Gateway

!GAtE WAY ADVANCES IN BASIC AND APPLIED SCIENCES: THE ANNUAL IBM SUPERCOMPUTING COMPETITION, PARK CITY, UTAH, U.S.A., 24 APRIL 1991 A rich diversity of basic and applied supercomputing science-from the interior of human arteries to the collapse of black holes-typified this year's IBMSupercomputing Competition winners. Winning papers represent advances in each of the five divisions in the 1990 competition: social sciences, humanities and the arts; physical sciences and mathematics; engineering; life and health sciences; and computer sciences: distributed and cooperative processing. Some of the work could lead to fundamental rethinking of central concepts. For example, one paper that discussed a simulation of the collapse of nonspherical black holes suggests a flaw in Einstein's relativity theory. Other papers point toward improvements in human life, health and even a new art form that combines music and computer graphics. A number of age-old concerns, such as "Is It Better to Be Born Rich or Smart?" and "An Approach to the Synthesis of Life", were also prize-winning topics of this supercomputing competition. Three cash prizes were awarded in each division : (U.S.) $25,000 for first prize, $15,000 for second prize and $10,000 for third prize. In GATEWAY wereport on significant events, including conferences and expositions; news ofinterestingdevelopments in technology and science as theyrelate to the arts;newsabout people of interestto theLeonardo audience, tutorial-level discussionsof important technologies and sciencefor the nonexpert. We welcome readers'suggestionsfor and contributionstofuture sections. MODERN LAOKOON: ESTHETIC PROBLEMS OF SYNESTHESIA CONFERENCE, Moscow, USSR, 21-22 JANUARY 1991 This all-union conference, with this unusual name, was held at Moscow State University and was devoted to different kinds of interactions between thearts. Stressed were theinteractions stipulated bysynesthesia , thehuman ability to establish intersensual analogies. The conference was organized by thechair of esthetics of Moscow University, Alexander S. Migunov, and bymyself, a senior official of the'Prometheus' Students' Designing Office. The papers were divided into three workshops: 'Synesthesia as an Esthetic Problem', 'Interactions inArtattheLevel of Kinds and Genres' and 'New Arts and Technologies '. The attendance was mixed-artists, designers, musiSection Editor: William C. Castell e 19911SAST Pergamon Press pic.Printed inGreat Britain. 0024-094X/9153.00+0.00 LEONARDO. Vol. 24, No.5, p. 505-510,1991 505 I/GATE WAY Modern Laokoon ... cians, esthetists, psychologists and engineers. The first workshop was devoted to the study of thefunctions of synesthesia inculture, ineveryday language, and inpoetry, music and painting. The lecturers stressed that synesthesia is a norm of human perception and thinking, but not a unique or anomalous (pathologic ) state of mind, as some researchers believe. As a psychological phenomenon, it is a kind of intersensual association, formed on the basis of the likeness of either structure (gestalt) or emotional sense estimation of multimodal influences . Synesthesia is the substantial accessory of nonverbal thought, i.e. art intheexperience of creation and perception. The second workshop focused on thefunctions of synesthesia in the process of systems interactions inthe arts,with primary considerationgiven to audio and visual functions . Particular attention was given to the'controlling' functions of synesthesia inthe synthesis of the arts,inthe development of new synthetic formssuch aslight-music (musical kinetic art), computer ani506 Gateway Listen to the technology and find out what it is telling you. -Carver Mead IBM Supercomputing Competition ... Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts First prize was awarded for "Driving ComputerGraphics Animation from a Musical Score", Wayne T. Lytle, Cornell National Supercomputer Facility, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A. Second prize was awarded for "Uncertainty in Dynamic Macroeconomics: A Computational Challenge", Hans M. Amman, Department of Economics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and David A. Kendrick, University of Texas, Austin, TX, U.S.A. Third prize was awarded for "Is It Better to Be Born Rich or Smart?: A Bioecological Analysis of the Contributions of IQ and Socioeconomic Status to Adult Income", Charles R. Henderson,Jr., and Stephen]. Ceci, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A. MULTIMEDIA ExPO, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A., 14-16 MAy 1991 One cannot underestimate the significance of recent advances in computer-related technologies . With multimedia, the real-time computer integration of video, text and sound, even noncomputer -oriented people will soon gain access to...