This document discusses the intersection of art, science, and information technology. It begins by providing background on the author and their perspective as an astronomer and director of observatories. It then discusses the evolution of the Leonardo knowledge network over 40 years and maps based on citation indexes. Next, it asks why art-science interactions are being promoted now, citing reasons like critical mass, societal urgency, and networking the humanities. It outlines different "types" of art-science practice and provides examples. It discusses developing an ethics of curiosity and challenges like overcoming disciplinary differences. Finally, it describes the Institut Mediterraneen de Recherches Avancees and its artist and scientist residency program.

1. RE/SEARCH: Art, Science, and
Information Technology
NSF and NEA
Why Here and Why Now ?
Why ? How ? Here Where ?
Roger F Malina
Director Observatory Marseille Provence

2. My Perspective, Biases
• Astronomer, Physics, Instrumentation
– Director Observatoire de Marseille Provence
– PI NASA Explorer Satellite, IT Testbed
– Cosmology Group , Dark Energy Observatory (JDEM)
• Editor, Organiser « Art/Science/Technology »
– Founder of the 2 Leonardo non profits
– Executive Editor Leonardo Publications MIT PRESS since
1982
• Co-Director of Art-Science Residency Programs
– Institut Mediterraneen de Recherches Avancees
– Established by the CNRS and the three Universities in
Marseille.

3. Leonardo ISAST/OLATS :
43 years, 5000 authors
Arts & New Technologies………&Sciences…..
In Historical and Theoretical Perspective

4. Evolution of the Leonardo
Knowledge Network over >40 years
cf Leyeserdorf and Salah
• Maps on the basis of
the Arts & Humanities
Citation Index: The
journals Leonardo and
Art Journal, and
‘Digital Humanities’ as
a topic,”
• (Journal of the American Society
for Information Science and
Technology 61(4) (2010) 787-801

5. TOP 10 2010 LEONARDO Author
New Criteria for New
Media Jon Ippolito, Joline Blais, et al
The Shiraz Arts Festival:
Western Avant-Garde
Robert Gluck
Arts in 1970s Iran
Architecture as Nature: A
Biodigital Hypothesis Dennis Dollens
Midas: A
Nanotechnological
Paul Thomas
Exploration of Touch
Marina Abramović's
Seven Easy Pieces:
Critical Documentation
Strategies for
Preserving Art's Jessica Santone
History
An Information Sublime:
Knowledge after The
Robert Pepperell
Postmodern Condition
From Router to Front
Row: Lubricious
Transfer and the
Aesthetics of Bob Giges, Edward C. Warburton

6. Why Now
• Cf Goldberg and Davidsen: Future of
Learning Institutions in the Digital Age
– Computers and Humanities to….
– Digital Humanities to….Networked Knowledge
• Critical Mass of Art-Science Practice
– Exemplars
– Art-Science vs Art-Technology
• Maturity of new media field, « born digital »
• Societal Urgency: Arts as Hard Humanities

7. networking humanities
( from D Goldberg)
Mobilizing
mobile humanities
- Responsive
Responsible
- inter-activity
- problems
and themes,
not disciplines

8. Institut Pytheas in Aix Marseille
University
• Will bring together four « observational
disciplines »
– Astronomy
– Ecology and Biodiversity
– GeoSciences/Environmental Sciences
– Oceanography
• It is really really difficult:
– Data, IP, Methods, Societal Contexts, Funding Cultures
• There are good reasons why we have disciplines
• Science is in-homogeneous

9. Why should astronomers work with
ecologists ?
• 03HP Climate Change
Observatory
• Installed at Observatoire
de Haute Provence
• Long term monitoring of
ecological drift
• Controlled experiment on
reduced rain fall
• Data Base Management
• H Vasselin: Artist in
Residence

10. Why should Astronomers work with
Ecologists
• ANTARES under sea
neutrino observatory
• Bioluminescence proved to
be dominant source of
noise in physics signal
• Underwater marine ecology
observatory established
using same infrastructure
• COSMOPHONE sound art
project at CPPM

11. Why Should Astronomers work
with Ecologists ?
• Detection of Vegetation in
the Spectrum of
Earthshine off the moon
• Measurements of total
earth albedo for climate
models
• Education outreach projects
at Observatory drawing on
public interest in astronomy
and ecology
• International Year of
Astronomy
• International Year of
Biodiversity

