Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Cheryl Knauer" <cknauer@mica.edu>
> Date: March 15, 2004 12:11:04 PM EST
> To: <rachel@rhizome.org>
> Subject: Baltimore's New Techne Symposium on Art/Science Collaboration
>
> NEWS
>
> MARYLAND INSTITUTE
> COLLEGE OF ART
>
> JOHNS HOPKINS
> UNIVERSITY
>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Cheryl Knauer
> March 15, 2004 (443)423-1025
>
> pr@mica.edu
>
> LECTURE BY PIONEER OF VIRTUAL REALITY SCOTT FISHER KICKS OFF THE NEW
> TECHNE SYMPOSIUM ON ART/SCIENCE COLLABORATION
> Lecture and reception on April 8, starting at 5 pm in MICA's Brown
> Center, are free and open to the public The New Techne Symposium was
> organized jointly by MICA and The Johns Hopkins University, and is
> sponsored by Intel and Firaxis Games
>
> BALTIMORE, MD - A pioneer of virtual reality, Scott Fisher speaks in
> Maryland Institute College of Art's Hall at Brown Center (1301 Mount
> Royal Avenue) on Thursday, April 8 at 7 p.m. Scott Fisher conducted
> seminal research in virtual reality (VR) in the late 1980s at the
> NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, where he worked
> on the Virtual Environment Workstation (VIEW) project. There, he
> pioneered the development of technology for multi-sensory interaction
> with cybernetic devices, creating the powerful illusion of entering a
> digitized landscape. His talk at MICA kicks off a two-day academic
> symposium on collaboration between the arts and sciences: The New
> Techne
> Symposium, organized jointly by Randall Packer of MICA's Center for New
> Media and Joan Freedman of The Johns Hopkins University's Digital Media
> Center. The symposium is sponsored by Intel and Firaxis Games.
>
> The Thursday event, which is free and open to the public, also includes
> a reception from 5 - 7 p.m. in the Brown Center, with presentations of
> collaborations between MICA and the Homewood and Peabody Conservatory
> campuses of The Johns Hopkins University, projects supported by Intel,
> works by Hunt Valley-based Firaxis Games, and remarks by Firaxis
> Founder, CEO, and President Jeffery Briggs.
>
> Scott S. Fisher is a media artist and interaction designer, whose work
> focuses primarily on immersive environments and technologies of
> presence. Currently, he is Chair of the Interactive Media Division in
> the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern
> California. He is also President of Telepresence Media, a production
> company focusing on the art and design of virtual environment and
> remote
> presence experiences, and Project Professor in the Graduate School of
> Media and Governance at Keio University at Shonan Fujisawa, Japan; From
> 1997 to 1999, he was Director of the Virtual Explorer Project in the
> Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of
> California, San Diego.
>
> The NASA system on which he worked in the 1980s included an updated
> version of the head-mounted display, with stereoscopic images that
> provided stereoscopic depth of field, a major advancement over the
> monoscopic vision of earlier VR devices. Fisher added headphones for 3D
> audio, a microphone for speech recognition, and, in collaboration with
> Tom Zimmerman, adapted the "dataglove" - a wired glove worn by the user
> that makes it possible to grasp virtual objects in cyberspace. This new
> system offered a significant advance toward what Fisher termed
> "telepresence" - the projection of the self into a virtual world. "The
> possibilities of virtual realities, it appears, are as limitless as the
> possibilities of reality," noted Fisher. "They can provide a human
> interface that disappears - a doorway to other worlds."
>
> The New Techne Symposium will continue with a day-long series of
> presentations and conversations that will engage invited faculty from
> MICA, Johns Hopkins' Homewood and Peabody campuses, and other local
> universities with industry leaders, colleagues at other regional
> institutions, and new media pioneer Scott Fisher, whose work
> demonstrates successful strategies in the integration of art and
> technology. The Friday activities program is by invitation only.
>
> The two-day symposium offers a unique opportunity for artists and
> scientists to build bridges for collaboration. It kicks off an
> interdisciplinary initiative whose objective is to advance
> opportunities
> for research and projects in such emergent fields as biomedical
> engineering, telematics, transgenics, hypermedia, data imaging,
> intelligent systems, generative art, and other hybrid areas. It will
> also speak to the collaboration between the scientist and the artist in
> disseminating research data critical to scientific and artistic
> inquiry.
