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NEWS:8CYBERCONF - HIGH RISK BABY! 5CYBERCONF PROCEEDINGS ZKP2 PROCEEDINGS MEDIA COVERAGE 6CYBERCONF The web server for the International Conference on Cyberspace is at http://www.cyberconf.org/ 5CYBERCONF EMAIL ADDRESS |
5CYBERCONF is an international conference that addresses the social, political and cultural implications of cyberspace from a critical standpoint and encourages discussion between theoreticians and practitioners. Hosted for the first time in Europe, this fifth edition of CYBERCONF considered computer-human interface breakthroughs, our fascination and weariness with disobedient technology, the role of synthetic behaviour in virtual design, and the increasing importance of cross-cultural contributions to the electronic community.
In the 90s cyberspace has reached a critical mass. The tools to construct and navigate virtual worlds are becoming increasingly affordable, intuitive and widespread. The rise in bandwidth and dropping prices have provoked the exponential growth of the online population (or is it the other way around?). As the net becomes a mainstream hit, how has the transition from science fiction to reality changed cyberspace?
5CYBERCONF took place between Thursday afternoon, June 6th and Sunday night, June 9th, 1996. There were 7 keynote speakers, 18 plenary sessions, special events, a videoconference link-up and a banquet dinner. All sessions were designed to foster discussion. Presentations were in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.
How are the boundaries of the computer-human interface disappearing? Is the "window onto the world" metaphor exhausted? Can we unframe our synthetic worlds? What can replace the cartesian grid as a reference for non-linear worlds?
Who is leaving cyberspace and why? What are the different forms of cyber-sickness? Is the body rejecting interfaces that ignore it? What are the old and new psychological disorders manifested in or caused by cyberspace? What are the different forms of cyber-tiredness? How can we counteract the disenchantment brought about by the unfulfilled promises of the cyber-hype industry? Who is buying the media's portrayal of cyberspace as dirty and dangerous? Who is winning the battles to control or dominate access?
When will the predicted death of "outmoded" dualisms finally happen? Is accepting our own cyborgness the only way to explore post-humanism, or are there other, as-yet-unimagined, ways? How do we create new languages to describe unprecedented experiences? How has the language of cyberspace changed since the first CYBERCONF?
Are there digital ethnic groups? How can ceremony and language be used in the retro-colonization of cyberspace? Can the international economic system be de-virtualized? What kinds of non-digital virtuality are there? What are the experiences of new online communities in countries where access is relatively recent, and how are their contributions changing the time and space of cyberspace? Who are the new marginals? The "Global Village" and other myths.
What is seductive about technology out-of-control? What would be the uses of a "personal dis-organizer"? What is technological correctness? How will our ethics be transformed by the ability to "undo" our virtual actions? Will artificial intelligence finally deliver an automaton that disobeys? What is cyber-pain? (and where to find it).
Can cyberspace behaviour be "rendered" (as in designer-behaviour)? What constitutes interesting behaviour? Will synthetic behaviour change what we mean by normal behaviour? What is the virtual equivalent of the Undead? What proposals challenge the dead/alive binary (videogames, military simulators, etc.) as the primary paradigm of virtual interaction?
A total 150 proposals were received from 30 countries:
| 51 United States 23 Spain 22 United Kingdom 20 Canada . 8 Australia . 8 Germany . 5 Austria . 5 France . 4 Chile . 3 Mexico |
3 Norway 2 Brazil 2 Cyprus 2 Greece 2 Japan 2 Netherlands 2 New Zeland 2 Yugoslavia 1 Argentina 1 Bangaldesh |
1 Finland 1 India 1 Italy 1 Nigeria 1 Poland 1 Portugal 1 Puerto Rico 1 Sweden 1 Turkey 1 Venezuela |
o Two authors identified o There are papers with |
The selection of papers for the conference was done by an international and a local committee made up of academics, theorists, artists and technicians in the field.
The evaluation priorities were as follows: 1) the global quality of the proposal, 2) the suitability of the paper to the chosen 5CYBERCONF theme or to the cyberconf in general, and 3) the author's biography.
The individual scores were averaged and the 18 proposals with the highest rating were chosen. Due to the small number of papers that could be presented in depth in 3 1/2 days, many excellent papers were excluded despite getting very favourable evaluations. The committees decisions are final.
The following table indicates the number of proposals received for each of the Conference themes (some authors indicated more than one possible preferred theme):
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Interface-Lift |
Cyber Sick-and-Tired |
Technology Good, People Bad |
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Digital Third Worlds |
Crash Technology |
Synthetic Behaviour |
The following speakers, listed in alphabetical order, presented their work at the Conference:
NOTE: Each speaker has a page which includes their abstract, a brief biography, links and a web search and which can be accessed by clicking on their name. Additionally, most of the speakers' pages have been updated with the papers that they presented at 5CYBERCONF.
