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Leonardo Electronic Almanac       volume 10,   number 10,   October 2002
_________________________________________________________________________
ISSN #1071-4391

                            ____________
                           |            |
                           |  CONTENTS  |
                           |____________|

_________________________________________________________________________

EDITORIAL
---------
by Michael Punt

LEONARDO DIGITAL REVIEWS
-------------------------

< Origins, Imitation, Conventions: Representation in the Visual
Arts, reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen >

< The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architectures from
Constant's New Babylon to Beyond, reviewed by Mike Mosher >

< Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of the Italian
Renaissance, reviewed by Amy Ione >

< The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of
Consciousness, reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold>

< Behind the Scenes: With David Hockney, reviewed by Roy R.
Behrens >

< Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction,
reviewed by Robert Pepperell>

< Experimental Cinema in the Digital Age, reviewed by 
Mike Leggett >

< Making Sense of Life, Explaining Biological Development with
Models, Metaphors and Machines, reviewed by Curtis E.A. Karnow >

< Spacefaring: The Human Dimension, reviewed by Cliff Pickover >

< Spectacular Bodies: The Art and Science of the Human Body from
Leonardo to Now, reviewed by Frieder Nake >

< La plan�te des esprits - pour une politique du cyberespace,
reviewed by Julien Knebusch >

< Synaesthesia: The Strangest Thing, reviewed by Paul Hertz >

< Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the
Theoretical Chapters, reviewed by David Topper >

< Consciousness, Color and Content, reviewed by George Shortess >

ISAST NEWS
----------
< OLATS News >


ANNOUNCEMENTS
-------------
< Leonardo Reminder : cfp - Art or Science projects in
Variable Gravity @ Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre >

< In Memory of Yury Pravdiuk > 

< New Leonardo Book Coming Soon: Virtual Art by Oliver Grau >

< Digital Vermeer House Project >

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                            _______________
                           |               |
                           |   EDITORIAL   |
                           |_______________|

_________________________________________________________________________

< Highlights of LDR Special >

For the next two months, *Leonardo Electronic Almanac* will
feature the work of the panel at Leonardo Digital Reviews. This
exposure is intended as a celebration of what has been achieved
and an anticipation of things to come. Leonardo Digital Reviews
has had a distinct presence in the *Leonardo* network for a
number of years and, thanks to the solid commitment of its panel
of reviewers and the production team, it has forged a distinct
intellectual identity as it underpins the *Leonardo* project in
all its various manifestations. It is a particular delight for me
to be asked to guest-edit these two editions in my capacity as
editor-in-chief of Leonardo Digital Reviews. This will allow me
first to underline its objective as it has developed in response
to the work of the panel and, second, to say something of the
mechanisms that are in place to ensure its relevance, currency
and objectivity. Finally, it provides an opportunity to present a
cross-section of reviews that, although they are all only three
clicks away, explicitly demonstrate the trans-disciplinarity of
the panel's collective output.

The Mission
------------

The mission of Leonardo Digital Reviews is to further the aims of
ISAST and *Leonardo* through the agency of critical commentary on
a full range of events, exhibitions, publications and expositions
that are significant to the developing field and modalities of
collaboration in art, science and technology. In the process of
reflection on important interventions by artists, scientists and
engineers, Leonardo Digital Reviews expects to open new
provocations in the central debates relevant to the ISAST
community through a variety of literary strategies made available
on a broad publishing platform. In short, as much as we see it as
our responsibility to inform our community of relevant material
as it becomes available, we see no obligation to present that
information uncritically or, for that matter, as the sole topic
of the reflection expressed. We take the view that the primary
purpose of our work is to liberate intellectual property so that
it may be used (in the best sense of the word) and Leonardo
Digital Reviews expects to be one of the arenas where material is
used first.

The Process
------------

Leonardo Digital Reviews receives unsolicited materials from an
array of publishers, artists, musicians, scientists, engineers,
cultural analysts and philosophers on the basis of their
familiarity with ISAST, *Leonardo,* Leonardo Digital Reviews and
the work of the panel. It also actively gathers material that
seems important or relevant to the developing debates. A list of
this material is circulated monthly to a panel of reviewers and,
although we make every effort to support those in our field,
receipt of material does not necessarily result in a review
(although of course, everything is acknowledged in *Leonardo*).

The key to our work is the review panel, which comprises around
70 artists, scientists and engineers, drawn from the widest
cultural spectrum that we can achieve. They commit to write a
minimum number of reviews, selecting their own topics and filing
either brief informative accounts, extended critical engagements
or articles structured around the innovative aspects of the
intervention. These are published on a monthly basis with the
minimum of editing, on a dedicated website managed by a
web-coordinator Robert Pepperell, to a strict deadline of the
first day of the month for updating the website in order to
provide a predictable service to our readers. Some of these
reviews are subsequently drawn to the attention of the readers of
*Leonardo Electronic Almanac,* and finally some are used in the
Reviews section of *Leonardo* (occasionally, a review is also
syndicated to another journal). As you can imagine, the second
most demanding task in this process is the administration and
tracking of the various stages of the process, from submitted
item to published review, and we are grateful to our managing
editor Bryony Dalefield for her diligent management, without
which there would be little intellectual coherence.

The most difficult and relentless task is, of course, that
undertaken by the panelists, who commit to an item and are then
charged with producing an article that honestly reflects the
artist or author's intentions as well as engaging the *Leonardo*
community in a relevant debate without entirely masking their own
voice. All this must be done in around 700 words, an imposed
limitation that recognizes that most readers will come to the
reviews through the website. Moreover, since we see ourselves as
essentially an academic service, we insist that there is an
appropriate critical distance between reviewer and author. Given
the nature of our intellectual community, this is inevitably a
difficult balance to strike, since most authorities in the field
are inevitably within the ISAST orbit as either producers,
teachers or critics, and in the case of Leonardo Digital Reviews,
very often all three. In fuller recognition of the intellectual
resource that Leonardo Digital Reviews has gathered, we have made
space for longer review articles dealing with more than one item,
their purpose being to make more explicit the nature of the
intervention in a particular context in which the reviewer is an
authority. These are of course much more difficult to read
on-screen but, given the intensity and lucidity of the argument,
we have taken the view that the reader's motivation overcomes the
"noise" in the system.

Producing a steady stream of good-quality copy takes its toll on
other aspects of one's professional life, and not surprisingly
panel members tend to go through cycles of heightened activity
and dormant reflection. For this reason, a critical mass of
reviewers committed to the project is seen as essential and we
have found a properly distributed array of interest between 70 or
so members is an optimum number - with more, it becomes a babble
of voices, with less there is no time for retrenchment and
reflection. Most members of the panel have arrived through
invitation or recommendation, but some of our most valuable
contributors have initially suggested themselves. Depending on
the current constitution of the panel and evidence of a person's
previous reviews, contributions are welcome from anyone who is
familiar with the work of Leonardo Digital Reviews and has the
inclination to engage with the demands and to apply to join.

The Anthology
-------------

Given this introduction, producing an anthology of reviews from
the past 12 months is neither a process of omission nor of
constructing a hierarchy of talent. In order to make more evident
the intellectual resource, its output and potential, what follows
is a representation of 12 months' reviews - in these 12 months,
Leonardo Digital Reviews published around 150 items that would,
in hard copy, be sufficient for two quite daunting books. In one
sense, the selection criteria is mechanistic: each panel member
who has contributed more than one review will be represented.
However, the selection of which pieces to put alongside one
another is determined by the intention to explicitly demonstrate,
through analogy, the trans-disciplinarity of the panel's
collective output. I hope in this way to make more visible the
full potential of what has been achieved over the past 12 months.

In the first part of this special edition of *Leonardo Electronic
Almanac,* we will look at the panel's response to books and
journals and, in the second part next month, we will focus on the
films, videos, exhibitions, websites, CDs and events that have
been covered in Leonardo Digital Reviews.

Michael Punt
Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Digital Reviews


_________________________________________________________________________
                  _________________________________
                 |                                 |
                 |                                 |
                 |    LEONARDO DIGITAL REVIEWS     |
                 |            2002.10              |
                 |_________________________________|

_________________________________________________________________________

< Origins, Imitation, Conventions: Representation in the Visual Arts >
by James S. Ackerman, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002. 328 pp.,
illus. Trade, $45.00. ISBN: 0-262-01186-7.

