Leonardo/ISAST News The Newsletter of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology OLATS Announces Livres & Etudes This paper confronts the digital image and the screen. From by Edmond Couchot the trace of the gesture, the encounter between the tool and Leonardo/OLATS is proud to announce the recent posting on the support (Kandinsky), to image transmission (scanning), its web site of “Livres & Etudes” (Essays & Studies), six funda- to the calculus-digital language, the author scrutinizes the dif- mental texts by French theoretician Edmond Couchot. The ferent distribution modes of the image and their consequences texts, first published between 1982 and 1989, are published in on its nature with regard to the digital technology. French on the OLATS web site: <http://www.olats.org/setF6. “A la recherche du ‘temps réel’ ” (Looking for “Real Time”). First html>. published in Traverses, No. 35, September 1985, pp. 41–45. The texts: Taking as his starting point the history of the tools invented “La synthese numérique de l’image. Vers un nouvel ordre visuel” to measure time, the author proposes an analysis and a defini- (Digital Synthesis of the Image. Toward a New Visual Order). tion of digital time—uchronic time—which, like the computer First published in Traverses, No. 26, October 1982, pp. 56–63. digital image, belongs to simulation. This text investigates the nature of the digital image using “La synthése du temps” (The Synthetis of Time). First published an analysis of its morphogenesis. The digital image does not in “Les Chemins du virtuel: simulation informatique et création belong to the opto-chemical order of photography or cinema, industrielle,” Cahiers du CCI, Centre Georges Pompidou, April nor to the optico-electronic order of video and television, but 1989, pp. 117–122. is based on language. Leaving behind the order of represen- This paper proposes an in-depth analysis of digital-computer tation, the digital image gives birth to a new visual order. Be- time and of the notion of “uchronic time.” It examines the “re- yond the visual order, it also overturns the temporal order, initialization of the course of time,” which is fundamental to moving from the “it-has-been” expressed by Barthes to an “it computer technologies. can be.” “Image puissance image” (Image to [power] Image). First pub- With its section Etudes (Studies) Leonardo/OLATS launches lished in Revue d’Esthétique, No. 7, June 1984, pp. 123–133. an electronic collection of critical and theoretical essays about This text describes the notion, first coined by E. Couchot, of art and techno-sciences. the digital image as an “image to (power) image.” Among the This collection includes texts by critics, theoreticians and re- other characteristics of the digital image, the author stresses searchers, as well as—in keeping with the aim of Leonardo since the fact that the new relationship between the viewer and the its creation—texts by artists about their own work. The edito- image is now based on a “conversational order” (or interactiv- rial policy is structured around two main axes: ity). The image is no longer a closed space but an open uni- • The “Fundamentals” (Les “fondamentaux”): electronic verse we can enter. Additionally, the topology of the image is reprints of texts that are no longer available or are hard to radically changing: the topology of the classical optic is one of find. a geometry of convergence, whereas digital topology forbids • “New Gaze” (“Nouveaux regards”): current aesthetic analy- any “organizational center,” any hierarchy within the space. sis and critique. The computer linked to the networks transforms the sup- The Leonardo/OLATS section Etudes (Studies) offers a pub- ports of the digital image. Thus it becomes more than just lishing platform within an international network. The texts are media—it becomes “immediate.” The viewer becomes a ter- selected by an editorial committee. minal of the network and of the image. Interested individuals are welcome to send proposals to An- “Sujet, Objet, Image” (Subject, Object, Image). First published nick Bureaud <[email protected]>. in Cahiers internationaux de Sociologie, Vol. 82, 1987, pp. 85–97. Through a number of techniques based on the laws of op- SETI Institute Workshop tics, such as photography, cinema and video, it became possi- ble to automatically produce images representing our The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) uses radio environment and to arrange subjects, objects and images in a and optical telescopes to seek signals from distant civilizations. certain way within space and time. Such an arrangement is, If some day humankind decides to transmit messages of its own, however, completely upset by the newly created digital tech- rather than merely listen, how might artistic and cultural per- nologies. These no longer produce an automatic representa- spectives be incorporated? tion of reality but lead to its simulation; light is no longer The SETI Institute is holding a one-day workshop, “The Art involved in the creation of images, but is replaced by language and Science of Interstellar Message Composition,” to address and calculation. The problem then becomes to define whether strategies for integrating scientific and artistic perspectives on or not reality is undergoing a complete change as images are interstellar message design. Topics will include the challenges gaining characteristics they never had before, owing to subjects and objects being given a new status. “La mosaïque ordonnée ou l’écran saisi par le calcul” (The Or- Leonardo/ISAST News Coordinator: Andrea Blum dered Mosaic or the Screen Taken by the Maths). First pub- Email: <[email protected]> lished in Communications, No. 48, 1988, pp. 79–87. © 2002 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 113–116, 2002 113 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002409402753689416 by guest on 26 September 2021 of creating intelligible messages, as well as the unique contri- shop will examine the dialog between artists, scientists and en- butions of the arts, humanities and sciences. gineers along with the results produced by interdisciplinary The workshop will be held in Paris, France, on Monday, 18 collaboration in space art. Past as well as future space art proj- March 2002. Attendance will be limited to invited participants ects will be presented and discussed, with an emphasis on pro- only. Potential participants should contact workshop coordi- moting new collaborative space art projects involving artists, nator Douglas Vakoch at <[email protected]>. scientists and engineers. We welcome workshop proposals from artists, scientists and engineers who are interested in the de- velopment of space art. The workshop will be held in Paris on Sunday, 17 March Space Arts Workshop 2002. Attendance will be limited to invited participants only. The sixth “Rencontres du 13 Avril” will be on the theme “The Richard Clar is coordinating the workshop program and may Collaborative Process in Space Art.” This sixth Space Arts Work- be reached at: <[email protected]>. 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