From: sharp@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Maurice Sharp) Subject: Banff Virtual Seminar Information (long) Date: Wed, 28 Aug 91 21:16:50 GMT Message-ID: <1991Aug28.211650.29760@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> Organization: U. of Calgary Computer Science VIRTUAL SEMINAR October 28 - 29, 1991 Art and Virtual Environments BIOAPPARATUS Residency THE BANFF CENTRE Banff, Alberta CANADA ...INFORMATION PACKAGE... Contents 1. Introduction 2. Description of Virtual Seminar on BIOAPPARATUS 3. List of "virtual" participants being invited to submit material to the Virtual Seminar 4. Publication Agreement INTRODUCTION We are inviting you to participate in a "virtual" seminar to be held October 28 and 29, 1991, as part of an artists' residency at The Banff Centre for the Arts, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The 10-week residency which involves 21 artists and writers, is centred around the notion of the BIOAPPARATUS, a term we use to cover a wide range of issues concerning the technologized body as well as the current cultural and political manifestations of one specific new technology, Virtual Reality. Within the framework of the residency, we are conducting a seminar that will be a site for input and responses around the issues of the BIOAPPARATUS. As the subject is vast, we want to encourage discourse and debate, and to involve a large number of people in mapping this territory. We are asking people whose work we believe to be important to the debate, as well as each of the 20 residency participants who will be at The Banff Centre, to contribute one page in response to the notion of the BIOAPPARATUS. We are inviting you to participate through a short print contribution. This submission, along with others, will form the basis of discussion during the seminar at the end of October. We feel that your written contribution would be a valuable one, as the primary reason for undertaking such a thematic residency is to encourage multidisciplinary discussion in a field where much debate is needed. At the end of the residency the resulting texts will be published in magazine/tabloid form and distributed to each contributor. We are also in discussion with an international publisher who has expressed interest in the project. In order to publish your submission, we require that the following statement be included with your response, as confirmation that you are in agreement with the terms listed in the Publication Agreement. (see item 4 / end of this article) I have read the terms of the Publication Agreement included in this material, and agree with these terms as stated. The enclosed material describes the background to the BIOAPPARATUS Residency and includes a framework for discussion which we would like you to respond to, details about the seminar, a list of the actual residency participants, and a list of people invited to contribute as virtual participants. We would greatly appreciate your contribution, as it will become the basis for what we consider to be a timely and important debate. Sincerely, Nell Tenhaaf and Catherine Richards Seminar Leaders A VIRTUAL SEMINAR ON THE BIOAPPARATUS Nell Tenhaaf / Catherine Richards BACKGROUND TO THE RESIDENCY The Art Studio program at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, offers three ten week residencies a year, bringing together a group of 20 artists, writers and theoreticians to address themes of current cultural interest. For the fall 1991 residency, we formulated a residency theme and suggested participants in the context of a collaboration between Art Studio and Media Arts programs of The Banff Centre. The collaboration is a fortuitous one as it draws on and develops our overlapping interests as independent cultural producers in issues of new technologies, not the least of which concerns what could be meant by the term "new." The residency is related to a longer term project at The Banff Centre called ART AND VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS. This project is directed toward artistic use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. The plan is to ultimately make VR technology available to artists through the Media Arts Program of The Banff Centre. This process will begin during the BIOAPPARATUS Residency by providing an on-site VR system. