Biographies




agf aka antye greie (D) is musician. producer. vocalist. author. artist and currently living in berlin. agf got internationally know by recording herself reading lines of code and then deconstructing them into sluice of broken syllables and bursts of breath. AGF takes what has been done before with DSP laptop electronics and turns it on its head electronic roar. subsonic beats. vocal processing. lyric sampling. multilingual.

has worked in film, video, music, computer animation and new media. She holds a BA in Communications and Film from Rowan University and an MFA in Film and Video from the California Institute of the Arts. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. Since 1996, she has been working primarily in net art and software art, exploring dynamic processes, temporal structures, net politics and net culture. Much of her recent work has been in live Internet performance and software art, playing with the relationships between new media and early abstract animated filmmaking, as well as the juxtaposition of geek culture and pop culture.

Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca (E), born 1959, is well-known in the international art scene for his mechanotronic performances and robotic installations. A founding member of La Fura dels Baus, he worked in this company as art co-ordinator, musician and performer from 1979 to 1989, and presented the group’s macro-performances ACCIONS (1984), SUZ/O/SUZ (1985) and TIER MON (1988). In the nineties his avantgarde mechatronic performances combined such elements as Bodybots (body-controlled robots), Systematugy (interactive narration with computers) and dresskeleton (the exoskeleton interfacing with the body). He is currently working on the spatial artwork DEDALUS.

Michael Aschauer (A), born in 1977; since 1999, master class in visual media design at the University of Applied Art; lives in Vienna where he works as an artist primarily with code in the Internet, image and sound; nominated for the 2003 International Media Art Prize of the ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany. http://m.ash.to, http://www.logicaland.net

Peter J. Bentley (GB) is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Computer Science, University College London (UCL), known for his prolific research covering all aspects of Evolutionary Computation and Digital Biology. His research investigates evolutionary algorithms, ecological modelling, artificial immune systems, computational embryology and swarming systems, applied to diverse applications including design, control, fraud detection, security, and music composition. He is editor of the books Evolutionary Design by Computers and Creative Evolutionary Systems, and author of the popular science book Digital Biology.

Roland Blach (D) has completed his studies of Control Engineering in Stuttgart in 1992 and since then works at the Virtual Environments Lab at the Fraunhofer IAO, Stuttgart (D). His work focuses on the development of the virtual reality core system software Lightning / Personal Immersion. For the last two years Roland worked on the government funded research project INVITE with the subject of “Interaction with information structures in immersive environments”.

Jaap Blonk (NL), born 1953, is a composer, voice performer and sound poet. In reciting poetry, especially the works of Antonin Artaud and Kurt Schwitters, he discovered the directness and flexibility of vocal utterance, whether using meaningful words or not. At present, he has developed into a prolific writer/composer and a specialist in the performance of sound poetry, supported by a powerful stage presence and an almost childlike freedom in improvisation.

Marc Canter (USA). Founder of MacroMind, the company that went on to become Macromedia. As such, he was involved in the invention of Director, the world’s first multimedia authoring tool. After leaving Macromedia, Marc started Canter Technology in 1992, which focused on developing interactive, scalable and networked multimedia products. Under Marc’s leadership, Canter Technology created MediaBand, the world’s first interactive music video (1992-1994), the Marc Canter Show, a scalable talk show delivered over the Internet (1995-1996) and the MediaBar, a cyber restaurant and club that explored the potential of location-based entertainment as a stepping stone to interactive TV (1996–1997). In 1998, Marc helped develop and deploy the ChoiceSeat system for Super Bowl XXXII and was instrumental in building a prototype of a digital city for Trieste, Italy. He has worked extensively Digiscents, the current leader in computer-controlled smell emission, on their early demonstrations. He continues to be an innovator and leader in the field of multimedia technologies.

Adrian David Cheok (SGP) has worked in real-time systems, soft computing, and embedded computing in both Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (Osaka, Japan) and at the Depertment of

Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS) where he heads the Mixed Reality Lab. In NUS he has been working on research covering mixed reality, human-computer interaction, wearable computers and smart spaces, fuzzy systems, embedded systems, power electronics, and multi-modal recognition. The research output has included numerous high quality academic journal papers, research prototype deliverables, numerous exhibitions, keynote speeches, and international television worldwide broadcasts (including CNN/CNBC). He is currently Chairman of the IEEE Singapore Section, and President of ACM SIGCHI Singapore Chapter.