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen, <stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be>

This collection contains some dozen studies, written over the
past decade by Harvard art historian James S. Ackerman, on the
origins and evolution of architectural representation. Ranging
from a detailed analysis of "The Origins of Art History and
Criticism" to a more sketchy "On the Origins of Architectural
Photography," it includes studies of Leonardo da Vinci's church
designs and Thomas Jefferson's affection for classical Italian
architecture. Each study can be read separately, but together
they form a multi-faceted, impressionistic view of the earliest
stages of the formation of architectural representation as we
know it and of the continuing influence of classical aesthetics
on Renaissance and early modern architecture.

Ackerman's original problem appears to have been: How did modern
representational conventions (orthogonal drawing, elevation,
ground plan, etc.) develop from pre-modern architectural drawing?
He answers this question in four detailed and amply illustrated
studies, starting with an analysis of, among others, Villard de
Honnecourt's drawings of Reims cathedral and progressing on to a
discussion of Hippolyte Bayard's photographs of the Church of the
Madeleine in Paris. In each study, the author emphasizes the
interplay of tradition and imitation, on the one hand, and
innovation on the other. He certainly makes it clear that
development cannot be understood in a teleological sense, and
that what we call "progress" or the process of modernization is
an incremental, sinuous and piecemeal transformation that has
taken place in small steps, scattered throughout hundreds of
representations by architects and artists in different places and
times. What has actually driven this development has been a
combination of the creation of meanings, the pressure of
technologies, new building practices (the emergence of the
professional architect, among others) and the adherence to
tradition.

Three essays punctuate the collection: "On the Origins of Art
History and Criticism," "Imitation" and "The Conventions and
Rhetoric of Architectural Drawing." Here, Ackerman reflectively
synthesizes the results of his more detailed and analytical work.
In each, he discusses one leg of the tripod upon which
architectural representation rests.

"The Conventions..." is perhaps the most interesting study for
anyone generally interested in architectural practice. Ackerman
convincingly argues that no representation is "objective" or the
result of a Cartesian move. In every single drawing or plan,
several layers of meaning lay hidden and consequently, the
representation becomes first, a goal in itself and next, a way to
convey ideas and theories. This is exemplified in works by, for
example, Tschumi, Koolhaas, Himmelblau and Asymptote.
Paradoxically, the expression of new ideas calls for the use of
well-understood and traditional conventions of representation.
"Therefore," writes Ackerman, "unlike architectural styles or
drafting techniques, they have almost no history. . . Although it
is interesting for a historian to examine the reasons, the
ideology, and the conditions of the invention, issues of
evolution are of only minor historical interest. This field of
investigation, then, is more closely related to semiology than to
standard architectural research."

*Origins, Imitation, Conventions* is well-written and
well-illustrated. Although it covers a wide range of material, it
is neither a bedside nor a coffee table book; it thinks deeply,
but is not a proper theoretical treatise. One wonders what its
audience could be - apart from LDR reviewers and anyone who is
just genuinely interested in architecture as a language or in
what could possibly connect Vitruvius, Leonardo, Thomas Jefferson
and Rem Koolhaas.

.........................................................................

< The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architectures from
Constant's New Babylon to Beyond >
Edited by Catherine de Zegher and Mark Wigley. 152 pp., illus.
Trade, $29.95. ISBN: 0-262-04191-X.

Reviewed by Mike Mosher, <mosher@svsu.edu>.

As bookish 12-year-olds, another "faculty brat" and I redrew the
map of Europe, arbitrarily grouping countries and simplifying
boundaries with our Crayola crayons and colored pencils. In
second-empire Paris, city planner Baron Hausmann called himself
an "artist-demolitionist" as he leveled old neighborhoods to make
room for new boulevards and blocks of elegant apartments lining
them. In Germany's Third Reich, the creative young Fascist Albert
Speer envisioned heroically wide thoroughfares leading to mammoth
state buildings. All of these tendencies seem to be found in the
work of Constant Nieuwenhuys (b. 1920), though his major
political influence may be the Situationist theorists of the
1950s and 1960s, with whom he associated. Centered around a
quintessential Parisian named Guy Debord, the Situationists made
the city their subject matter and their canvas, and saw many of
their slogans adopted for posters by radical students in Paris in
1968.

Constant's work began with drawings resembling those of the COBRA
group, comprised of artists in Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam
(hence the acronym), who sought a childlike expressionist purity
after the devastation they had witnessed in the Second World War.
He soon moved on to creating works incorporating a methodical,
serial alignment of small cubes on the surface of a canvas. Less
organic than Larry Poons, less colorfully decorative than Victor
Vasarely, the works strike me as resembling computer punch cards,
appropriate for the cover of an IBM annual report or *MIT
Technology Review,* circa 1962.

These works led Constant to create architectural-looking works,
where his forms' movement into space came in concert with
Situationist ideas of "unitary urbanism." He produced a multitude
of sketchy drawings, which look like the plans of an architect as
she or he moves towards a grand vision. Constant also proposed -
then created - models of huge, labyrinthine interiors with
reconfigurable walls, floors, lighting and environmental
experience (color, texture, smell), their internal configurations
supposedly driven by public desire, almost by whim. His
high-level views of Lego-like "sectors" zig-zag diagonally over
vast terrains and straddle national boundaries on the map, as if
to render such boundaries irrelevant in a globalized world and
interconnected European Community - one wonders if maybe they are
irrelevant.

Constant's work fits into the utopian tradition of Boull�e, Le
Corbusier and Britain's Archigram group, or the more recent genre
that mixes conceptual plans and gallery objects, like Christo and
Jeanne-Claude's work or Mike Kelley's recent architectural model
of remembered school buildings. Kelley's contemporary, Spelman
Evans Downer, created many textured and scribed map-like
paintings in the 1980s and 1990s, but these more often focused on
natural topography than urban phenomena.

Constant must enjoy Minneapolis, Minnesota, where downtown
buildings are connected by walkways to facilitate urban life and
circulation during cruel winters. I could not help also seeing
his "sectors" realized in ungainly and insecure Logan Airport in
Boston - one imagines Constant spending a lot of time roaming
airport terminals. His forms are echoed somewhat more
successfully in 1960s buildings on campuses of public
universities such as U.C. Berkeley, San Francisco State, San Jose
State or Cal State Hayward (all in California). Their shadowy
concrete plazas, beneath several floors of classrooms and
offices, should be used more often in movies as settings for
lovers' miscommunication and emotional strife.

The problematic "sectors" that Constant exhibited over the past
three decades display urban life that is off the ground, away
from the street-level existence that makes a city most vibrant.
If built, they would keep the homeless and the unemployed at bay,
serving as an easily-policed bulwark against the rabble and the
rabble-rousers. They would function much as a shopping mall does
in daily life. Their changing characteristics sound like little
more than the aesthetic shifts of the department store window,
delightfully entertaining, but spaces where nothing significant
really changes as it remains a theater of its commodities.

Though it is germane to examine utopian architectural precedents
for Constant's work (as it is to examine its science-fiction
ones), comparisons of his projects to the Web in some essays in
*The Activist Drawing* seem forced. Granted, he envisioned
mammoth New Babylon buildings to snake over political and
national borders, but water, sewer and electric power systems do
the same thing. Constant's "scientific-esque" drawings, diagrams
and other artworks are very much of their own time and straddle
the borders between architecture and vintage-1970 conceptual art.
Allusions to the Web seem an unnecessary marketing device to make
contemporary and relevant creative works by a mid-century artist,
works that are worth examining and are enjoyable in their own
right.

The handsome book includes Benjamin Buchloh's interview with
Constant and contributions by Rosalyn Deutsche, Catherine de
Zegher, Elizabeth Diller, Tom McDonough, Martha Rosler, Bernard
Tschumi, Anthony Vidler and Mark Wigley.

Catherine de Zegher is Director of the Drawing Center, New York
City, which exhibited in 1999 many of Constant's works pictured
in *The Activist Drawing.*

.........................................................................

< Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of the Italian
Renaissance > By Anthony Grafton, Harvard Univ. Press, 2002, 417
pp., illus., $18.95, paper. ISBN: 0-674-00868-5.

Reviewed by Amy Ione, <ione@diatrope.com>.

Anthony Grafton's well-researched and extensively annotated
biography of Leon Battista Alberti is a superb book. Reading
through this engaging publication, I was particularly impressed
with Grafton's ability to effectively breathe life into Alberti
as a human, and to simultaneously place his achievements in the
context of his culture. Born out of wedlock (in 1404), Alberti's
illegitimacy created some measure of complication for him within
the structure of his society. Grafton exposes this and examines
how the social difficulties were abated due to his father's
commitment to providing him with a quality education. Building on
this fine educational foundation, Alberti went on to achieve
recognition in a number of fields.

