Roy Ascott (ed.): Reframing Consciousness: Art, Mind and Technology (1999)

3 October 2009, dusan

We are in the middle of a process of complex cultural transformation, but to what extent is this matched by the transformation in the way we see ourselves? This book covers a wide-ranging discussion on the interaction between Art, Science and Technology, and goes on to challenge assumptions about ‘reality’.

Loosely themed around four key elements of Mind, Body, Art and Values, the editor leads the investigation through the familiar territories of interactive media and artificial life, combining them with new and ancient ideas about creativity and personal identity.The contributing authors number over sixty highly respected practitioners and theorists in art and science, bringing to the subject a stimulating diversity of approach and a rich background of knowledge.

Art has long been preoccupied with questions involving the mind and consciousness. But it is fast finding that new technology, creatively applied, brings new possibilities to bear. This volume provides a strong foundation for the debates that are sure to follow in this field.

Publisher Intellect Books, 1999
ISBN 1841500135, 9781841500133
314 pages

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-7-24)

Ken Goldberg, Roland Siegwart (eds.): Beyond Webcams: An Introduction to Online Robots (2002)

17 September 2009, dusan

“Remote-controlled robots were first developed in the 1940s to handle radioactive materials. Trained experts now use them to explore deep in sea and space, to defuse bombs, and to clean up hazardous spills. Today robots can be controlled by anyone on the Internet. Such robots include cameras that not only allow us to look, but also go beyond Webcams: they enable us to control the telerobots’ movements and actions.

This book summarizes the state of the art in Internet telerobots. It includes robots that navigate undersea, drive on Mars, visit museums, float in blimps, handle protein crystals, paint pictures, and hold human hands. The book describes eighteen systems, showing how they were designed, how they function online, and the engineering challenges they meet.”

Publisher MIT Press, 2002
ISBN 0262072254, 9780262072250
331 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2012-11-4)

Paul Virilio: The Vision Machine (1988-) [EN, ES, SK, RU]

24 June 2009, dusan

Surveying art history as well as the technologies of war and urban planning, one of France’s leading intellectuals provides an introduction to a new “logistics of the image.”

Originally published in French as Le machine de vision, Editions Galilee, 1988
Translated by Julie Rose
Publisher Indiana University Press, 1994
ISBN 0253209013, 9780253209016
81 pages

Key words and phrases
Gericault, telepresence, phatic, Paul Strand, Edward Steichen, Descartes, Gustave Lebon, Abel Gance, Daniel Buren, Adolf Loos, speed of light, Robert Flaherty, Edgar Allan Poe, Madame Bovary, Auguste Rodin, camera obscura, Albert Speer, British Documentary Movement, wings of desire

publisher
google books

PDF (English, trans. Julie Rose, 1994)
PDF (La Máquina de Visión, Spanish, 2nd ed., trans. Mariano Antolin Rato, 1998)
PDF (Stroj videnia, Slovak, trans. Mária Ferenčuhová, 2002)
PDF (Машина зрения [Mashina zreniya], Russian, trans. A. В. Шестакова, 2004)