Alan N. Shapiro, Technologist and Futurist

Blog and text archive about media theory, science fiction theory, future design, social choreography, Computer Science 2.0, new media art, robots and androids, Star Trek, The Prisoner, Jean Baudrillard, Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, and Marshall McLuhan

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“I Bring Philosophy and Biotechnology into the Sphere of Art”: Polona Tratnik interviewed by Alan N. Shapiro

January 13th, 2012 in Category: The Illusion Beyond Art

On December 17, 2011, I interviewed the Slovenian artist and media culture-cultural studies professor Polona Tratnik in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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Introduction to Polona Tratnik, by Anja Wiesinger

January 12th, 2012 in Category: The Illusion Beyond Art

Being a signifier for health, fruition, and beauty, hair also fulfills an aesthetic function. It is a medium with tactile qualities, associated with intimacy on the one hand, and with the abject on the other hand.
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“Nature Disappears Beneath Our Words and Images”: Nicola Toffolini interviewed by Alan N. Shapiro

December 9th, 2011 in Category: The Illusion Beyond Art

On November 11, 2011, I interviewed the Italian artist Nicola Toffolini in Bologna, Italy. I spoke in English, and Nicola spoke in Italian. I have translated his comments into English.
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From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti: Artworks of Nicola Toffolini

December 9th, 2011 in Category: The Illusion Beyond Art

Nicola Toffolini works on the nature-technology marriage by elaborating singular ecosystems enclosed in glass and aluminium cases of marked formal elegance. Inside plants have been placed which, in order to live, depend on sophisticated electronic mechanisms, which visitors operate from the outside interactively.
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Impressionist Paintings by Florence Morrison, Installment 3

December 8th, 2011 in Category: Painting

Moving Shadow (1968), Black and White Pondside (1966), Maritime Artefacts (1964)
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The Jig She Saw: Reflections on Creating Relational Encounters in Participatory Theatre, by Regan O’Brien

October 15th, 2011 in Category: Performance Studies

In this essay, I will be reflecting on the theories and practice which took place in the process of creating and performing "The Jig She Saw: Reflections on You," a small scale immersive, interactive performance installation. The project is rooted in Relational Aesthetics and in social choreography.
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Pietro Mussini: A habitat of an interlocked nature, by Franco Torriani

June 18th, 2011 in Category: The Illusion Beyond Art

How far can an artistic practice really produce, and place in a given space and time, place-unrelated objects (in respect to a given place), it’s an underlaying matter that enlivens most of Pietro Mussini’s creative path.
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Eduardo Kac: Living Works, by Claudio Cravero

June 3rd, 2011 in Category: Arts & Genomics, The Illusion Beyond Art

The first exhibition in Italy dedicated to the controversial figure of Eduardo Kac (Rio de Janeiro, 1962; he lives in Chicago). His research explores the frontiers between man, animal and robot, culminating in Transgenic Art, through which living beings become a single entity with the technological.
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Impressionist Paintings by Florence Morrison, Installment 2

May 25th, 2011 in Category: Painting

Walk to Elysium (1963), Protected Walkway (1968), Connecting Fences (1960)
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From Las Vegas (NV) to the Cactus League (AZ)

May 20th, 2011 in Category: New American Studies, Photography

Leaving Las Vegas... Driving through the northern Arizona desert... To the Cactus League... In the Shadow of Jean Baudrillard and America... To arrive at nighttime March baseball in southern Arizona!
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New York City in Las Vegas

April 30th, 2011 in Category: Photography

New York New York Las Vegas Casino & Hotel
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Three Impressionist Paintings by Florence Morrison

April 1st, 2011 in Category: Painting

The singularity of this (the second of three) painting(s) is striking, yet it also reminds me of work products from Van Gogh's period in Arles.
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I Love Bologna, Italy

January 16th, 2011 in Category: Photography

Most tourists - for example, American tourists - go to Venice and Florence. Between those two fascinating cities lies the undiscovered gem which few tourists visit: Bologna.
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From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti – Interactive Plant Growing and Trans Plant by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau

October 4th, 2010 in Category: Arts & Genomics, The Illusion Beyond Art, The Technological Herbarium

Botany forms the basis of Christa Sommerer's training: she dedicated herself to it after her secondary studies, at the Faculty of Biology and Botany of Vienna. Her intention was to investigate nature applying and elaborating methods suitable to the classification of plants. to achieve the formulation of systematic rules.
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From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti – Nerve Garden by Bruce Damer

October 4th, 2010 in Category: Real/Virtual Reality, The Illusion Beyond Art, The Technological Herbarium

Nerve Garden is a three-dimensional virtual world accessible on the Internet, a "Public Terrarium in Cyberspace," according to the definition of its authors, where the users of the Net can sow and witness the growth of virtual plants.
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