Cyber Art Research Articles

Coexistence of machine intelligence, cyber art, and diagnostics: is it possible?

The development of machine intelligence and the application of generative images created using it is a promising area of communication design and humanmachine interaction. This letter to the editor represents the authors vision of the use of generative images for diagnosing human conditions.
 The use of machine intelligence as an interactive and intelligent diagnostic tool will allow a psychologist and a physician to effectively complement the therapeutic processes of controlled interactions of their users.
 Libraries of models and sets of applications with text-to-image algorithms are already available that can be used by engineers and designers in the process of creating objects of modern digital art. They can also be applied in the investigation of new paradigms using visual communications and their application in experimental diagnostics.

ROBOTIC ART IN THE CASE STUDY OF THE INFERNO PERFORMANCE (TRANSHUMANIST PROJECTS IN REALITY)

This paper analyzes the provisions of the transhumanist “philosophy” implemented in contemporary art, particularly, in cyber art. The performance Inferno created by two artists - Louis-Philippe Demers and Bill Vorn is presented as a case study. The artists have shown this performance in various parts of the world: from the USA to Russia. From the point of view of transhumanism, this performance is positioned as a “useful experience” and as an illustration of symbiosis (mutualism) of man and machine. However, this assessment initially contains a number of errors. Firstly, there is a substitution of concepts and processes, where the term “symbiosis” does not correspond to the essence of the phenomenon. Secondly, the article emphasizes the role of the experiment when, through robotic art, the “voluntary” monitoring of the reactions of the performance viewers is carried out, and the viewers serve as experimental samples or transhumans in the context of the “human enhancement” project.

К ВОПРОСУ ОБ ЭВОЛЮЦИИ ИСКУССТВА В XX-XXI ВВ.: КУЛЬТУРОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ

Art, its role, ways of creation, translation and perception have undergone significant changes in the course of the last century. In general, one can talk of aestheticisation of culture, which could not but have a certain impact on art. The departure from “classical art” began already in the epoch of modernism. The “digital turn” has contributed to new hypostasis of art in culture. The virtual medium has introduced new, unprecedented opportunities both in technical and spiritual aspects. Artworks have become more accessible to the general public, with a possibility of user intervention in creative process and the use of artificial intelligence therein. The phenomenon of cyber art has emerged, requiring profound culturological analysis. The use of digital technologies in creation of artworks actualises the issue of constraints of artificial intelligence potential in creative process as well as the problem of ethical and aesthetic content of works created by neural network with the use of algorithms and other digital technologies. In this regard, the notion of mosaic culture is important – as consisting of disparate elements, lacking consistency and integrity of perception and cognition. The mosaic culture refers one to the concept of “rhizome,” reflecting as well the consumer-oriented aspect of the mass culture. Therefore, this entails a danger of replacing the unique nature by mainstream values, and, moreover, of transformation or even loss of the original ontological and axiological sense of the artwork.

Art, Maths, Electronics and Micros: The Late Work of Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski

To date, most work on computers in art has focused on the Algorists (1960s–) and on later cyber arts (1990s–). The use of microcomputers is an underexplored area, with the 1980s constituting a particular gap in the knowledge. This article considers the case of Polish-Australian artist, Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski (b. 1922, d. 1994), who after early exposure to computers at the Bell Labs (1967), returned to microcomputers late in his life. He was not a programmer yet used micros in his practice from the early 1980s, first a BBC in his BP Christmas Star commission, and later a 32-bit Archimedes. This he used from 1989 until his death to produce still images with a fractal generator and the ‘paintbox’ program, “Photodesk”. Drawing on archival research and interviews, we focus on three examples of how Ostoja deployed his micro, highlighting the convergence of art, maths, electronics, and a ‘hands-on’ tinkering ethic in his practice. We argue that when considering the history of creative microcomputing, it is imperative to go beyond the field of art itself. In this case, electronics and the hobbyist computing scenes provide crucial contexts.

The Issue of Prior Art from the Internet: Is Cyber Art a Prior Art?

