The Future of Leonardo Depends on You!

From its inception 40 years ago, Leonardo has defined and documented the research and creative work of artists and scientists working at the leading edge of the intersection of art-science-technology. The journal and its more recent print and electronic relatives—Leonardo Music Journal, Transactions, Leonardo Reviews, Leonardo Abstract Services (LABS) and Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA)—have established and sustained an unrivaled standard of scholarly and creative excellence, intellectual integrity and scope of inquiry.

Those of us entrusted with governing this unique organization are proud of Leonardo's pioneering contributions to this explosive field, carried out through a rigorous peer selection process that has enabled many hundreds of authors to publish their work in Leonardo and Leonardo Music Journal; we are grateful to our readers and members for supporting our efforts for four decades. Today, the art-science-technology movement is thriving, increasingly diverse in scope and growing exponentially. Technological advance, which seems now to have the half-life of a nanosecond, generates new opportunities and developments more quickly than they can be understood and translated into the next generation of media. Leonardo/ISAST's governing board is responding to these changes with a strategy that welcomes and embraces new ideas that will enable us to better meet the communication challenges of today and tomorrow, even as we continue to document and provide important publishing opportunities for authors and readers who continue to demand the long-established format and stability of Leonardo.

A recent survey of our community, to which you may have responded, revealed that our readers value, and even consider essential, Leonardo and other Leonardo publications; but you may also be surprised to learn that less than half of our regular readers are paid subscribers. The Board agrees that sustaining Leonardo as a hard-copy print publication is a priority, but to keep the journal alive, evolving and responsive to the international community of artists, researchers and scholars that we have historically served while expanding Leonardo's web-based activities and resources cannot be achieved without subscriptions, individual and organizational memberships and contributions from our international network.

If you are not already a Leonardo subscriber or have let your subscription lapse, we encourage you to subscribe today. If you are a current subscriber, please encourage your colleagues to subscribe to Leonardo today. Your subscription enables Leonardo/ISAST not only to survive but also to produce special issues, add features to the Leonardo web site and ensure that our four-decade standard of excellence is maintained. Your support now is especially important. The Leonardo/ISAST Board, in consultation with our colleagues at MIT Press, is defining the future of the Leonardo journal. As a subscriber you will benefit directly from the changes we will be making to the journal in coming issues. Subscribe today or sustain your current subscription; either way you are making an important investment in an organization and publications that have led the way for 40 years and are preparing for a new era of exceptional print and electronic publication and service to the field we value.

We also invite you to share your thoughts about Leonardo, print or on-line, by sending your suggestions, comments and ideas to <isast@leonardo.info>.