Heman Chong (SGP/D) is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien (2003) in Berlin. His trans-disciplinary practice involves the use of graphics, photography, text, video in the exploration of mobility/nomadism, cinema/off-screen spaces, urbanity and, increasingly, socio-political issues concerning the production of contemporary visual art in Asia. He has exhibited in many countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, Japan, India, Spain, Singapore and the United Kingdom. He holds an MA in Communication Art and Design from the Royal College of Art, London.

Cindy Cohn (USA) is the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She is responsible for overseeing the EFF’s overall legal strategy. EFF has been actively involved in nearly all areas where civil liberties are impacted online. EFF has focused in the past few years on the challenge to the constitutional rights presented by recent changes and broad application of intellectual property laws. Key cases handled by the EFF in this area are Felten v. RIAA, focusing on the danger to scientific freedom posed by the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, and Universal v. Reimerdes (2600) focusing on the danger to news reporting posed by the same laws. The EFF has also advised the criminal defense attorneys in U.S. v. Sklyarov, focusing on the criminal application of those same provisions to creators of format conversion software. The EFF has also worked to preserve the right to anonymous speech online, including bringing In Re 2TheMart.com, which established core legal standards for protecting the identity of online speakers sought by civil subpena. In addition, the EFF continues to defend those accused of various offenses based upon their protected speech activities. In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, EFF has returned to its roots, focusing on the issues of government surveillance and other traditional civil liberties online.

Isabelle Cornaro (F) works primarily with drawings, text and video that are presented within a framework where one medium interacts with another. Her work deals with the concept of authority implied and imposed by constructed spaces (modern architecture, French gardens, etc) and is influenced by the work of science-fiction writers. She has exhibited in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Cornaro studied at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris and École du Louvre (History of Art), Paris.

Florian Cramer (D), born 1969, lecturer in Comparative Literature at Freie Universität Berlin, writer on literature and computing, Free Software, code poetry and software art, administrator (with Tilman Baumgärtel) of the mailing list rohrpost, editor (with Alan Sondheim) of the „unstable digest“ on the mailing list Nettime, member of the transmediale.01 software art jury and the read_me/runme.org expert group.
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cantsin/homepage/
http://www.complit.fu-berlin.de/institut/lehrpersonal/cramer.html

Scott deLahunta (NL/UK) is a writer and researcher (with Writing Research Associates and Dartington College of Arts) in the field of overlap between the practices associated with live performance and emerging technologies.

Tim Mark Didymus (UK) has been realising generative audio works since 1993 releasing his first album “Float” in 1996. He is Principal Musician for Sseyo, Bafta award winning multimedia / software technologists.

Marc Downie (UK) is an artist and artificial intelligence researcher who lives and works in Massachusetts, USA. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he is currently a doctoral candidate and a member of the Synthetic Characters Group at The Media Lab, MIT. Marc has collaborated with a number of artists and scientists, creating both installations and digital projections with Merce Cunningham, Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar and is currently constructing new works for dance theater with choreographers Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown and Bebe Miller. His work has been shown internationally at venues including Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, ICA London and the Barbican Centre.

Kenji Iguchi (Needle) (J). First used a computer back in 91, and has been using one ever since. For someone tinkering with a computer so long, has pretty low programming skills and doesn’t know C. Right now is rather interested in graphic design using Photoshop and other tools.

Electric Indigo (A), DJ and musician, has rocked clubs, raves, and festivals in more than 31 countries. Her name stands for an intelligent interpretation of the terms „techno“ and „party“. She started her DJ-career in 1989 in Vienna, Austria, lived in Berlin, Germany, from 1993 to 1996 and has been based in Vienna since. In recent years she has extended her activities to several media fields like television, radio and internet. In 1998 she started female:pressure, an internet-database for female DJs, producers, and visual artists in the electronic music scene.

Leo Findeisen (A), Academic Teacher, Writer, Musician, Networker. Studied a.o. old languages, composition and philosophy in Germany, Israel and Austria. Has been teaching since 1996 at the Chair for Cultural Philosophy and Media Theory at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; Assistent to german philosopher and writer Peter Sloterdijk at the same instiute. Engaged in cross-border networking in the fields of art, architecture, media and science for Western and Eastern Europe. Texts in several international publications.

