Marcos Novak

Marcos Novak will visit the Lamar Dodd School of Art at UGA from Nov. 26-28. Novak who refers to his virtual reality art-works, as “liquid architecture and navigable music,” will also present a lecture on Nov. 27 at 5:30 p.m. at the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium at the Georgia Museum of Art. His lecture is sponsored by the School of Art and open and free to the public. Novak is a transarchitect: an architect, artist, composer, and theorist who employs algorithmic techniques to design actual, virtual and hybrid intelligent environments. He uses computer algorithmic techniques to “compose” architecture: four-dimensional architecture, which moves around in space, shifting color and form. Novak, and all other participants of the Artist/Scholar series, conduct workshops for students and meet with faculty members during their 3-5 day residencies at the University of Georgia. In addition to his lecture and workshops with the School of Art, Novak will also participate in a Digital Brown Bag session with the University’s New Media Institute on Thurs. Nov. 29 from 12:30 p.m. until 1:20 pm. A weekly gathering of UGA students, faculty and staff as well as local artists, businesses and government officials, these brown bag discussions are free and open to the public.

ICE Age


November 5, 2001
Columns

Interdisciplinary institute explores creative potential of technology
By Rebecca Ayer

In the arts, the individual artist is often held up as a model of singular genius. Yet an interdisciplinary institute currently in the UGA’s ICE Web site works at the university might change all that, creating a collaborative model for teaching that will open new territory for students and faculty interested in exploring the creative potential of technology.

On Oct. 31, the steering committee for the Institute for Creative Exploration launched its first official collaborative project merging technology and the arts–the ICE Web site. “The Web seemed an ideal place to start,” says Mark Callahan, project coordinator for the Web site. “The establishment of a Web site would give it a virtual presence and would provide neutral space for ICE artists to meet on collaborative projects.”

The ICE Web site, developed by an eight-member group of faculty, students, alumni and local artists, will house information about ICE and the ICE Summit and serve as the home for a group of Web-based projects.

ICE’s current Web projects–called Human Broadcast, Living Room, Narrative Generator and Hand-Off–track the creative process as individual artists respond to a work in turn or collectively. These projects, along with the site’s animations, interactive text and virtual zones, call for outside participation, allowing the site to continually reinvent itself as the institute’s new collaborative culture emerges.

“I’m a word person and don’t have the technical training that others working on the site do,” says Brian Henry, a local poet and professor in the English department’s creative writing program who worked on the site’s Narrative Generator project, “but everyone contributed to the initial ideas. It was exhilarating. I saw where I could fit in.”

With these invitational Web-based projects, ICE hopes to reach out to artists worldwide. This idea is as “cutting-edge” as the technology involved in creating it.

“The beauty of the site is that that it’s dynamic. It invites new collaboration,” says Tara Rebelet, a local performance artist and Living Room collaborator. “But it’s also very focused on the humanity behind the art. It reminds people that there is a real artist making real art in real time.” Carmon Colangelo, director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, had been interested in an interdisciplinary research environment for the arts since the beginning of his tenure at the university in 1997. He was familiar with the Center for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and its studio for collaborative projects between the arts and sciences and felt that such a program would be a perfect fit for a research institution such as UGA.

“The University of Georgia is a prime site for this type of institute,” he says. “It’s at a point where it can compete for some of the best faculty and, as one of its initiatives, it’s hoping to build its graduate program.”

The ICE steering committee sponsored its first summit, Ideas for Creative Exploration, in April 2001 with funding from the provost’s office and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Although the summit provided an opportunity to showcase collaborations already taking place, central to the event was its series of roundtable discussions.

These panels brought together individuals, both nationally and internationally, to discuss the ideas behind interdisciplinary collaborations and just how ICE might be able to facilitate them. John Moores University in Liverpool and the Kitchen in New York have displayed interest in collaborating with ICE in the future.

“Collaborative projects have been happening on campus for the past decade, but they’ve gotten lost in the noise,” says drama professor David Z. Saltz, head of ICE’s projects committee. “One reason for ICE is to help draw attention to what is going on here.”

More than 20 faculty and students from various departments–art, drama, music, dance and creative writing–have been involved in the ICE planning process so far.

Dance department head Bala Sarasvati and the Core Concert Dance Company worked with various ICE members on an interdisciplinary piece melding interactive technology, animation and marine science this past spring. “I’m very excited about ICE,” Sarasvati says. “It will allow people to branch out and explore, expose students to other areas and allow them to share perspectives and make connections out in the professional world.”

ICE Collab

Human Broadcast

Human Broadcast

In spring 2001 a group of students, faculty, and local artists were invited to create works responding to the preliminary design and navigational structure of the ICE Web site. The group consisted of eight participants: Flint Buchanan (M.F.A. Sculpture), Mark Callahan (Instructor, Art), Kathryn Hammond (M.F.A. Drama), Brian Henry (Head, Creative Writing), Carl Martin, Tara Rebele, and Lee Smith (PhD. Drama) working with Web designer Damien Schaefer (B.F.A. Art). The group called the project the ICE Collab, a reference to its experimental and collaborative nature. After several brainstorming sessions they decided to develop four projects, each representing a different approach to collaboration.

