ABSTRACT Aboriginal painting has been largely treated as conceptual rather than perceptual and its visual impact little examined. In this article the author shows the perceptual skill and innovation demonstrated by Aboriginal bark painters in depicting figure-ground and occlusion. This has heuristic value for studying occlusion perception and adds visual meaning to the conceptual meaning of the paintings.

ABSTRACT This paper tells the tale of an adventure in teaching an interdisciplinary course about visual perception, combining visual art and vision science, called “Making Visual Illusions.” The authors co-taught a course that brought together the hands-on methods of the art studio and the science laboratory, using visual illusions as a theme to guide student explorations. One unexpected issue that arose was the time needed to discuss basic concepts and the connections between fields in order to communicate the deeper ideas the students needed to learn. This paper explores aspects of the course that worked well and makes suggestions for improvement.

ABSTRACT This article discusses how an understanding of prosthetic imagining has influenced the making of sound machines for the Amplified Elephants—a group of sound artists living with intellectual disabilities. This research is contextualized through the discussion of relevant precedent artists: performance artist Stelarc and sound artist Ernie Althoff. The article presents the point that sound art (including music) is a predominantly prosthetic art form; sound-making devices (including traditional musical instruments) can be conceived of as prosthetic audio devices. Investigating notions of prosthesis can inform us further on the human condition.

ABSTRACT Representations of earthquakes in visual art have the potential to function as spectacles (defined as striking or dramatic public displays); this in turn provokes consideration of how viewers construct meaning from such representations. The author examines the work of a number of artists arguably concerned with going beyond spectacular representations in their portrayals of earthquake activity. Particular focus is placed upon performative techniques meant not only to engage audiences with the properties of seismic phenomena but also to stimulate reflection on the complex psychological responses they may trigger, as well as their analogous relationships to conditions of environmental and cultural crisis.

ABSTRACT The structures of syllables and of yoga poses are compared. Syllables are tripartite, with sound segments rising in sonority (acoustic energy) to a peak, then falling. Likewise, asanas are tripartite, with symmetrical movements flanking the sustaining, vital energy peak. In both entities, then, symmetric structure flanks energy peaks. This organization is not a physical necessity, but a cognitive preference.

ABSTRACT Synthetic speech technologies have a profound impact on how we think about and interact with computers. This text discusses parts I and II of the “Make Language Project,” a trilogy on the cultural fallout of machine generated speech as a conduit for reconsidering prejudices in synthetic speech production and humanoid robot design.

ABSTRACT The authors, a composer and a mathematician, demonstrate how the Web-based application “musicalgorithms” translates numbers into musical events. Details of the algorithmic process and the decisions behind mathematical scaling operations are presented in two compositions called Redwoods Symphony and Dreaming among Thermal Pools and Concentric Spirals .

ABSTRACT Digital techniques, primarily software appropriated from the entertainment and industrial design sectors, have destabilized the essential status of the architectural image-object formulated in classical philosophical thought. Western European art experienced a similar crisis when conceptual art movements of the 1960s challenged Clement Greenberg's notion of medium specificity. The author examines work by conceptual artists whose theories posit alternative views of spatial and social relations based on open-ended systems and indeterminacy. An examination of the relationship between materiality and abstraction as exemplified in new media's reformulation of architectural design processes indicates how a more inclusive and mutable profession has been realized.

ABSTRACT Contemporary artists who use biomaterials to make art objects provide a valuable occasion for raising provocative questions about the value and use of human and nonhuman tissue in the biotechnological age. By disseminating ideas from the insular space of the laboratory to the general public, artists are able to broach philosophical, political, social and ethical questions that surround human ontology. The author considers the aesthetic aspects of Stelarc and Nina Sellars's Blender installation alongside the work of artists who assert an ethical position in their use of biomaterials.

