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Title: Digital Image-Digital Cinema: The Work of Art in the Age of Post-Mechanical Reproduction
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 1990: Digital Image-Digital Cinema
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Computers are transforming existing art forms and allowing new kinds of art forms to be developed. Because the computer is primarily a machine for processing information, not a machine for making objects, it provides a malleable medium that provides the artist with a large variety of tools for manipulating sense data. The work that contains the result of the artist’s creativity is the software and the data, not any particular image or output produced using that software. The ultimate goal of artmaking using computers, in this light, is not to create art objects but to create dynamic art subjects, to produce families of aesthetically interesting outputs, or art performances, which are as different from each other as possible within the constraints of the software. This situates computer art within a larger context of the study and development of artificial life. To create significant artworks of this type, it will be necessary to improve the computer’s capacity to be an autonomous artmaking subject; this will require the extension of the computer’s senses, the expansion of its capabilities, and means for the computer to provide sensory inputs to the human nervous system and to other computers.

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Title: Digital Image-Digital Photography
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 1990: Digital Image-Digital Cinema
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

The SIGGRAPH 1990 Art Show Committee decided to sponsor an exhibition of works that concentrate on the interaction of photographic imagery and computer technology [1]. This exhibition came about because of one interesting aspect of computer-mediated artworks that has been developing over the last several years. As the curator of this exhibition, I chose to put together a group of works that investigate not only the technical combination of these media but also the conceptual basis for choosing such tools of investigation, collaboration and production.

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Title: Digital Ontologies: The Ideality of Form in/and Code Storage - or - Can Graphesis Challenge Mathesis?
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2000: Art Gallery
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

The attempt to understand the connections that link human thought to its representation through the act of formgiving (in language, image, or signs) is central to Western philosophy and aesthetics. In every generation, some version of this question has been posed: If it were possible to understand the logic of human thought, would there be a perfect representation of it in some unambiguous, diagrammatic symbol set of entities and dynamic relations among them? Informed by classical metaphysics and philosophy, this question also has a life not only in contemporary struggles that are carried on in the varied and very different domains of visual art, information design, and computer graphics, but also in cognitive science, with its legacy of symbolic logic, artificial intelligence debates, and a disposition towards the intersection of speculative and specifiable apprehensions of what constitutes thought.

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Title: doing interface ecology: the practice of metadisciplinary
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2005: Threading Time
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

The interface can be modeled as a an ecosystem: connected, dynamic, and characterized by relationships. The model is predicated on a process of working with the interface as a border zone between heterogeneous systems of representation. This paper uses sensation, embodiment, and semiotics to initiate this process, by addressing the range of systems of representation that are involved in its own production. This presence of the theorist is found to create a self-referential metastructure. As an alternative to the beneficial but ad hoc assemblages of multi-, inter, and trans-disciplinary approaches, the ecosystems approach establishes that meshing of systems of representation is an inherent property of interface phenomena. The meshing process causes elements from the involved representational systems to recombine, forming hybrids. Recombinant information is a structural formula for creating new knowledge, which can be invoked for that purpose, intentionally. Theorists are part of the environment that they theorize about. The products of theorizing are information artifacts that are also part of the environment. They themselves function as interfaces. The term “metadisciplinary” is developed to describe the inherent and self-referential nature of this structure. The structure of metadisciplinarity connects theory and practice. This stands in direct contrast with studies approaches, such as performance studies, which is separate from theater practice.

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Title: Drunk on Technology, Waiting for the Hangover: A Test Plot
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2006: Intersections
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

No abstract available.

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Title: Early History of French CG
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2013: XYZN: Scale
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

This paper provides an historical summary of the emergence of computer graphics research and creation in France between 1970 and 1990, a period of innovation that transformed artistic practice and French visual media. The paper shows the role of these developments in the history of art, the evolution of digital technology, and the expansion of animation and visual effects in the film industry.