When examining the various trajectories, Grafton acquaints the
reader with Alberti's role in building the Italian Renaissance in
art, architecture and engineering. We come to better understand
how this historical figure made manifest his desire to fuse
distinct cultures and occupations. In addition, Grafton not only
analyzes Alberti's work as a humanistic writer but also speaks in
great detail about how his training in rhetoric influenced his
theories in other areas. As a result, we come to see why Alberti
defined creativity as "not making something completely new but as
reusing a classic idea or theme in a novel way." Finally,
Grafton's evaluation of Alberti's extensive use of rhetorical
techniques and facility in applying them in other domains is
useful today. As we re-examine how pictorial communication
interfaces with efforts to communicate using language, be it
written or spoken, looking at historical approaches will no doubt
prove useful.

The author's deft balancing of perspectives in this biography is
at its strongest when he examines Alberti's talent with words and
the degree to which this facility was tied to his later success.
By 1432, Alberti's literary accomplishments led him to become a
secretary in the Papal Chancery. His ongoing employment in the
service of the Church insured him the income he needed to pursue
his many interests. Grafton's review of these pursuits, including
his balanced approach to the theoretical and applied components
of Alberti's work, is also well done. Equally noteworthy is
Grafton's excellent summary of where his analysis of Alberti fits
in relation to earlier scholarship. The author reminds the reader
that contemporary discussions continue to see Alberti through the
lens of Jacob Burckhardt's *The Civilization of the Renaissance
in Italy* [1]. Burckhardt established Alberti's reputation as the
quintessential renaissance man, claiming that no less a figure
than Leonardo da Vinci was merely a second to Alberti when he
wrote, "Leonardo da Vinci was to Alberti as the finisher to the
beginner, as the master to the dilettante" (p. 107). Grafton, to
his credit, grounds Burckhardt's exuberance without diminishing
his (or Alberti's) achievements. Exposing more of Alberti's human
struggles, while still recognizing his far-reaching influence, is
perhaps Grafton's most significant contribution.

A close second is Grafton's discussion of emendation. Before
reading this study, I did not realize the importance of this
practice to Alberti's work. Emendation, a process of circulating
texts among other scholars for correction, was a common practice
in Alberti's time. While occasionally described by classical
Latin writers, it was the humanist writers that worked with
Alberti who turned this approach into an art form. Alberti, in
particular, was among those who saw emendation as a stage in
composing a work as well as a specialized service the learned
could offer to others. The author conveys the degree to which
Alberti valued the collaborative nature of this practice and how
he used emendation in conjunction with his work in rhetoric. More
fascinating is seeing how he adapted the technique when moving
from rhetoric to art, architecture and engineering. Even his
theory of perspective was open to emendation, as becomes clear in
Grafton's excellent description of the two versions of *On
Painting* that Alberti published. The Italian version was
dedicated to Filippo Brunelleschi with a request for emendation
and, as Grafton explains, Alberti offered the book to
Brunelleschi because he saw him as the most learned of his time.
We learn, too, that Alberti made this offer with a flair that
served to elevate his own position.

In summary, all who want to enlarge their understanding of Leon
Battista Alberti will welcome this easy to read, thoughtful and
comprehensive book. Grafton writes with grace and his survey of
Alberti's work as a humanist, inventor and engineer reads like a
novel. I particularly appreciated Grafton's sensitivity to the
difference between theory and practice in general and how he
applied this appreciation to Alberti's work.

Reference 
1. Jacob Burckhardt, *The Civilization of the Renaissance in
Italy.* 1860/1995, New York, N.Y., Random House/Modern Library
Edition.

.........................................................................

< The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness >

by J. Allan Hobson, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2001. 333
pp., illus. b/w. $27.95. ISBN: 0-262-08293-4.

Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold, <warnold@kumc.edu>.

The main title of this book will attract those interested in
popular culture, while the trailer promises scientific
development of the subject. Although the overall format and
titillating line drawings that introduce each chapter help to
meet the riffling test of a new book, I am not sure about the
audience that this will reach or satisfy.

The book presents schematics of the human brain with labeled
anatomical regions and subsequent depictions on similar templates
of pathways of modulation by acetylcholine, norepinephrine,
serotonin and dopamine (Figs. 2.1 - 2.5), which are an
instructive feature.

Early on, the author adopts a cubic model, based on the acronym
"AIM" ("activation, input and modulation"), to explain the
multiplicity of targets and interactions among the brain and
chemicals. This approach may be less successful than the first:
while it has the charm of a three-dimensional approach, and the
arrows darting back and forth supposedly summarize the action, it
tends towards the simplistic. On the other hand, the overall
treatment supposes that the reader has considerable previous
exposure to this complex subject. The black-and-white graphics
are modest, and while there are 47 figures and a few tables, the
publisher did not include a list.

Portraits of Sigmund Freud, William James, J-M Charcot, Pierre
Janet, Aldous Huxley, Milton Erickson, Albert Hofmann, Thomas de
Quincey, William Wordsworth and Heinrich Kl�ver appear at
appropriate locations. The index was adequate for the items I
tried, although the text locations of chemical structures were
not identified directly. Occasional errors, for example the
chemical structure of acetylcholine in Figure 10.1 (but correct
elsewhere), occur but are not extensive. The bibliography is
limited to 15 items, of which five are by the author.

The author, J. Allan Hobson M.D., is a Professor of Psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School, where he has been director of the
Laboratory for Neurophysiology since 1967. His major research
interests embrace mind and behavior; sleep and dreaming; and the
histories of neurology and psychiatry. Previous publications
include *The Dreaming Brain* (Basic Books, 1988), *The Chemistry
of Conscious States* (Little Brown, 1994) and *Dreaming as
Delirium* (MIT Press, 1999).

.........................................................................

< Behind the Scenes: With David Hockney >
Co-produced by Learning Designs and Thirteen/WNET. Produced and
directed by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer. 

Hosted by Penn and Teller. VHS video, Color. 1996. 30 minutes.
Available from First Run Features, 153 Waverly Place, New York NY
10014, U.S.A. 
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com

Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, <ballast@netins.net>

This video is one in a series of ten arts-related children's
films, titled *Behind the Scenes.* Starring in each film is a
prominent guest artist or performer, while the hosts throughout
the series are the popular team of magicians, artists or
comedians named Penn and Teller. In this case, the star is
supposed to have been David Hockney, the British painter who now
resides in California and is known for his various interests in
pictorial representation and perspective in particular. I say
"supposed to have been" because, while Hockney has the announced
lead role, there is a hidden star whose name is never mentioned,
not even in the credits. That person is Adelbert Ames II
(1880-1955), the American lawyer, artist and optical
physiologist, who is best known for having invented the Ames
Demonstrations in perceptual psychology, which include such
astounding phenomena as distorted rooms in which people appear to
shrink and grow, demonstrations of spatial overlapping using
trumped-up playing cards, and a rotating trapezoid window.

As this film opens, Penn and Teller are standing in an Ames Room
and appear to be of equal height, although one is actually much
taller than the other. When they exchange positions, their
difference in height becomes greatly exaggerated. Soon after, we
are introduced to Dawn and Debbie, identical twins who are made
to appear to grow shorter or taller without using an Ames Room,
merely by photographing them from a low vantage point, by which
the viewer is denied any information about the ground plane.
Other Ames-indebted scenes include one of an enlarged playing
card that appears to be overlapped by (that is, to lie behind) a
smaller and presumably more distant card and a giant coffee cup
that looks at first as if it were a close-up view of a
normal-sized cup.

It is sad but not surprising that no credit is given to Ames,
spoken or otherwise. Were he still alive, it is unlikely that he
would object, since, according to William H. Ittelson (who worked
with him and later wrote *The Ames Demonstrations in
Perception*), he was "truly humble" and believed that a person's
greatest tribute is "to remember his work and forget his name."

(Reprinted by permission from *Ballast Quarterly Review,* Vol.
17, No. 4, Summer 2002.)

.........................................................................

< Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction >
by Paul Dourish, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001. 229 pp., illus. 
ISBN: 0-262-04196-0.

Reviewed by Robert Pepperell, <pepperell@ntlworld.com>.

