Comments for Roger Malina

Comment on WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF ART-SCI ? by admin

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:19:09 +0000

here is a statement from scientist sid nagel:

Why we think more collaboration between scientists and artists should be encouraged/funded
can you summarize why you think there is a compelling case today?
There are a number of different aspects that I think are important. Some of these have to do with sociological issues and others have to do with the interplay between good science questions and good artistic questions.

Among the first set is the issue of how do scientists communicate with the public that supports their work. This is one aspect of “outreach”. Here there is a clear connection between research scientists and, for example, exhibit developers at museums. If we want to get the public interested in forefront research, it must be made accessible. Collaboration with artists can make this happen. You see this at some of the great museums like the Exploratorium in San Francisco and, more recently, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. (There is one thing I would worry about. The big museums, like MSI, are averse to controversy. So, in their new exhibit, I do not think that they really mention anything about global warming – one way or the other. But on the other hand, their new exhibit is visually stunning!)

Coming to the second set of issues – the interplay between science questions and artistic questions – there is a developing area of modern physics that has the potential to show such overlap. This is the area that goes by the name of soft condensed-matter physics. This area of physics concentrates to a large extent on the non-equilibrium and non-linear and disordered aspects of the material world around us. These are some of the most important and compelling problems in all of science today. I cannot think of an area in which progress in dealing with far-from-equilibrium phenomena would not have a huge potential impact.
So much of the texture of the world around us is governed by these aspects of physics that we know little about. However, it is just this texture of the world that forms the basis for much art: the subject matter is quite often the same. This is the reason why some of the most effective science/art exhibits deal with this set of phenomena.

Some of the most cutting-edge restaurants, like Alinea in Chicago, deal with new ways of preparing food that makes use of these soft-matter phenomena (for example, foams or gels.) Many artists, are fascinated by the behavior of sand. This is also an area of active interest in the soft-condensed matter community. Likewise, chaos (how a little bit of a change in the initial conditions can change the outcome) is a theme that goes through modern literature and film. Culture, which encompasses both art and science, has this as a recurring theme. It is studied by both groups.
Often, the way something looks is important for why we study it. Certainly, in my own case, I have been led to continue our study of fluid phenomena just from the images that their close study produces. I insist that this is not a secondary or unimportant reason to compel our interest. For too long we have tried to separate our curiosity into two distinct and disconnected compartments. What aspects of the world have we missed by doing so?

We have academic claustrophobia. So often we bemoan the narrowness of our individual vision: we are experts in ever-narrowing realms of knowledge. Especially when dealing with some of the broader scientific questions facing us today, such as the understanding of far-from-equilibrium phenomena. Curiosity and looking for clues in all places is probably essential for developing a new vision.

Comment on WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF ART-SCI ? by Drew Lesso

Drew Lesso — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:56:58 +0000

I was surprised that my comment regarding the ‘eventual unification’ of the Arts & Sciences would spur controversy. I certainly do not wish to become the poster child for the unification integration of the Arts & Sciences, although from the content within the Harmonics section on my web archive that this would seem to be the case.

Let me clarify my position. The keyword for me is ‘eventual’. Placing this word on a timeline, I would equate the unification of ART SCI on the same basis as robots with cognizance. This puts the matter ‘way far’ into the future.

This whole SCI ART unification issue has a long history. We could start with the Pythagoreans, further with Plato, into the reasoning and the causes of the Renaissance, Kepler, Newton, eastern culture; there are so many artists and scientists along the way and far too many to mention here, but certainly ample material for an ART SCI encyclopedia of Artists using science and Scientists thinking like artists.

I agree with Annick, that each discipline needs to keep its own identity and methods. There will always be artists who simply paint or write poetry and scientists devoted purely to their particular fields. Additionally there is a new subset, lets call them ‘researcher discovers’, who cross the boundaries of Art and Science.

What has occurred recently can be primarily attributed to the haptical innovation of the mouse click that controls an accompanying algorithmic procedure and the somewhat simple combination of algorithmic procedures that artists as well as scientists find useful. It is just amazing, armed with the knowledge of mouse clicking and key commands, that any program becomes accessible at some level to the masses. This is revolution!

For this revolution to work toward humanity’s benefit it is essential that a new educational system be considered, starting with primary education. We elders are already immersed in this sea of mouse clicks and internet library. For the newly born this experience is reality.

