Grids, guys and gals: are you oppressed by the Cartesian coordinate system? (panel session)

Abstract

Panel Topic Description Grids, Guys and Gals: Are you oppressed by the Cartesian Coordinate System? examined the very real and palpable issues of gender differences regarding computer technology in general and computer graphics in particular. This panel brought to the SlGGRAPH audience the ongoing debate in the classroom, academic journals, and the popular press regarding significant differences between men and women especially in learning, using, and designing technology. Research points to measurable gender differences involving spatial cognition that may well contribute to the formation of social and cultural norms. Issues of gender and technology linked even to a discussion of identity are no longer seen as irrelevant to such practical concerns as the design of the user interface, input devices and visualization tools. Many of the women and men who utilize computer technology are legitimately engaged in a critical appraisal of their role in the technological and scientific order. There is much to be gained by challenging certain assumptions, examining and critiquing gendered constructions of space or the interface and proposing alternatives (a feminist computer?, non-Euclidean computer graphics?). It reflects the will to transform and remake technology that is responsive to the range of human capabilities, limitations, needs and desires. In many ways, Joan Staveley, artist and agent provocateur is responsible for the existence of this panel. At SIGGRAPH 93 during the NANOSEX Panel her remark encapsulated the issues at hand. The statement that the Cartesian Coordinate System is oppressive refers directly to the constraints of the tools and is of utmost importance because only by criticizing our current tools and seeing the limitations then can better models of the user interface can be developed. Her statement of course reaches much further in daring to suggest there are shortcomings to Cartesian rationalism. However it would be a mistake to reject this view as that of a 20th-century Luddite. As an artist she is demanding more of the tools and seeking to reveal the barriers and biases that are only reluctantly acknowledged in what was a previously male dominated field. The near future promises a continuing transformation of this field as women increasingly play a more prominent role. OSMOSE is a new work by Montreal based artist Char Davies, supported by SOFTIMAGE-Microsoft that confronts the limitations of Cartesian Rationalism. Davies, formerly a painter, is well-known for her series of large-scale lightboxes of still images created on SOFTIMAGE which explored metaphorical aspects of Nature with an aesthetic which was rich, multi-layered and ambiguous. OSMOSE continues this research, bringing it into fully-immersive and interactive virtual space. As in Davies' previous work, OSMOSE's visual aesthetic deliberately circumvents the Cartesian coordinate system (i.e. static, solid, hard-edged objects in empty space) to create spatially-complex and ambiguous relationships whereby distinctions between figure and ground, interior and exterior are dissolved. Similarly, the project's interactive aesthetic seeks to subvert the Cartesian privileging of mind over matter by grounding the immersive experience in the participant's own interior bodily processes thereby re-affirming the presence of the body in virtual space. In addition, interaction is designed to transcend the Cartesian dualism of subject and object by emphasizing mutual interrelationship between self and "others", and encouraging behaviour based on gentleness and sensitivity rather than domination and control. At the direction of the artist, programmers at SOFTIMAGE are developing tools to achieve these goals and liberate the medium of VR from the cultural values of the Cartesian grid. Phase one of the project will be exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art for six weeks this summer in conjunction with the Sixth International Symposium on Electronic Arts, and will be exhibited in New York City later in the fall of 1995. Other contributors to this panel examine the importance of spatial representation and links to cognition. Brenda Laurel: Artist, Author, and Researcher at Interval Research, Palo Alto, CA writes: