Perspectives and Prejudices about Some Major Issues

the biosphere. The biosphere idea regards living matter in its entirety as the domain for the accumulation and transformation of the sun's energy. Is art able to share this idea of all living matter? My answer is that advanced visual studies should be directed towards this goal. The aim of SolArt Global Network '95 is to bring artists together around specific works created outdoors with solar media. This network, for me, means a value-oriented connecting of people who share a vision of the solar age. These works are using technology at its most advanced level, but only to strengthen the underlying values of a critical and creative redefinition of art in the biosphere. Examples of solar art works are • research-based art penetrating into the deep space of light • outdoor holograms using sunlight as a great "attractor" • solar light works, including mirrors, prisms and reflections of sunlight • light work depending on direct use of solar power by photovoltaics. Highlights of this solar festival will be located on different parts of the planet from June to September 1995. Participating artists include Jürgen and Nora Claus (Fig. 1), Peter Erskine, MarieChristiane Mathieu, Alex and Martha Nicoloff, Janet Saad-Cook and others. Artists will share a common catalog and common film and video documentation of the events. Exhibitions are planned to show the resulting artworks and their documentation. Artist Roman Verostko of Minneapolis, Minnesota, plans to issue a limited edition of a computergenerated print entitled The Sun Epistles (1994) in collaboration with the SolArt project. Matthias Neuenhofer, Ivar Smedstad and I have edited the first video document of the project, Solar Energy—Art Energy [3]. The videotape is about 8 min long and contains excerpts of talks given at the Solar Energy—Art Energy conference in Baelen in September 1993. There will be further conferences in different parts of the world. Articles appearing in the SolArt section in this issue and following issues of Leonardo are contextually important to SolArt Global Network '95. They are statements by participating artists or people whose work is otherwise related to the concept of a solar age. Paul MacCready is at the same time a thinker and a practitioner designing and implementing necessary tools for the solar age. He has designed a broad range of solar-powered aircraft, from the Gossamer Albatross (Fig. 2) and the 47-ft-span Solar Challenger to the 800sq -ft Pathfinder (Fig. 3). His text is intended to serve as a basic outline of some major issues in the solar age. Hermann Scheer, a social scientist and economist, member of the German Bundestag (Parliament) since 1980, is a strong proponent of the use of solar energy (Fig. 4). His text proposes an agenda for the implementation of renewable energy. In addition to designing and building a heliostat on top of his studio in Venice, California, artist Peter Erskine has also organized solarpowered art events in cities such as Rome (1992) and Berlin (1993). His text gives insight into his latest large solar art event, an installation for SolArt Global Network due to open in Los Angeles in the summer of 1995. Acknowledgments We thank many people and institutions for their support of the SolArt Global Network, among them the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany; Leonardo, thejournal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology; the artists' group YLEM in San Francisco; Trudy M. Reagan and Beverly Reiser; and the Solar Institute at the FH Aachen-Juelich, Germany. Personal thanks to Theodosia Ferguson from REDI (Renewable Energy Development Institute, California); Roger F. Malina from the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley ; and Holger Quambusch from Solar Energy World, Wuppertal, Germany. References 1. Jeremy Rifkin with Ted Howard, Entropy: A New World View (Foundation on Economic Trends, 1980); Jeremy Rifkin, Biosphere Politics (New York: Crown, 1991; San Francisco, CA; HarperCollins, 1992). 2. See Frederick Kiesler, "On Correalism and Biotechnique," Architectural Record 86, No. 3, 60-75 (1939); Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World (London: Thames and Hudson, 1984); Hardin B.C. Tibbs, "Industrial Ecology: An Environmental Agenda for Industry," Whole...