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Taylor Nuttall, a digital artist based in Cumbria, UK, visited the Consciousness Reframed conference armed with a Press pass. The conference 'Consciousness Reframed - art and consciousness in the post-biological era' is the 1st International CAiiA Research Conference and took place at the University of Wales College, Newport, in the UK, 5th / 6th July 1997.
CAiiA, the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts offers MPhil and PhD research programs in the Interactive Arts. Research Fellows and doctoral candidates are based both onsite and online.
The pre-conference material states that "The term post-biological is intended to cover all aspects of life, which are mediated, extended or transformed by technology, including the mind and consciousness. We are interested in the impact of digital technologies, biotechnology and artificial life on art, as well as exploring the value of art in understanding cognitive processes conceptual modelling and theories of mind. The conference is convened in order to enable ideas from a variety of artistic, scientific and other sources to surface, be exchanged and developed in ways which might further our individual practice and research in both art and science."
The conference was initiated via the internet along with a mailing list which carried around a hundred messages over two weeks at the end of January 1997 before it was suspended. As well as general information, much of the dialogue was debate between correspondents on issues surrounding consciousness.
Amongst these was a request by Bill Seaman for 'interfaces' which bridge the encoding in the brain with computer encoding in a manner which augments this 'circulation of state' in a 'meaningful' way.' He says that he is 'thinking about a body being in the vicinity of a technology which enables a particular circulation of states sur-rounding a set of poetic elements/behaviours which have been 'entered' into the system via encoding, mapping and modelling.' Following this there was much discussion, though there was concern that the arguments were half-formed and terminology was ill defined. However communication was sharp and informed suggesting the forth-coming conference would be an important event.
With 105 presenters over two days, more than two thirds of whom had travelled from outside the UK, the conference promised to be enquiring and diverse. Abstracts of each authors presentation can currently be found at the web address.
Presentations were mainly scheduled over four venues, which, despite a few technical difficulties and a fire alarm, went to plan. Accommodation was acceptable, the setting in rural Welsh countryside was very pleasant, and the conference was kept ticking along by good organisation and a supply of satisfying food.
It is difficult to summarise or generalise the range of issues covered by the Consciousness Reframed conference. It is also difficult to pick your way through the rhetoric that surrounds new technology; much was in evidence here. What was apparent was a reaching outwards and forwards a trying to make sense of and coming to terms with a recognised shift, a shift that implied changes in the individual and collective consciousness.
Roy Ascott, Director of CAiiA's Research Centre, opened the conference with the objective of 'finding and defining a field' raising at once the question 'What is consciousness?' His later presentation, titled Technoetic Aesthetics, announces that 'the tech-nological amplif-ication of cognition and perception is engendering a new human faculty, cyberception'.
The opening plenary session dealt with consciousness direct with the opening speaker Carol Gigliotti asking the pertinent question 'What is conscious-ness for?' With no answer available further questions were prompted such as 'What is other than me?' In trying to understand the links between interactive technologies and consciousness Carol Gigliotti suggests that the questions should involve 'why?'
Amy Ione continued with thoughts on Emergent Consciousness drawing on historical references such as the Renaissance to the more contemporary picture to show that artists and scientists share in the emergent consciousness in discovering new and imaginative terrain.
There were many artists presenting whose work and research were placed within the framework of the theme of the conference. Among these Char Davies, Technï as Poiïsis: Seeking Virtual Ground, extended her ideas on Virtual Reality borrowing from Heidegger a Greek term Poiïsis - a bringing forth or unconcealing of being in the world. Char Davies states that through her work Osmose she has become interested in the slippage of boundaries between self and space, I and it. Suggesting that when the rules of reality no longer apply, space may be created for something else to happen.
Whilst this report may only highlight a few key elements some presentations deserve a mention (at least for their titles): Michael Punt, Virtual Reality for the Dead, Ebon Fisher, The Future of Wiggling Things and Gail Wight, Salts Protected the Guinea Pigs from the Urine of Maniacs.
The conference provided much of timely interest to those following developments in artistic practice which converges on developments in new media and science and technology. A congenial air that impeded a willingness to provoke critical analysis was the only limitation of the conference.
©Taylor Nuttall
MESH film/video/multimedia/art #11,MESH is the journal of Experimenta Media Arts
This issue of MESH was financially assisted by the Australia Council through its New Media Fund, Experimenta Media Arts gratefully acknowledges this support.