Christa Sommerer

Living poetry

We introduce three of our interactive artworks that translate text into artificial creatures or creatures into text by means of user interaction. These installations make use of experimental literature, media archaeology, surrealism, artificial life, and algorithmic methods.

Creating Interactive Art—Conceptual and Technological Considerations

This article describes how the authors have been using and developing media technology for art practice over the past twenty five years. Two examples of interactive prototypes that combine artistic concepts with technological experimentation are presented preceded by a short overview of the general context of collaborations in art and technology.

Multimodal Interaction with Internet Data

The telecommunication domain is their favorite playground. They are transforming the realm of the Internet and networks into a gigantic interactive system where the public is engaged with the latest technology. In their artwork Nano-Scape (2004) the visitor wears a ring on his or her finger and can feel the invisible presence of nano particles. The magnetic forces enable the “player” to “touch” the infinitely small. The sculpture transforms, remaining invisible, but the effects are perceptible. The sense of touch, which Duchamp had a strong affection for, is deeply rooted in their work.

From Artificial Life and Complexity Research to Bio and Nano Art

Forward thinkers of artificial life research started to “synthesize” life and create artificial life on computers. A century before, when Charles Darwin published his book Origin of Species2 in 1859, most people believed life on Earth had originated by a divine act of creation. Little was known at that time about the principles of heredity, fertilization or the development of the mature animal from an embryo. The concept of evolution revolutionized nineteenth century ideas about the diversity of species on Earth and the origin of all living creatures. Today, the theory of evolution is one of the most important models in biology for explaining how species originated and developed.

Immersion, Illusion and Intelligent Environments

Established in 1989, the Images and Technology Gallery has the objective to present serial thematic exhibitions in the field of visual images. The gallery deals not only with moving images, such as motion pictures or video performances, but also a wide range of compositions in light and shadow. As the curator in charge of this media art gallery, I have organized over 30 exhibitions in my 20 years of involvement there. The exhibitions were host to a collection of historical and contemporary works, from Werner Nekes’s optical toys to Toshio Iwai’s interactive installations, and covered diverse themes such as “Imagination — anamorphosis/magic shadows,” “Animation — static pictures to moving pictures,” “3D — beyond stereography/virtual reality and our perception,” “Magnified view” and “Time and place remembered.”

Solar Display: a selfpowered media facade

Artists who create interactive systems and artistic interface designs have begun to look for new display possibilities. For this reason facade’s of contemporary buildings have been largely investigated as a sort of membrane for the display of interactive digital content. These facades often make use of intrusive systems such as LED displays, monitor walls, or light bulb systems that fully cover the buildings to achieve large scale image displays. While LEDs are very expensive, monitor walls hardly work at daylight situations, and light bulb systems have only limited display capabilities. Equally we may understand that the mode of apprehension of media facades has changed tremendously compared to traditional types of building surfaces.

Art as Research Research as Art

Adult trees, with their extended transpiration surfaces and their elaborate water carrying system that ranges from the roots to their leaves, provide some of the best examples of organizational systems. A tree does not allow itself to lose water and swiftly reacts to any danger of drought by targeting a balanced water household. Excessive transpiration only takes place at the crown of the tree when the water supply is plentiful.1

Evolution theory system theory game theory Biocentric Modeling

Mathematical abstraction unquestionably represents the non plus ultra of technology transfer. Therefore it is not surprising that the nnost radically diverse thinker of the twentieth century was a mathematician: the Hungarian John von Neumann. He quite consciously cultivated this diversity, which led him apparently effortlessly from mathematical logic to quantum physics or from hydrodynamics to meteorology At times it seems that he directed his interests toward a new field precisely because it was different than anything he had ever done before. For this reason, it would have greatly fascinated him that two completely separate fields, which he created, have grown together in a surprisingly natural way. First, there is game theory, which he (and his Austrian friend, Oskar Morgenstern) created as a tool for economics. Second, there are the models for artificial life, which his Polish friend, Stanislav Ulam, suggested and which von Neumann designed, using cellular automatons.