Shared tools: Ways of Doing, Ways of Seeing, Ways of Knowing

SHAREDTOOLS: WAYS OF DOING,WAYS OF SEEING, WAYS OF KNOWING In this issue of Leonardo, we inauguratea new featureof thejournal: the LRonardo Endnote.This essay,an informedopinion by an interested Leonardoreader,will be published as the last text in thejournal. We solicitessays from our readersfor publicationconsideration. Our first LemardoEndnote,by Howard Levine, is entitled The Art of Mathematics,The Mathematicsof Art” [11. Levinepointsout that artistsand mathematiciansare again sharing tools in solvingtheir research problems,and that thiswill inevitablyhave deep consequencesfor our ways of seeingand understanding the world. The sharingof advanced technologicaltoolsby artistsand scientistsis indeed a new fact that changes today’sdiscussionson the connectionsbetween art and scienceand between art and technology.This extensivesharingof toolsby artistsand scientistshas probably not happened in this manner since artists and scientistswere involved duringthe last centuryin the inventionof photographyor, more profoundly,sincemathematiciansand artistswere involvedin developing new techniquesof perspectivemore than 500years ago. There are many cases todayin which artistshave contributed to formulatingnew ideasfor advanced tools used by scientistsand engineers ;the artistsare not only users, but also developersof these tools. The new tools are those of computer-mediatedvisualization,sound-making,telecommunications , interactionand documentation.Applicationsfor such new tools range from computer graphicsand animation,digitalsound production and reproduction,and multimediaand hypermedia presentation technologiesto virtual reality systems and toolsfor electronicpublicationand transmission. The toolsof hypermedia,for instance,allowus to connect information--sound, visual images, text-in ways that are not possible within the linear tradition of the book. The new form of the interactivebook is not onlyauthoritativeas “text,”but alsoas a network of activelinksbetween a changingtext, a changingsetof readers,aqd sourcesof continuallyupdated, connectedinformation [2]. The use of fractaltheory and chaostheoryto createimagesand structuresthat mimic natural phenomena-from clouds to mountains to plants-provides artistswith new methods of representationand elementsfor a new visualvocabulary.The use of these new toolsleadsus to see the world in differentways,just as,since the Renaissance,the toolsof perspective,the microscope ,the telescopeand the book createda particular way of seeingthingsand connectingthem. The new tools of computer-mediatedinteractive telecommunicationslead to new ways of working and collaboration.Thesewill inevitablylead to new kinds of institutionsthat are not based on geographicproximity,but on electronicconnectivity.Creativework will become increasinglycollaborative ,rather than relying primarilyon the concept of the isolated geniusartist [3]. The film studiois already changingas new digital methodsaffectevery stage of production.There are now artists’studiosand scientists’laboratoriesthat are remarkablysimilarin appearanceand equipment ,which could not have been said 50years ago. New ways of working are evolving. In the sciencesthere are those who now argue that the use of computershas led to a new kind of science,a third scientificmethod. The first two-the experimentalmethod and the construction of mathematical theories--have been augmentedby the use of computer simulationsas a new way of understandingwhat is scientificallyvalid.The new field of artificiallie createscompletelynew ways of studyingliving systems [4]. Somemathematiciansargue that methodsof 01994EAST LEONARD0,Vol. 27, No.1,pp. 1-2,1994 1 mathematicalvisualization and computergeneratedproofsare changingmathematicalscience [5].In the arts, the digitalmedia deemphasize the primacy and finalityof the materialwork and emphasizethe aestheticprocessesdevelopedby the artist.New aestheticideas that are appropriate to the new media are developingout of computer-mediatedart [6]. These new shared toolsaffectour ways of seeing,doing ourwork,knowingand understanding the world. Artists,scientistsand engineersare finding new ways to reintegratethe culturalimagination . ROGER F. h4ALINA ExecutiveEditor,konardo References 1. Howard Levine, T h e Art of Mathematics, The Mathematics of Art,” Leonard0 27, No. 1(1994) 4. See, for instance, Richard Lanham, T h e Implications of Electronic Information on the Sociology of Knowledge,”presented at the Getty Conference on Technology, Scholarship and the Humanities: The Implications of Electronic Information,October 1992, to appear in hnardn 27, No. 2 (1994). See also Richard Lanham, ThcEbctmic Wmd: Democracy, Technoba and theArts (Chicago, IL Univ. of Chicago Press, forthcoming). 3. William A. Wulff, T h e Collaboratory Opportunity,”ScimuZ61 (1993) p. 854. 4. Christopher Langton, ed., Art#cial Lye (AddisonWesley, 1989). 5. Michele Emmer, ed., Thc VisuulMind: Art and Mathemutics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993). 6. Roy Ascott, “FromAppearance to Apparition: Communications and Consciousness in the Cybersphere,” Lconardo ElectrunicAlmanac 1, No.2 (Cambridge,MA. MIT Press, 1993) p. 1. 2 Editorial ...