THE PLATFORM

#14: February 2001

An occasional newsletter of the Computers and Sculpture Forum. 

This issue prepared by Tim Duffield 


Aaaaarrrrggghh……….it’s back!

 

Yes, The Platform is back – at least for a brief appearance. After organizing the Computers and Sculpture Forum at the ISC Conference in Chicago in ’98, I bowed out of volunteerism for a while. At the Houston conference I had the luxury of watching from the sidelines as other people did the work. Well, they twisted my arm, and I am back to help with………..

ISC’01, Pittsburgh.

June 6-10, 2001

 

These are the dates of the International Sculpture Center Conference. It will be held at the Pittsburgh Omni Hotel (used to be called the Westin). The Computers and Sculpture Forum will take place in the afternoon of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 7, 8 and 9. 

Preliminary Conference Organization

The conference as a whole will have a concentration on sculpture and technology. Sessions on Robotics, Kinetics, Genetics, Video Sculpture and Constructivism demonstrate the emphasis. The initial plans for the conference call for morning sessions on a single track. From 1.45 to 3.30, a number of presentations will run concurrently; during this time, the C & S forum will schedule its events. However, we are seeing the Forum as a resource facility at this conference as much as a sequence of events, and we will be open and running from noon until…whenever.

Rob Fisher, who is on the board of the ISC, is the overall Conference Program Chairman. I will be the Grand Panjandrum of the Computers and Sculpture Forum. Hilary Langhorst, a forum member who you may have met if you were in Houston last year, is going to assist as the local liaison for Rob and me. We also hope to have the assistance of the Pittsburgh Art Institute

 

Space: We have been allotted a good arrangement of rooms that form an informal suite. There is a large lecture/presentation space that will also be used for other conference events. To get to this space you pass by two other smaller rooms. The first will be our Resource Center, which will contain several computers for hands-on experience and other equipment associated with rapid prototyping, systems akin to holography, and anything else that is conjured up. The space is large enough to conduct demonstrations of processes and small group discussions and poster sessions. The second room will be exhibition space.

 

What to include?When we first formed the Computers and SculptureForum, we were trailblazers, and saw ourselves introducing the computer to the profession. We were proselytizers. We took on an elementary education role. Things are now very different. Almost every sculptor uses a computer in some area of his or her professional life. It is a commonplace. If we continue in the same vein, we will be redundant; the computer per se no longer holds interest. If our emphasis is the computer, and “look what it can do” we will be sidelined as techno-freaks. This is a sculpture conference and our emphasis must be upon sculpture. The computer, and other technologies made possible by the computer, offers a practical and philosophical broadening and enrichment of how we think and how we perform as sculptors. Our emphasis must be on “look what sculpture can be”.

To this end, I hope that the Forum, with your help, will focus on the way that the computer can reinform the way we make sculpture and how we categorize what sculpture is. The development of rapid prototyping could bring about a change as great as the introduction of the welding torch and, hence, constructed rather than modeled or carved sculpture. Virtual sculpture is now moving from the confines of a flat screen to occupy actual space and, hence, really questions the concept of sculptural tangibility. These are the two most obvious foci. As you step forward to help and to propose elements for the Forum sessions, please think beyond “gee whiz” and “look what I can do”. Let us aim at being a center for most adventurous thought.

 

What you are being asked to do: first I should tell you what I am going to do – and not do. I cannot do as much as I did in organizing the Chicago Forum sessions. As those of you who have attended these things know, it takes a tremendous amount of work to pull off a successful event. I can’t devote that amount of time any more (particularly as I am also running another two-hour conference session on Sculpture and Water). What I mean by this is that I will act as a central coordinator and try to see that all goes smoothly by ensuring that the content you develop fits within the framework and timetable, that everyone knows what the others are doing, and that all the resources that we can muster are available and compatible. We need to find the people to take responsibility for the elements. They - you - will deal with all of the details of each element.

We need people to step forward to volunteer to organize the following 

 

Elements:

Forum Resource Center equipment and software. In Houston, Mary Visser volunteered a good deal of time. She is unlikely to be able to be in Pittsburgh; we need someone to step into her shoes.

Forum Resource Center supervision and assistance.We need volunteers to actually man the space and someone to coordinate it all.