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK With Michael Century, Lorne Falk and Vern Hume (Banff Centre for the Arts directors of Program Development, Art Studio and Media Arts respectively) we constructed a residency on the BIOAPPARATUS. As a general framework, we agreed to look at the technological apparatus in its intimacy with the body, examining the history of this interrelationship and its sociocultural implications. Such issues have constituted the site for much of the postmodernist debate on representation and the pronounced cultural shifts of the past few decades. The BIOAPPARATUS Residency will explore questions of the integrity of the body and of subjectivity. The apparatus, as we construe it, is itself a perceptual model, a reflection of social and cultural value systems, of desires. It can be seen as a metaphor that not only describes but generates subjectivity, a subjectivity problematized by the objectifying effect of any technological instrument. The apparatus splits the body, the person, into subject and object, and its history thus merges with the philosophical history of dualism: body/mind, nature/culture, female/male. One question posed by feminist critiques of technology in the context of media, science, medicine, is whether the historically constructed subject/object relation can be reconstituted so that its power dynamic is one of commonality and attunement rather than objectification and conquest. Virtual Reality or Virtual Environment technology is of particular interest in the context of the BIOAPPARATUS. It is a symptom as well as an instrument of a re-ordering of perception and, one can anticipate, of power relations. The current mythology surrounding the technology reconstitutes the mind/body opposition, and raises issues of "bodily materiality" (a term proposed by Rosi Braidotti). As such, virtuality can be looked at as an expression of social discourses that are already in place. One of the intentions of the residency is to address the broader context of sociocultural shifts that are both the cause and symptom of technological changes. Some other issues related to the BIOAPPARATUS are: - the idea of machines as essentially social assemblages - the tool as a political site for shifts in the mediascape and its definition: the military, the American "world culture" and its media, the drug cowboys, medicine - the fictions of science and the science of fiction - "man"/machine interaction, cyborgs, boundary degeneration - artists' definitions of machines: futurism, bachelor machines PLEASE RESPOND The apparatus has probed, extended and blurred the boundaries between viewer and viewed, knower and known. VR can be seen as one moment on this trajectory. The apparatus has now become so sophisticated that it presents itself as merging with the body - becoming the BIOAPPARATUS - obscuring the borders drawn by instrumentality and redefining body functions of perception, sensations, understanding. What is the most pressing issue, for you, concerning the BIOAPPARATUS? What would you add to this description of the BIOAPPARATUS? Please send a one-page response, by September 30, 1991. The following statement must be included with your response, as confirmation that you are in agreement with the terms listed in the Publication Agreement. I have read the terms of the Publication Agreement included in this material, and agree with these terms as stated. No submissions can be or will be used without the inclusion of this statement with your response. Please reply via e-mail. To: COLIN GRIFFITHS Virtual Seminar The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, CANADA T0L 0C0 e-mail: colin@cpsc.ucalgary.ca Fax: (403)762-6659 Thank you very much for your contribution. We are excited about the emerging discourse on this subject and look forward to compiling the results of this project. Please ensure you enclose a mailing address to which your copies of the publication can be forwarded. Nell Tenhaaf and Catherine Richards Seminar Leaders ARTISTS PARTICIPATING IN THE BIOAPPARATUS RESIDENCY Mary Anne Amacher Michael Naimark Kingston, NY San Francisco, CA Wende Bartley Kathleen Rogers Toronto, Ontario London, England Eleanor Bond David Rokeby Winnipeg, Manitoba Toronto, Ontario Adam Boome David Rothenberg London, England Cambridge, MA Diana Burgoyne Daniel Scheidt Montreal, Quebec Vancouver, British Columbia He Gong Chris Titterington Chongqing, Sichuan, China London, England Douglas Hall Daniel Scheidt San Francisco, CA Vancouver, British Columbia Robert McFadden David Tomas London, England Montreal, Quebec Inez Vanderspek Robin Minard Nymegen, Netherlands Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island INDIVIDUALS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE VIRTUAL SEMINAR Norman White Alain