Erratum

Abstract

Readers' comments offering substantial or practical contributions to issues that have been raised in Leonardo are welcomed. The editors reserve the right to edit and shorten letters. Letters should be written in English and sent to the main editorial office.

The Endnote by Ellen K. Levy, "Junk DNA: The Value of Useless Information," Leonardo 34, No. 2 (2001) pp. 172-175, misattributed to Meyer Schapiro (p. 174) the concept and interpretation of an experiment that enlisted viewers to compare Xerox reproductions of photographs of an original Mondrian work and a computer simulation. In fact, A. Michael Noll was responsible for the concept, conduct and interpretation of this experiment. His experiment is described in detail in A. Michael Noll, "Human or Machine: A Subjective Comparison of Piet Mondrian's 'Composition with Lines' and a Computer-Generated Picture," The Psychological Record Vol. 16, No. 1 (1966) pp. 1-10 and was subsequently reported in Meyer Schapiro, Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries, Selected Papers (New York: George Braziller, 1979) pp. 252-253.

Editor's Note: We thank a reader of Leonardo for pointing out this error of fact in a Leonardo article and thank the author for submitting this erratum. We also point readers to A. Michael Noll's Leonardo article, "The Beginnings of Computer Art in the United States: A Memoir," Vol. 27, No. 1 (1994) pp. 39-44 for a historical account of the artist's work in his own words.

In spite of the peer reviewing and close editing of Leonardo articles, errors do occur and we encourage readers to point these out to help ensure that the historical record is as correct as possible. We also issue a general call to all pioneers in the art/science/technology field to submit for publication consideration "memoirs" documenting their achievements in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. History is cruel, and we are aware that many texts of historical scholarship introduce errors of fact and interpretation into the historical record. The guiding principle behind the Leonardo publications is to give the creators themselves the first voice in presenting and explaining their own work. In the words of Leonardo da Vinci:

I am fully conscious that, not being a literary man, certain presumptuous persons will think that they may reasonably blame me; alleging that I am not a man of letters. Foolish folks! Do they not know that I might retort as Marius did to the Roman Patricians by saying: that they, who deck themselves out in the labours of others will not allow me my own. They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of; but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words; and (experience) has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases.

—Leonardo da Vinci