Franz Fischnaller (I) is the art-director and project-coordinator of F.A.B.R.I.CATORS, an interdiciplinary group concerned with the integration of technology + communication + art + design. The group carries out research activities in the artistic and technological fields. Fischnaller + F.A.B.R.I.CATORS have produced installations in collaboration with various institutions,including EVL (Electronic Visualisation Lab) Illinois University at Chicago, USA; Centro Enrico Piaggio, University of Pisa (Italy); Laboratoy Eidomatica-University of Milan.

Oliver Fritz (D), born 1967. Studies of architecture (1990 – 1997) at the university of kaiserslautern. Since 2000 assistant at the chair of CAAD at ETH Zürich.

Benjamin Fry (USA) is a doctoral candidate at the M IT Media Laboratory. His research focuses on methods of visualizing large amounts of data from dynamic information sources. At MIT, he is a member of the Aesthetics and Computation Group, led by John Maeda. Ben received an undergraduate degree from the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, with a major in Graphic Design and a minor in Computer Science.

Alexander R. Galloway (USA) is an artist and computer programmer. He lectures frequently on issues of electronic art ans technological culture. Alex’s first book, PROTOCOL, or, How Control Exists After Decentralization, will be published in 2003 by The MIT Press.

John Gerrard (IRL), born in 1974, is an artist and technologist working in video, interactive video, responsive 3D and photography, with a significant emphasis on portraiture. In 2003 Gerrard was the Pepineres artist in residence to the AEC Futurelab. Gerrard has received a BFA from the Ruskin School of Oxford University, UK, an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MSc from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. See www.johngerrard.net

Olga Goriunova (RU) is a media researcher, organizer, writer, teacher of the new media history and theory. Born in 1977 in Ulan-Ude, USSR. Lives and works in Moscow and Helsinki. Olga co-organizes the international artistic software festival read_me.

Cecilia Hausheer (CH), born in 1958; film scholar, exhibition designer/producer and university lecturer; 1995-2002: curator for media at Zurich’s Museum of Design, responsible for such exhibitions as “Ich & Du. Kommunikation und Neue Medien” (1996), “GAME_OVER. Version 1.0,” www.gameover.org (1999) and “Bollywood” (2002); 1996-7: member of “Information Society Switzerland,” a blue-ribbon panel commissioned by the Swiss Bundesrat (federal council).

Horst Hörtner (A) studied telematics at the Technical University of Graz and worked as a freelance developer of realtime control systems as well as for art projects. Co-founder of the group
“x-space”. He has worked for EXPO Sevilla, documenta IX, austromir, etc. Since 1995, he is technical director of the Ars Electronica Center in Linz and director of the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

Erkki Huhtamo (SF), Associate Professor, UCLA. Researcher, Writer & Curator. Specialities include media archaeology and the history of media art. Writings translated in 11 languages. Books (in Finnish) include „The Archaeology of Virtuality“ (1995), „The Archaeology of the Moving Image“ (1996) and „Phantasmagoria“ (2000). Curator of many exhibitions, including Digital Mediations (Art Center, Pasadena 1995), Unexpected Obstacles—Perry Hoberman (ZKM Karlsruhe, 1998) and Alien Intelligence (KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki 2000). Creator of the installation „Ride of Your Life“ (SurroGate2, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 1998). Director and script writer of TV series for YLE (The Finnish TV). Member of media festival organizing committees and juries, including Interactive Media Festival (L.A., 1995) and Portraits in Cyberspace (MIT Media Lab, 1996).

Naut Humon (USA) is the director of operations for the Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco. This network of A/V based actions houses the Surround Traffic Control cinesonic system for performance exhibitions and international residencies. He is also the producer and curator for the Asphodel label along with his own projects for speaker-screen installations.

Crispin Jones (UK) is an artist and designer based in London. He graduated from Kingston University with a degree in Fine Art in 1996 and subsequently gained an MA in Computer Related-Design from the Royal College of Art in 2000. Since then he has been dividing his time between working as an interaction designer for Philips and Ideo and furthering his own artistic practice.

Hirokazu Kato (J) is an associate professor in Osaka University. He has been studying image processing, computer vision and human computer interaction. He developed a software library called ARToolKit which is useful for development of Augmented Reality applications. It is used by many researchers, artists and designers in the world.