12. Why promote art-science-
technology interaction
• Creativity Arguments
• Innovation Arguments
• Cultural Embedding and Appropriation
• The Ethics of Curiosity :
– The Values Problem

13. « Types » of Art-Science Practice
• Type I: Mutual Influence, Dual Outputs
– Teams
– Dual Career Scientist-Artists. Engineer-Artists
• Type II: Artistic Creativity as a domain for
scientific inquiry
• Type III: Culturally transformative
technological developments
• Type IV: Cultural Appropriation
• Type V: STEM and STEAM

14. Exemplar:The Sound of Trees Growing
• David Dunn
(composer, sound
artist)
• Jim Crutchfield
( complexity scientist)
• Artist driven recording
of sounds of trees
growing led to
research project in the
coupling of ultrasound
from trees, beetles,
forest fire system
dynamics

15. Ethos of Scientific Curiosity
cf Bunge 2006, Morton
• Intellectual Honesty
• Integrity
• Epistemic Communism
• Organized skepticism
• Dis-interestedness
• Impersonality
• Universality

16. Towards an Ethics of Curiosity
cf Sundar Sarukkai: Science and the Ethics of Curiosity 2009
• Curiosity is embodied
• Curiosity is enacted
• Curiosity is cultural
• Curiosity is social
• Curiosity is collective
• The claimed distinction between “pure” and “applied” science
is not sustainable
• In some cultures, eg some Indian traditions, doubt rather
than curiosity is a dominant driver ( cf Descartes)
• “Beware of binary oppositions” !

17. But Curiosity is embodied:
Char Davies: Ephemere
• Varela:
• All knowledge is
conditioned by the
structure of the knower

18. We underestimate how our nature impacts
ontology and epistemology
• Einstein:”
• “The universe of
ideas is just as
independent of the
nature of our
experience as
clothes are of the
form of the human
body”
• Stelarc and his “third
arm”

19. Curiosity is enacted
eg Marcel.li Antunez Roca
in Zero Gravity performance
• Physicst
Richard
Feynman:
• “What I
cannot
create, I
cannot
understand”
• Empathy

20. Curiosity is Social
Marco Peljham and Makrolab
Buddhist Proverb (Nishitani):
“the nature of the task of the “ought’ is the other-
directedness of the “is”

21. Curiosity is Cultural
• Saint Augustine:
It was curiosity led
me along the false
trails before
submitting to
christian baptisms
• Francis Bacon:
It is Charity that must
motivate the knower,
not curiosity
• Brandon Ballengee

22. Hard Humanities
• Anthropogenic impact
driving global change on
time scale commensurate
with generations.
• Culture has always in the
past adapted to
changing conditions
– Winners and losers
• But Culture now becomes
a design problem
– Eg What is a sustainable city

23. Caveats
• Arts and Sciences are Heterogeneous social
practices
• Science and the Arts have evolving
methodologies
• Multi-disciplinary continua, Institutional
Contexts
– Arts and Design
– Arts and Humanities
– Science and Technology: IT…Biology…Physical
Sciences..
– Education

24. Caveats
• Epistemological Distinctions
– Observational and Experimental Sciences
– Theory and Praxis
– Sensory Modalities
• It is really difficult
– Metrics, Success Criteria
• Is inter-disciplinarity a discipline ?

25. The Basic Linear Model of Research
Innovation circa 1970
1
Basic Research Applied Patent Commercial
Research Licensing Development
Patent Services
1 This “works” just often enough to say “it works”
But what about the Arts and Humanities ?

