Letters

Leonardo, Vol. 17, No.1, p. 68,1984. Printed in Great Britain. LETTERS 0024-094X/84 $3.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd. Readers' comments are welcomed on texts published in Leonardo. The Editors reserve the right to shorten letters. Letters should be written in English and sent to the Main Editorial Office. COMMEMORATION EXHIBITION-INFORMATION REQUEST In order to commemorate the first exhibition in the United States (1885) by the Hungarian artist Mihaly Munkacsy (1844-1900) a Corpus of his works is in preparation. If you have any information related to the works of Munkacsy, please send it to me. Alfonz Lengyel Arts Division. Rosemont College. Rosemont. PA 19010. U.S.A. FEASIBILITY STUDY: ARTISTS IN THE SPACE STATION PROGRAM This is to advise your readers of my project, "Programs of Artistic Merit in Space", and invite comments on the idea of giving artists the opportunity to work in the Space Station. Your ideas will be part of a feasibility study funded under NASA's "Innovative Uses of the Space Station Program". This marks the first time NASA has supported research into art in space, and, therefore, your response is critical in establishing baseline information and in determining any future program steps. The goals of the study are to find out whether there is substantial interest in the concept of artists working in the Space Station Program, and to generate ideas for consideration; to outline what the benefits of the program would be; and to determine whether administrative and funding mechanisms exist to support the overall idea. Specific ideas for artwork are not available because the study isstill in progress. However, the following general examples illustrate the range of possibilities: "Artist in Residence" fellowships could be established for composers, writers and poets to work at the station; visual artists might experiment with reflected light, or materials which could be seen from earth; film and video artists might find microgravity a particularly useful tool. Another possibility would be to test welding and materials assembly techniques by constructing the first sculpture in space. In addition, design of the human environment in space is clearly an important area of investigation. Fellowship programs might also include use of ground-based NASA facilities, equipment and personnel or the Space Shuttle as a link to future programs on the Station. Because I hope to represent a broad range of opinion in the arts and sciences, I welcome suggestions regarding individuals to contact. Also, your ideas on materials, methods or other areas for creative participation would be especially helpful. Please contact me if you would like more information. James Pridgeon P.O. Box 95617. Seattle. WA 98145. U.S.A. REPLY TO KENNETH R. ADAMS CONCERNING MY ARTICLE ON FLAT-SPHERE PERSPECTIVE I thank Kenneth R. Adams (Leonardo 16,333, 1983) for making explicit the advantageous feature of Flat-Sphere Perspective that simple mathematical procedures can be used to re-create its spherical perspective schema on a flat surface. I am working on a method called Polar Perspective which shows how the neighborhood relations altered by the flattening of a single sphere of vision can be restored. Nevertheless this cannot be done without disturbing the uniqueness requirement by duplicating images-a feature also present in Adams' Tetraconic Perspective system. Yet this feature of images that duplicate potentially ad infinitum should not be seen in a negative light. It is precisely this feature that allows Polar Perspective to introduce into the representation a fourth dimension which can be drawn, or represented, alongside the original three dimensions in a coherent, continuous and nonambiguous fashion. With regards to the cartographic problem that Adams poses for the readers of Leonardo, i.e. developing a mapping procedure for his system of perspective that would blend conical, azimuthal and cylindrical features, this reader, at least at the present time, does not have the answer to that question. Fernando R. Casas 1203 Bartlett #3. Houston, TX 77006. U.S.A. A Word of Thanks With this issue, Karen Tsao leaves the Journal for a career in video and film production. The staff of Leonardo would like to express their thanks to Dr Tsao for helping us through the difficult Editorial Office transition period...