The fact that we can now comfortably omit the hyphen between
"post" and "human" suggests that the emerging field of posthuman
studies is reaching a certain level of maturity, even though it
is perhaps only a decade old. It seems to occupy an intellectual
space somewhere between science, technology, philosophy and
cultural studies and, as with all academic fields, is already
displaying signs of internal tension. Perhaps the most divisive
issue is the varying levels of emphasis given by different
authors to the notion of "embodiment." There are those who, on
the one hand, regard the human body as a passing encumbrance,
shortly to be erased by the flow of "pure information" (see
Katherine Hayles' *How We Became Posthuman* for an account of
some who take this line). On the other hand there are those, such
as myself, who emphasize not only the role of the body in the
experience of being, but the presence of the wider environment as
well. *Where the Action Is* is a timely interjection in this
debate, and one that firmly endorses the latter persuasion: that
a more coherent understanding of our interaction (or
intersection) with machines will involve consideration of human
mental activity as embedded in a wider physical context.

Paul Dourish's case for "embodied interaction" proceeds from two
foundational ideas describing how we interact with technology �
"tangible" and "social" computing. Each is an aspect of his
general thesis that regards, "the history of interaction as a
gradual expansion of the range of human skills and abilities that
can be incorporated into interacting with computers" (p. 17).
Tangible computing may be more familiar to some as "ubiquitous
computing," that branch of HCI research that seeks to move beyond
the desktop metaphor towards more distributed and tactile
environments.

Much of the author's research background and data derives from
his time spent working at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, widely
acknowledged as the place where the "graphical user interface"
was developed but, famously, not exploited. Interestingly, on
page 26 an illustration appears of a mid-1970s Xerox personal
computer, clumsy but otherwise remarkably similar to the desktop
set-ups we have today, except in one respect: the monitor is
aligned vertically. Given that the greater number of the
documents we work on are in portrait ratio, it seems odd in
retrospect that hardware designers and manufacturers have
insisted we spend so much time scrolling up and down on
horizontally aligned screens. The 1970s Xerox PC may be another
example of an unexploited good idea.

To unfold the implications of tangible computing, Dourish
presents a number of examples where users collaborate with
combinations of computer systems and physical objects that more
closely emulate the way we interact with things in the real(ish)
world. This, he suggests, is a necessary corrective to the
mid-1990s over-enthusiasm for the entirely virtual and digital,
represented by thinkers such as Negroponte. Like the ubiquitous
computing projects that inspired it, tangible computing seeks to
integrate the virtual with the physical in a seamless
information-rich process. Such technologies might support a wider
range of human interactions than those normally attended to in
workplace-driven research. Dourish cites the work of Strong and
Gaver (p. 42), whose elevating feather signaled distant acts of
affection.

If tangible computing emphasizes the role of the physical
apparatus in interaction, then "social computing" draws attention
to the sociological, cultural and historical context within which
we use technology. The point for Dourish is that "social action
is embedded" (p. 96) rather than free-floating and abstracted.
The consequence, as far as interactive design is concerned, is
that we must take much greater account of the way technologies
are used in actual practice � ways that sometimes diverge from or
conflict with the prior expectations of designers. To
contextualize this part of his argument, Dourish draws on a
variety of sociological research programs concerned with
human-machine and work-place interaction, in particular the
"ethnomethodological" work of Harold Garfinkel and the "situated
action" studies of Lucy Suchman. Such research characteristically
rejects the formalized, abstracted assumptions made by analysts
and systems designers in favor of a more concrete,
"action-oriented" evaluation of real practice and behavior. For
Dourish the theme of this research is to show a concern with "the
mundane aspects of social life, the background of
taken-for-granted everyday action" (p. 96).

To further support his ideas, the author attempts to root them in
deeper philosophical subsoil. Taking what is, by his own
admission, a "whirlwind tour" (p. 124) through a century of
phenomenological thought, Dourish whisks us through the ideas of
Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein to show how
they represent a tradition in Western thought concerned with the
human agent as situated in, and active within, a pre-organized
world of physical demands and possibilities. Accordingly, the
mind is firmly embodied in the physical presence of the body
(rather than separate from it), just as the body is rooted in the
extended domain of the "real world" of objects and events. These
references allow Dourish to define his key term, "embodied
interaction," as "the creation, manipulation and sharing of
meaning through engaged interaction with artifacts" (p. 126).

The problem of "meaning" then becomes critical to the analysis
(as it usually does), in particular, how meaning in HCI is most
economically generated and sustained. Drawing again on the
philosophical concepts previously discussed and from some
examples from research projects at Xerox and MIT, Dourish tries
to show how interactive media can illuminate and enrich our
understanding of mediated information. A somewhat abstracted
discussion of "intentionality," "ontology" and
"intersubjectivity" gives way to what the author suggests is a
more practically oriented section on how certain design
principles arising from the ideas discussed might be applied to
the construction of real systems. However, as Dourish honestly
acknowledges, it is no straightforward matter to convert
generalist philosophical analyses into prescriptive guides for
action. Instead, his solution is to offer a series of principles
intended to alert potential designers to aspects of interface
construction that are less frequently considered by "traditional"
or "disembodied" methods. These principles, to do with evaluating
the social and physical context in which interaction occurs, are
less a set of specific rules than a more general "stance" to be
adopted (p. 172). And although the author states, "Embodiment is
about engaged action rather than disembodied cognition; it is
about the particular rather than the abstract, practice rather
than theory...," one leaves the book with a sense of unease about
what "embodied interaction" looks like, and why it is so
different from any "disembodied" system we might imagine. In this
sense, the practice-theory divide remains un-bridged.

Other than suggesting (through examples presented) that interface
design in complex situations might benefit from greater degrees
of user configurability and internal state feedback, the
potentially radical repercussions of Dourish's foundational
analysis remain largely unexplored. Questions, for example, about
the degrees of separation between humans and machines, about
pleasure and frustration, and about the sensual qualities of
interactive experience are often implicit, but rarely
foregrounded. A more "extensionist" development of the ideas
might have moved the debate on further and more quickly by
considering the actual consequences of removing the
mind-body-world split that has so constrained Western thought.
Notions, for example, of distributed consciousness or of the
"extended mind" are now gaining currency and influencing the way
we think about the "locality" of human being and action in ways
far beyond those suggested by this book.

I would happily commend this book to the non-specialist reader.
It is a vigorous and worthy attempt to frame questions of
interactive design within a wider and deeper intellectual
context. I imagine it will also serve well as a textbook in a
number of fields, from information design to the contemporary
philosophy of technology. And while I strongly welcome it as
further evidence of a shift in ideas away from disembodied
abstraction towards embodied action, it also points up the
dangers of falling between the practical and philosophical
stools, by being unable to sit on both, or securely on neither.

.........................................................................

< Experimental Cinema in the Digital Age >
Malcolm Le Grice, British Film Institute, London, 2001. ISBN
(trade): 0-85170-872-2; (cloth) 0-85170-873-0.

Reviewed by Mike Leggett, <legart@ozemail.com.au>.  

In *Experimental Cinema in the Digital Age,* Malcolm Le Grice is
sparing in his use of the term "new media." This wins my undying
gratitude, and in this revealing and thorough book there is much
else to challenge such tropes associated with the tools of
expression and communication. Le Grice's engagement with the
institutions of cinema and the visual arts has infected many
others over the years but he refrains from obsessing over the
"features" that media technologies, new or old, can offer to the
"creative" person. He is intent upon re-examining the exchanges
that occur and the economy that can exist in the spaces that we
call the filmic or cinematic experience.

From the early 1960s to the present, as a film-maker, television
program-maker and painter, Le Grice has kept track of his
thoughts and expressed them through a series of published
articles and an earlier book, *Abstract Film and Beyond* (1976)
[1]. Collected together here for the first time, the articles
provide access to a series of discourses that excited and
stimulated, for many of us, the production of a group of films
that, in moving through a range of descriptors, became known more
widely as "structural materialist" (though this term risks
misleading audiences) [2].

Written comfortably in the first person, the order of the essays
(with one excerpt from his previous book) is by theme - History,
On Other Artists, Debates, General Theory, Digital Media - and
the materials are thus chronologically out of order. However, for
those wishing to follow the processes that make up the
ontological whole, the order can be reconstructed using several
pre-chapter sections, and there is a full index. A colorful
preface by Sean Cubitt makes some useful links to the
contemporary world of cyberculture and anaux armes: "...we take
responsibility for art, or there is no art at all" [3].