In patent examination, prior art is evaluated to determine the patentability of an invention. Furthermore, prior art can be used by any member of the public interested in invalidating a patent or opposing a patent application. A patent examiner, patent applicant or a third party may discover and cites prior art in the Internet as it carries a wide range of information resources. Thus, the Internet has become an important source of prior art information in electronic format or cyber art. But the uncertainty and unreliability of disclosures as well as the possible abuse of the information available on the Internet may affect the patentability and validity of a claimed invention. The paper addressed the issue of accuracy, reliability and credibility of cyber art retrieved and cited in web sites like Wikipedia, Internet Archive and those with complex or published in a short period of time Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and whether they can be considered as prior art in the context of patent law. It highlights some judgements in the Case Law of the European Patent Office Board of Appeals as a proposed solution. Also, the paper reviews the patent law of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO) on the definition of prior art and existing guidelines on Internet disclosures. Since there are no binding rules at the international regime that exhaustively defines the prior art in patent law, and the Member States has latitude in this respect, the paper adopts a comparative approach. The growing importance of cyber art as prior art is a valid reason to identify and test trustworthy solutions but not enough to harmonize standards on prior art. For now, patent offices should formulate clear guidelines on the treatment of cyber art de lege ferenda to achieve quality patent examination processes, reduce processing time of patent applications and safeguard against patent infringement.

Sketches for the theory of new media

The text 'Sketches for the theory of new media' suggests open problems for eclectic discussion of new media in the field of contemporary aesthetics and art theory; it indicates the status of new media artwork and the replacement of the concept of artwork by artistic apparatus. More precisely, 'new media' denotes different artistic practices that are based on innovative working with artistic or extra-artistic media. 'New-media artistic practice' denotes introducing non-standard media into a standardized and customarily closed art discipline. For instance, new media may signify introducing photography, film or video into the respective contexts of painting, sculpture or music. 'New media' also denotes experimental investigations of the relations between various traditional and new media within traditionally defined mono-medium practices. Therefore, 'new media' likewise denotes all those intermedia and hybrid art practices that emerge in combinations of different kinds of media (the mixed media, multimedia, poly-media, extended media, art and technology, computer art, cyber art, tactical media, etc). Whereas the hybridization of media was important for the 1950s and '60s neo-avant-garde practices, it was introduced into art education only in the seventies. 'New media' denotes precisely those art practices that are based on artwork-programming (computer art, digital art, cyber art). In parallel with 'new media', one may also use the term 'meta-media', as defined by Lev Manovich. Meta-media is identified with computer multimedia and digital communication networks. The new-media art is no longer interested in observing and presenting the outer world in a new way but in finding new ways to approach and use data previously accumulated in the media. Meta-media art and culture are based on the digital computer as a technology vital for processing, representing or simulating information, which means imitating and positing the sensory effects of all other media.

Cupriavidus metallidurans: A Modern Alchemist

Recent discovery on the potential use of a bacterium has revealed that it can yield 24-carat gold in one week. Scientists from Michigan State University, USA, Kazem Kashefi, assistant professor of microbiology and Adam Brown, associate professor of electronic art and intermedia, found that a bacterium, Cupriavidus metallidurans (previously known as Ralstonia metallidurans) [1] that belongs to beta class of proteobacteria can grow on a substantial concentration of toxic gold chloride (also known as liquid gold). Further reports from Australia have confirmed this microbial process involved in cycling of gold, based on the 99 % similarity of 16S rDNA obtained from template (gold grains) to R. metallidurans [2]. The bacterium with such potential was first isolated in 1976 from the sludge of a metal processing factory located in Belgium [3]. Its ability to detoxify gold complexes by transforming them into metallic gold was discovered in 2009 [4]. When discovered, the bacterium was initially found to be resistant to cadmium but subsequent studies identified that this strain is multi-metal resistant and has two plasmids pMOL28 and pMOL30 which harbor multiple loci for metal resistance [5]. The plasmid pMOL28 contains genes involved in resistance to Co(II), Cr(VI), Hg(II) and Ni(II) which are present on a 34 Kb region, whereas a 132 Kb region on the plasmid pMOL30 contains the genes involved in resistance to the metals Ag(I), Cd(II), Co(II), Cu(II), Hg(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II) [5, 6]. The bacterium’s ability to thrive in toxic environments with a high number of heavy metal resistant genes makes it an excellent model organism to study the means by which microbes deal with heavy metal stress. Such unique ability of this extremophile to metabolize toxic substances might also provide an insight into understanding the origin of life. This microbial magician, C. metallidurans, when placed in a minilab full of gold chloride converts it to 24-carat gold in a week’s time, a process that this bacterium is thought to carry out regularly in nature. This finding by Kazem Kashefi and Adam Brown has been exhibited as an art installment called “The Great Work of the Metal Lover”. The art work consists of a portable lab which consists of a glass bioreactor containing the bacteria. While Kashefi calls this as microbial alchemy, Brown calls it as neo-alchemy which is a cross between modern microbiology and alchemy. This artwork received an honorable, mentioned in the world renowned cyber art competition, Prix Ars Electronica 2012, held in Austria [7]. Producing pure gold from bacterium seems to be a boon at a time when the price of gold has reached an all time high. But, does this mean that the scientists have got the answer to the international debt crises? Although this bacterium can produce the 24-carat pure gold, but it has been said that it will be cost prohibitive to carry out this experiment at a larger scale. So, one should not see this as a golden investment in economic crisis. But, this discovery has surely created a debate over the use of science and technology, the greed and other economic and environmental impacts associated with it. This work can be used to address questions regarding the ethics related to science and the magnificent engineering of nature.