The authors present ZENetic Computer as a means of cultural translation using scientific methods to represent essential aspects of Japanese culture. Using images—deriving from Buddhism and other Asian concepts, sansui (landscape) paintings, poetry and kimonos— that have not heretofore been the focus of computing, the authors project the style of communication developed by Zen schools over hundreds of years into an exotic computing world that users can explore. Through encounters with Zen koans and haiku, the user is constantly and sharply forced to confirm his or her selfawareness for purposes of the story. There is no one right answer to be found anywhere.

The authors discuss their work on developing technology to interface the brain directly with music systems, a field of research generally known as Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI). The paper gives a brief background of BCI in general and surveys various attempts at musical BCI, or Brain-Computer Music Interface (BCMI) — systems designed to make music from brain signals, or brainwaves. The authors present a technical introduction to the electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures brainwaves detected by electrodes placed directly on the scalp. They introduce approaches to the design of BCI and BCMI systems and present two case study systems of their own design: the BCMI-Piano and the Inter-Harmonium.

Camera Lucida is an interactive “sonic observatory” that directly converts sound waves into light by employing a phenomenon called sonoluminescence. The project was conceived both as an artwork and as a musical instrument that allows its player to see and shape sounds while moving through space.

Ever since 1819, when Theophile Laënnec first put a block of wood to a patient's chest in order to listen to her heartbeat, physicians have used auscultation to help diagnose cardiopulmonary disorders. Here the authors describe a novel diagnostic method based in music technology. Digital music-synthesis software is used to transform the sequence of time intervals between consecutive heartbeats into an electroacoustic soundtrack. The results show promise as a diagnostic tool and also provide the basis of an interesting musical soundscape.

The authors describe a practical method for assessing personal profiles of color:word, color:taste, color:music and color:odor synesthesia. The Netherlands Color Synesthesia (NeCoSyn) method is based on the Swedish Natural Color System and the test of genuineness for colored-word synesthesia developed by Baron-Cohen et al. The NeCoSyn method has been tested scientifically and shown to reliably distinguish different types of color synesthesia. It provides individual profiles of color synesthesia in the dimensions of hue, chroma and blackness. This article describes the method and discusses possible applications of NeCoSyn profiles in different fields of the arts and sciences.

Today, a worldwide community of innovators is engaged in the convergence of art, technology and science, as are a number of vital and active organizations, yet there seems to be very little discourse about the process of doing interdisciplinary work. The BRIDGES Consortium seeks to create a collaborative forum for the study and development of interdisciplinary collaboration as a practice. At the first Bridges Summit, held in June 2001, participants discussed a broad range of topics, including: preceding historical developments, the role of language, institutional hurdles to collaboration and the value of art/technology-based research. The event concluded with recommendations for aggregating, validating and strengthening the interdisciplinary community through the creation of a new form of collaborative organization.

Interactive Internet artworks invite viewers to become involved as user-participants as the creative process unfolds. Through analysis of selected Internet projects, the authors discuss the potential for facilitating an interactive, creative experience for participants in the process of making dance. This study was carried out in 1998 and 1999, but the findings remain relevant, as there have been few subsequent develop-ments in the field.

The three-way relationship between nature, technology and the human subject has been a problematic and shifting one in the history of Western art and thought. In this article, the author begins by summarizing this history, pointing to the inadequacy of most theoretical accounts in the face of the growing interpenetration of the “natural” by the “technological” resulting from such developments as genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. The author goes on to argue that the convergence between scientific developments in the field of artificial life and the emergent art movement points to the development of a new understanding of this relationship and a new role for the artist.

The overuse of visual imagery and the redundancy of information in traditional and new communication media have desensitized our society, resulting in an emotional bankruptcy. The World Wide Web communication medium, with its highly visual interface and virtual environments, perpetuates and aggravates this situation. The “new designers” of the twenty-first century must partner with technology experts, content specialists and common users to reinvigorate imagination and rekindle emotions. To this end, we can identify and extract the six essential ingredients of engagement from the traditional performing arts, communication and design theory and recast them to support new media that are both visually stimulating and emotionally provocative.