Cybersentics Monthly Book Club: Information Arts

Welcome to this month's Cybersentics Book Club! 🌟

Join us as we dive into the intriguing question: Is everyone suddenly a creative technologist? We'll explore the landscape of modern media art at the turn of the 21st century—an era when the identity of artists merging art, science, and technology became prominently defined.

We will examine selected sections from Stephen Wilson’s Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology, an essential reference for modern media art that illustrates how artists engage with areas like biology, physics, algorithms, cognition, and other emerging disciplines.

This Month’s Reading 📖:

• Wilson, S. (2003). Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology. MIT Press.

Selected Sections:

• Chapter 1: 1.1, 1.2
• Chapter 2: 2.1, 2.5
• Chapter 7: 7.7
  (Feel free to read beyond these sections!)

Access Reading: You will receive the reading link in your confirmation email once you RSVP. 📧

About Information Arts:

In this book, Stephen Wilson surveys artists who operate at the intersection of scientific research and experimental media. It offers a wide-ranging overview of practices that integrate art with biology, physics, computation, and cognition at the turn of the century.

During our discussion, we’ll use Wilson’s work to critique the notion of the “creative technologist” before it became mainstream. What practices did artists explore? What questions arose, and what tensions remain in the integration of research and technology?

About Stephen Wilson 🎨:

Stephen Wilson (1944–2011) was a pivotal figure—an artist, researcher, and professor—whose contributions helped shape the understanding of conceptual art in relation to emerging technologies. Directing the Conceptual/Information Arts program at San Francisco State University for over thirty years, he cultivated many artists exploring the intersections of science and culture.

His landmark book, Information Arts, remains vital in surveying the dynamic between art and various fields of research. Wilson’s own artistic journey encompassed interactive installations, net art, and works that interrogated the cultural foundations of scientific inquiry.

About the Cybersentics Book Club 🤝:

Gray Area proudly hosts the Cybersentics Book Club, a space dedicated to exploring the human sensorium through the convergence of art and technology. In this initial cycle, we will focus on themes regarding the two-way flow of information between bodies and the environment, embracing both biofeedback and cyborg art perspectives.

This book club is perfect for artists, makers, researchers, scholars, engineers, and anyone curious about the fusion of technology and art. Let’s enhance our sensory experiences as we discuss biofeedback, sonification, and sensory-embedded art that challenges perception.

Our goal is to cultivate a supportive community that encourages knowledge-sharing and collaboration. If you wish to connect with collaborators, seek answers, gain insights, or engage in peer learning, this is your space!

Led by Anastasia Chernysheva, a Gray Area Research Fellow, as part of the Biofeedback Art|Research Network (BARN).

Accessibility 🚪:

• All ages welcome.
• A reading level of high school or above is recommended.
• Hybrid event: In-person meeting hosted upstairs in the Gray Area Incubator (note: not wheelchair accessible)
• Online Zoom link will be provided upon RSVP.

For more info, visit our FAQ page, or contact us at info@grayarea.org with any accommodation requests.