovec@mail.cz
http://web.redbox.cz/hoskovec
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/psychology/njwade/

Purkyne - Observation, Experimentation in Sensoric Psychology.

Purkynje, a polymath of the Czech/Austrian/German scientific community in
the 19th century whose work is associated with the dawn of neuroscience,
made a number of influential discoveries, but none of them as interesting
as his earliest enquiries into vision. Prof. Ji_i Hoskovec collaborated on
the recently published book Purkinje´s Vision: The Dawning of Neuroscience
by Nicholas J.Wade and Josef Bro_ek.


"It is an imperative belief of the natural scientist that each and every
modification of a subjective state in the sphere of the sense's
corresponds to an objective state"
(Purkinje, 1819/1823, p. 92).

"In the quest to achieve his vision Jan Evangelista Purkinje or Purkyne
(1787-1869) left his mark throughout the body. There are Purkinje cells in
the brain, Purkinje fibers around the heart, Purkinje images are reflected
from the optical surfaces of the eye, a Purkinje tree (the shadows of the
retinal blood vessels) can be rendered visible, and at dawn and dusk we
can experience the Purkinje shift. As a medical student he investigated
subjective visual phenomena in part because he did not have access to any
physiological apparatus, but also because he believed that visual
illusions revealed visual truths.  Purkinje's interests in vision were
stimulated by reading Goethe's (1810) Our Farbenlehre  (Theory of colors)
as a medical student (Griisser, 1984; Kruta, 1966). Goethe's theory was
founded on phenomenological description of perceptual experience and he
rejected the physicalism of Newton's (1704) and Young's (1802) theories.
Goethe championed the alternative approach based on color experience
rather than color mixing.  Newton had stated that "the Rays to speak
properly are not colored" (1704, p. 90), thus accepting the subjective
dimension in color vision, but he did not subordinate the physics of light
to the philosophy of sight in the manner of Goethe. One of Goethe's
greatest difficulties was reconciling the purity of the perception of
white light with the conception of its compound nature. However, he was
able to enlist a variety of phenomena (like color contrasts, color
shadows, accidental colors, and aspects of color blindness) which posed
severe difficulties for the trichromatic theory of Young (1802) and later
of Helmholtz (1867/2000). Despite the wealth of observations contained in
his Theory of colors few students of vision saw Goethe's theory as other
than evidence of the distance that separated art from science. In a
lecture surveying Goethe's scientific researches, Helmholtz attempted to
take a sympathetic view by stating that he was primarily a poet, and that
he was not disposed to support experimental enquiries into natural
phenomena:
"Thus, in the theory of colour, Goethe remains faithful to his principle,
that Nature must reveal her secrets of her own free will; that she is but
the transparent representation of the ideal world" (Helmholtz, 1898, p.
45).
Goethe sought to shift the study of color vision away from physics towards
phenomenology. Accordingly, he was impressed by the publication, in 1819,
of Purkinje's Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Sehens in subiectiver Hinsicht
(Contributions to the knowledge of vision in its subjective aspect) and
saw him as an advocate of the phenomenological method, although Goethe did
display disappointment that his own observations were not cited by
Purkinje (see Kruta, 1966). Later Goethe encouraged Purkinje's academic
career, although he did not receive the unstinting support from Purkinje
that he probably expected. Purkinje acknowledged Goethe's influence but
retained an independent theoretical standpoint. Whereas Goethe had
attempted to replace physicalism with phenomenology Purkinje sought to
emphasize the physiological dimension.
Purkinje's second book on subjective visual phenomena, published in 1825,
was dedicated to Goethe. When Purkinje gained access to one of the new
large achromatic microscopes, in the early 1830s, he put his observational
skills to good use, as is attested by the Purkinje cells in the brain and
the Purkinje fibres in the heart. The laboratory in Breslau where he
conducted these microscopical studies has been referred to as "the cradle
of histology", and his research was a significant contribution to the
development of cell theory and the neuron doctrine. Thus, Purkinje
provided not only the conceptual foundations for neuroscience but also the
building blocks for its construction. His vision did herald the dawning of
neuroscience.
Vision
The nineteenth century witnessed a revolution in the study of vision - it
was displaced from the natural environment to the laboratory. The study of
vision was transformed from an observational to an experimental discipline
after around 1840 (see Wade, 1998a). The seeds of the revolution were sown
much earlier - in the seventeenth century - with an appreciation of the
physieal nature of light and of the anatomical structure of the eye.
Kepler (1604, 1611) described the manner in which light is refracted
through the eye to form an image on the retina, and Scheiner (1619)
provided an accurate representation of the anatomy of the eye. Both Kepler
and Scheiner constructed artificial eyes so that the nature of image
formation could be examined more systematically (see Park, 1997; Wade,
1998c). The analogy between eye and camera focused interest on the
geometrical properties of the retinal image and upon the ways in which two
retinal images could be combined. This concern with spatial vision was
replaced by the investigation of color phenomena in the eighteenth
century, largely as a consequence of Newton's (1704) analysis of the
spectrum. Isolating and mixing light of different colors did lend some
degree of experimental control to the study of vision, but it generally
remained an observational rather than an experimental pursuit.
In the eighteenth century, physics had made advances by isolating
variables and then manipulating them, and much the same applied to the
study of vision in the nineteenth century. Questions about the nature of
vision have been asked since antiquity. For example, why do we perceive