My experience as a composer, who in the late 60′s began questioning whether a connection existed with the visual world; more than 35 years later I have become an experienced Harmonist in the tradition of Hans Kayser. (www.hanskayser.com) I base most of my work upon the rediscoveries of Albert Thimus and Hans Kayser. I am amazed at how closely the discipline of Harmonics runs parallel to computer development. The work of Stephen Wolfram is also very close to harmonic thought.

For starters, I would advise that the monochord be introduced into primary education. The relationship of quantity (ratio-number) and quality (tone), then time and space, and also frequency and string length are essential reciprocities for all of the Arts and Sciences. An interesting catalog should be gathered for all types of reciprocity. Some of the keys to our future lie here, constructing a basis for the education of children, proceeding into the new age, which I presume to be a golden age, but in which we will not exist and only play our part, to lead coming generations.

Comment on WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF ART-SCI ? by admin

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:45:18 +0000

annick bureaud sent me this comment:

basically she argues that in art-science collaboration each discipline needs to keep its own identity, methods, languages and neither one seeks to be in support of the other

she states that there is an equilibrium between scientific rigor and artistic integrity that must be respected

roger

Le slogan est issu d’une discussion que j’avais eu avec Flow Motion.

Dans la relation art/science, il me semble important que la science garde son identité et l’art aussi. A la rigueur scientifique correspond l’intégrité artistique. Autrement dit chacun respecte ses méthodes, méthodologies, etc. et n’essaie pas d’être le faire valoir de l’autre, ni de se servir de l’autre, chacun dans son langage et son intégrité.

Bon, je ne suis pas sûre d’être plus claire

Annick

Comment on How to select Art-Sci through Peer Review by admin

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:24:11 +0000

from robert root bernstein
Yes, I learned these lessons the hard way. I was one of three people asked
>> to put together the criteria to be used to choose the NIH Director’s Pioneer
>> Awards — grants for very high risk, pioneering work that would never be
>> fundable under normal grant procedures. The three of us worked very hard to
>> make good criteria only to find that the reviewers chosen by the
>> NIH Director were the typical Harvard/CalTech types who only valued what
>> they could already do. So they ignored the criteria. I’m worried about that
>> in this case as well. How do we recognize which “babies” have the potential
>> to change the world and which are just going to be “sheep” and follow the
>> herd? My feeling is that it takes one to recognize one, so only those of us
>> who have been pushing boundaries and melding disciplines have the expertise
>> to evaluate other people’s “babies”. And that obviously includes artists
>> who have been moving into science and technology arenas. I don’t understand
>> why we don’t value autodidacticism — most of what anyone learns that is of
>> value is what they teach themselves…. But so many people only see degrees:
>> this one I know, too, from personal experience: my Ph. D. is in History of
>> Science. SOme of my science colleagues still can’t accept that 30 years
>> later, despite all my publications, having run a lab this whole time, etc.
>> Ah well…

Comment on How to select Art-Sci through Peer Review by admin

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:09:30 +0000

Drew

thanks for your comment

Yes- we would like to see a proliferation of art science projects of various types, but i want to challenge your assertion that:

but the goal of ART SCI is an eventual unification integration

I am not sure at all that this the goal, or should be the goal.
I am not a big believer in the ‘third culture’ argument. I think there are really good reasons to develop focused disciplines= but that on some problems we have no choice but to combine forces – this is sometimes called the ‘water problem’- if you take an issue like climate change- it clearly bridges the sciences, arts and humanities ( and then into the political and social spheres) for this problem we have no choice but to proliferate art-science projects of various types

roger malina

Comment on How to select Art-Sci through Peer Review by Drew Lesso

Drew Lesso — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:12:06 +0000

It would seem that the argument for ‘weak science’ is actually double entente in so far that we can also speak of ‘weak art’. At this juncture, when ART SCI collaborations are hardly the norm, sometime results seemingly tend to diminished effects. This should not be a prescription for ART SCI collaboration to proceed at half throttle. True, not every collaboration should be funded, but the goal of ART SCI is an eventual unification integration; we can all agree that both sides have much to gain in the ART SCI mix. So any of these collaborations really have much to offer the individual participants in the short term. Then upon returning to their perspective and protected hives, that further discussion can only enhance a merger of individual disciplines, not to mention discovery and innovation. More projects need to be commissioned if only because of our inherent sense of inquiry and progression.

Comment on UPCOMING NSF/NEA WORKSHOP ON ART SCIENCE by admin

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:23:10 +0000

sharada srinivasan to roger
show details Aug 26 (1 day ago)
..OK fine, thats cool..

