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  • Leonardo Network News
  • Melinda Klayman, Network News Coordinator

The Newsletter of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology and of l'Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Technosciences

In Memoriam: Iba Ndiaye Diadji

The international arts community lost a great friend and activist with the death of Iba Ndiaye Diadji in Dakar, Senegal, on 11 November 2003. Actively involved in union life in Senegal, Iba Ndiagye Diadji was a leader in both the Confederation of Independent Unions (CSA: Confédération des syndicats autonomes) and the Sole Democratic Union for Educators in Senegal (SUDES: Syndicat unique et democratique des enseignants du Senegal). As a critic of art, he worked to establish the importance of contemporary Senegalese artists, particularly those whose works remained infused with Senegalese culture while also working with evolving concepts and technologies. Iba Ndiaye Diadji touched the lives of many people in both Senegal and abroad through his participation in ISEA, Leonardo/ISAST, Ars Electonica, Dak'Art and other international groups.

As a professor of aesthetics at the University of Cheik-Anta-Diop in Dakar-Fann, Iba Ndiaye Diadji worked in the areas of art criticism and philosophy. After he was introduced to the electronic arts through the Virtual Africa project co-sponsored by ISEA and Leonardo, Iba began to turn his attention to Senegalese artists and their quest to work with new electronic forms of art. In the words of his colleague Viyé Diba, "He had a particular point of view on contemporary African arts, one that was marked by the reality of Africa but open to world movements."

Born 19 October 1950, in Saint-Louis, Senegal, Iba Ndiaye Diadji studied at the University of Dakar, with advanced studies at the University of Dakar and at the Sorbonne, before becoming a teacher. He leaves a wife and four children. Iba Ndiaye Diadji will be especially remembered as a spokesperson for African art in the electronic arts community and as a proponent of bringing contemporary global culture to Senegal. He believed that Senegalese artists should not have to choose between global and local culture to gain recognition.

—Cynthia Rubin, with thanks to Catherine McGovern and Viyé Diba

In Memoriam: Piotr Kowalski

We are saddened by the recent death of Piotr Kowalski. Kowalski's artwork enabled us to see familiar things in a new light that made these things seem simple, natural and self-evident."'m a painter of nature," he used to say. "Technologies are our ears and eyes to perceive the world."

As a self-taught student of science and mathematical logic, Kowalski left Poland in 1946 at the age of 19, taking with him Wilhelm Reich's The Function of the Orgasm. From 1947 to 1952, he studied mathematics with Norbert Wiener and visual arts with Gyorgy Kepes at MIT in Boston, Massachusetts. Kowalski graduated with a degree in architecture and went on to work in the offices of I.M. Pei and Jean Prouvé.

From 1958 onwards, Kowalski's work turned towards experimental sculpture and architecture. He authored such minimal works as stamp printing, which reminded us that we are involved in a permanent journey through space. He also created monumental works in urban planning projects such as La Défense, Marne la Vallée, Brest, etc. Kowalski utilized a range of materials in his work—simple (mirrors), natural (heat, plant growth, wind), artificial (dynamite, neon, electricity, hologram), traditional (granite, steel, glass) and experimental (rare gas, electrical fields, gas ionization).

Kowalski did not separate poetry, science and sculpture, which is why his work, although sometimes disconcertingly diverse, is in fact characterized by the utmost aesthetic coherence. Developed at MIT and presented at the Pompidou Center in 1981, Kowalski's Time Machine involved microprocessors, early picture digital storage and real-time digital processing. This prototype, or "tool of art" as he preferred to call it, allowed the spectator-experimenter to explore, through the disruptions of his or her own image and with his or her own body, the reversibility of time.

When we at the Atelier Brouillard Précis invited him to Marseille, Kowalski chose to realize a sound sculpture—the word "passionately" pronounced by his friend, the poet Guerassim Luca. Employing an otherwise ignored...

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