Title: Emergent Aesthetics - Aesthetic Issues in Computer Arts
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 1989: Art Show
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

The production of art, as much as any other production, takes place in the context of human interaction-with others, with nature, with tools, with artifacts, and with ideas from times passed. Artistic work, more than any other, is probably a projection of the experiential structure of the act of producing artifacts (or events) with qualities socially acknowledged as artistic and values culturally celebrated as aesthetic. Throughout history, the patterns of human interaction have continuously changed, and so has art. Nonetheless, changes like the ones we experience today are unprecedented, requiring that we understand that the condition of art is probably more dependent than ever on the condition of humanity in general, and of science and technology in particular.

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Title: Enhanced Family Tree: Evolving Research and Expression
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2020: Think Beyond
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

“Enhanced Family Tree” reimagines the possibilities of family trees with an evolving series of exhibits. Their new approach may reveal questionable relationships in genealogical records. Moreover, the authors’ use of an organic metaphor of a “tree” can be further extended, resulting in organic forms that stimulate the imagination.

Title: Entropy and FatFinger: Challenging the Compulsiveness of Code with Programmatic Anti-Styles
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2018: Original Narratives
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Coding, the translating of human intent into logical steps, reinforces a compulsive way of thinking, as described in Joseph Weitzenbaum’s “Science and the Compulsive Programmer” (1976). Two projects by the author, Entropy (2010) and FatFinger (2017), challenge this by encouraging gestural approaches to code. In the Entropy programming language, data becomes slightly more approximate each time it is used, drifting from its original values, forcing programmers to be less precise. FatFinger, a Javascript dialect, allows the programmer to misspell code and interprets it as the closest runnable variation, strategically guessing at the programmer’s intent.

Title: Entr’acte
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2012: In Search of the Miraculous
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Looking at new public-space formations today, the roles of new technologies grow not only prominent but also noticeably time-sensitive. Due in part to the rapidly changing nature of communications media and the diverse stakeholders, the theatrical “entr’acte” appears to be an apt model for forms and durations of public space with diverse performers (both human and material elements) of different sorts: entr’acteurs. How is public space as physical construct changing with new embedded forms of computing? How is a public formed? What new material sensibilities emerge? And what role does their essentially fleeting or transitional character play?

Title: Ethics, Ecology, and the Future: Art and Design Face the Anthropocene
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2015: Hybrid Craft
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Art and design have become platforms for discussing the long-term implications of technology and modernity, most recently in relation to ecological crisis and the Anthropocene. While artists, designers and curators seek to raise awareness of the Anthropocene, it is important to remain critical of the narratives these practitioners develop. This paper provides a brief critique of how these issues are being addressed in the cultural sphere, suggesting that works of critical, conceptual and speculative design may be best suited to addressing the Anthropocene as they foster critical thinking about how we relate to technology and science, how we organize ourselves politically and socially, and how we define ourselves in the broader ecological assemblage. Artists and designers discussed include Marina Zurkow, Una Chaudhuri, Oliver Kellhammer, Fritz Ertl and Sarah Rothberg; Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby; and Jae Rhim Lee.

Title: Experimental Interaction Unit: Commodities of Mass Destruction
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2009: BioLogic: A Natural History of Digital Life
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

This paper describes several projects by the now-defunct Experimental Interaction Unit that use prod-uct design, software engineering, and digital networking to uncover collective behaviors that contribute to systems of social control. Biology and human behavioral studies are essential aspects of this critique. Experimental Interaction Unit’s projects from 1996 to 2001 represent subversive use of technology to reveal unrecognized aspects of human interaction with networks, such as how telematic distance psy-chologically absolves individuals from taking responsibility for their actions. The fear of vulnerability to terrorist actions, including biological warfare and electronic interference, is exploited in these works, in order to expose the ways in which security is promised in exchange for control.