(

but that brings me to the fact that,(moving entitely outside the realm of the specific concerns etc of your conference and just talking in general) there is the larger point that the scientific enterprise/s need to also engage more with the idea of funding the arts or humanities without asking too searchingly how will it benefit science in a very tangible way, but taking a broader or longer term view of looking at the intangible benefits.

I say this because for eg as a case study we are now putting in this major proposal for a centre for heritage science, but since our work has a major aspect of materials science applied to heritage it needs to be housed with good access to a science-based institution and needs support from organisations which fund science or are scientific organisations, but we often get asked the question by the scientific bodies that how does this activity actually benefit science, ie implying that if it could concretely benefit science it would be more worthy of funding.

which is difficult to pinpoint becuase obviously the more obvious benefits are towards lets say historical understanding, conservation, cultural anthropology etc. but its harder to concretely say the benefits to science are that so and so compound that can’t be easily studied in modern materials science is found in some archaeological material and hence these things add to our scientific knowledge, and maybe its also the case that within my own discipline for example one hasnt tried too much to sit down and quantify the actual benefits to science which are probably there in a tangible sense (maybe one ought to try to do that too..).

But at the same time the scientific bodies need to have the larger vision so to speak about the benefits to science which are undeniably there, for example in an educational sense and other ways. (for eg experimental or scientific archaeology or craft-based ethnotechnological studies can be a great way to get students interested in materials etc.), usefulness for debates on science communication, inclucating a basic sense of aesthetic and the related intangible benefits of that whatever those are and so on..

(By the way since i mentioned it, iam happy to say we have made headway with this idea of a centre and more by and by)

best

Sharada

Comment on UPCOMING NSF/NEA WORKSHOP ON ART SCIENCE by admin

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:06:52 +0000

Here is the attendee list for the NSF NEA workshop as of Aug

Re/search: Art, Science, and Information Technology
a joint meeting of the National Science Foundation
Computer & Information Science & Engineering
Division of Intelligent Information Systems
and the National Endowment for the Arts

September 15 & 16, 2010
National Science Foundation Headquarters
Arlington, Virginia

WORKSHOP ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Laurie Durnell
Director of Consulting and Graphics Facilitator
The Grove Consultants International

D. Fox Harrell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Digital Media
Comparative Media Studies Program | Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Pamela L. Jennings, Ph.D.
Program Director, CreativeIT and Human Centered Computing
Computer & Information Science & Engineering Directorate
Division of Intelligent Information Systems
National Science Foundation

Bill O’Brien
Senior Advisor for Program Innovation
National Endowment for the Arts

Joan Shigekawa
Senior Deputy Chairman
National Endowment for the Arts

Caralyn Spector
Arts Policy Advisor
National Endowment for the Arts

Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
TERC Education Research Collaborative

Piotr Adamczyk
Associate Analyst, Website Department
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jeffrey Bardzell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of HCI/Design and New Media
School of Informatics and Computing
Indiana University

Jay David Bolter, Ph.D.
Professor and Wesley Chair in New Media
Co-Director, New Media Center
School of Literature, Communication and Culture
Georgia Institute of Technology

Marjorie Blumenthal, Ph.D.
Associate Provost, Academic
Georgetown University

Jonas Braasch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Communication Acoustics and Aural Architecture Research Lab
School of Architecture
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Shawn Brixey
Professor and Floyd and Delores Jones Endowed Chair
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Washington

Claudine Brown, J.D.
Director of Education
Smithsonian Institution

Sheldon Brown
Professor of Visual Arts
Director, Center for Research in Computing & the Arts
University of California, San Diego
Founder, New Media Arts for the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information
Technologies (CalIT2)

Winslow Burleson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Human Computer Interaction
Arts, Media and Engineering Program and
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Arizona State University

Donna Cox, Ph.D.
Professor
Michael Aiken Endowed Chair Investiture and
Director, Advanced Visualization Laboratory & eDream Institute
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Amanda McDonald Crowley
Executive Director
Eyebeam Art and Technology Center

Chris Csikszentmihalyi
Director, Center for Future Civic Media
Computing Culture, MIT Media Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jeremy Douglass, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Software Studies
Center for Research in Computing in the Arts (CRCA)
University of California, San Diego

Elizabeth Daley, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Cinematic Arts
University of Southern California