"Thoughts into action" was the rhetoric put into practice by the
London Film-makers Co-operative group, of which Le Grice was a
founder, chief negotiator and ambassador. In the face of a film
and cinema industry run by Hollywood, television dominated by
ratings and a gallery culture still coming to terms with the
"conceptual and art," the discourse the group's work produced was
not based on criticism but on the polemics concerning film. Le
Grice was able to maintain a sense of investigation and an air of
the provisional. The range of articles he produced from the 1960s
to 2000 (and into the present) fed the minds of magazine and
journal readers [4], together with fellow film-makers at the
Co-op and elsewhere, in the U.S.A., Europe and Australia. The
common intention was the pursuit of a rational creative process,
separated from narrative form at best and Hollywood melodrama at
worst.

Le Grice's articles on film appeared between 1970 and 1980 and
most are reprinted here with only minor editing, providing the
background that progresses towards the major summarizing article,
*Towards Temporal Economy.* It was "...an ambitious attempt to
synthesize a range of concepts and ideas at the same time [as]
promoting the debate about experimental film practice among the -
largely hostile � critical academics then in the ascendancy
within the British Film Institute and Screen" [5]. Fittingly, the
article was published by *Screen* in 1980.

Le Grice only occasionally hints at the context of the times.
This was the period when the left in Britain, as elsewhere, was
factionalizing, as the anarcho-libertarianism of the "alternative
culture" at the beginning of the period was becoming the
"counter-culture" of the 1980s, where enclosures were being
thrown up and redoubts being built from where to insult the
neighbors. Allies were mostly recruited from France, to stiffen
the resolve of the cultural shock troops and, as Le Grice
confesses in his introduction, "...I did my duty reading Metz,
Lacan et al" [6], along with the earlier luminaries of nineteenth
and twentieth century thought. This helps reveal the layers
contained in the text, rather than reading as an argument, and
reveals the processes of deliberation occurring as his own work
and that of others develops.

Le Grice writes that "Almost by habit, now I begin an article
with a health warning. The reader should know that firstly I am a
film, video and digital artist. My theoretical work is almost
completely based on the issues I have encountered in analyzing my
work and understanding its relationship to other artists,
culture, technology and society" [7].

His use of computers goes back to the 1960s, when he was able to
access Britain's largest computer to output material incorporated
into several later films. He speculatively wrote in 1970 about
computer networks, describing a state we now know as
"video-on-demand." He experimented later with early personal
computers, interrogating their potential for expressing form,
color and sound in the service of the ongoing campaign against
linear and narrative constraint. His own realization of the
difficulty of extending materialist polemics into the digital
domain enticingly bounces on and off of some of the issues
(cyberspace and presence, the non-linear and interactivity,
memory and consciousness), raised in a torrent of literature by
others over the last decade, at least some of whom would also
demand "... a priority for physical experience over
interpretation" [8]. I have a sense that Le Grice would be hugely
productive in the digital arena, as he has been with film, if the
structural-materialist trope was regarded as a marker behind
rather than a pointer in front.

My own assessment of the period, the films and the polemics, on
paper and in person, is that while it was the institution of
cinema that was addressed, the strategies (theorized but
unplanned) emerged from the modernist project of
twentieth-century visual artists described by Le Grice. The
traditional cinema audience was unprepared for the importation of
rigorous and reductive codes, an experience and education that
was largely eclipsed by the significant simultaneous development
and establishment in the tertiary sector of courses in cinema
history and media studies. (The book's excellent introduction
refers to the long-running arguments with *Screen.*) The
traditional visual arts audience, though engaged, further
confused wider acceptance of the work by celebrating a (false)
appearance coinciding with the "minimalist" visual art aesthetic
of the time, together with a reluctance by gallery spaces to
manage the different demands of time-based and
technology-presented work. In short, the polemics and much of the
work arising from an ontological project commenced back in the
1920s, for much of the time, was hung out to dry between the two
cultural pillars. Only recently has it been re-appraised by a new
generation less intimidated by the contemporary media landscape
but more attuned to the transparency of the apparatus, helping to
develop some level of wider acceptance of the hybrid and
cross-disciplinary artform.

*Shoot Shoot Shoot,* a retrospective of eight programs of films
made at the London Filmmakers' Co-op between 1966 and 1976, is on
a tour of international venues between 2002 and 2005. While the
ample newsprint catalog provides a mass of contextual material,
it is only able to hint at the rationale, the polemics and the
theoretical substructure of the work that Le Grice's book
addresses so whole-heartedly.


REFERENCES

1. Malcolm Le Grice, *Abstract Film and Beyond,* Studio Vista
1977 (Also MIT Press, 1977; MIT Press paperback edition, 1981).

2. Structure, structural, structuralism, material, materialist
and materialism are all terms used by engineers, script-writers,
anthropologists and philosophers, and are irrelevant to their use
in this context, though convergence of meanings and uses, often
encouraged by various authors, have been temptingly apt - hence
the misleading usages.

3. Preface, p. xv.

4. Publications including *Studio International,* *Art and
Artists,* *Afterimage,* *Millenium Film Journal,* *Undercut,*
*Time Out,* *Screen,* *Screen Education,* etc.

5. Introduction, p. 7.

6. Introduction, p. 2.

7. Chapter 24, p. 297.

8. Chapter 23, p. 293.

.........................................................................

< Making Sense of Life, Explaining Biological Development with
Models, Metaphors and Machines >
by Evelyn Fox Keller, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA,
U.S.A., 2002. 302 pp. $29.92, trade. ISBN: 0-674-00746-8.

Reviewed by Curtis E.A. Karnow, <cek@sonnenschein.com>

Each of us has dutifully learned an explanation of a physical or
biological process � why the planets have their course, or how
the phenotype of an anemic human is generated by the genotype
responsible for his blood cells' development. The explanations
sometimes are enough, sometimes not. Why and how does gravitation
work, we might ask? Why is it that DNA replicates? When have we
reached an "explanation" and what counts as a convincing one? In
*Making Sense of Life,* professor Evelyn Fox Keller shifts
directly to one of the largest of these questions and explores
explanations given for life itself, tracing the shifting
elucidations of life that have emerged in the last few hundred 
years.

What counts as an explanation for life, not to say an adequate
explanation, depends on the time and its needs, Keller
establishes. This sounds tautological, but Keller's detailed
review of the differing criteria for explanation is a story about
the essential nature of scientific examination as it makes
different analogies and calls on shifting metaphors from time to
time. A century ago, the explanation of life took on the model of
mechanical simulacrum; today computers and artificial digital
"life" appear to capture some essential nature of life; so we
say. Keller establishes the link between, on the one hand,
technological and other developments in the world at large and,
on the other hand, the criteria of scientific explanation. She
carefully traces the use of language and its not-so-hidden
assumptions, the use of figures of speech and metaphors to
provide the sense that a phenomenon has been identified and
understood.

It is a convincing, thorough recitation, because she relies
directly on then contemporaneous sources. By the same token, for
those interested only in the epistemological and linguistic
issues, it can be slow going � there is more detailed history
here of quaint, superseded theories than one might wish. But one
cannot really argue with Keller's decision to let the old
explainers speak for themselves. It is a powerful lesson to see
that even in the last 100 years, the very nature of scientific
inquiry and its goals has shifted so profoundly. We may advance
in our scientific understanding, to be sure, but we are also
continuously changing the criteria by which such "advances" are
measured. Even questions such as "What is life," Keller notes,
are not absolutely answerable (p. 294); these questions pose
historical conundrums, and answers can never be better than good
enough for the time.

.........................................................................

< Spacefaring: The Human Dimension >

by Albert A. Harrison, University of California Press, Los
Angeles, CA, 2001. 324 pp. Trade, $27.50. ISBN: 0-520-22453-1.

Reviewed by Cliff Pickover, <cliffpickover@hotmail.com>.

In *Spacefaring: The Human Dimension,* Albert Harrison, a
Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis,
focuses on the human element in space flight. Topics in the book
include astronaut training, medical and environmental hazards,
psychological stresses and coping, group dynamics, and even
sleeping, sex and leisure in space. This book will provide
marvelous reading for science-fiction authors who desire to imbue
their novels with realistic information on space travel and its
psychological challenges. Of course, the book will also be
invaluable to aerospace engineers and future space travelers -
the psychological dangers of space travel are not to be ignored.
For example, cosmonauts only played chess against opponents on
the ground to avoid competition and tension that might arise
during competitive playing in space.

