[spectre] Teleconference on Visualizations in Art and Science

[Denisa Kera]

III. POLYLOGUE session - Visualizations in Art and 
Science

24. May 2006, 18:30 CET
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Details on how to install and use access grid - 
http://www.ciant.cz/ag
CIANT & Charles University node

Abstracts of papers (15 to 20 min) should reach us 
before 20th MAY 2006 in order to facilitate 
moderation. Short presentations (10 min) are also 
possible. Please send us you telephone number, 
ICQ, Skype etc..
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In this session we will look closer at examples of 
artistic practices using databases, scientific 
data analysis and visualization techniques: 
projects exploring database politics, admiring the 
beauty of information and data, examples of 
database art and visualizations.


Questions and Topics:

Do the visualization techniques help us comprehend 
the world or they make it more obscure?
How to represent complexity and emergence?
Should we use only visual means when representing 
databases or should we experiment with sounds etc.?

What is the world that is revealed by such 
representations and translations?
Is such view still human?
Does it marginalizes humans because of their 
inability to influence or even comprehend such 
scale of complexity?
Are visualizations new extensions to human senses 
or they offer a critique of anthropocentrism?

How to compare the functions of visualizations in 
art and science?

How to describe digital art in which the interface 
serves as a place of contemplation and not 
interaction?
Is it acceptable for the user to remain a viewer 
in such artworks?
How to build interfaces for contemplation?

Do these artworks create a special type of 
aesthetic distance?
Should we speak of digital sublime?

Can we call these type of artworks a contemplative 
digital art? What is digital contemplation after 
all? Is it the opposite of interactivity and 
immersion? Does this prove certain “maturing” of 
the digital art?

Moderators:

Kamila B. Richter
PhD. Candidate
Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
Research project: Sonification and Visualization 
of Complex Dynamic Information
kam[at]avu.cz
http://nemec.wz.cz/thesis/

Denisa Kera
Center for Global Studies
Academy of science and Charles University in Prague
New Media Studies
denisa.kera[at]ff.cuni.cz
+420 777 817 774
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This session is a part of a series entitled 
POLYLOGUES organized by the International center 
for art and new technologies (CIANT) in Prague & 
New media studies (Charles University) in 
cooperation with Georgia Institute of Technology & 
MARCEL network. It aims to stimulate 
interdisciplinary exchange of ideas via sessions 
moderated from Prague while having guest speakers 
from all over the world. We hope to create a 
bridge between countries that will facilitate 
intercultural or rather intercontinental and 
interdisciplinary exchanges in the fields of art 
and new technologies. All sessions will be 
recorded and made available to general public in 
the archive.

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Best,

Denisa Kera

Pavel Sedlak / CIANT / 420 737 731 347
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