Jon Eisenberg, Ph.D.
Director, Computer Science & Telecommunications Board
The National Academies

Sean Elwood
Director, Grants and Services
Creative Capital Foundation

Sally Jo Fifer
President & CEO
Independent Television Service (ITVS)

Gerhard Fischer, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Lifelong Learning and Design
Professor, Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado, Boulder

Tracy Fullerton
Associate Professor, Interactive Media
Director, Game Innovation Lab
School of Cinematic Arts
University of Southern California

Alan Gershenfeld
Founder & President
E-Line Media

Diane Gromala, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and
Canada Research Chair in Multidisciplinary and Media Arts
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Simon Fraser University, Canada

Mark Gross, Ph.D.
Professor, Computational Design
School of Architecture
Carnegie Mellon University

David Theo Goldberg, Ph.D.
Director and Professor
University of California Humanities Research Institute
University of California, Irvine

Ken Goldberg, Ph.D.
Professor and Craigslist Distinguished Chair in New Media
Professor of Engineering and Operations Research
College of Engineering & School of Information
Director, Berkeley Center for New Media
University of California, Berkeley

Tracy Hammond, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Computer Science & Engineering Department
Director, Sketch Recognition Lab
Texas A&M University

Steve Harrison
Associate Professor of Practice
Department of Computer Science and School of Visual Arts
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tom Hewett, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology and Computer Science
Department of Psychology
Drexel University

Adriene Jenik
Professor and Director, School of Art
Katherine K. Herberger Endowed Chair in Fine Arts
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Arizona State University

Natalie Jeremijenko
Associate Professor of Visual Art
xDesign Environmental Health Clinic
New York University

Jason Kelly Johnson
Design Principal, Future Cities Lab
Assistant Professor of Architecture & Design
California College of the Arts

Paul Kaiser
New Media Artist
OpenEnded Group

Dennis Kratz, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Arts & Humanities
Ignacy and Celina Rockover Professor of Humanities
University of Texas, Dallas

JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Ph.D.
Director, Allosphere Research Laboratory
California Nanosystems Institute

Professor, Media Arts and Technology and Music
Director, Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Joe Lewis
Dean, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
University of California, Irvine

Chico MacMurtrie
Artistic Director, Amorphic Robot Works

Roger Malina, Ph.D.
Director, Observatoire Astronomique of Marseille Provence and
Executive Editor Leonardo Publications, MIT Press
President of the Association Leonardo, Paris
Board Member, Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology

Fred G. Martin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Computer Science
University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Michael Mateas, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Expressive Intelligence Studio
Computer Science Department
University of California, Santa Cruz

Ali Mazalek, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Synaesthetic Media Lab
Literature, Communication, and Culture / Graphics, Visualization, Usability Center
Georgia Institute of Technology

Nick Montfort, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Digital Media
Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Gunalan Nadarajan
Vice Provost for Research
Maryland Institute College of Art

Michael Naimark
Research Associate Professor
Interactive Media Division
School of Cinematic Arts
University of Southern California

Simon Penny
Professor of Arts and Engineering
Claire Trevor School of Arts
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science
University of California, Irvine

Andrea Polli
Mesa Del Sol Chair and Associate Professor of Digital Media
Founding Director, Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program
Director, Arts Lab
Department of Film and Media
University of New Mexico

Sabrina Raaf
New Media Artist and Associate Professor
School of Art & Design
University of Illinois, Chicago

Ben Rubin
Media Artist, Ear Studio

Orit Shaer, Ph.D.
Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Wellesley College

Brian K. Smith, Ph.D.
Dean, Continuing Education
Rhode Island School of Design

Atau Tanaka
Professor and Chair, Digital Media
Director of Culture Lab
Newcastle University, U.K.

Ron Wakkary, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Simon Fraser University

Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Baskin School of Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz

McKenzie Wark, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Chair of Culture and Media
Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs
Eugene Lang College
The New School for Social Research

Constance Yowell, Ph.D.
Director of Education
Program on Human and Community Development
The MacArthur Foundation

Andrew Zolli
CEO, Z + Partners
Curator and Executive Director, Pop!Tech

Comment on UPCOMING NSF/NEA WORKSHOP ON ART SCIENCE by admin

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:06:20 +0000

Here is the attendee list for the NSF NEA workshop as of Aug
Re/search: Art, Science, and Information Technology
a joint meeting of the National Science Foundation
Computer & Information Science & Engineering
Division of Intelligent Information Systems
and the National Endowment for the Arts