My favorite chapters include the later ones that deal with space
tourism, space settlements and interstellar travel. What are the
prospects for lunar and Martian colonies and even travel to the
stars? What would life be like on the high frontier? As many
science-fiction authors have correctly noted, Harrison suggests
that space tourism might provide the real impetus to get us into
space and to develop the necessary rockets and technical
facilities. In his view, "not only would making space accessible
to a broad segment of the population give people exciting and new
experiences, it would encourage many different kinds of human
activities in space. Thus, the space tourism industry could
develop both the technology and the popular support required to
accelerate human progress in getting off our planet...
Honeymooners and couples celebrating their anniversaries may be
attracted by the idea of experimenting with sex in space, so
perhaps there will be some honeymoon suites."

In addition to psychological issues, Harrison addresses many
practical challenges, such as how future space travelers will
maintain contact with Earth and how multi-generational missions
will cope. These journeys involve entire generations of parents
and their children and their grandchildren on board a space
vessel. Harrison really stirs the mind when he discusses the
possibility that we will one day explore the stars by uploading
the contents of our minds to powerful computers. A computer
representation of a person with memories, perceptions and
emotions may one day take the ultimate voyage.

Most of the excitement and promise of the 1960s space program has
died. Harrison wants us to restore our dream of flying to the
planets and stars, just as yesterday's settlers drove wagons
across the American plains. To embark on the journey, we need the
technological know-how and wealth. Harrison suggests that both
the dream and the journey are possible and important. I agree -
read this wonderful book and you too will learn to fly.

.........................................................................

< Spectacular Bodies: The Art and Science of the Human Body from
Leonardo to Now >
Edited by Martin Kemp and Marina Wallace, University of
California Press and Hayward Gallery, Berkeley, CA and London,
U.K., 2001.

Reviewed by Frieder Nake, <nake@informatik.uni-bremen.de>.

From October 2000 to January 2001, the Hayward Gallery in London
mounted the exhibition *Spectacular Bodies,* curated by Martin
Kemp and Marina Wallace, of which this book is a documentation.
Even for someone like myself, who did not have a chance to visit
the actual event, *Spectacular Bodies* invokes some of the
awesome feelings visitors may have experienced when confronted
with the sliced-up, wide open human bodies in the show.
Scientific investigation meets aesthetic appreciation. The book
reproduces a large number of the exhibits in full color and the
extraordinarily informative and insightful text by the show's two
curators takes us through the exhibition from station to station
along the path of history.

The human body has, of course, been a prominent subject of art
through almost all its eras and styles, with a few exceptions.
However, the body as an art subject is not the focus of this
exhibition and book; the focus here is rather on the human body
as a subject of physiological and anatomical study. Such study,
as a scientific activity, started with the Renaissance, where it
immediately found, in Leonardo, one of its grand masters.

As with architectural drawings, precise renderings of the human
body (or of selected features of it) represent a juncture between
science and art. Medical science needs images of the body for
various purposes and such images define one of the starting
points for what is now called visualization. In order to generate
such images, a considerable mastery of drawing, coloring,
composition, selecting perspectives and other artistic
capabilities is required. Following the proliferation of such
artistic images, the photographic picture began to assume
importance in this field, eventually taking over as a means of
displaying views of the human body as perceived by new
generations. More recently, the artist's and other living bodies
themselves have become used as means of depicting the body.

Having been greatly impressed by the pictures of dissected bodies
and of people performing the dissections and moved by the stories
and history behind these pictures, my intention in this review is
merely to bring readers' attention to this volume by describing
its contents. There are, after the introduction, three sections:
"The Divine Machine," "The House of the Soul" and "New Bodies."
Roughly speaking, the first section concentrates on renderings of
dissected bodies in their use for imparting information about
human anatomy in all its aspects. The second section deals with
attempts at deducing the inner feelings and conditions of a
person from his or her outer appearance. Notable in this section 
are the notorious measurements and categorizations of facial
structures of criminals or members of particular ethnic groups.

Section three differs from the previous two, both in terms of
format and contents. Whereas the first two sections assemble and
display works of art, explaining the circumstances, connections
and evolutions pertaining to them, the third section presents
eight artists with some of their works along with extended
interpretations. The selected artists are John Isaacs, Katharine
Dowson, Marc Quinn, Beth B., Christine Borland, Gerhard Lang,
Tony Oursler and Bill Viola. These artists reflect, in various
ways, on older methods of depicting the body as an anatomic fact
or as the house of a soul. They do so in reaction to the
modernist neglect of the human body and vis-�-vis the trends
toward disembodiment by way of cybertechniques and virtuality.

For readers of *Leonardo,* this precious volume is of interest as
an account of Renaissance painting, nineteenth century
photography and contemporary installations in pursuit of a
visualization of the human body - without explicitly calling it
"visualization." Implicitly, these works tell us a lot about it.

.........................................................................

< La plan�te des esprits - pour une politique du cyberespace >
by Philippe Qu�au. Odile Jacob, Paris, 2000. 326 pp., trade. 25
Euro. ISBN: 2-7381-0909-8.

Reviewed by Julien Knebusch, <julien.knebusch@free.fr>.

Philippe Qu�au is a thinker as well as a man of action. In the
1990s, he organized the exhibition Imagina, which centered around
digital images. Since July 1996, he has been director of the
Information and Informatic Division of UNESCO and has written
many theoretical essays on the issues of technological art and
virtual reality.

In *La plan�te des esprits - pour une politique du cyberespace,*
Qu�au presents a political and philosophical reflection on
globalization, based on a philosophical questioning of the
virtual. The author claims that a new historical age - the World
Renaissance - has arisen, heralding a planetary civilization.
Like the Western Renaissance in the sixteenth century, the World
Renaissance has its own writing, which is digital or virtual and
succeeds printing. It also has its own America - cyberspace and
the worlds of financial abstraction - and its own reform, the
concept of a common world good.

The foundation of this renaissance is the invention of a new
system of writing - the virtual - based on the development of
communication and information technologies. The author invites us
to define the virtual not only as a tool for a better
understanding of the real, but also as a civilizing agent,
allowing for new modes of behavior. He sees the virtual as a
matrix of a new civilization that will succeed "material"
civilization. In fact, the virtual relativizes the categories of
classical reason - space, body, vision - and forces us to
reconsider our ontology. For example, one must renounce a spatial
and localized conception of being; in virtual reality one is not
where one stands physically, but where one acts and feels. The
consequences of the virtual affect the very foundation of being
human and thus open new possibilities for human communities.
Qu�au posits that the virtual may help the virtual community of
humans to represent themselves as a planetary society, thus
developing the ultimate utopia of the virtual. Nevertheless, he
does not forget the dangers of the virtual in relation to the
question of otherness - here, the virtual is used only as a
mirror of ourselves.

Although globalization and the virtual are abstractions, they are
real for those who believe that "ideas rule the world." Qu�au
argues that the fortune of the world depends on the reality we
lend to abstractions, making reference to the ancient scholastic
debate between nominalism and realism regarding the concreteness
of abstractions. A similar problem exists in terms of a concept
of a common world good, which Qu�au seeks first to define more
precisely in order to develop it into a political tool. He
analyzes the different world public goods - water, the oceans,
space - and is especially interested in immaterial goods, such as
the Internet and information society, in a broad sense. He
proposes different measures for guaranteeing these common world
goods. For example, he advocates creation of a virtual public
world library and wants above all to demystify international law,
which, he writes, is too heavily based on nation-states and not
enough on a world-oriented, supranational vision. Qu�au here
makes a link (along with other theoreticians such as Herv�
Fischer) between his thinking about the virtual to a broader
perspective of planetary civilization by emphasizing the
relationship between the virtual and world politics. In so doing,
this book is very useful in the actual debate on globalization.
This debate is essentially economic, as recalled in Pascal
Bruckner's, *The Misery of Prosperity* (Paris, Grasset, 2002),
and only rarely seeks to define the ethical and political
conditions necessary for a world civilization. Globalization has
always been of interest to sociologists and political scientists
and only more recently to philosophers.

One may criticize in this book the fact that the author ties the
question of globalization too closely to the problems of the
virtual or the question of otherness, thus marginalizing the
question of geography in comprehending globalization. Even if the
virtual produces another space, one should not forget the
importance of planetary space and the conflicting interactions it
implies in understanding the formation of globalization (as
discussed by Henri LeFebvre. On the other hand, one should also
consider the ontological relationship between humans and global
space (which the virtual does not abolish), as described by
thinkers such as Paul Virilio and, more recently, Peter
Sloterdijk. Considering such relationships is important in
discussing the future of the world, and its fortune or
misfortune.

.........................................................................

< Synaesthesia: The Strangest Thing >
By John Harrison, Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon St.,
Oxford OX2 6DP, England), 2000. ISBN: 0-19-263245-0.