Handing Off

In Handing Off participants submit new projects or modified versions of existing projects. Individual production is preserved, as in the familiar model of exquisite corpse, with the addition of a gallery of archived works.

Human Broadcast is an short animation composed of intimate images and voices. The movie treats the convention of the animated “loading” graphic as a self-contained narrative, entertaining and preparing the viewer for the experience of ICE.

Living Room

Living Room

Living Room is a dynamic space that promotes discourse through shared links, a discussion area, and an announcement board. The project evolves as new links and sections are added. This is a place for the exchange of ideas and information an environment where future projects may develop.

Narrative Generator provides an interactive environment for the creation and navigation of a collective body of text. It is an open-ended, non-linear structure that can be added to and recontextualized endlessly. The project was conceived as a way to explore the internet as a de-centered production space, in the vein of internet bulletin boards and online interactive projects, but with a focus on developing innovative ways to expand and structure these models.

Human vs. Hardware

Jaron Lanier, ICE Summit Keynote Speaker

A personal account of the ICE Summit by Mark Callahan:

Ideas for Creative Exploration describes an ongoing dialogue that has recognized the overlapping of disciplines in contemporary art practice and the potential of generating new projects in a collaborative studio program.

The ICE Summit welcomed a diverse group of guests, known for their roles as innovators in the arts, to Athens for three days of presentations, performance, and conversation.

ICE made its first public appearance on Wednesday night with a keynote address delivered by Jaron Lanier. My immediate response was to the figure of Lanier set against an enormous oil painting of the interior of St. Peter’s in Rome, which dominates the stage area of UGA’s historic Greek-revival Chapel. This unintentional pairing of images seemed appropriate to the event, as Lanier referenced his involvement in the development of MIDI, Virtual Reality, and Tele-immersion technologies in a speech punctuated by humanist themes more familiar to the traditional academic environment of the university. Lanier’s carefully constructed speech called on artists to play an active part in the development of new tools, and criticized the trend toward letting machines dictate the parameters of new art. Following the address, he invited the audience to an informal viewing of a recent concert videotaped in Poland which featured Lanier playing an array of unusual wind instruments accompanied by a full orchestra. The most interesting aspect of the performance was a projected digital animation, programmed by Lanier to generate images from sound, that the musicians could “learn” to play.

The Summit fluctuated between scheduled events and a continuous high-energy discussion that revolved around ICE. Thursday’s itinerary included tours of art and performance facilities on the UGA campus and concluded with an evening of public performance. Troika Ranch, a dance studio based in New York, performed several works that incorporated interactive digital technology by using actual movement to trigger sampled video and sound.

Throughout the Summit ICE existed as a kind of sketch, a point of reference for intersecting lines of thought. Friday’s business meeting and roundtable presentations explored the potential of an Institute for Creative Exploration from cultural, practical, and educational perspectives. Jim Kerkhoff, from the Center for Advanced Studies in the Arts (CASA) at the University of Texas, Austin, shared his observations about the history of CASA and his visits to comparable programs including the Media Lab at MIT. Kerkhoff and others stressed the need to define the institutional culture of ICE, scan the immediate environment for funding opportunities and unoccupied niches, link existing practices on campus, and develop a very specific mission statement. Christina Yang, from the Kitchen in New York, discussed the importance of locating existing and emerging talent in the community. She described the Kitchen as a neighborhood resource that supports artists. Her ideas were underscored by a video presentation that traced the thirty-year history of the Kitchen with clips of early performances by Woody Vasulka and Steina, Laurie Anderson, Bill T. Jones, and others. Colin Fallows, from Liverpool John Moores University in England, suggested that ICE should begin to visualize projects. He identified the Internet, CD-ROM exhibitions, and participation in international festivals such as Ars Electronica and the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA) as ways to extend ICE to a global network through projects and publications. Steve Murakishi, from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, characterized ICE as an organism fed by critical discourse in a “culture of communication”. To build an educational model, Murakishi suggested that ICE identify what it means to be a contemporary practitioner and maintain currency by generating new projects.

Looking back on my notes from the Summit, I notice an underlined phrase, “human vs. hardware”. Considering the role that new tools have played in the careers of those in attendance, it may seem surprising that so little of the conversation was devoted to technology. Ultimately, the impact of the Summit was felt in the resolve to move ICE forward through projects and people. By focusing on new collaborations, ICE will maintain its ability to navigate the changing conditions of cultural production.

ICE Summit Visitor: Philip Auslander

Philip Auslander
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia

Philip Auslander’s primary discipline is Performance Studies. He has written on aesthetic and cultural performances as diverse as theatre, performance art, music, stand-up comedy, and courtroom procedures. His specific interests include performance theory, the relationship of performance to media and technology, and intellectual property.

ICE Summit Visitors: Troika Ranch

Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello are the founders of  Troika Ranch , a New York-based company that integrates dance, theater and interactive digital media in live performance works.

Coniglio has focused his career as an artist and computer programmer towards a singular goal: to find ways for the movements and vocalizations of performers to interactively manipulate digital media in a meaningful way. 

Stoppiello’s choreography reflects her keen interest in visual rhythm, kinetic complexity and non-linear motion. An examination of the changing state of the human body as it responds to the increasingly technological world that surrounds it is a reoccurring and underlying theme in her works.