>
> For more information about the events taking place on Thursday, April
> 8,
> call (410) 225-2300 or visit http://cnm.mica.edu/events.html. Please
> note, Scott Fisher images are available upon request.
>
> For more information on The New Techne Symposium, MICA's Center for New
> Media, or JHU's Digital Media Center, visit the following web sites:
> http://newtechne.jhu.edu
> http://digitalmedia.jhu.edu/
> http://cnm.mica.edu
>
> # # #
>
> Editor's Note: For members of the media interested in attending the
> invitation only part of the symposium on Friday, April 9, please
> contact
> Cheryl Knauer at (443) 423-1025 or cknauer@mica.edu.
>
> Information on the Symposium Sponsors:
>
> * Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer
> of computer, networking and communications products. Additional
> information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom. Intel
> is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in
> the United States and other countries.
>
> * FIRAXIS Games, home of legendary designer Sid Meier and founded in
> 1996 by veteran gaming executive Jeff Briggs, is one of the world's
> premier independent game development studios. Headquartered in Hunt
> Valley, Maryland, FIRAXIS has created some of the most successful and
> award-winning PC games on the market. The company's most recent hit
> titles include: Sid Meier's SimGolf (published by Electronic Arts); the
> blockbuster hit series Sid Meier's Civilization III (published by
> Atari), which includes Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play The World,
> the
> multiplayer expansion pack to the legendary strategy game, and Sid
> Meier's Civilization III: Conquests, recognized as one of the top
> expansion packs of 2003. Firaxis has a rich history of great games
> including: Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid
> Meier's Alien Crossfire and Sid Meier's Antietam!. For more information
> on FIRAXIS Games visit www.firaxis.com.
>
> Symposium Participants & Department/Institutional Affiliation:
>
> * Robert Allen, Biomedical Engineering, JHU
> * McGregor Boyle, Computer Music & Composition, Peabody
> * Lee Boot, Imaging Research Center, UMBC
> * Jeffery Briggs, Founder, CEO, and President, Firaxis Games
> * Bernard Canniffe, Graphic Design, MICA
> * Mina Cheon, Foundation, MICA
> * Peter Decherney, Communications in Contemporary Society, JHU
> * Linda Delibero, Film & Media Studies, JHU
> * Timothy Druckrey, Liberal Arts, MICA
> * Scott Fisher, Keynote Speaker, Interactive Media, University of
> Southern California
> * Joe Howard, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center
> * David Klein, Organic Chemistry, JHU
> * Mario Livio, Space Telescope Science Institute
> * Ellen Lupton, Graphic Design, MICA
> * Allison Okamura, Mechanical Engineering, JHU
> * Dana Plautz, Intel Research, Intel Corporation
> * David Rini, Art as Applied Medicine, JHU Esther Schooler, Interactive
> Media, MICA
> * Rachel Schreiber, Digital Arts, MICA
> * Jamy Sheridan, Experimental Animation, MICA
> * James West, Electrical and Computer Engineering, JHU
> * Geoffrey Wright, Computer Music & Composition, Peabody
>
> Topics for Discussion & Remarks at the Friday Academic Symposium:
>
> * Interdisciplinary Practice and Society
> * Collective Creativity
> * Visualization
> * New Materials
> * Art & Design as Public Interface
> * Collaborative Problem-solving
> * New Forms of Support to Foster and Sustain New Forms of Collaboration
>
>
> # # #
>
> Maryland Institute College of Art, founded in 1826, has consistently
> been ranked among the top tier of visual arts undergraduate and
> graduate
> programs in the nation. In addition to its academic standing, MICA is
> recognized throughout the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. region as a
> cultural resource, sponsoring many public and community-outreach
> programs, including more than 100 exhibitions by students, faculty, and
> nationally and internationally known artists annually, as well artists'
> residencies, film series, lectures, readings, and performances. Brown
> Center, which opened in January 2004, features a performance space
> especially designed to feature work in digital media.
>
>
> Cheryl Knauer
> Media Relations Manager
> Maryland Institute College of Art
> 1300 Mount Royal Avenue
> Baltimore, Maryland 21217
> Phone: 443-423-1025 Fax: 410-669-9201
>