Reviewed by Paul Hertz, <paul-hertz@northwestern.edu>.

A valuable addition to the literature on synesthesia, John
Harrison's *Synaesthesia* presents a cogent analysis of the
phenomenon that will appeal both to scientists and to the general
public. While the work focuses on a series of experiments on
colored hearing, directed by Harrison's mentor Simon Baron-Cohen,
it provides a careful expos� of the historical and scientific
framework of those experiments. Harrison's discussion of the
changing historical nature of evidence in experimental psychology
is particularly welcome and sheds light on a whole range of
disciplines where cognitive processes are the object of
scientific investigation. His chapter on notable synesthetes,
while not integral to his argument, proceeds gracefully and will
be of particular interest to those unfamiliar with synesthesia.
The crux of his argument, hierarchically developed over
anatomical, physiological, and psychological hypotheses on
synesthesia, resolves around a series of experiments with
synesthetes, where he brings neurobiology, statistics and
genetics into play, with a brief but critical role for imaging
technology.

Does this sound like a plot for a novel? In some ways it might
be. Harrison provides a carefully constructed central argument, a
number of fascinating subplots, and if the experiments are less
than conclusive, well, such is life, if we wish to portray it
accurately. Within the logic of his argument, Harrison exposes
potential flaws in prior research, a particular service to
non-scientists with an enthusiasm for synesthesia, and reaches
some limited but tantalizing conclusions. Highly recommended.

.........................................................................

< Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the
Theoretical Chapters >
By J. Lennart Berggren and Alexander Jones, Princeton University
Press, Princeton, NJ, 2001. 232 pp., illus. Trade, $39.50. ISBN:
0-691-01042-0.

Reviewed by David Topper, <Topper@Uwinnipeg.ca>.

Ptolemy's *Cosmographica* (Geography) is, without a doubt, a
landmark in the history of cartography, one of the "Great Books"
(if we may still use the term) in the Western canon of science.
For over 1,400 years, it constituted the major map of the Western
world, yet until now there has been no adequate translation into
English. Scholars of ancient history and science are praising
this translation, which drew upon several previous editions and
five medieval manuscripts.

Written in the second century of our era, *Cosmographica* is the
only ancient work on map-making to survive. It was based on a
previous work by Marinos of Tyre, about whom little is known, so
that most of the prehistory of Ptolemy's book involves mere
speculation. The work (first written as a scroll) was known
throughout the Middle Ages. The earliest extant manuscripts date
from the thirteenth century. There are about 50 manuscripts, and
all seem to descend from one lost prototype.

Ptolemy divided the Geography into eight sections ("Books"). The
work contained the first systematic listing of latitude and
longitude, the now common terrestrial terms that were first
applied to the celestial "globe" of the heavens. The resulting
map of about 8,000 locations covered a large part of the surface
of the Earth, from Western Europe to Southeast Asia
(approximately 180 degrees of longitude) and from Scotland to
sub-Sahara Africa (approximately 90 degrees of latitude). The
Roman Empire, not surprisingly, was best known. Ptolemy used two
projection techniques to create visual maps: for one, the
longitudinal lines remained straight, and for the other, both
longitude and latitude were curved. In the second, he tried to
minimize some of the distortions from the first. In addition to
these two "world" maps, there are 26 regional maps. Of course,
judging by today's standards, we can see that the distortions of
the maps are primarily due not to the methods of projection but
to the errors in position of the specific locations, especially
as they get further from the Mediterranean region.

In this important edition, the authors have translated only the
"theoretical parts" (Books 1, 2, 7 and 8), thus eliminating the
lengthy lists of places. They did this to shift attention away
from topography to the theory and methodology of map-making. The
book begins with a long introductory section of over 50 pages,
giving the reader a grounding in fundamental geometrical
information and projection techniques required for fully
comprehending the maps. The book presents historical background
material on the work and history of the manuscript versions as
well as the translations. Following the four translated Books of
the Geography (the core of this edition) are a series of plates
and maps and eight appendices. Several plates are wonderful color
reproductions of the "world" maps, while many of the maps portray
sections of Ptolemy's version and juxtapose these with
present-day projections of the same sections - a most interesting
comparison.

This is an important publication for historians of science
(especially of cartography) and classicists. Although the novice
reader will enjoy perusing the plates and maps and certainly gain
from some of the early introductory material, the rest of this
edition is directed primarily to the advanced scholar.

.........................................................................

< Consciousness, Color and Content > by Michael Tye. MIT Press,
Cambridge, MA, 2000. 198 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 0-262-20129-1.

Reviewed by George Shortess, <george.shortess@lehigh.edu>

In *Consciousness, Color and Content,* philosopher Michael Tye
principally sets out to defend and expand upon his theory of
phenomenal consciousness, known as representationalism.
Phenomenal consciousness is concerned with what it is like to
feel or experience a particular sensation, rather than just to
know about the state intellectually. In the book, Tye provides an
excellent overview of the area, even while promoting his own
theory. As a perceptual psychologist and visual artist, I was
intrigued by his manner of argument and presentation, particular
since phenomenal consciousness is a topic about which the
cognitive and perceptual sciences say very little. I began to
wonder if there are particular neural correlates associated with
phenomenal consciousness, or if we can even ask such questions in
this way. If so, Tye argues, then such correlates are rather
primitive, since phenomenal consciousness exists even at the
level of honeybees and similar organisms. The part of the title
that initially intrigued me was color, which Tye discusses in
some detail in Chapter 7. He argues against the notion, which he
attributes to visual and cognitive scientists, that color exists
only as a mental state, proposing instead that the common-sense
view of color as a property of an object does not conflict with
the view of color as a mental state.

In reading Tye's discussion, I was struck by the apparent need
for a clearer distinction in the use of the term "color,"
particularly the distinction between the perception of color and
color as a property of an object. I think perceptual
psychologists would agree that there is a physical basis in
external reality for the perception of color. As Tye points out
(p. 159), the major determinant of color under ordinary viewing
conditions is the reflectance of the surface, characterized as
the percentage of light at various wavelengths reflected from the
surface. For most ordinary surfaces, this is a stable physical
property. However, the perception of reflectance is influenced by
a number of factors, most notably the characteristics of the
illuminating light, the adaptive state of the observer and the
reflectances of surrounding surfaces. Tye summarizes the
common-sense view of color as one of properties independent of
mind and illumination, belonging primarily to surfaces but also
to films (p. 148). It would thus seem that Tye identifies the
term "color" with the reflectance properties of surfaces, while
transmittance would be the comparable color property for film.
However, in Tye's quotes of cognitive scientists, discussion of
"color" includes the mental state as part of the perception of
these reflectances and transmittances. Could we call the
reflectances and transmittances, the color properties and the
mental states "color perceptions?" Then the perception of color
properties results in color perceptions, which are mental states
with a basis in the neurophysiology of the visual system. I
wonder if this kind of distinction would cause problems for Tye's
theory of phenomenal consciousness.

In summary, this book is difficult for the non-philosopher, but
provocative. With additional reflection and clarification, it
could lead to a further convergence of philosophy of mind and
cognitive science.


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< OLATS News >

1 - Karlheinz Stockhausen, by Bruno Bossis
<http://www.olats.org/setF4.html>

Karlheinz Stockhausen is, with no doubt, a major composer of the
twentieth century, a "sacred monster" of contemporary music.
Seemingly everyone has heard about him and thinks to know him and
his work. In this notice, Bruno Bossis shows the different,
complex creations of Stockhausen in all its dimensions, some of
which will certainly be new to many readers. Bossis analyzes and
comments on Stockhausen's works, approaches and evolution.
Moreover, this notice is an invaluable resource as it lists the
composer's works and refers to numerous writings by and about
him.

Leonardo/OLATS would like to thank Karlheinz Stockhausen for
having taken out time to proofread this notice and provide many
inputs and illustrations.

2 - Oskar Sala, by Pierre Couprie
<http://www.olats.org/setF4.html>

Oskar Sala passed away in 2002. Born in 1910, he was one of those
artists-engineers of the twentieth century who, like Theremin,
invented musical instruments that are still used today. He
developed the Trautonium, invented by Friedrich Trautwein in
1930. Then he created the Mixturtrautonium, a true concert
instrument, one of the few perfect electronic instruments before
the appearance of analog synthesizers. He composed music for more
than 300 films, including the sounds of the birds for Hitchcock's
1963 movie, *The Birds.*

3 - John Cage, by Bruno Bossis and Pierre Couprie
<http://www.olats.org/setF4.html>

Prolific artist John Cage, at the crossroads of all major
artistic currents of the second half of the twentieth century, is
famous for his prepared piano. This notice provides a guideline
to his life, career and achievements.

