Fleshfactor, informationsmachine mensch

[from the Blurb: ]
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FLESHFACTOR
INFORMATIONSMASCHINE MENSCH
Are human beings machines? Neuroscience, biology and experimental psychology are coming up with findings suited to answering that question in the affirmative. Can the soul be relegated once and for all to the realm of fiction? Does the application of biological systems to computer architectures which imitate the function of the human brain necessitate a reformulation of previously valid dichotomies such as Nature/Technology and Mind/Machine? What position does the individual assume - one like that of art in a totally networked world? At this very moment, the adventures of freely-selectable identities and constructed personalities of the Internet communities are being overshadowed by a biological quantum leap: as the first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep marks the beginning of a developmental process that places body sampling and biogenetic avatars - instead of mere network-linked Virtual Reality avatars - into our foreseeable future.
The closer the future edges toward our very person, and the more directly it confronts us with the reality of what were previously only futuristic conceptions, the more pressing become questions concerning our own conception of self.
In this companion volume to Ars Electronica 97, artists, theoreticians and scientists dedicate themselves to the task of focusing the global cultural perspective from the collective down to the individual level.The title FleshFactor thus stands for the process of ascertaining what is left over; and, even more, an investigation of what may well be a new human factor - the 'information machine* which, in light of recent events and scientific findings, we are.
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[Table of Contents: ]
1. Christine Schöpf / Gerfried Stocker: Preface ;
2. Gerfried Stocker / Wolfgang Modera: Ars Electronica Research and Residence ;
3. Gerfried Stocker: FleshFactor ;
NET SYMPOSIUM ;
4. Tom Sherman: Human Information Machines Express Their Concerns and Desires ;
SYMPOSIUM ;
5. Donna Haraway / Thyrza N. Coodeve: How Like A Leaf ;
6. Patricia Smith Churchland: The Brain-Built Self ;
7. Robert R. Birge: Bioelectronics and Protein-based Devices ;
8. Paul Carrin: New World Order, Same Old Shit ;
9. Hari Kunzru: Bad Girl Versus the Astronaut Christ: the Strange Political Journey of the Cyborg ;
10. Huge Harry: On the Mechanism of Human Facial Expression as a Medium for Interactive Art ;
11. Max More: Beyond the Machine ;
12. Agentur BILWET/Adilkno: Boneware and Body Culture ;
13. Mark Weiser: Periphery and the FleshFactor ;
14. Stelarc: Parasite Visions ;
15. Peter Fromherz: Neuron-Silicon Junction or Brain-Computer Junction? ;
16. Guillermo Gomez-Peña/Roberto Sifuentes: Fragments from *Borderscape 2000* ;
17. Victoria Vesna: Avatars on the World Wide Web: Marketing the *Descent* ;
18. Daniel Dennett/Tom Sherman: Daniel Dennett says: We are machines [including our minds] ;
19. Tom Sherman: Machines for Us ;
20. Hiroshi Ishii: Blurring the Boundaries between Bodies, Bits & Atoms ;
21. Peter Fleissner: And the Word Was Made Flesh ... ;
22. Steve Mann: Humanistic Intelligence ;
23. Machiko Kusahara: Flora and Fauna: Japanese Games and Traditional Culture ;
24. Tom Wolfe: Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died ;
INSTALLATIONS ;
Paul Garrin/David Rokeb: Border Patrol ;
Joachim Sauter/Dirk Lüsebrink: The Invisible Shape of Things Past ;
Toshihiro Anzal/Tamio Kihara: Moppet ;
Mark Madel: Timesharing ;
Kazuhiko Hachiya: Seeing is Believing ;
Stahl Stenslie/Knut Mork/Karl Anders Oygard: solve et coagula ;
Hiroo Iwata: Garnet Vision ;
TXTD.sign: IPzentrum ;
Chris Dodge: What Will Remain of These ;
Scott Brave/Andy Dahley: MiLOs ;
Matt Corbet/Maggie Orth: Triangles and the Digital Veil ;
Stadtwerkstatt: AUTODROM** CRASHCOURSE Real World/Virtual World ;
John Canny/Eric Paulos: PRoPs: The Avatars Are Loose in the Hauptplatz! ;
Erich Berger/Patricia Futterer/Sandy Stone: Cyborg Detector ;
Eva Wohlgemuth: Bodyscan ;
Cesar Martinez Silva: Las transpiraciones del desgaste o la devaluation aspirada ;
Motoshi Chikamori: Kage ;
Wolfgang Hilbert: Pinocchio — Die virtuelle Marionette ;
Marie-Hélène Tramus: Corps et Graphie ;
Uli Winters/Christoph Ebener: Der Teddyautomat ;
Markus Brandt: Kybermax und Moritz ;
Leonid Filatov/Joachim Eckl: Laterna Magica -Electronic Street Art ;
Maryanne Amacher: The Levi-Montalcini Variations ;
Jonty Harrison: Unsound Objects ;
Matt Heckert: Munich Samba ;
CAVE PROJECTS ;
Maurice Benayoun: World Skin ;
Franz Fischnaller/Yesenia Maharaj Singh: Multi Mega Book ;
Flavia Sparacino: City of News ;
Margaret H.Watson: Liquid Meditation ;
REMOTE SENSATIONS :
Isabella Bordoni/Roberto Paci Dalò: Architettura della Separazione ;
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Relational Architecture #2 Displaced Emperors ;
Concha Jerez/José Iges: Polyphemus' Eye ;
Cecile Le Prado: Le triangle d'incertitude ;
Adrianne Wortzel: Globe Theater: A Robotic Pageant ;
Horst Zachmann: 3D-Audio-Duker ;
EVENTS + PERFORMANCES :
Toshio Iwai/ Ryuichi Sakamoto: Music Plays Images X Images Play Music ;
Dumb Type: *OR* ;
Time's Up: An Evening Spent in a Hypercompetitive State of Mind ;
Time's Up/J.Domsich: So we do move, after all ;
Wolfgang Dorninger/Didi Neidhart: Sub'tronic ;
OPENX :
Heimo Ranzenbacher: Networking ;
openX-projects ;
Beusch/Cassani: Clone the Party! ;
Heidi Grundmann: The Familie Auer: A KUNSTRADIO Project ;
Helen Thorington: Turbulence ;
Station Rose/John Coate: Station Rose in the Social Web ;
kis.production: oudeis - a world wide odyssey ;
BIOGRAPHIES.
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