"Envisioning Cyberspace: The Design of OnLine Communities" by PETER ANDERS (USA). Lecturer and Research Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology School of Architecture.
"Sideburnspace: a corpus-centric view of inter/arti-face design and creation" by WILL BAUER (Canada). Artist and engineer, inventor of the GAMS virtual reality and media controller.
"Control and Passion" by JOSÉ A. BRAGANÇA DE MIRANDA (Portugal). Professor of Communications at the New University of Lisbon. Editor of the "Review of Communication and Languages."
"'Roots and Wires:' poly-rhythmic cyberspace and the black electronic" by ERIK DAVIS (USA). Freelance writer, has contributed to Wired, The Village Voice, Mediamatic, The Utne Reader, The Nation and others.
"Crash, Crisis, Containment, and Cyberia" by TIMOTHY DRUCKREY (USA). Curator, critic and writer. Editor of "Culture on the Brink" and "Iterations" among other books related to events that he has curated.
"Is Oedipus Online: or why I read Freud in the information age (hyper-visibility and body claims in post-society)" by JERRY ALINE FLIEGER (USA). Professor at Rutgers University, her most recent book is "The Listening Eye".
"Cybertrauma and the Disorders of Testimony" by HEIDI GILPIN (USA). Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside. Dramaturg of William Forsythe and the Frankfurt Ballet.
"Mistakes and Misbehavior: tantrums in/tampering with cyberspace" by PERRY HOBERMAN (USA). Award winning installation and performance artist. Art Director at Telepresence Research. Teaches at the School of Visual Arts.
"Techno-Parasites: bringing the machinic unconscious to life" by ERIK HOBIJN // ANDREAS BROECKMANN (Netherlands // Germany). Media and machine artist, founding member of the Netband. // Cultural historian and media art curator, currently works with V2 in Rotterdam.
"Epizoo: cruelty and gratuitousness in real virtuality" by SERGI JORDÁ (Spain). Artist, composer and software programmer. Has worked with Marcel.lí Antúnez in several interactive installations and performances.
"Nonlocated Events: how to open fields of action within cognitive cyber-structures" by KNOWBOTIC RESEARCH (Austria / Germany). Award winning media art group, co-founders of Mem_brane Laboratory for Media Strategies.
"Net Criticism" presented by GEERT LOVINK // PIT SCHULTZ // DIANA McCARTY (Netherlands // Germany // Hungary). Media theorists, writers and event and exhibition curators, including Metaforum I and II (Budapest), Ex Oriente Lux (Bucharest), Interface 3 (Hamburg) and the Next Five Minutes I and II (Amsterdam).
"From Rubber Catsuits to Silicon Wetware: transforming the human body and polymorphic desire(s) in synthetic media" by WILLIAM R. MACAULEY (UK). Staff member and research student in the Department of Psychology, U. of Manchester.
"Cyber Sense Dispersal: Stelarc and post-human evolution" by BRIAN MASSUMI (USA / Australia). Author of "A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia" and "First and Last Emperors." Researcher at the University of Queensland.
"Dramatis Personae: casting cyberselves" by SALLY JANE NORMAN (New Zealand / France). Performing arts theorist and organizer, research associate with the CNRS in Paris.
"Forsaken Geographies: cyberspace and the New World 'Other'" by OLU OGUIBE (Nigeria). Award-winning poet, artist and art historian. Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Proximal and Distal Unity" by MARK D. PESCE (USA). Researcher, author and theorist. Co inventor of a virtual interface to the World Wide Web, which became the basis for the Virtual Reality Modeling Language VRML.
"Bodymaps: artifacts of mortality, interfacing through, and into the Self" by THECLA SCHIPHORST (Canada). Artist, choreographer and computer systems designer. Works with Merce Cunningham using "Life Forms" a computer choreographic software she helped design.
"After the Nationalist Panopticon: the experience of Cyberpublics in India" by RAVI SUNDARAM (India). Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. His forthcoming book is "Time, Modernity and the Modern World-System."
NOTE: Each speaker has a page which includes their abstract, a brief biography, links and a web search and which can be accessed by clicking on their name. Additionally, most of the speakers' pages have been updated with the papers that they presented at 5CYBERCONF.
CAROLINA CRUZ-NEIRA (Spain) - Associate scientist and professor, University of Iowa. Co-developer of the CAVE Virtual Reality system. "Cosmic Worm in the CAVE: Steering a high performance computing application from a virtual environment" by Trina M. Roy, Carolina Cruz-Neira and Thomas A. DeFanti.
GUILLERMO GÓMEZ-PEÑA (Mexico-USA) - Writer and performance artist. Author of the book "Warrior for Gringostroika." His recent work develops the ""Brownification of the Net" in the age of chicano virtual reality, techno-pirates, cyber-coyotes and mexican hypertexts.