4 - Pioneers and Pathbreakers: New on the Abraham Palatnik
Monography <http://www.olats.org/setF4.html>

Now in French for the first time - "Abraham Palatnik," By art
historian Aracy Amaral. (Translation from Portuguese by Catherine
Tresgot)
<http://www.olats.org/pionniers/pp/palatnik/amaral_fr.shtml>

- "Abraham Palatnik: A Pioneer Of Technological Art," By art
historian Frederico Morais. (Translation from Portuguese by
Catherine Tresgot)
<http://www.olats.org/pionniers/pp/palatnik/morais_fr.shtml>

5 - Rep�res et Ressources: New Bibliography - Art, Communication,
Network <http://www.olats.org/reperes/reperes.shtml>

Leonardo and Leonardo/Olats have a strong tradition of providing
general and specialized bibliographies related to the art,
science and technology field. This new bibliography is dedicated
to art practice and theory based on new means of communication.

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< LEONARDO REMINDER: OPPORTUNITY FOR ART OR SCIENCE PROJECTS IN
VARIABLE GRAVITY (INCLUDING ZERO GRAVITY and OTHER ARTISTIC
PROJECTS at the GAGARIN COSMONAUT TRAINING CENTRE >

Call for Proposals - deadline 21 October 2002

The MIR partnership invites proposals from European and
Europe-based artists and scientists to undertake
projects/research in variable gravity conditions on a parabolic
flights or using other facilities, such as the centrifuge and the
hydrolaboratory/neutral buoyancy facility used for EVA training,
at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC), Star City,
Russia.

A parabolic flight provides up to 20 cycles of 30-second periods
of weightlessness (zero gravity/microgravity) in freefall,
interspersed with periods of double gravity (2g acceleration) and
normal gravity.

This is the pilot project of the MIR (microgravity
interdisciplinary research) initiative, which seeks to open up
space and space industry related facilities by matching artistic
processes and scientific research to give a new impulse to space
art and space research.

The MIR partnership comprises 5 European art organisations
focusing on art, science and technology:

The Arts Catalyst, science-art agency, London, UK

Leonardo/Olats, Leonardo journal of art, science & technology and
Leonardo observatory for the arts and the techno-sciences, Paris,
France

Multimedia Complex of Actual Arts, Moscow, Russia

Projekt Atol, arts-technology organisation, Ljubljana, Slovenia

V2_Organisation, institute for the unstable media, Rotterdam,
Netherlands

The selection committee will be made up of representatives from
these organisations.

The opportunity includes a cultural exchange and working trip to
Moscow and Star City in early 2003, including the potential to
participate in one or two parabolic Ozero gravity� flights with
the GCTC.

The opportunity is open to artists and scientists in any
discipline, where the lead proposer is based in any European
country, whether or not EU members. We will select up to 6
artists� projects and up to 3 scientific experiments for
participation.

For information and proposal form, go to: http://mir.v2.nl/

Please email your intent to make a proposal as soon as possible
to : mir@v2.nl

The MIR initiative is supported by the European Union's Culture
2000 fund.

_________________________________________________________________________

< In Memory of Yury Pravdiuk > 
By S. Zorin

Yury Pravdiuk, one of the oldest Russian light-music artists
passed away on 17 May 2002. Author of 150 light-musical
compositions including Scriabin�s �Prometheus� (1969), he
designed his first device for performing light-music in 1961. I
met Yury Pravdiuk in Kharkov in 1965 when I was a student of the
Technical University and experimented with light-musical devices.
I have admired his performance at the Student Palace and joined
his artistic group.

Our aim was to launch a light-musical theatre and it opened in
Kharkov Park in 1969. Yury Pravdiuk was my teacher in light-music
art and now I remember the beautiful days when we worked
together. He was a man of rare sincere beauty, goodwill and
validity. All through his life, he has devoted his talent to
giving back to the progress of light-music art. The death of Yury
Pravdiuk was unexpected to his colleagues and friends. His life -
a rise of talent, energy, completeness of creative forces.
Deeply, we grieve over this loss.

S. Zorin, 
Director Moscow Optic Theatre 
<zorinserg@mtu-net.ru>

_________________________________________________________________________

< New Leonardo Book Coming Soon: Virtual Art by Oliver Grau >

Although many people view virtual reality as a totally new
phenomenon, it has its foundations in an unrecognized history of
immersive images. Indeed, the search for illusionary visual space
can be traced back to antiquity. In this book Oliver Grau shows
how virtual art fits into the art history of illusion and
immersion. He describes the metamorphosis of the concepts of art
and the image and relates those concepts to interactive art,
interface design, agents, telepresence, and image evolution. Grau
retells art history as media history, helping us to understand
the phenomenon of virtual reality beyond the hype.

Grau shows how each epoch used the technical means available to
produce maximum illusion. He discusses frescoes such as those in
the Villa dei Misteri in Pompeii and the gardens of the Villa
Livia near Primaporta, Renaissance and Baroque illusion spaces,
and panoramas, which were the most developed form of illusion
achieved through traditional methods of painting and the mass
image medium before film. Through a detailed analysis of perhaps
the most important German panorama, Anton von Werner's 1883 "The
Battle of Sedan," Grau shows how immersion produced emotional
responses. He traces immersive cinema through Cinerama,
Sensorama, Expanded Cinema, 3-D, Omnimax and IMAX, and the Head
Mounted Display with its military origins. He also examines those
characteristics of virtual reality that distinguish it from
earlier forms of illusionary art. His analysis draws on the work
of contemporary artists and groups ART+COM, Maurice Benayoun,
Charlotte Davies, Monika Fleischmann, Ken Goldberg, Agnes
Hegedues, Eduardo Kac, Knowbotic Research, Laurent Mignonneau,
Michael Naimark, Simon Penny, Daniela Plewe, Paul Sermon, Jeffrey
Shaw, Karl Sims, Christa Sommerer, and Wolfgang Strauss. Grau
offers not just a history of illusionary space but also a
theoretical framework for analyzing its phenomenologies,
functions, and strategies throughout history and into the future.

This book will be available in January 2003

_________________________________________________________________________

< Digital Vermeer House Project >

After Johannes Vermeer's death in 1675 a full inventory was made
of his household objects. This inventory listed not only
Vermeer's possessions, but also specified all the rooms in his
house by name. The original Vermeer house was torn down in the
nineteenth century to make room for a large church.

With the expert assistance of an architectural historian it has
now become possible to create a full architectural plan and
representation of the Vermeer House. A 'Digital Johannes Vermeer
House' is also being built from these plans.

The entire project will be available on the Internet; the  3D
architectural recreation of the building as well as over 150
illustrated household objects. The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam have
provided research facilities and offered abundant image material
for the site.

The Grand Opening of this large free Internet in English and
Dutch, will take place on January 17, 2003 in the Delft church
which now occupies the original site of the Vermeer House. At the
opening presentation, digital images available via a video
beamer, with expert commentary by the authors. This Internet
happening will close to the sound of 17th century Delft music
performed by the chamber music group Camerata Vermeer.

Info:
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach,
http://www.johannesvermeer.org
kalden@xs4all.nl


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< CosmicStock Photography >

CosmicStock Photography <http://www.cosmicstock.com/> specializes
in rare pictures of crop circles, photographs of Stonehenge,
space and satellite images, globe photos, etc. All of these
images are ready for licensing, and come in different sizes and
resolutions. An online calculator helps to determine pricing. If
you wish to speak with someone directly, please call:
1-866-259-0877 or cellular: 1-250-888-8433. We hope you enjoy
your visit.

Nathan Segal, Webmaster

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Nisar Keshvani: LEA Editor-in-Chief
Michael Punt: LDR Editor-in-Chief
Patrick Lambelet: LEA Managing Editor
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Andre Ho: Web Concept & Design Consultant
Roger Malina: Leonardo Executive Editor
Stephen Wilson: Chair, Leonardo/ISAST Web Committee

Editorial Advisory Board:
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fAf-LEA corresponding editors; Ricardo Dal Farra, Young
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The LEA World Wide Web site contains the LEA archives, including
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Copyright (2002), Leonardo, the International Society for the
Arts, Sciences and Technology

All Rights Reserved.

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< Ordering Information >

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< End of Leonardo Electronic Almanac 10 (10) >
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