Art and technology: very large scale integration

The panel is made up of artists who create large-scale works using technology. We discuss the future of artistic techniques which incorporate technology, in order to extend the possibilities of human interaction with the machine and with other people. Technology and artistic creation have always been closely linked, from the invention of painting, through the development of printing, up through the present, which offers new possibilities for people to interact with the technology, with the work, and with each other. However, much current artistic work is still based on traditional notions of electronic publication: one viewer/reader working with a work of art contained on one computer. Most VR systems are still walk-throughs, with little or no ability to interact with the created environment or with other people. The much-hyped CD-ROMS that are becoming the medium of choice for rock stars still do not provide even the level of intimacy and interaction which a relatively lowtech concert can provide. As social beings, we need shared experience, such as that generated by the spectacular. But the networked festival, the “digital convergence,” is happening. The World Wide Web almost tripled in size between November and December 1993, and more information is being linked into it constantly. On-line communities, such as MUDs and their relations, have become an explosion of creative interaction, and are being used for real-time collaboration, including hypertext creative writing and other art projects — the development of “folk programming.” As communication bandwidth becomes cheaper, video teleconferencing and collaboration across cultural boundaries becomes a common occurrence. And the plummeting costs of hardware and networking allow the development of ubiquitous computing, augmenting reality and communication by making the surrounding environment become reactive to its participants. The members of this panel are each exploring ways to extend human interaction both with technology and with other people, by using the technology as an integral part of their art. Where existing tools are not useful or appropriate, they have extended them or built their own. Their art is art on the large scale, using technology to create artistic endeavors beyond the scale of the individual, to the scale of human communities..