MANUEL DE LANDA (Mexico-USA) - Artist, filmmaker and programmer. Author of the books "War in the Age of Intelligent Machines" and "Phylum: a Thousand years of Nonlinear History." 5Cyberconf paper: "Markets, Anti-Markets and Netweok Economics."
ANTONI MUNTADAS (Spain-USA) - Conceptual and media artist. Author of the "File Room" internet site. His work has been shown at most of the world's important contemporary art exhibitions.
ANSELMO LASTRA (USA) - Researcher working on image generators for high-performance interactive computer graphics and virtual environments. He is currently a Research Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
FLORIAN RÖTZER (Germany) - Theorist and art critic, curator of exhibitions and symposia in the field of new media, including "Digitale Schein" in Munich 1991 and "Telepolis" in Luxemburg 1995.
ALLUCQUÈRE ROSANNE STONE (USA) - Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Author of the book "The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age" and many essays on virtual culture.
Premiere of "On Translation: The Transmission" artist project by ANTONI MUNTADAS. Videoconference link-up between the Olympic Games in Atlanta and the Conference in Madrid. With the collaboration of Barcelona-based curator, critic and writer CLAUDIA GIANETTI.
"Mexterminator" Performance by GUILLERMO GÓMEZ-PEÑA includes a "Living Diorama of an Ethno Cyborg" created by the imagination of internet participants.
Premiere of "Primario" a stereoscopic interactive space by the artist group ...DIJO EL MONJE (Spain).
Private pre-release screening of DAVID CRONENBERG's new film "Crash" based on the novel by J.G. BALLARD.
ConeXión Madrid party at the Sala Sorgona. With presentations by MAITE CAJARAVILLE, JESUS DOMINGUEZ, FRANK KUNKEL, THOMAS BAYRLE and "LA CALVA."
Early Bird Sessions
Who attended 5CYBERCONF?
5CYBERCONF took place in the cozy, modern auditorium of the Art and Technology Foundation situated in the heart of Madrid. The historic building that houses the Foundation is within walking distance of sites of interest such as the Plaza Mayor, la Puerta del Sol and the Prado Museum. Madrid has a lively street life and is famous for its tapa bars, Flamenco scene, sidewalk cafés and all night festivities.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Chair
Susie Ramsay, Coordinator
Allucquère Rosanne Stone, Goddess of Cyberspace
Fundación Arte y Tecnología de Telefónica
Cándido Velázquez-Gaztelu, Foundation Chair
Roberto Velázquez Martín, Foundation Manager
L. Ishi-Kawa, Foundation Curator and Assistant Manager.
Alex Adriaansens, V2 (Netherlands)
Roy Ascott, CAIIA (UK)
Annick Bureaud, Art-El, ASTN (France)
Andrea Di Castro, CNA (Mexico)
Lorne Falk, Independent (USA)
Monika Fleischmann, GMD (Germany)
Eduardo Kac, U. of Kentucky (Brazil)
Derrick de Kerckhove, McLuhan Institute (Canada)
Machiko Kusahara, TIP, GCL, NTT (Japan)
Roger Malina, Leonardo, ISAST (USA)
Marcos Novak, U. of Texas (USA)
Jorinde Seijdel, Independent (Netherlands)
Jeffrey Shaw, ZKM (Australia)
Gerfried Stocker, Ars Electronica (Austria)
Allucquere Rosanne Stone, U. of Texas (USA)
Geert Strengholt, Mediamatic (Netherlands)
Christine Tamblyn, Florida International U. (USA)
Committee Biographies and links
Montxo Algora, Art Futura
Carlota Alvarez Basso, Reina Sofía Museum
Xavier Berenguer, U. Pompeu Fabra
Daniel Canogar, Independent
Fernando Castro, Instituto de Estética y Teoría de las Artes
Estrella de Diego, U. Complutense
Javier Echeverría, U. del País Vasco
Pedro Garhel, Espacio "P"
Antonio Golderos, Telefónica I+D
Francisco Jarauta, U. de Murcia
José Jiménez, Instituto de Estética y Teoría de las Artes
Emilio López-Galiacho, Arquimedia
José Antonio Mayo, Realidad Virtual S. L.
Karin Ohlenschläger, Proyectos Culturales
María Pallier, Independent
Committee Biographies and links
Casa de América, Goethe Institut (Madrid), Iberia, Compañía Telefónica de España, PictureTel, Siemens Redes Corporativas, TSAI, José Frade Producciones Cinematográficas, Alliance.
Lateral (Spain), MacUser (Spain), Mute (UK), NovArt (France), Virtual (Italy).
5CYBERCONF
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Susie Ramsay
Hortaleza 100, 1 - Derecha
28004 Madrid, España
5cyberconf@telefonica.es
Visit the web site for the Art and Technology Foundation!
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