MISH MASH
Mish Mash is the first of the revamped issues of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) that I have worked on as senior editor. My thanks as Editor in Chief of LEA go to Ozden Sahin, Deniz Cem Onduygu and John Francescutti.
THE NORMALIZATION OF THE CYBORG
THE NORMALIZATION OF THE CYBORG: FROM FUTURISTIC ARTISTIC EXPRESSION OF MUTILATION TO DAILY AESTHETIC BEAUTY ABSTRACT The concept of mutilation as a permanent scarring of the integrity of the body has been overcome by the representation in visual culture of the cyborg, the bionic human and the genetically and bionically engineered mutant. Mutants with bionic prosthetics in the X-Men film trilogy, the bionic man in
UNDER CONSTRUCTION CONSTANTLY
UNDER CONSTRUCTION CONSTANTLY: EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OR TECHNOLOGICAL CATCHING UP? THE DAMNATION OF NEW MEDIA CONTENT PRODUCERS ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS ABSTRACT If you are a content producer the relationship with the continuous technological developments is one regulated by frustrations, challenges and excitements. To set up a framework that is both stable and permanent over the Internet is an oxymoron. The reasons that are behind this particular
MADNESS AND ENJOYABLE PAIN
MADNESS AND ENJOYABLE PAIN: THE ART OF USING TECHNOLOGICAL INTERFACES AS TOOLS BEYOND THE DICHOTOMY OF PAIN VERSUS FUN ABSTRACT The article will focus on contemporary artistic and curatorial practices in the fields of art and science and will discuss the issue of experiential engagements with technology in the name of art. The artistic engagement with technology in the production of art has historically not
TEXTING ART AS SOCIAL ACTION
ABSTRACT This essay will address issues related to the merging of text and visual images in online interactions. It will analyze the relationship between Anglo-Saxon and Continental philosophies within the increasingly merging context of words as images. “I believe that Quinean holism is not so different from the idea that every language has its own genius (as Humboldt said) or – better – that every
NO FAKE FLOWERS
NO FAKE FLOWERS: JUST FAKE TEARS FOR MY MULTIPLE DIGITAL DEATHS ABSTRACT I was asked at a conference if I had ever celebrated the death of my hard drive after it suddenly collapsed and years of accumulated memories and work were lost. The celebration – if it could ever be called that – was characterized by unmentionable swearing, pounding on the table, threats issued to
TO ERODE OR NOT TO ERODE
TO ERODE OR NOT TO ERODE: THE OPPOSITE POLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL CULTURAL ENGAGEMENTS ABSTRACT The dynamic relationship between humanity and the pollution and erosion of the North and South Poles is increasingly reshaping, altering and challenging cultural assumptions. As the Poles are eroded, the cultural framework and symbolisms determined by a cultural landscape that is the reflection of a natural environment in distress are also
LANGUAGE OF THE CYBORG
WHAT LANGUAGE DOES THE CYBORG SPEAK? CULTURE, ETHNICITY AND NATIONALITY AS PART OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE CYBORG? ABSTRACT The essay will explore the concept of post-humanity as a cultural construction that, as Elaine Graham explained, [1] is a condition which affects both human and post-human social frameworks. If the post-human body is a cultural definition, does the cyborg speak English, as it is the
A WEB OF PIXELATED TEXTURES
A WEB OF PIXELATED TEXTURES AND INTRICATE BEHAVIORS ABSTRACT In order to define and understand contemporary digital media and the relationship between virtual and real, there have been traditional approaches in the definition of the virtual as equivalent to illusory and of the pixel’s aesthetic of the web as determined by technological imperatives. These approaches to the relationship between real and virtual and to the
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SIGNS
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SIGNS IN A LANDSCAPE OF DECEPTIONS ABSTRACT The artwork A Dream Came Through started as an idea in 2006 and was developed in 2008 before the current capitalistic crisis and temporary rebirth of a social conscience in the Western World. 2006 was a time when a critique of the capitalist models of production of riches and their lack of distribution was neither