Information Revolutions

WORDS ON WORKS Fig. 1. Richard Lowenberg, photograph from Information Revolutions, 1993. Information Revolutions is a long-term work that address essential implications of the escalating information revolution, using (among other things) elements of information theory and military communications and surveillance. The photograph was taken with an image intensifier in almost complete darkness. Words on Works areshort,informalstatementsaboutnewartworks in whichart and technology coexist ormerge. In thespiritof Leonardo, theinformationin Words on Works is what theartiststhemselves have chosen tosayabouttheirown work. In some of these statements, ratherthan describing thework in detail, theartistsuse nontraditionallanguage that echoes thework itself and is expressive of theirvision. By introducingartistswhose work mightnot otherwise appear on thepages ofLeonardo, Words on Works operates in thesameway that alternative art spaces operate in thegallery -museum milieu. INFORMATION REvOLUTIONS Richard Lowenberg, P.O. Box 1770, Telluride, CO 81435, U.S.A. E-mail: . The artist is a spy; an agentofentropy, covertly intruding upon secret worlds; illicitlystealing the private moment. A techno-deviate, cultural provocateur; thetrickster at large in the information society [IJ. InformationRevolutions is a long-term work that attempts to address essential implications of the escalating information revolution. Presentations to date have focused on concepts of information theory and knowledge representation , military communications and surveillance, and potential cultural aspects of an information-based society. My current visual works are produced primarily with two military-developed imaging technologies: image intensifiers ("nightscopes") and FURs (forward-looking infrared systems). High on the U.S. Department of State's restricted export list, these tools open up to the creative image maker the previously obscured world of night and darkness, and provide a richly informative view of our complex and wondrous electromagnetic environment. Section Editor:Judy Malloy The nightscope extends the range of photography beyond the limitations of film speed and lenses. Without a flash, unobtrusive, the photographer using an image intensifier can document the obscure and explore new realms ofvisibility , The photographic act is completely hidden in darkness (Fig. 1). FUR imaging systems contain advanced infrared sensors and electronics that provide a high-resolution thermal video display. Developed primarily for materials testing, surveillance and heatseeking missile guidance, FURs make uniquely visible that part of the infrared spectrum that is normally invisible to our eyes and that we sense only as temperature variations. FURs provide a shifting window onto a rich thermodynamic world, unaffected by light or darkness. Used as artists' media, these tools and their inherent processes expand our notions of the captured image, while provoking concern over the implications of illicit imaging, rights to privacy and freedom of informationtreacherous , yet fertile creative ground. Note 1. Text is shown as it appears on a placque in the installation. MIRADAS EN EL TEMPO Marisa Gonzalez, Argensola 26,1, 28004 Madrid, Spain. Miradas en el Tempo (Glances in Time) [l] is a personal narration, a conversation between the real me and the ideal me, . using multiple glances at the image of a lCl19941SAST LEONARDO, Vol. 27, No.2, pp. 99-103,1994 99 ...