Tuesday, October 30, 2012

[Yasmin_discussions] Latin America and Cybernetics at ISEA 2012

Dear members of Yasmin,


I am Esteban García an artist and PhD candidate in Computer Graphics
Technology at Purdue University. I presented at ISEA 2012 a workshop on web
radio called "Radio Chigüiro" and collaborated with Andrés Burbano in the
panel "Code Talkers." I also attended to the exciting panel in Cybernetics
and here are my notes:


Latin America and Cybernetics at ISEA 2012


This panel focused in past and current Latin American approaches to
cybernetics. Researchers in Artists, Neurologists, Politicians and
Mathematicians have explored cybernetics, "the scientific study of control
and communication in the animal and the machine."[1] Some of the approaches
included transposing different disciplines to create within a new field of
knowledge.


Susana Quintanilla presented on an early case of the Latin American
influence in the development of a conceptual model for cybernetics. It
started with the communication of Neuroscientists Norman Weiner and Arturo
Rosenblueth, starting in the 1930's and continuing throughout their lives.
Rosenblueth was a scholar born in México who in the 1930 was awarded an
scholarship in the department of Physiology of Harvard Univeristy. During
his lifetime, he co-wrote articles with Weiner including "Behavior, Purpose
and Teleology" in 1943, a seminal article that redefined the theory of
cybernetics. Rosenblueth's return to Mexico as a Professor in the
Physiology department of UNAM didn't stop him and Wiener to continue to
collaborate. They were able to maintain correspondence and co-author
research in the new science of cybernetics.


Pablo Colapinto's presentation regarded to "Grupo de los 13," an
Argentinian-based group of artists who in the 1970's explored cybernetics.
The work of Luis Fernando Benedit was highlighted. His work explored the
development of autonomous systems. Benedit's "Biotron" was installed in the
1970 Venice Biennale, displaying an enclosed environment for bees:

*
*

*Biotron, an aluminum and plexiglas construction which housed 4,000 bees,
shown at the 1970 Venice Biennale. The insects had the choice of feeding
from artificial flowers which dripped sugar at the direction of a computer,
or from actual flowers in a nearby garden. The bees preferred the
artificial solution.* [2]


Pablo, can talk a little more about Benedit's work? It was a very
interesting presentation.


Eden Medina's presentation was called "Cybernetics and Political Change in
Chile. Medina focused in the particular case of project Cybersyn, an
experiment in cybernetic socialism during Salvador Allende's government
from 1970 to 1973. The presentation was based on Medina's book entitled
"Cybernetic Revolutionaries" from MIT Press (2011) [3]. Cybersyn overlapped
science and politics aimed to be a socialist approach to technological
innovation.

In 1971, Fernando Flores wrote to Stafford Beer about starting a
challenging project to be implemented across the whole country. In a note
by Medina:

*
*

*The person in charge of the technical aspects of the nationalization
effort had learned about cybernetics in college, especially a vein of
cybernetic thought known as management cybernetics that was in development
by an Englishman named Stafford Beer.*


A team that included Beer, aimed to create a National network for data
processing using one mainframe computer. The goal was to achieve an
auto-regulated society. One of the highlighted examples, was a sketch of
Project Cyberfolk, by Beer. Cyberfolk was a prototype of a system that
could be installed in people's Television to give the government real-time
feedback about society. One of the notes on the bottom represented a dial
with a meter to measure the overall levels of happiness of the population.
Medina explained that "Cybersyn illustrates how political innovation can
lead to technological innovation.*"*


Unfortunately, I couldn't be in Eduardo Bayro's [4] presentation. Did
anybody get to see it? Maybe Alejandro?


I tried my best to recollect from my notes, also I would like to thank Eden
for sending me her notes about her presentation.


Talk to all you soon,



Esteban García





References:

[1] Wiener, Norbert (1948). Cybernetics, or Communication and Control in
the Animal and the Machine. Cambridge: MIT Press.

[2]
http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/4913/releases/MOMA_1972_0142_125.pdf?2010

[3]http://www.cyberneticrevolutionaries.com/?page_id=2

[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-2Hk3Gkuow

--

Esteban García
art & research
www.snebtor.org
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[Yasmin_discussions] Cibernética / Latin America

Dear Yasminers,

Ever since the presentation of the Latin American Forum in ISEA2010, the
Latin American Forum events became a treasured feature of the ISEA symposia.

The Latin American Forum III at ISEA2012 hosted 40 events that represented
well the diversity of the efforts to articulate art, science and technology
in Latin America. With the idea to explore the deep roots of the
interaction of these cultures we had the opportunity to propose a panel on
the "History of Cybernetics in Latin America".

For years I have been reading and collecting information about the diverse
faces that Cybernetics had in Latin America since the origin of the idea of
cybernetics to the present days. To explore such a complex set of
historical layers we had the pleasure to listen experts in four key moments
of such history.

The panelists were:
Susana Quintanilla (UNAM, Mexico) presenting her research about Arturo
Rosenblueth in Mexico in the 40's and 50's.
Pablo Colapino (University of California) presenting his research on the
art exhibition "Arte y Cibernética" in Argentina in the 60's.
Eden Medina (University of Indiana) presenting her research about the
cybernetic management project Cybersyn in Chile, in the 70's.
Eduardo Bayro (CINVESTAV, Mexico) contextualizing his own current work in
computational geometry and the history of Cybernetics in Mexico.

