014

Authors:

 Bartlett, Mark; Daniel, Sharon; Guhathakurta, Puragra. Paper and PANEL

Title:

 Subtract the Sky: presentation/ paper discussing the aesthetic, scientific and philosophical aspects of the interdisciplinary development of an collaborative system and its interactive interfaces

Keywords:

 interpretation, perception, public art, collaboration, consciousness

Abstract:

 "Subtract the Sky," a collaborative system developed by a scientist, an artist, and a historian and philosopher of art and science will establish a new form of interactive "public art" that engages the public with existing, publicly funded, large scale technology and scientific research programs. An interactive web-site, public art events, and interdisciplinary curricula, will make the interpretive systems, methods and practices of astronomical research accessible to the public through interactions which engage individuals and communities in the process of understanding, reinterpreting, and revisioning everyday life. By examining astronomical methods of measurement and data calibration (such as subtraction, and separation), key concepts employed in the interpretation of observational data (such as "seeing," and transparency), and cosmological theories regarding the origin and nature of the universe (such as galaxy evolution) as models of interpretation as such, "Subtract the Sky" will generate an awareness of the significance of scientific inquiry as a cultural process as well as stimulating dialogue among both individuals and communities, concerning the relationship of local frames of reference to the vast and imaginatively rich frame of astronomy.

By using public art and the internet as vehicles to bring the history, theories and research methods of astronomy to the public "Subtract the Sky" will engage individuals and communities in research on the origin and evolution of galaxies through interaction with the Keck Observatory and the Hubble Telescope.

These interactive interfaces will allow users to design their own visualization and measurement system for the astronomical data they collect in conjunction with personal data they submit to the system's data-base. Each user will build new interpretive devices to re-structure and re-model perception, observation and cognition -- addressing issues of scale, and location in the relative terms of celestial observation so different from terrestrial frames of observation. Drawing on the tradition of Galileo's public lectures "Subtract the Sky" will allow the public to examine interpretive systems in the practice of art and science - identifying and comparing patterns of thought, methods of investigation, critical strategies, and modes of representation and engendering new, global, interpretive systems through local interaction.
Bartlett, Mark; postmark@sirius.com California College of Arts and Crafts Humanities and Sciences Mark Bartlett is a writer, teacher, and artist. His philosophical/intellectual/aesthetic interests concern the relationship between art, science and technology as the key organizers of cultural expression. His research focuses on the latent epistemological, cognitive and cultural relationships that lie between the discourses of the history and philosophy of science and the history and philosophy of art as they are being reformulated by cultural theory. He is developing the theory for what he calls aesthetic empiricism. He is writing a book on that topic. He has been writer-in-residence both at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California and at the Exploratorium, San Francisco's museum of art and science. His critical writing has been featured in various publications such as Artweek, Cameraworks Quarterly, Cranbrook School Publication and Art Issues. He is a professor of Humanities and Sciences, and the Graduate Program, at the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Daniel, Sharon; sdaniel@cats.ucsc.edu University of California, Santa Cruz Division of the Arts http://arts.ucsc.edu/sdaniel Sharon Daniel is an artist working in computer-based interactive art and interface design. Her Web project NARRATIVE CONTINGENCIES, is an interactive, non-linear narrative, which allows participants to contribute texts and images. SIGNAL-TO-NOISE, is a conversation within the context of the World Wide Web presenting a theoretical discourse linking images, texts, and 'sites' through networks of association. The Decordova Museum Virtual Gallery launched both sites in February 1997. Ms. Daniel was the Visual Design Director, Video Artist and graphic designer for the BRAIN OPERA, an interactive 'Opera' inspired by Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind, produced at MIT's Media Laboratory. The BRAIN OPERA premiered in 1996 in New York at the Lincoln Center Festival and through the Internet World Expo. It has since been presented in Linz, Austria at the Ars Electronica Festival, in Copenhagen, Denmark at the Electronic Cafe International and European Cultural Capital Celebrations, in Tokyo, Japan in the NexOpera Festival (a Nexsite Project) at Ebisu Garden Place, and in West Palm Beach, Florida at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts Ms. Daniel's recent work has also been presented at "The Kitchen, " and the "Women in the Director's Chair" International Film Festival. "ALIVE, DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS", a hardware-free virtual environment for networked participants and autonomous agents was presented at SIGGRAPH '95. Her interactive installation, STRANGE ATTRACTION: NON-LOGICAL PHASE-LOCK OVER SPACE-LIKE INTERVALS was presented at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies and published in Technology Review. Ms. Daniel is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Guhathakurta, Puragra. raja@ucolick.org Lick Observatory University of California Raja Guhathakurta is an Associate Professor in Astronomy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research includes studies of Interstellar Dust Clouds (high latitude tenuous clouds of interstellar dust, commonly referred to as "cirrus"), Dense Star Clusters (the centers of dense globular clusters which are excellent laboratories for studying the effects of stellar interactions), the Great Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda, and the Internal Kinematics of Distant Galaxies (the internal kinematics of faint blue field galaxies can be a valuable probe of their evolutionary history). Professor Guhathakurta is affiliated with the Lick and Keck Observatories and pursues research using the Hubble Space Telescope.