Title: Expressive AI
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2000: Art Gallery
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has produced a rich set of technical practices and interpretive conventions for building machines whose behavior can be narrated as intelligent activity. Artists have begun to incorporate AI practices into cultural production – into the production of artifacts and experiences that function as art within the cultural field. In this paper, I describe my own practice of AI-based cultural production: expressive AI. I will attempt to provide a preliminary understanding of this practice by both situating expressive AI with respect to other discourses on AI and by working inductively from my own Al-based art work. I will first provide a brief description of three of my AI-based art pieces. These will serve as concrete examples to ground the rest of the discussion. I will then describe the expressive AI practice by first situating it with respect to the GOFAl/interactionist AI debate, then by describing the central organizing metaphors of authorial and interpretive affordance, and finally by providing a preliminary set of desiderata for expressive AI practice.

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Title: Extraordinary Accident: an immersive metaphor of Hong Kong
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH Asia 2019: Deep Dreaming
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

This paper presents Extraordinary Accident, an immersive experience exploring how different levels of abstraction can coexist and collaborate in a representation and recreation of urban space. Using Hong Kong as both inspiration and data source, the work attempts to liberate virtual reality compositions from their metaphorical ballast –that is, their recreational onus– and instead, with a temporal amalgamation of poetic representation at different scales, contribute to an alternative, potentially more intimate, understanding of the urban experience.

Title: Feminist Transgressions? Object and Process in Transgenic/Genetic Works by Women
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2002: Art Gallery
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Interest in new technologies has fostered a growing interdisciplinary exploration between artists, scientists, social scientists, and designers. Particular types of artwork have held attraction for the artist-scientist in the 20th and 21st centuries: artificial life, evolutionary art, and genetic art have been created by those with an interest in science and organic structures. Concerns inherent to these contemporary interests are centuries old; 1 the use of novel technologies to mimic or create life can be traced to the Ancient Greeks, Jewish, Chinese, and Egyptian cultures, in which stories of famous pneumatic automata and golem originated.

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Title: Film Theory for the Digital World: Connecting the Masters to the New Digital Cinema
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 1990: Digital Image-Digital Cinema
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

This article examines the role that theories of photographic cinema play in the criticism of digital cinema. The theories of Georges Melies, Vachel Lindsay, Lev Kuleshov, Andre Bazin and Rudolf Arnheim-critics, theoreticians and filmmakers, the key-stones of this work-have proven pertinent to the advancing technology of other cinematic forms. Their ideas have applicability to specific aspects of digital cinema, including the manipulation of illusory space, discrete and explicit control of cinematic elements, the transformation of world spaces into screen space and the role of realistic imagery in determining the content of a cinematic work. Parallels can be drawn between the ideas of these theorists, most of whom wrote during the infancy of photographic cinema, on the developing state of film and that of current digital cinema.

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Title: Fractals and an Art for the Sake of Science
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 1989: Art Show
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

A new form of art redefines the boundary between ‘invention’ and ‘discovery’, as understood in the sciences, and ‘creativity’, as understood in the plastic arts. Can pure geometry be perceived by the ‘man in the street’ as beautiful? To be more specific, can a shape that is defined by a simple equation or a simple rule of construction be perceived by people other than geometers as having aesthetic value – namely, as being at least surprisingly decorative – or perhaps even as being a work of art? When the geometric shape is a fractal, the answer is yes. Even when fractals are taken ‘raw’, they are attractive. They lend themselves to ‘painting by numbers’ that is surprisngly effective, even in the hands of the rank amateur. And the true artist’s sensibility finds them a novel and attractive support.

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Title: From Wunderkammern to Kinect – The Creation of Shadow Worlds
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2012: In Search of the Miraculous
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

This paper focuses on two projects, Still Life No. 1 and Shadow Worlds | Writers’ Rooms [Brontë Parsonage], to reveal the creative approaches the authors take to site, technology, and the self in their production of shadow worlds as sites of wonder. Informed by the uncanny (re-animation and the double) and an interest in the limen (thresholds in the real and virtual realms), the projects explore white light and infrared digital 3D scanning technologies as tools for capture and transformation. The authors will discuss how they suture the past with the present and ways that light slips secretly between us, revealing other realms.

