Leonardo Network News

The Newsletter of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology and of l’Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Technosciences

Abraham Palatnik Receives 2005 The 2005 Leonardo Leonardo Lifetime Achievement Award Global Crossings Award When kinetic artist and astronautical pioneer Frank J. Malina Leonardo/ISAST is pleased to announce that the First founded the journal Leonardo in 1968, he saw the need for an Leonardo Global Crossings Prize has been awarded to Abdel international channel of communication between artists who Ghany Kenawy and Amal Kenawy, of Cairo, Egypt, a brother- use science and developing technologies in their work. Re- sister team who have been collaborating on large-scale instal- flecting his vision, the Frank J. Malina Leonardo Award for lations since 1997. These works demonstrate that there is no Lifetime Achievement recognizes eminent artists who, through “natural” barrier between the worlds of art and science. a lifetime of work, have achieved a synthesis of contemporary The Kewanys’ unique collaboration is built partially upon art, science and technology. Winners include Gyorgy Kepes, Abdel Ghany’s background in the physical sciences and Amal’s Nicolas Schöffer, Max Bill and Takis. Adding to this distin- background in filmmaking. Committed to their creative guished list of artists, Leonardo/ISAST is pleased to announce processes, they work very closely together on every aspect of Abraham Palatnik as the recipient of the 2005 Leonardo Life- their projects from conceptualization and structural design to time Achievement Award. production and execution in their workshop. Characteristic Abraham Palatnik was born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, of all their projects is the power of texture and image, and Brazil, in 1928. Palatnik received his primary and secondary sensorial play with surfaces between spaces (loosening up the schooling in Palestine, now Israel. He went on to take courses inside/outside polarity)—whether it is a “textured” video, the in mechanics and physics and specialized in internal-combus- texture of light projected on a triple screen of chiffon, the tex- tion engines. He had been drawing since early childhood and ture of human hair bows on a pair of wax legs in a display case, spent four years at an atelier studying drawing, painting and or the textures (acoustic and visual) of a beating heart on which aesthetics. Palatnik returned to Brazil in early 1948 and settled a pair of lace-gloved hands is sewing a white rose appliqué. in Rio de Janeiro, where he met art critic Mario Pedrosa, whose For examples of their work see . the biggest influences on Palatnik’s work. This influence led The three runners-up for the 2005 Leonardo Global Cross- Palatnik to abandon traditional forms and begin developing ings Award are Regina Célia Pinto (Brazil—web-based and CD- his own innovative research in motorized light and color de- ROM art), Kim Machan (Australia—curator, arts producer and vices, which Pedrosa later dubbed “cinechromatic” devices. In consultant) and Shilpa Gupta (India—Internet, video and in- 1951, Palatnik’s first cinechromatic device, “Azul e Roxo em stallation works). Primeiro Movimento” (Blue and Purple in First Movement) re- The 2005 Leonardo Global Crossings Award, funded in part ceived a “Special Mention” at the First International Biennial by the Rockefeller Foundation, was juried by an international in São Paulo. Palatnik eventually went on to show these works panel of experts co-chaired by Nisar Keshvani (Singapore) and in the 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1965 São Paulo Biennials as Rejane Spitz (Brazil). The award recognizes the contribution well as the Venice Biennial in 1964. During the 1960s, Palatnik of artists and scholars from culturally diverse communities started to produce art machines in which color pieces moved worldwide within the emerging art-science-technology field. unexpectedly and harmonically as parts of a complex system The award is part of the Leonardo Global Crossings Special of motors and gears. In 1964 he began to work on “kinetic ob- Project, supported by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller jects” that differed slightly from the cinechromatic machines Foundation. in that the mechanical equipment became more visible. They consisted of metal rods or wires attached to wooden disks in several colors and shapes that were slowly and silently rotated Meredith Tromble Joins by motors, or in some cases electromagnets. As an artist-turned- Leonardo Advisory Board inventor, Palatnik also designed and patented several pieces The Leonardo Advisory Board welcomes Meredith Tromble to of industrial equipment, games and a “rotating object” that its ranks. Members of the Advisory Board communicate on an animates the properties of Newtonian physics through its cu- ad-hoc basis to guide Leonardo/ISAST in its projects and col- rious interaction with gravity. Palatnik’s work has always sug- laborations. gested the possibility of creative and productive exchange Tromble pursues a triple-threat career as an artist, teacher between art, science, technology and industry and has engaged and writer-editor. She received her MFA from Mills College intuition and pragmatism in equal parts. He still lives in Rio in 1991 and in the ensuing years has taught art history, inter- de Janeiro and continues to exhibit and receive major recog- nition in Brazil. The first book about his work, Abraham Palat- nik, has been published: . =False>.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0024094054029065 by guest on 29 September 2021 disciplinary and studio art courses at institutions including 2000–2001. Before developing these publications she served the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California Col- as editor-in-chief of Artweek from 1996 to 1998. She has edited lege of the Arts), Mills, the University of Santa Clara and the The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson: Secret Agents, Private San Francisco Art Institute. She participated in the develop- I, which will be published by the University of California Press ment of LIMN Magazine of Art and Design and served as its art in 2005. Tromble maintains a studio at the Hunters Point Ship- editor from 1998 to 2000. As editor-in-chief of the original yard in San Francisco, where she is currently at work on a new NextMonet.com, she created the on-line magazine Mark in series of paintings.