The guests of this discussion in Yasmin are some of the people who were
part of the audience: Esteban García (Purdue University), Alejandro Martin
(biblioteca virtual BLAA), Eugenio Tisselli (Planetary Collegium) and
Felipe Cesar Londoño (Universidad de Caldas) who was the sponsor of this
academic event.

We are going to have the privilege to have in the discussion Ranulph
Glanville who is a worldwide expert on Cybernetics.

Nina Czegledy and Roger Malia, who don't need presentation, kindly invited
us to follow and elaborate about the panel in Yasmin and they will be
participating too.

Saludos,

--
Andres Burbano
PhD Candidate Media Arts and Technology | University of California Santa
Barbara
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Friday, October 26, 2012

[Yasmin_discussions] Fwd: NEW INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR EXAMPLES OF INTER-DISCIPLINARY ART-SCIENCE-ENGINEERING-HUMANITIES CURRICULA

Yasminers

We would welcome discussion around this call for art science curricula

Roger Malina


INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR EXAMPLES OF INTER-DISCIPLINARY
ART-SCIENCE-ENGINEERING-HUMANITIES CURRICULA

Leonardo Executive Editor Roger Malina and UT Dallas doctoral student
Kathryn Evans are interested in examples of courses and curricula that
are in the art-science-humanities field such as courses on art and
biology, music and mathematics, art and chemistry, dance and
environmental sciences, etc.

Our current compendium of art science courses is available at:

http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/cdash/


The resulting updated compendium of courses will be included in a SEAD
White Paper (Breaking Down the Silos: Curriculum Development as a Tool
for Crossing Disciplines in the Arts, Sciences and Humanities) that
is being developed in response to the international call for SEAD
White Papers issued by the network for Science Engineering Art and
Design ( http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/index.html ) .

The White Paper is being developed with an international advisory
group consisting of Paul Thomas (Australia), Edward Shanken
(Netherlands), and Christo Doherty (South Africa). Other educators
interested in collaborating to develop these resources should contact
Kathryn Evans kcevans@utdallas.edu .

We are interested in the broad range of all forms of the performing
arts, including music, dance, theatre and film, and the visual arts;
and connecting to all the hard and social sciences. We are including
art and new technologies (eg: nano tech) but in general not new media
curricula unless they include an art-science component, or art and
engineering.

Individuals who have taught an art-science-humanities course at the
university or secondary-school level, in formal or informal settings,
are invited to contact Kathryn Evans, with details of their
curriculum, at kcevans@utdallas.edu. Please include permission to
include your course on the Curriculum Development in the Arts,
Sciences and Humanities (CDASH) website
http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/cdash/, the level of the course
(undergraduate vs. graduate), the course number and title, and the
department(s) in which the course was offered.

This initiative is also part of the Art-Science Cloud Curriculum
initiative led by Paul Thomas that will be discussed in a number of
forthcoming Leonard Art and Education Forum workshops beginning in
Copenhagen
http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/events/archive/695

When: Mon, Nov 19, 2012
Where: Aalborg University Copenhagen
AC Meyersvænge 15
2450 Copenhagen
Hours: 3.30 – 6.30pm
Web: http://blogs.unsw.edu.au/tiic/


--
Roger Malina
Is in USA at the moment
1-510-853-2007

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HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.

[Yasmin_discussions] Fwd: NEW INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR EXAMPLES OF INTER-DISCIPLINARY ART-SCIENCE-ENGINEERING-HUMANITIES CURRICULA

INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR EXAMPLES OF INTER-DISCIPLINARY
ART-SCIENCE-ENGINEERING-HUMANITIES CURRICULA

Leonardo Executive Editor Roger Malina and UT Dallas doctoral student
Kathryn Evans are interested in examples of courses and curricula that
are in the art-science-humanities field such as courses on art and
biology, music and mathematics, art and chemistry, dance and
environmental sciences, etc.

Our current compendium of art science courses is available at:

http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/cdash/


The resulting updated compendium of courses will be included in a SEAD
White Paper (Breaking Down the Silos: Curriculum Development as a Tool
for Crossing Disciplines in the Arts, Sciences and Humanities) that
is being developed in response to the international call for SEAD
White Papers issued by the network for Science Engineering Art and
Design ( http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/index.html ) .

The White Paper is being developed with an international advisory
group consisting of Paul Thomas (Australia), Edward Shanken
(Netherlands), and Christo Doherty (South Africa). Other educators
interested in collaborating to develop these resources should contact
Kathryn Evans kcevans@utdallas.edu .

We are interested in the broad range of all forms of the performing
arts, including music, dance, theatre and film, and the visual arts;
and connecting to all the hard and social sciences. We are including
art and new technologies (eg: nano tech) but in general not new media
curricula unless they include an art-science component, or art and
engineering.

Individuals who have taught an art-science-humanities course at the
university or secondary-school level, in formal or informal settings,
are invited to contact Kathryn Evans, with details of their
curriculum, at kcevans@utdallas.edu. Please include permission to
include your course on the Curriculum Development in the Arts,
Sciences and Humanities (CDASH) website
http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/cdash/, the level of the course
(undergraduate vs. graduate), the course number and title, and the
department(s) in which the course was offered.

This initiative is also part of the Art-Science Cloud Curriculum
initiative led by Paul Thomas that will be discussed in a number of
forthcoming Leonard Art and Education Forum workshops beginning in
Copenhagen
http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/events/archive/695

When: Mon, Nov 19, 2012
Where: Aalborg University Copenhagen
AC Meyersvænge 15
2450 Copenhagen
Hours: 3.30 – 6.30pm
Web: http://blogs.unsw.edu.au/tiic/

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
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HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.