The festive character of cyber art

Beginning with one of the most remarkable characteristics of cyber art, ‘interactivity’, in a context of generalized hybridization of the procedures and technological devices available in the current hyper-technological era, this article will highlight the festive dimension within contemporary artistic practices, especially in its technological and digital components. In order to take both its ‘creationist’ and ‘reflexionist’ aspects into consideration, the proposed interpretation will adopt as its starting point the questions introduced by classical anthropology about festivity: What establishes community in cyber art? Which kind of community is established there and what is sacrificed in digital or cybernetic art? These questions are articulated with the discussion proposed by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Richard Schechner about the task of building the reflexive play that is found in the work of art as such. The purpose is to gradually present, throughout the article, the peculiarity of the experience of ‘the festive’ in computing and numerical arts.

The development of robot art

Going through a few examples of robot artists who are recognized worldwide, we try to analyze the deepest meaning of what is called “robot art” and the related art field definition. We also try to highlight its well-marked borders, such as kinetic sculptures, kinetic art, cyber art, and cyberpunk. A brief excursion into the importance of the context, the message, and its semiotics is also provided, case by case, together with a few hints on the history of this discipline in the light of an artistic perspective. Therefore, the aim of this article is to try to summarize the main characteristics that might classify robot art as a unique and innovative discipline, and to track down some of the principles by which a robotic artifact can or cannot be considered an art piece in terms of social, cultural, and strictly artistic interest.

Map Art

Artists make maps. Inspired by maps made by the Surrealists, by the Situationists, by Pop Artists, and especially by Conceptualists of every stripe, artists in increasing numbers have taken up the map as an expressive medium. In an age less and less enamored of traditional forms of representation – and increasingly critical – maps have numerous attractions for artists. Beyond their formal continuities, maps and paintings are both communicative, that is, constructs intended to affect behavior. As the energy of painting has been dispersed over the past half century into earth art, conceptual art, installation art, performance art, video art, cyber art, and so on, it has dispersed the map as a subject along with it. The irresistible tug maps exert on artists arises from the map’s mask of neutral objectivity, from its mask of unauthored dispassion. Artists either strip this mask off the map, or fail to put one on. In either case artists simultaneously point to the mask worn by the map, while they enter unmasked into the very discourse of the map. In so doing map artists are erasing the line cartographers have tried to draw between their form of graphic communication (maps) and others (drawings, paintings, and so on). In this way map artists are reclaiming the map as a discourse function for people in general. The flourishing of map art signals the imminent demise of the map as a privileged form of communication. The map is dead! Long live the map!

A picture reference system with visual interface for cyber art gallery

This paper proposes a picture reference system for a cyber art gallery. The picture reference system is a client-server system on the Internet and consists of the associative picture database (server) and the visual user interface (client). The implementation by client-server system enables us to implement a distributed cyber art gallery. The associative picture database searches pictures by using conceptual fuzzy sets. The conceptual fuzzy sets are implemented by bidirectional associative memory and Hopfield neural network. The visual user interface without keyboard and mouse, captures user's movement and informs it to the system as a command. To show pictures attractively, the visual user interface provides some visual-effect functions. We implement and evaluate the picture reference system.