Art, Technology, Consciousness

The articles in this book are written by artists and scientists presenting papers at the Third International CAiiA-STAR Research Conference, Consciousness Reframed, at the University of Wales College, Newport (UWCN) in August 2000.

The work of CAiiA-STAR <caiia-star.net> embodies artistic and theoretical research in new media and telematics, including aspects of artificial life, telepresence, immersive VR, robotics, technoetics, non linear narrative, ubiquitous computing, performance, computer music, and intelligent architecture, involving a wide range of technological systems, interfaces, and material structures. As such it can be seen as a microcosm of a widely based and complex field which is developing internationally. While this means that a great diversity of issues are addressed, it is possible to discern a common thread in the emergent discourse of this field. This commonality of ideas embraces a radical rethinking of the nature of consciousness, awareness, cognition and perception, with mind as both the subject and the object of art.

As in our previous book, Reframing Consciousness, the approaches represented here are multidisciplinary and multicultural, offering many dynamic, compelling and provocative strategies, imaginative projects and creative lines of inquiry. Their purpose is to identify key questions rather than to provide definitive answers, to pursue creative implications rather than prescriptive explanations.

Within a technological context, the book addresses contemporary theories of consciousness, subjective experience, the creation of meaning and emotion, the modalities of the senses, and relationships between cognition and location. Its focus is both on and beyond the digital culture, seeking to embrace the world of neurons and molecules, and to assimilate new ideas emanating from the physical sciences. At the same time spiritual aspects of human experience are considered along with the artistic implications of nonordinary states of awareness.