Media
Arts
The
arts and science target creativity
Media
artist David Rokeby, who is at the forefront of a group of Canadians
creating landmark work in the field of media art, has won a 2002
Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. In the words
of the jury, Rokeby “explores the complex … relationships
between technology and the individual with intelligence and humanism,
facilitated by technical mastery and innovation. His pioneering
installations look and listen, addressing how the computer and
the human body interact. Rokeby … has taken media art into
new territory and made it accessible to a wider audience.”
The
word that often characterizes the work of Rokeby and others is
interactive. The works actively engage the viewers, making them
participants as opposed to simple – and often remote –
observers. In Rokeby's The Giver of Names, the computer
interprets objects placed by viewers on a stand in front of a
video camera, analyzes the objects and constructs an idiosyncratic
language. His work has had innovative applications. The software
for Very Nervous System has been used by musicians and
choreographers. It is also being tested in the treatment of Parkinson's
disease.
 Luc
Courchesne is an internationally recognized new media artist and
inventor who is developing a panoscopic digital video camera and
interactive projection system with the help of engineers. Thecla
Schiphorst, a dancer, choreographer and new media artist and choreographer
Susan Kozel are developing an interactive installation using wearable
biological sensors that they are designing with engineers and
social scientists. Steve Mann is a performance artist and engineer
who specializes in wearable computers and uses his inventions
in live and Internet performances.
The
Canada Council has been in the vanguard of promoting this new
media experimentation. Flush from its successful Millennium
Conference on Creativity in the Arts and Sciences (a joint
collaboration with the National Research Council and the National
Arts Centre in 2000), the Council has recently embarked on more
intensive arts-science collaborations.
The
Artist-in-Residence for Research Program (AIRes) with the NRC
supports independent, established artists who want to undertake
research in an NRC facility. Two research grants of $75,000 per
year will be awarded in the fall of 2002. The New Media Initiative
with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council is
directed at new media artists, scientists and engineers who want
to collaborate on projects with artistic and scientific/engineering
components.
Very
Nervous System, 1986-1990,
by David Rokeby, interactive sound installation.
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