Leonardo: Looking to the Future

LEONARDO: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE With this issue,we at Leonardo celebrate both our 25 years of publication and our affiliation with a new publisher, the MIT Press. In addition, a new LeonardoBook Seriesis being launched with the MIT Press under the direction of Leonardo/ISAST Executive Director Craig Harris. These exciting developments are in response to the growing size and expectations of the professional community served by Leonardo. important to the artistsworking in the 1990sare different from those that led Frank Malina to found Leonardo in the 1960s.Some elements, I think, should remain part of our editorial foundation. First, Leonardowill continue to publish writings by artists and composers about their own work. It is the artist’sexperience that we principally seek to document and communicate. Artists’ discussionswill, however, continue to be embedded in a critical context provided by historians and theoreticians. appropriate use of scientificand technological developments. Our focuswill remain upon artistic expression that is connected to the ways in which science and technology have changed both our knowledge of ourselves and the tools with which artists can express themselves . Third, Leonardowill continue to work in an international context-not because we advocate any one global cultural expression, but rather because we are aware of the reality of our global interdependence and the need for global communication. knowledgeable, must find ways to document and disseminate information in ways appropriate to the needs of today’sartists and scholars.We will continue to print paper products such asjournals and books. However, as we look to the next 25 years, we must find new ways of publishing. We will continue innovative publishing experiments, such as our electronic newsletters,begun in 1988and continued with the publication of LeonardoElectronic Naus and our Fine Art, Science and Technology (FAST)database available on line and on diskette. Eventually,we must find ways to expand from the audio compact discs (CDs) included with the Leonardo MusicJournaZ to multimedia digital formats such as Compact Disc-ReadOnly Memory (CD-ROM)and Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I). Within this broad outline, our new editorial direction will be driven by the members of the LeonardoEditorial Boards,by the Leonardomanuscript reviewers,by the submission of authors’ manuscripts and by the readers. This year we will be reviewing the LeonardoEditorial Board, and forthcoming issues of thejournal will contain statements by board members outlining their views of Leonardo’s future. I encourage individuals interested in serving on the LeonardoEditorial Board to send us a letter indicating their interest. We welcome, as well, recommendations and criticisms from all interested parties. Leonardo must use these new opportunities to redefine and refocus itself. Many issues Second, Leonardowill continue to advocate that contemporary arts acknowledgeand make Finally, Leonardo, as ajournal servingartists that are scientificallyand technologically ROGER F. MALINA ExecutiveEditor Q 1993ISAST LEONARDO,Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 1, 1993 1 ...