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High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace ed. by Peter Ludlow (review)
- Leonardo
- The MIT Press
- Volume 30, Number 3, June 1997
- p. 237
- Review
- Additional Information
some criticism for the lack of comprehensible order in some artworks, Arnheim proceeds to speak about locally arising troubles when elements are not clearly identified as belonging either apart or together. He quotes one example, Henri Matisse’s La Danse, of which two versions are known. The first is from early 1909 and is in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The second was done a few months later and is at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg . The essay reproduces the earlier version but Arnheim’s comments are directed at both. The pictures show a round dance of five figures holding hands. Arnheim complains about a chaotic disorientation resulting from the hands of the frontal figures interfering in their reaching for each other by the knee of the figure behind them. I do not think that there is any confusion about which of the dancers are in front and which are behind, though somehow the gap between the two hands conveys the feeling of the dance slowing down unnecessarily at that point. This may have bothered Matisse as well: in the more elaborate second version of the painting, the two hands touch or almost touch; behind these hands the other dancer is in a slightlydifferent position and is more sharply drawn than in the first version (in fact, so is the whole picture). To me the first version appears as if it were a study for the second. Although the first is not ambiguous as far as which dancer is in front and which is behind, whatever ambiguity there may be is absent in the second version. I am surprised that Arnheim did not make the distinction between the two versions of La Dame in this respect. All in all, these 28 essays are as many gems to read and muse about for experts and mere art-lovers alike. HIGH NOON ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER: CONCEPTUALISSUES IN CYBERSPACE edited by Peter Ludlow, MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street,Cambridge, MA 02142, U.S.A., 1996. 336 pp. $30.00. ISBN: 0262 -12196-4. Cyberspace is changing everything. .. or is it?We need to understand. Peter Ludlow has edited an excellent compilation on some issues regarding cyberspace. The book offers 35 readings divided into these subheadings: Piracy , Property Rights, etc.: “DoesInformation Want to be Free?”;How Should We Respond to Exploratory Hacking/ Cracking/Phreaking?; Encryption, Privacy , and Crypto-Anarchism; Censorship and Sysop Liability;and Self and Community Online. The book gathers fascinating readings in these areasdrawing from a wide range of the new breed of cyberspace analystsworking outside of the academy and from documents such as congressional testimony. This ecumenical approach is one of the significant strengths of the book. Examples of the essays include an editorial entitled “SoYou Want To Be a Pirate?”from one of the computer pirate newsletters; “HowPGP Works” from Philip Zimmerman, one of the prime developers of the technology; “VirtualCommunity Standards: BBS Obscenity Case RaisesNew Legal Issues ”from Mike Goodwin, counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and “ASlice of My Life in My Virtual Community”from Howard Rhinegold, an author of several books on cyberspace. Many of these readings have appeared in cyberspace-oriented magazines or online but their collection into one place is a real service. Some aspects of the book may disturb some readers. The book is very strong in the areas of concern it addresses but it leaves out many others that one would hope would be addressed in a book on ‘Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace.’’For example, there is little analysis of the basic philosophical issues about the nature of reality or the nature of persons, which interests many artists and analysts interested in cyberspace. There is little commentary on the postmodern approach to these new technologies which questions the underlying mythologies that are implicit in the views of many of the writers. It is certainly reasonable that no one book can attempt to cover all topics related to cyberspace, but the book would have been stronger if the editor had done a . , Reviewed by Stebhen wikon, Concdtual~e- betterjob identifying what areas of con- , ‘ sign/Information Arts, Art Dept., sun Francisco State University,Sun Francisco, CA 94132. U.S.A.~ - ~ ~ i...