Title: Generating Abstract Paintings in Kandinsky Style
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH Asia 2013: Art Gallery
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

This paper presents a recent project on automatic generation of Kandinsky style of abstract paintings using the programming language Processing. It first offers an analysis of Kandinsky’s paintings based on his art theories and the author’s own understanding and observation. The generation process is described in details and sample generated images styled on four of Kandinsky’s paintings are also demonstrated and discussed. Our approach is highly scalable, limited only by the memory space set in Processing. Using random generation, every styled image generated can be unique. A selection of the images generated in the required resolution is also submitted and 70 images are made into a video companion.

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Title: Glowing Pathfinder Bugs: A Natural Haptic 3D Interface for Interacting Intuitively with Virtual Environments
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2010: TouchPoint: Haptic Exchange Between Digits
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Glowing Pathfinder Bugs is an interactive art project primarily aimed at children and created by the digital arts group Squidsoup. It uses projection to visualize virtual bugs on a real sandpit. The bugs are aware of their surroundings and respond to its form in their vicinity. By altering the topography of the sand, participants affect the bugs’ environment in real time, facilitating direct communication between them and computer-generated creatures.

This highly malleable and tactile physical environment lets us define and carve out the landscape in which the creatures exist in real time. Thus, virtual creatures and real people coexist and communicate through a shared tactile environment. Participants can use natural modes of play, kinesthetic intelligence, and their sense of tactility to collaboratively interact with creatures inhabiting a hybrid parallel world.

This paper describes the project and analyzes how children in particular respond to the experience; it looks at the types of physical formations that tend to be built and notes how children instinctively anthropomorphize the bugs, treating projected imagery as living creatures – though with a ludic twist.

Title: gravityZERO, an installation work for virtual environment
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH Asia 2019: Deep Dreaming
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

This paper reports the exposition of an artistic installation, gravityZERO, and its ongoing technical development. It consists of virtual sound, VR and robotic technologies in order to simulate the state of zero gravity. Audience members can experience a floating sensation within this virtual environment.

Title: HCI In Performance Arts And The Case Of Illimitable Space System's Multimodal Interaction And Visualization
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH Asia 2015: Life on Earth
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

The paper describes the relevant in performance arts and HCI and showcases the Illimitable Space System–a configurable multimodal interactive system prototype for interactive documentaries, dance performance, and musical visualizations using gestures (Kinect) and speech processing for various modes of interaction.

Title: Here and Now: Indigenous Canadian Perspectives and New Media in Works by Ruben Komangapik, Kent Monkman and Adrian Duke
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2018: Original Narratives
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Examining the use of new media in works by Ruben Komangapik, Kent Monkman and the Wikiup Indigenous Knowledge Network reveals the diverse ways in which technologies are used to disrupt linear time and Western visions of history. New media works challenge those misleading stories that have been told about Canada’s indigenous peoples and assert indigenous presence in both the digital and physical landscape. These artists employ QR codes, video and augmented reality to push artistic boundaries and create representations of the past and present.

Title: Holojam in Wonderland: Immersive Mixed Reality Theater
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2018: Original Narratives
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Holojam in Wonderland is a prototype of a new type of performance activity, “Immersive Mixed Reality Theater” (IMRT). With unique and novel properties possessed by neither cinema nor traditional theater, IMRT promises exciting new expressive possibilities for multi-user, participatory, immersive digital narratives. The authors describe the piece, the technology used to create it and some of the key aesthetic choices and takeaways.