Exhibition Space. First we need ideas about how to use the space. We already have the possibility of items related to sculpture and sound and for displayssimilar toholography. (If I can’t use the term “holography” without someone saying it ain’t actually holography, what DO I call it? Shades of Rock – the “Artform Formerly Known as Holography”.) Are we to have an open exhibition, a juried show? If so, someone must help out and we must get started quickly. I cannot act as the sole clearinghouse and judge – and we need someone to handle the pushpins!

Rapid Prototyping, Haptic Devices, 3D Scanning, Digital Enlargement, Interactivity and Computer Control of Sculpture. These are some of the elements that we may include. Please come forward with concrete proposals for forum sessions, demonstrations and discussions.

Intersculpt, Telesculpture, Internet activities. We are told that all meeting rooms will have a high-speed web connection, no details yet. We are hoping for concrete proposals for remote contacts and sharing in some form. For those who cannot attend, can we set up remote sessions? I rely on you.

Individual Poster Sessions. We have always had individual poster sessions and we will, again, in Pittsburgh. The number we will be able to accommodate will depend upon the sum of all the proposals for sessions, demonstrations, etc.

Once we have a clear picture of what we can fit in, I will handle the basic timetabling and coordination between everyone. We will try to provide all of the basic display and presentation equipment. If you need any equipment for your proposal beyond the basic setup, you must work to acquire it. We do not have much money to play with. This also means that very little assistance can be given by the ISC for attendance. If you have volunteered to give substantial help in the organization, I should be able to get a waiver of fees for you, but no more. We will, of course, provide any letter you may need to help you get assistance, for example, from your college.

 

Communication: This will be part of my role – you are holding evidence of that in your hands. But I will only be as good as the stuff you feed me. As the elements of the Forum gel you must feed me the information that is to be broadcast. Announcements, calls for material, etc, etc: get these things to me and I will publish them

This is the last hard-copy Platform you will see. It was started in the pre-Web days as a print newsletter. This and future editions of The Platform will be posted on the ISC website at www.Sculpture.org and at the FAST-UK and Ars Mathematica sites (anywhere else appropriate?). We have found, though, that passive advertising and information dissemination is not very effective. So, future editions will also be sent in the form of an e-mail newsletter. Attempts at getting everyone’s e-mail address were not very successful. If you want to be kept informed, send me your e-mail address. Those of you who have already given it to me will doubtless remember that fact.

For general information about the conference, refer to the ISC web site and to Sculpture Magazine. You should also be receiving the first promotional flyers in the mail.

 

Timetable: One immutable deadline thus far. In April, I have to submit final text for the Conference Program Book. This means that all basic arrangements have to be made by then. I am shooting for APRIL 1st, an appropriate date, to have decisions on all Main Elements, personnel, etc, etc. There will then be several days to finalize texts before submission to the ISC. This means that I need your input – more than a generalized expression of support – I need real proposals very soon. I am setting a deadline of MARCH 20 for submissions. This allows about three weeks from your receipt of this newsletter. Send to me, Tim Duffield, at address below.

We do not have much time!!!


Mark your CALENDAR:

March 20 for submission of proposals.

April 1 decisions on all Forum Elements. 

April 10 submission of descriptive texts and personnel bios to TD.

April 20 submission of final text to ISC 


 

If you are not already a member of the International Sculpture Center, PLEASE JOIN

This is the last printed paper version of

THE PLATFORM

If you want to be kept informed, send me

your e-mail address.

 


CONTACTS: Tim Duffield, 1551 Johnny's Way, West Chester, Pa 19382 (610) 430-8557 

                                                                        timd@td-s.com

                        Rob Fisher (814) 355-1458         Glenunion@aol.com

                        Bruce Beasley (510) 836-1414   Beasley@well.com

                        Robert Smith (212) 737-9870      sculpt3d@sculpture.net

                        Hilary Langhorst                       hilarylanghorst@home.com

                                Keith Brown, FAST-UK            keith.brown@mcr1.poptel.org.uk   http://www.finearts.mmu.ac.uk/fast-uk/

                        Christian Lavigne, Ars Mathematica   lavigne@toile-metisse.org     http://www.intersculpt.org

                                 


 

The above is a direct transcript from the printed newsletter that was mailed to members of the Computers and Sculpture Forum on February 26th 2001.