the world the way that we do, and how does this come about? In this
context the nature of space and time was a central issue in philosophical
discussions. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Kant (1781 )
declared them to be a priori dimensions and thus objects of transcendental
aesthetics. This represented a fundamental distinction between his
position and that of contemporary empiricist philosophers, like Hume. From
Kant's standpoint the perception of space and time were outside the realm
of experimental enquiry. The natural scientists of the early nineteenth
century demonstrated, on the other hand, that instruments could be devised
which enabled the manipulation of perceived space and time (see Wade &
Heller, 1997). The most important of these instruments were the
stroboscope, the stereoscope, and the chronoscope; the stroboscope varied
space and time together, whereas the other two instruments provided a
means for the analysis of space and time separately. Moreover, these
instruments proved, contrary to Kant's (1786) assertion, that the study of
vision could indeed be scientific. There existed a body of observations
concerning phenomena that could be experienced in the natural environment,
but there was little in the way of controlling or manipulating the
conditions under which they could be seen. This was made possible by the
use of the various scopes, and the methods of physics could be applied to
the measurements of the senses.
Despite the grand design behind Purkinje's vision his initial experimental
work was based on observations of visual phenomena that were made without
any elaborate equipment. His studies of vision were conducted before the
instrumental revolution took place, and he extended the range of phenomena
that can be experienced in the natural environment. The slim volume
Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Sehens in subiectiver Hinsicht was his doctoral
dissertation which was defended in 1818 and published in 1819. It was
reprinted in 1823 with a prefix to the title: Beobachtungen und Versuche
zur Physiologie der Sinne (Observations and experiments on the physiology
of the senses). The book had a major impact on sensory physiology in
Germany, and the phenomena it described continue to be investigated today.
Purkinje defined and named a new area of study -subjective visual
phenomena. This was taken by Goethe to emphasize the subjective dimension
of all vision, but Purkinje himself sought to determine the objective
correlates of the subjective impressions. In so doing, he set in train the
tradition that finds expression in contemporary neuroscience - relating
aspects of our experience to their underlying physiological foundations.
Purkinje's book, which is translated in chapter 4, described a range of
subjective impressions, some of which were novel and others were steeped
in antiquity. Purkinje himself was parsimonious in the references he
cited, perhaps because at that early stage of his career he was unaware of
the wider literature. Griisser (1984) suggested that Purkinje had access
to books on vision by Darwin (1795), Goethe (1810), and Steinbuch (181 l
).  Thus, Purkinje was unlikely to have been inhibited in his observations
by a burden of received wisdom; this is one of the reasons for the
freshness of his descriptions of visual phenomena.
Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia was translated into German soon after its
publication in English. It provided a survey of the senses from a
physiological point of view, and related all functions in health and
sickness to irritability, sensitivity, volition, and association, and
these in turn were discussed in terms of motions of the body parts.
Darwin argued by analogy and made many shrewd observations of perception.
He commenced his treatise with a statement of intent: "The purport of the
following pages is an endeavour to reduce the facts belonging to animal
life into classes, orders, genera, and species; and by comparing them with
each other, to unravel the theory of diseases" (1794, p. 1 ). Purkinje was
particularly influenced by Darwin's speculations on vertigo.  Goethe's
Theory of colors presented an attack on the physicalism of Newtonian
optics by emphasizing the purity of white light and stressing the
subjective dimension of color perception. In line with many Romantic
philosophers, Goethe rejected the experimental approach to the study of
nature because it was too constrained. In its place he proposed the astute
and intuitive observation of natural phenomena, setting in train the
method of phenomenology. In the context of color vision, he based his
theory on color experience rather than color mixing, and he championed the
philosophy of sight rather than the physics of light. Steinbuch's Beytrag
zur Physiologie der Sinne (Contribution to the physiology of the senses)
was also influenced by Darwin's Zoonomia, and tried to integrate the
psychology of perception with its underlying physiology (see Hatfield,
1990). Steinbuch developed an empiricist and associationist theory of
spatial perception based on muscular activity, and he expressed a
sentiment linking subjective experience to objective stimulation that is
echoed in Purkinje's work.  There had been much research on some
subjective visual phenomena prior to Purkinje, and this is sketched in
chapter 3. The aim of the present section is to examine some of the
additional aspects of vision that he examined in his early years. It is
clear that vision was not only his initial but also his abiding scientific
interest. Much of the work following his doctoral dissertation was on
vision; most particularly a long article on vertigo (Purkinje, 1820) and
coverage of a range of visual phenomena in his inaugural lecture at the
University of Breslau (Purkinje, 1823b). The inaugural lecture referred to
his research on accommodation, peripheral vision, long and short
sightedness, and he addressed all these issues in his book of New
contributions (Purkinje, 1825a). It is these topics that will be dealt
with initially, together with strabismus, the Purkinje shift, and motion
aftereffects; a separate section is devoted to his experiments on vertigo.
excerpt from
Purkinje´s Vision The Dawn of Neuroscience
Nicholas j. Wade and Josef Brozek in collaboration with Jiri Hoskovec


