Ars Electronica: Facing the Future: A Survey of Two Decades (Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice) [ハードカバー]

For the past two decades the Austrian-based Ars Electronica, Festival for Art, Technology, and Society has played a pivotal role in the development of electronic media. Linking artistic practice and critical theory, the annual festival and symposium bring together scientists, philosophers, sociologists, and artists in an ongoing discourse on the effects of digital media on creativityand on culture itself.

Since Ars Electronica's inception, the evolution of the artistic, historical, and theoretical works presented has been documented in a series of publications that remain crucial to any understanding of media art. Drawing on the abundant and inventive resources of those publications and on Ars Electronica's archives, this anthology collects the essential works that form the core of a contemporary art long dismissed as too technical or inaccessible. The book includes a critical introduction, full bibliography, and texts and artworks from the key figures in the field. Among the many contributors are Robert Adrian, Roy Ascott, Jean Baudrillard, Heidi Grundmann, Donna Haraway, Kathy Huffman, Friedrich Kittler, Knowbotic Research, Myron Kruger, Laurent Migonneau, Sadie Plant, Florian Rtzer, Paul Sermon, Carl Sims, Christa Sommerer, Woody Vasulka, Paul Virilio, Peter Weibel, and Gene Youngblood.

This is the inaugural book in the new series Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice.

Ars Electronica is an annual festival for art, technology, and society held in Linz, Austria. In addition to a competition in computer arts, the festival provides a forum for discussing electronic and digital media, their evolution, and their place within the culture at large. The Ars Electronica Center (www.aec.at) maintains an archive of past papers presented at the festival and Ars Electronica: Facing the Future culls some of the more interesting, and in many cases, prescient of those.

The essays are divided into three areas--history, theory, and practice--and range in topics from an essay Robert Moog presented in 1984 called "MIDI--What It Is and What It Means to Electronic Artists" to the Critical Art Ensemble's "Slacker Luddites" presented in 1995. There are excerpts from Otto Piene's writings on his Sky Art and a brief description of Karl Simm's interactive "evolutionary" art, in which pieces of computer code "propagate" to form new images in a form of "survival of the aesthetically fit." Steve Mann discusses his work in Humanistic Intelligence that "challenges the notion of environmental intelligence and ubiquitous surveillance machines" and focuses on wearable devices such as his wireless Web cam that makes "smart people" rather than "smart rooms."

The authors include artists, cultural philosophers, theorists, and educators in computer science and artificial intelligence and researchers in virtual reality, telecommunications, and media. While casual readers may find the sparsely illustrated, scholarly writing too technical and theoretical, those in the community of digital/electronic arts will be happy to have this convenient collection. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Essays from Ars Electronica festivals (1979-1999), covering history, theory, and practice of digital/electronic arts and technology in society and culture.

For the past two decades the Austrian-based Ars Electronica, Festival for Art, Technology, and Society has played a pivotal role in the development of electronic media. Linking artistic practice and critical theory, the annual festival and symposium bring together scientists, philosophers, sociologists, and artists in an ongoing discourse on the effects of digital media on creativity--and on culture itself. Since Ars Electronica's inception, the evolution of the artistic, historical, and theoretical works presented has been documented in a series of publications that remain crucial to any understanding of media art. Drawing on the abundant and inventive resources of those publications and on Ars Electronica's archives, this anthology collects the essential works that form the core of a contemporary art long dismissed as too technical or inaccessible. The book includes a critical introduction, full bibliography, and texts and artworks from the key figures in the field. Among the many contributors are Robert Adrian, Roy Ascott, Jean Baudrillard, Heidi Grundmann, Donna Haraway, Kathy Huffman, Friedrich Kittler, Knowbotic Research, Myron Kruger, Laurent Migonneau, Sadie Plant, Florian Rtzer, Paul Sermon, Carl Sims, Christa Sommerer, Woody Vasulka, Paul Virilio, Peter Weibel, and Gene Youngblood. This is the inaugural book in the new series Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice.

Timothy Druckrey is an independent curator and writer and editor of Ars Electronica: Facing the Future (MIT Press, 1999). He lectures internationally on the social impact of digital media, the transformations of representation, and communication in interactive and networked environments.