#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.