From Multimedia to New Media Poetry!
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by Nisar Keshvani
P O Box 850, Robinson Road
Singapore 901650
URL: http://www.keshvani.com

Keywords
LEA "ACM Multimedia" Special, ACM Multimedia Interactive Art Program, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), SIGGRAPH, SIGMM (Multimedia), premier annual technical multimedia conference, multimedia computing, arts and multimedia communities, multimedia technology, E-Poetry Symposium 2007, “NYC: Performances And A Symposium For The LEA New Media Poetry Issue”, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, LEA

Abstract
LEA editor in chief, Nisar Keshvani announces the ACM Multimedia Special. Guest edited by Alejandro Jaimes, the founder of the ACM Multimedia Interactive Art Program, the issue begins with his overview of the context and importance in which the art program was created. In this installment, Alejandro presents a selection of presentations of the 2004-2006 art program. Keshvani thanks Guest Editor Tim Peterson and Loss Pequeño Glazier for hosting a LEA New Media and Poetics symposium at “E-Poetry Symposium 2007” in New York City on 21 April 2007.


From Multimedia to New Media Poetry!
In this issue, the Leonardo Electronic Almanac is proud to announce the latest addition to our eclectic range of topics covered in this international peer-reviewed electronic journal.

Founder of the ACM Multimedia Interactive Art Program, Alejandro Jaimes, guest edits the LEA-ACM Multimedia Special. He begins with a discussion of the context and importance in which the art program was created. In this installment, Alejandro presents a selection of presentations of the 2004-2006 art program.

As he relates the creation of the program, Alejandro reveals:

“Each one of us belongs to several communities — the local community we live in, the community we work in, the community we play with. These communities or groups, however organized, are based on common goals, activities, or particular views. The common elements that tie people within a particular community together keep them “focused,” on issues that emerge as being important within that community. One of the great benefits, then, is the generation and dissemination of common knowledge, particularly knowledge that the community itself has recognized as being important ....

One problem, however, is that often the work of a particular community has deep repercussions outside of that community and if recognizing what is important is limited to that particular community’s views, the repercussions of some of that community’s work outside of it may lead to negative, unexpected results. On the other hand, if the community is too focused within its own boundaries, that generated knowledge may be limited in scope and impact. The creation of the ACM MM Interactive Art Program was born as a response to bridge an important gap in both of the communities it addresses.”

This collective includes essays by Jodi James and colleagues who describe a movement-based interactive dance performance, Chi-Min Hsieh and Annie Luciani proposing a series of physics-based models relating to dance verbs and Jürgen Scheible's MobiLenin and Manhattan Story Mashup - two colorful projects where multimodal user interfaces were built from personal mobile phones.

Atau Tanaka's work explores social music systems and malleable music using mobile devices, Kazuhiro Jo and colleagues' sine wave orchestra is a symphony of concepts and technical details where sine waves generated by individuals are used to create a collective sound representation.

Next, venture into the workings of evolvable hardware in artistic installations with Raquel Paricio and J. Manuel Moreno Aróstegui and discover Andrew Webb and team’s description of a new type of affordance, the choreographic button, which integrates choreography, gesture recognition and visual feedback. The special is available from: http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_15/LEA_v15_n05-06/home.asp

Equally proud, LEA is delighted to announce on 21 April 2007, LEA New Media and Poetics Guest Editor Tim Peterson and Loss Pequeño Glazier. Founder and Director of the Electronic Poetry Center hosted a symposium at “E-Poetry Symposium 2007” in New York City. The event featured Aya Karpinska, Elizabeth Knipe, and Jim Rosenberg. Shawn Rider, with Tim Peterson as respondent and Series Curator. Read about the special at:
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/index.asp

The promotional flyer announced: “Live performances, talks, and discussion about New Media art forms, issues, and poetics in a cordial setting. Poetry is on the move ... catch a glimpse of present poetic forms in action! This event seeks to further conversation about poetics through its sampling in digital forms. Join us for an historic presentation of digital poetics featuring an engaging mix of foundational and emerging digital poets!” Watch this space, as we will be posting papers from the symposium.

Also in this issue, LEA announces its two upcoming specials: “Dispersive Anatomies” and “Creative Data: Visualisation, Augmentation, Telepresence And Immersion”, and job postings at the University of Texas (Dallas). These are accessible from: http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_15/LEA_v15_n05-06/announcements.asp

We thank Alejandro and his team for partnering with LEA and describing us as: “the perfect venue for these essays because it is a progressive, cutting edge platform that maximizes the use of technology and allows the use of audio, and video as a means for authors to share their works and thought processes. In addition, LEA is a platform that gives open access to the materials, which is very important in the generation of new ideas, particularly from the viewpoint of the role of technology in development.”

To our readers, thank you for your continued positive feedback. We encourage proposals to our on-going call for papers and encourage guest editors, curators and academics to propose ideas for upcoming LEA Specials. Do visit our contributor guidelines at: http://leoalmanac.org/cfp/submit/index.asp

We look forward to more news from you!

Author Biography
Singaporean Nisar Keshvani is a consultant, Internet journalist, web developer, educator and new media specialist. In the last decade, he has worked across five continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Australia/Oceania). He is editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (http://LEA.mit.edu) and International Co-Editor of fineArt forum (http://www.fineartforum.org) - one of the Internet's longest runing arts publication. He has worked for various international magazines and newspapers since 1993.

Keshvani sits on the board of the Art, Science, Technology Network (ASTN), Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences & Technology; fineArt forum and on SIGGRAPH's Singapore Chapter Management Committee. He is Program Advisor (Asia Pacific) of the Brisbane Multimedia Art Asia Pacific (MAAP) Festival. Keshvani has extensive experience developing and maintaining websites and was an online journalism educator at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, examining internationalization issues and changing work practices in the online newsroom. He was also Digital Media Lecturer and module leader for Web Design Applications with Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Film & Media Studies in Singapore. In 2003 - 2004, Keshvani was on consultancy with the Aga Khan Development Network (a group of international development agencies working in health, education, culture and rural and economic development, primarily in Asia and Africa).

Citation reference for this Leonardo Electronic Almanac Essay

MLA Style
Keshvani, Nisar. “Editorial: From Multimedia to New Media Poetry!.” “LEA-ACM Multimedia” Special Issue, Leonardo Electronic Almanac Vol. 15, No. 5 – 6 (2007). 10 May 2007 <http://leoalmanac.org/journal/vol_15/lea_v15_n05-06/editorial.asp>

APA Style
Keshvani, N. (May 2007). “Editorial: From Multimedia to New Media Poetry!.” “LEA-ACM Multimedia” Special Issue, Leonardo Electronic Almanac Vol. 15, No. 5 – 6 (2007). Retrieved 10 May 2007 from <http://leoalmanac.org/journal/vol_15/lea_v15_n05-06/editorial.asp>