BRIDGES: Sessions

DAY 1: Thursday, May 31, 2001

10:00am Introductory Remarks

  • Elizabeth Daley, Executive Director, The USC Annenberg Center for Communication
  • Celia Pearce, The USC Annenberg Center for Communication
  • Sara Diamond, Banff Centre for the Arts New Media Institute

    10:30-12:00 Goals/Introductions

  • Review of Consortium Goals and Overview (Sara Diamond & Celia Pearce)
  • Formal, two-minute introductions of participants

    12:00-1:00 Panel One: Roots - Histories of Interdisciplinary Collaboration
    Case studies of historical in art/technology/science collaboration, evolution of collaborative context; roots in other disciplines, challenges and rewards; paradigm shifts that occurred as a result; birthing new disciplines.

  • Dan Sandin, University of Illinois, Chicago, Electronic Visualization Laboratory
  • Randall Packer, Zakros InterArts & Ken Jordan, New England Foundation for the Arts
  • Anne Nigten, V2/Encart
  • Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz, Electronic Cafe International
  • Co-Moderators: Sara Diamond & Celia Pearce

    1:00 Lunch on the Lawn

    2:00-3:30 Panel Two: Arts, Science, Engineering - The Value of Collaboration
    Various notions of interdisciplinarity, including idea of the interdisciplinary individual; pleasures of collaboration; changing reference frames; thinking "outside the box" by using techniques from other disciplines in new ways; influence of root disciplines; fuzzy lines; marginalization encountered if you're discipline is not "pure;" connotations of word "discipline"

  • Ken Goldberg, U.C. Berkeley
  • Sheelagh Carpendale, University of Calgary
  • Roy Ascott, CaiiA
  • Mashiko Kusahara, Kobe University
  • Tapio Makela, University of Turku
  • Co-Moderators: Sara Diamond & Celia Pearce

    3:45-5:45 Panel/Roundtable: Process
    Notions of creativity, creative process, intuition and rational methods. Presentations and discussion centered on context for collaborative work, as well as motivations and methods of creating interdisciplinary projects, including both research and educational contexts.

  • Nina Czegledy, Independent
  • Michael Naimark, Independent
  • Jacquelyn Morie, USC Institute for Creative Technologies
  • Paul Kaiser, Riverbed
  • Mark Green, University of Hong Kong, School for Creative Media
  • Co-Moderators: Sara Diamond & Celia Pearce

    7:00pm Dinner Reception at Hotel Figueroa

    DAY 2: Friday, June 1, 2001

    9:00-12:30 Brainstorming Session: Values, Culture and Language (Inter-Dictionary)

    An exercise in language, words, and meaning:

  • Part 1: Participants made up competing definitions of key words, then others voted on them.
  • Part 2: Half the participants wrote a question using the term "surface tension," the other have an answer using the term "Because the artist..." No-one was able to see what others were writing. Participants then read what they had written, alternating between answers
  • Part 3: A series of words was presented. People self-organized into breakout groups in which they discussed various meanings of the word, its implications and its relationship to other words within various disciplinary lexica. Afterwards, groups reconvened to discuss results.
  • Co-Moderators of group discussion: Sara Diamond & Celia Pearce with Patrick Clancy, Kansas City Art Institute with Glenn Van Knowe, MESO

    12:30-1:30 Lunch on the Lawn

    1:30-2:45 Panel/Roundtable: Entities, Institutions and Funding‹How Things Get Done (See Discussion Topics)
    "Entities" and institutions; relationship of individual to institution/entity; funding models and economics; resource subversion; cultural issues; variations in work product; project management and production process; what skills are needed to collaborate well?

  • Bronac Ferran, Arts Council of England
  • Ana Serrano, Canadian Film Centre
  • Anne Levi-Lloyd, Media Innovation Centre
  • Stephan Meyers, Nokia
  • Co-Moderators: Celia Pearce and Sara Diamond with Mark Beam

    3:00-4:45 Working Groups
    Participants broke up into interdisciplinary working groups to brainstorm potential BRIDGES initiatives. Teams then returned and presented ideas to the full group.

    Group Leaders:

  • Natalie Bookchin, CalArts
  • Kathryn Saunders, Digital Media Institute
  • Tapio Makela, University of Turku
  • Pamela Jennings, SRI International
  • Robert Nideffer, UC Irvine

    5:00-6:00 Closing Session
    Group discussed long-term potential of BRIDGES and enthusiasm about future initiatives.

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