Gesamtkunstwerk
Nicholas Primich

My argument is that the barrier that once stood between fine art conceptual thought and design conceptual thinking is being broken down as a result of globalisation. [...] I intend to study this by comparing the conceptual thoughts and theories of an internationally recognised fine art master (Joseph Beuys) with the work of a modern day multimedia designer, artist, hacker, performer and genius (Hans Bernhard). [...] Realistically designers are fundamentally different to artists in some ways, for example: designers and architects are normally more constructive and/or goal orientated with what they do, often demanding or needing feedback and some response to work that they have completed, as they do have responsibilities as designers to sell or make immediate contact/impact. Whereas an artist, is more concerned with the message that they leave from themselves within their artwork, and not necessarily with what they get out of it.

Aesthetic Biology, Biological Art
Eugene Thacker

Reading over Jeremy Rifkin's article "Dazzled by the Science," one is struck by a paradox. On the one hand there is the litany of controversial examples pertaining to biotechnology and art. [...] There's a position, [...] and it's very clear: biotech is bad. Or, if we were to be more generous, we would say that Rifkin's position is that biotech is an infringement upon nature, and as such is morally reprehensible, not least because it is driven by economic imperatives. But this, to my mind, verges on being reactionary. Why does it matter? It matters because Rifkin's article is exemplary of the level of the current public discourse surrounding biotech. This so-called public discourse mostly consists of poll-like perspectives on hot topics such as cloning, GM foods, and stem cells. Are you for or against human cloning? You can vote now on a corporate-owned news media website near you.

Reseau/Resonance - Connective processes and artistic practice
Andreas Broeckmann

Most internet art projects use the net solely as a telematic and tele-communicative transmission medium that connects computers and servers through which artists, performers and users exchange data, communicate and collaboratively create files and events. At the same time, some artists are exploring the electronic networks as specific socio-technical structures with specific forms of social and machinic agency related to them, in which people and machines interact in ways unique to this environment. Recent projects [...] use the net as a performative space of social and aesthetic resonance in which notions of subjectivity, action and production are being articulated and re-assessed. This text discusses the notion of "resonance" in order to think through these approaches to network-based art practices.

Defining Multimedia
Ken Jordan

One reason that digital media have resisted definition to date is that they cannot be adequately described by their materials. Bits of data are elusive things. Because those bits of data are being recombined in media objects through an endless variety of devices, using a constantly expanding range of interfaces, it is a challenge to describe this emerging medium as you would describe traditional forms, such as theater or music. Theater is something that happens on a stage in front of an audience. Music is the organized shaping of sound for esthetic purposes. But new media can come at you through the Web, CD-ROMs, kiosks, CAVE's or other virtual environments, among a seemingly endless string of delivery systems. New interfaces are perpetually in development; many more devices are yet to come.

The Poetics of Augmented Space: Learning from Prada
Lev Manovich

Having stepped outside the picture frame into the white cube walls, floor, and the whole space, artists and curators should feel at home taking yet another step: treating this space as layers of data. This does not mean that the physical space becomes irrelevant; on the contrary, [...] it is at the interaction of the physical space and the data that some of the most amazing art of our time is being created. Augmented space also represents an important challenge and an opportunity for contemporary architecture. As the examples discussed in this essay demonstrate, while many architects and interior designers have actively embraced electronic media, they typically think of it in limited way: as a screen, i.e. as something which is attached to the "real" stuff of architecture: surfaces defining volumes.