18.Werner Nekes - Filmaker, Collector/Mülheim
Werner Nekes Filmproduktion
Werner Nekes
Kassenberg 34 b
D-45479 Mülheim/Ruhr
phone: +49-208-42 73 99
fax: +49-208-42 10 11
wernernekes@t-online.de
confirmed
Werner Nekes is both film-maker and media-researcher, but also a collector
of historical books, scientific objects and visual toys from the early
period of media-art. His extensive collection comprises five centuries of
rare objects.
In his film series, "Media Magica", he guides us through his unique
collection, as through a museum. He shows his historical objects in
motion, because it is only in motion that their magic unfolds and that
they regain once more, the charm they radiated in bygone days.
The spectator is taken on a fascinating voyage of discovery in the magic
land of pictures. He encounters the Camera Obscura, the Magic Lantern, and
peep-shows from the seventeenth century, the artistry of shadow theatre
and much more besides. And he discovers how pre-cinema research of
perspective, montage and the illusion of movement and space prepared the
way for the film.

abstract
"The ambiguity of perception.
What do we see and what do we believe to have seen. Images and the Mind of
Man."


19. Rolf Pixley, MediaArtist, Researcher,
Amsterdam
contact: rolf@educ.uva.nl

Advisor for ROYAL KPN N.V.)

Once and Future Machine(s) - The New Mechanists and their surprising
devices.
Rolf Pixley, Anomalous Research, Amsterdam

A unique artifact, the "Homeostat" (circa. 1948), constructed by W. Ross
Ashby, was
the first machine to embody second-order adaptation and, in some sense,
self-organization.  Its implications in terms of the actual
and metaphorical definition of mechanism are explored. A short tutorial on
state spaces and a cybernetic notion of an observer is
offered. Various correlates in neurology and anthropology are suggested.
Beautiful and amusing examples of other similar devices are
shown.

20. Prof. Richard Grusin
Chair Department of English
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202
PH:     313-577-7692
FAX:    313-577-8618
EMAIL:  r.grusin@wayne.edu

TELEVISUAL SCREEN SPACE, COLLAGE, AND THE REMEDIATION OF MODERNISM

In Clement Greenberg's influential and highly contested account of
modernist painting, collage played a crucial role in calling attention to
the fact that "flatness, two-dimensionality, was the only condition
painting shared with no other art." Because of this unique condition,
Greenberg argues, "Modernist painting oriented itself to flatness as it
did to nothing else." Where "realistic, illusionist art had dissembled the
medium, using art to conceal art," Greenberg writes, modernist art in its
later stages "abandoned in priciple. . . the representation of the kind of
space that recognizable, three-dimensional objects can inhabit." As
critics of film know all too well, flatness is also a condition of that
medium.  Indeed in The World Viewed Stanley Cavell has sketched out a
number of important affiliations between his own account of the uniqueness
of film as a medium and Greenberg's account of modernism.  But as Cavell
also noted, another condition of film is precisely its representation of
the kind of space that recognizable, three-dimensional objects can
inhabit.  Like painting and film, television, too, shares the condition of
flatness and two-dimensionality; and like realistic painting and film,
television traditionally employs its two-dimensionality to represent, or
as Cavell persuasively explains, to monitor, the three-dimensional world.
In recent years, however, televisual screen space has begun to orient
itself to flatness in ways that bear interesting affinities to the
employment of collage in modernist painting.  As the space of the
television screen comes increasingly to resemble the space of the computer
screen--both as desktop and as web browser--the two-dimensionality of the
televisual medium becomes increasingly not something to be concealed, but
rather a condition that the medium seeks to foreground and acknowledge.
In the paper I would present at "Excavating the Future," I will explore
the way in which televisual screen space serves to remediate modernism
through techniques both similar to and strikingly different from the use
of collage in modernist painting.  Beginning with the video of Douglas
Engelbart's 1968 demonstration of the newly invented direct manipulation
interface (what has come to be known as the graphical user interface, or
GUI), I look at the way in which this invention has helped to redraw the
boundaries between science, art, and technology by redefining media not as
representations of the kind of space that three-dimensional objects can
inhabit but as new quasi-objects or hybrids within the space of our
three-dimensional world.












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