26. « Triple Helix of Innovation Theory »
cf Gerald Barnett : 3rd Gen Innovation
Theory
• Innovation theory seeks to cross
link:
– Universities
– Corporations
– Government
• Missing Strands
– Cultural Imaginary drivers
• Artists and designers as Inventors and
Researchers
– Social Innovation
– Philanthropy 2.0
– New Locii of Innovation In Social Context
• Non Profit , Non Governmental Sector
• Temporary Autonomous Zones
• Learning Institutions in Digital Age

27. G1 NPO
Local
G2
National
Internat R1
R2
ATEC ? IP
R4
R3
NGO C4
NPO
C1
C2 C3

28. L’IMéRA : Institut MÉditerranéen
de Rechechers Avancees
• La Condition Humaine des
Sciences
• The Human Condition of the
Sciences
• International Residency
program for scientists,
engineers, artists, humanities
scholars
• Bridge Physical/Social
Sciences, Arts/Humanities
• Pôle Méditerranée
• Pôle Arts-Sciences-
Instrumentation-Langages

29. IMERA
• 5 year « endowment »
Ministry of Research/Educ
• Network of 4 French Social
Science and Humanities
Institutes of Advanced Study
• Operated by CNRS and 3 Universities in Aix Marseille
• Arts-Sciences-Instrumentation-Language
– Artists in Residence, Scientists in Residence
– Group Residencies Artists and Scientists. Social/Physical
– 3 month, 9 month and 3 month/year for 3 years
• Overcoming asymmetries of discourse and practice

30. IMERA resident:
Nano Scientist James Gimzewski
• Physical Intelligence (DARPA)
• When do collections of atoms
begin to exhibit behaviours we
interpret as intelligent.
• Philosophers, artists, nano
scientists
• « Inter-facial » Intelligence
• « Scale »
• Image Right: Fireworks artist Pierre
Alain Hubert

31. IMERA resident: artist Rachel Mayeri
• « Cinéma for Primates », ..retirement home for primates…
• Will work with Primatology and Neurobiology labs,
President University Ethics Committee
• Human/non human cognition
• Animal models for medical research
• Wellcome Trust Funding through ArtsCatalyst UK

32. Ciro Cattuto and team (Turin)
• Modeling complex
network phenomena
in systems that
entangle
technological and
social factors
• Hospitals, Schools..
• Mixed team of
scientists, designer ,
multi media artist
• Social to Physical
Sciences

33. HOW: Mecanisms for “Socially Robust”
Science and Technology
cf Helga Nowotny and : Mode 2 Science and Technology
• Artists in Labs
• Scientists and Engineers in
Studios
• Town Scientists
• Micro Science, Citizen’s
Science
• Open sourcing of data about
your own world
• Developing the ‘hard
humanities’ to change the
content and direction of science
and technology
• Left: Ruth West ‘Atlas in Silico’

34. ArtsActive Network
Artists in R and D Labs Programs
• Art in Labs, Switzerland, Jill
• Observers: James Leach, Emmanuel
Scott
Mahe (Orange), Bronac Ferran,
• ANAT/Synapse, Sammuelle Carlson
• Symbiotica Australia • List of patents filed by artists
• Dissonancias, : • Exchange of Intellectual Property
• Laboral, Spain approaches
• Jurying systems
• Art and Genomics: Holland • Announcements
• ECTOPIA; Portugal • Scientists in cultural organisations ?
• ZERO ONE: Climate Clock
• UK ITEM, ArtsCatalyst, FACT/
Blue Sky Residencies • www.artsactive.net
• Leonardo –
• IMERA , France
• TRANSGENESIS; Czech rep

35. See review article by Peter Denning, September
2010 issue of American Scientist
• Fourth « domain » of science with
physical, life and social sciences
• « Computing: Study of Information
Processes, Natural and Artificial »

36. Denning’s « Principles of Computing » 2010
• Computation • What can and cannot be computed
• Communication • Reliably moving information between
places
• Coordination • Effectively using many computers
• Recollection • Representing, storing and retrieving
information from
media
• Automation
• Discovering algorithms for information
processes
• Evaluation • Predicting performance of complex
systems
• Design
• Structuring software systems for

37. WHERE
HERE ? G1 NPO
Local
• .
G2
National
Internat R1
R2
ATEC ? IP
R4
R3
NGO C4
NPO
C1
C2 C3

38. Science and Emerging
Technologies as a Cultural
Terrain Science
• Intimate
• Creating intuition on mediated
sensory
data, Information
Aesthetics,
• Designing/Interacting with simulated
systems
• Making sense/meaning of dense data/
petabyte era
• Hard Humanities
• Applied Humanities
• High Throughput Humanities
• Peoples Science, Citizen’s Science,
Micro Science
• Social Innovation, Philanthropy 2.0
• Image Right: Frank Malina: Cosmos IV

39. Thanks for your Attention