Title: Hybrid Animation production and the Dream of Flight.
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH Asia 2019: Deep Dreaming
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Through a detailed account of a recent practice-based research project – a short animation project called Jasper, this paper explores how a hybrid analogue/digital production approach can generate a unique and engaging visual style – one that sits between the tangible, handcrafted feel of miniatures and the cleanness, fluidity and flexibility of computer-generated animation. The author examines the new creative possibilities and challenges that a hybrid animation production approach presents and also outlines various technical platforms encountered during the production of Jasper, including motion-controlled camera systems, 3D printing, game engines, point cloud scans and augmented reality.

Title: Hybrid Basketry: Interweaving Digital Practice Within Contemporary Craft
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2013: XYZN: Scale
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Contemporary 3D printing and traditional craft rarely meet in the same creation. They tend to live in different worlds. In this paper, the author argues for merging these two distinct traditions. To that end, he developed hybrid basketry, a medium where 3D-printed structures are shaped to allow the growth and development of hand-woven patterns. While the 3D-printed plastic elements contribute the aesthetics of the digital curvatures and manifolds, the hand-woven reed, jute, and canvas fibers infuse the baskets with a unique organic appeal. The author discusses his motivation, describes the making process, and presents four hybrid baskets, integrating a deeper discussion on the place of craft and tradition within our contemporary approach to design and fabrication.

Title: Hybrid Embroidery: Exploring Interactive Fabrication in Hand Crafts
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2020: Think Beyond
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

“Hybrid Embroidery” is a framework for interactive fabrication that leverages the potential of computation to broaden the possibilities of the craft of embroidery. “Hybrid Embroidery” is set out to offer an example of how computational methods may enrich craft and refining technical interactions to support expressiveness and open-ended practice.

Title: Identifying New Myths for Convergence and Creative Collaboration in the Age of Digitalia
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 2007: Global Eyes
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

To assume that it is possible to predict the future of technology innovation beyond the next week, month, or year is sheer folly. To believe that our participation in endless think tanks, conferences, or seminars will shape a consensual vision, one that we all agree may be worth perpetuating, is merely an elitist group exercise in courage. I propose another scenario: that business, educational, and cultural institutions exist as the sum total of the myths they believe about themselves. In this context, myths are not only about who we are, they are essential to the development of all human understanding and belief systems. This practice is not to be confused with acquired situational narcissism, a self-bestowed sense of ingratiation, but a shared belief that the invention of new myths is an on-going design and discovery process unique to all sensing/feeling human beings. Such an enterprise evolves into creation of enlightened and expressive forms through continuous real-time simulation of living and learning in the stacking of moments. The challenge is to prepare individuals to adapt to rapid changes, ones we can’t even imagine, and to prepare to be comfortable living through one’s imagination, and to trust and embrace the inevitable transformations that will challenge future participatory energies.

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Title: Image Quality and Viewer Perception
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 1990: Digital Image-Digital Cinema
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

Improving the quality of digital images can have great impact on information storage and transfer, pushing the feasibility of image databases well beyond existing practical limits. How good do images have to be? Among the considerations for selecting image quality is the extent to which viewers can discriminate among variations in quality. What differences in resolution and dynamic range (bit-depth) can they see? Groups of art historians were asked to rate a series of displayed test images; the results show how participants’ responses compared with the actual range of image quality. Practical implications of viewers’ perceptions are discussed.

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Title: Information, Computers and Design
Author(s):
Exhibition: SIGGRAPH 1984: CAD Show
Writing Type: Paper
Abstract/Summary/Introduction:

The Dilemma of the Specific and the General
In the Yucatan peninsula, corn is planted by Indian farmers in the same way it was done hundreds of years ago. The farmer wears a sack filled with seed slung over one shoulder. As he walks the field’s rows, he uses a long stick to make holes in the ground into which he drops seeds. Although the stick is a simple tool, it is not naive. It has features that make it well-suited for its task: it is long enough so the farmer can make the hole without bending to the ground; and, the end of the stick is sharpened to a point to make the hole for the seed.

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