24. May 2006, 18:30 CET
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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