A WORD OF THANKS

Thanks to Our Supporters

Leonardo Codex Sforza Monument La Gioconda Flying Machine ($5,000 and above) (The Bronze Horse) (Mona Lisa) ($250 to $499) The California Tamarack Foundation ($1,000 to $4,999) ($500 to $999) Ray Bradbury College of Extended Learning, Martin Anderson Lars Ole Belhage George Gessert San Francisco State University Art Science Research Lab James D. Burke Oliver Grau CRSS Architects Lisa Bornstein Una Dora Copley Curtis Karnow The Ford Foundation Donna Cox Arana Greenberg Ed Payne and Liss Fain Interval Research Corporation Creative Disturbance Rosemary Jackson Mark Resch Roger Malina Char Davies Alan Malina Eric Roll The Malina Trust The Daniel Langlois Foundation Michael Punt Sonia Sheridan Rockefeller Foundation Penny Finnie Isabel Maxwell Christian Simm The San Francisco Art Institute Steve Forestieri Merrill Lynch Foundation Darlene Tong Al Smith Intel Corporation Emanuel Nadler Jonathan Willard U.S. National Endowment for the Arts Marjorie Malina Sam Okoshken Barbara Lee Williams Christine Malina-Maxwell Joel Silverman Sonya Rapoport Itsuo Sakane School of the Art Institute of Chicago Martin Segal Makepeace Tsao University of Plymouth, U.K. University of Texas at Dallas Angel ($249 and under) Aaron Alpar Steve Dietz Zdenek Kocib Beverly Reiser Charles Ames Augus Dorbie Kenji Kohiyama Ron Rocco Art Science Collaborations Inc. Hubert Duprat Thomas Kostusiak David Rosenboom (ASCI) Elmer Duncan Kathleen Laziza Peter Rudolfi Roy Ascott Michele Emmer Levi Family Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Robert Russett Yasuhiro Asoo Lawrence Fane Guy Levrier Colin Sanderson Bret Battey William Fawley Carl Machover Piero Scaruffi Marc Battier Theodosia Ferguson William Marchant Patricia Search Mark and Lauren Beam John Fobes Delle Maxwell Edward Shanken Patricia Bentson Alan & Mickey Friedman Elliot Mazer Allan Shields Timothy Binkley Ryozo Fujii Kevin Meehan Gregory C. Shubin Anna Campbell Bliss David Gamper Minneapolis College of Leonard Shlain Deborah Branton Jonathan & Donna R. Gennick Art & Design Joel Slayton Bettina Brendel Ken Goldberg Mit Mitropoulos John Slorp Robert A. Brown Pamela Grant-Ryan Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton Kirill Sokolov Ronald Brown Michael Joaquin Grey Jacques Mandelbrojt Rejane Spitz Willi Bruns Karen Guzak Jason Monberg Anait Stephens Leif Brush Isabel Hayden Roger Mulkey Robert Strizich Annick Bureaud Craig Harris Frieder Nake The Sun Microsystems David Carrier Linda Dalrymple Henderson Barbara Nessim Foundation, Inc. Rosa Casarez-Levison Margaret Hermann Alex Nicoloff Tamiko Thiel Katherine Casida Doris Herrick Greg Niemeyer Rodrigo B. Toledo Joel Chadabe Lynn Hershman Hiroshi Ninomiya Heinz Trauboth Richard Clar Estate of Dick Higgins Jack Ox Mark Tribe Computer Art Studio/Gunter Schulz Anthony Hill Elaine Petschek Joan Truckenbrod Holly Crawford Toshiyuki Hiruma Anne Brooks Pfister Roman Verostko Ivo Cristante Gerald Holton Victor A. Pickett Alexandre Vitkine Elizabeth Crumley Hungarian University Sheila Pinkel Natalie & Mark Whitson Mary & Michael Cunningam of Crafts & Design Ann Pizzorusso Alan Thompson & Sharon A. Danish Film Festival Amy Ione Frank Popper Widmayer Bob Davis Raymond Jurgens Herbert & Joan Webster Price Richard A. Wilson Goery Delacote Eduardo Kac Patric Prince Stephen Wilson Lily Diaz Robert Kadesch Wolf Rainer Gary Zellerbach Emma Lou Diemer Melinda Klayman Harry Rand Robert Zimmerman Ken Knowlton Trudy Reagan

270 Leonardo Network News

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0024094054029065 by guest on 29 September 2021