Bergeron Bob Stein Durham, Ontario Montreal, Quebec Santa Monica, CA George Lewis Jerry Durlak Michiel Schwarz Chicago, Illinois North York, Ontario Amsterdam, Holland Michel Waiswicz Jean-Louis Weissberg Joseph Weizenbaum Amsterdam, Holland St. Maur, France Cambridge,MA Vera Frenkel Ursula Franklin Toshio Iwai Toronto, Ontario Toronto, Ontario Tokyo, Japan Luc Courchesne John Clauser Hubert Hohn Montreal, Quebec Chester Sprints,PA Boston, MA Paul Virilio Johannes Goebel Paul Lansky Paris, France Karlsruhe, Germany Princeton, New Jersey Itsuo Sakane Laurie Spiegel William Gibson Tokyo, Japan New York City, NY Vancouver, British Columbia Artur Matuck Robert Lepage Tom Sherman Pittsburgh, PA Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa, Ontario Michael Snow Sandy Buckley Centre for Narrative & Toronto, Ontario Montreal, Quebec Technology Jackson, Michigan Jeanne Randolph Gottfried Hattinger Tod Machover Toronto, Ontario Linz, Austria Cambridge,MA Regina Cornwell Arthur Kroker Vilem Flusser New York City, NY Marilouise Kroker Robion, France Montreal, Quebec Florian Brody Alice Jardine Florian Rotzer Vienna, Austria Boston, MA Munich, Germany Sherrie Rabinowitz Catherine Elliot Shaw Nicole Stenger Santa Monica, CA London, Ontario Cambridge,MA Kit Galloway Jude Kornelson Marita Sturken Santa Monica, CA Burnaby, British Santa Cruz, CA Columbia Jean Francois Lyotard Martin Gotfrit Ramona Fernandez Paris, France Burnaby, British Sacramento, CA Columbia Rudolf Arnheim Thecla Schiphorst Jennifer Terry Ann Arbor, Michigan Burnaby, British Amherst, MA Columbia David Rosenboom Lyne Lapointe Bruce Ferguson Valencia, CA Montreal, Quebec New York City, NY Phillippe Cote Petra von Morstein John Wyver Montreal, Quebec Calgary, Alberta London, England Peter Weibel George Legrady Atom Egoyan Vienna, Austria San Francisco, CA Toronto, Ontario Jurgen Claus Jerry Pethick Christine Ross Baelen, Belgium Hornby Island Montreal, Quebec British Columbia Andre Jodoin Scott Kim Seiko Mikami Calgary, Alberta Palo Alto, CA Brooklyn, NY Mireille Perron Pete Richards Angelika Festa Calgary, Alberta San Francisco, CA New York City, NY Johanne Lamoureux Janine Marchessault Jana Sterbak Montreal, Quebec Toronto, Ontario Montreal, Quebec Rosi Braidotti Elspeth Probyn Francine Dagenais Utrect, Netherlands Montreal, Quebec Montreal, Quebec Kim Sawchuk Jody Berland Dorit Cypis Montreal, Quebec Montreal, Quebec Minneapolis,Minnesota Lynn Hughes Stan Douglas Hank Bull Montreal, Quebec Vancouver, British Vancouver, British Columbia Columbia Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Martha Flemming Montreal, Quebec Montreal, Quebec PUBLICATION AGREEMENT We are requesting a one-page submission to be included in a publication tentatively entitled BIOAPPARATUS which we are intending to publish in December, 1991. We request that the work be original and not violate the law or rights of others. Suitability for publication will be finally determined by The Banff Centre. The Banff Centre retains the right to copy-edit the submission and to edit it for length as required for the final publication. All copyrights to the written submission will be owned by the writer. We are requesting one-time only serial publication rights to print your submission in this publication. Copyrights to the publication as a whole will be owned by The Banff Centre. After the printing of this publication and upon your written request, we will freely grant permission for the reproduction of this compilation in any recognized scholarly, professional or noncommercial publication, subject only to full credit for you and for The Banff Centre appearing in the publication with an acknowledgement of first publication by The Banff Centre. Although we cannot offer monetary compensation for the work, we will undertake the printing and you will receive 10 free copies of the publication for your own use and distribution. Additional copies will be distributed to media centres, galleries, documentation centres, etc. The following statement must be included with your response, as confirmation that you are in agreement with the terms listed in the Publication Agreement. I have read the terms of the Publication Agreement included in this material, and agree with these terms as stated. ................................. ................................... (name) (date) -- Maurice Sharp MSc. Student (403) 220 7690 University of Calgary Computer Science Department 2500 University Drive N.W. sharp@cpsc.UCalgary.CA Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 AOL FSAMaurice