Friedrich Kittler (D), Ph.D. studied German language and literature, Romance languages and literature, and philosophy at the University of Freiburg/Breisgau; since 1993, occupant of the Chair in Aesthetics and the History of Media in the aesthetics program at Humboldt University, Berlin; staff member of the Hermann von Helmholtz Zentrum für Kulturtechnik and the research group “Bild Schrift Zahl” (DFG).

Daniel Kluge (D) is a visual artist based in Munich, where he develops video performances and interactive sound installations. He has worked closely with the ZKM in developing graphic design materials, as well as on several live video performances. The notion of fractured narratives and loop aesthetics form the core of his artistic investigations. Recent directions include the use of programming in the control of spatial triggers in creating sonic environments.

Sachiko Kodama (J), 1993 B.A., Hokkaido University (Division of Physics). 2000 Completed Doctoral Program in Art and Design, University of Tsukuba.

Richard Kriesche (A), born 1940, worked as professor already in the 60s within the area of audiovisual media. In 1969 he founded the art society “pool” and four years later the media gallery “poolerie” for photography, film and video. In the following years he was involved in the formation of several art labs and artists’ syndicates. Since the end of the 80s Richard Kriesche held several teaching posts, among others for the Technical University Vienna and the École supérieure des beaux arts in Paris. Kriesche serves an an expert in several European commissions. Beside international exhibitions he already took part in Ars Electronica in 1989 and 1994.

Joan La Barbara (USA), born 1947, has been called one of the great vocal virtuosas of our time. A pioneer in the field of contemporary and sound art, she has developed a unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques, including multiphonics, circular singing, ululation and glottal clicks. In addition to her own compositions, she has premiered landmark compositions written for her by noted American composers, including Robert Ashley, John Cage, Rhys Chatham, Charles Dodge, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Morton Subotnick and James Tenney.

Golan Levin (USA) is an artist, composer and designer interested in developing artifacts and experiences which explore supple new modes of computational expression. His work has focused on the design of systems for the creation, manipulation and performance of simultaneous image and sound, as part of a more general examination of communications protocols for individual engagement and non-verbal dialogue. Levin’s work spans a variety of online, installation and performance media, and includes such pieces as the Dialtones Telesymphony (2001), a concert the sounds of which are wholly performed through the carefully-choreographed ringing of the audience’s own mobile phones. Levin was granted an Award of Distinction in the Prix Ars Electronica for his Audiovisual Environment Suite interactive software (2000) and its accompanying audiovisual performance, Scribble (2000). Most recently, Levin and collaborator Zach Lieberman developed RE:MARK and Hidden Worlds (2002), a pair of permanent installations commissioned by the Ars Electronica Center in Linz.

Pierre Lévy (F/CDN) is considered one of the most influential theoreticians of cyberculture. The Tunesian-born philosopher is currently working at the Université du Québec in Canada. One of his best known books is Collective Intelligence: Mankind’s Emerging World in Cyberspace. He trained as a researcher with Michel Serres and Cornelius Castoriadis, and continued in Montreal, specialising in hypertextual approaches. With Michel Authier, he developed a network concept known as „Arbres de connaissances“ (Trees of Knowledge.) Lévy is also interested in collective intelligence studied in an anthropological context and is one of today’s leading media philosophers.

Zachary Lieberman (USA). Artist-engineer. Concerned with themes of kinetic and gestural performance, interactive imaging and sound synthesis. Graduated with a BA in Printmaking from Hunter College, New York in 2000; received an MFA degree in Design and Technology at Parsons School Of Design, NY in 2002. Since 2001, adjunct faculty in the Design and Technology department at Parsons. In 2002, Siemens Artist-in-Residence at the Ars Electronica Futurelab, Linz, Austria; in 2003, Artist-in-Residence at the Summer Workshop In Performance Telematics (SWIPT-2), Arizona State University. Upcoming commissions include Issue 12 of the Remedi project, and the 2002/Doublecell volume of Singlecell.org. Other projects include contributions to Mark Napier’s net.flag, commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum, and My News/Your News, a reactive sculpture developed with Romy Achituv for the Gwangju Biennial, Korea.
http://www.thesystemis.com/

John Maeda (USA) is Muriel Cooper Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Maeda’s early work redefined the use of electronic media as a core material for expression by combining skilled computer programming with sensitivity to traditional artistic concerns. He is the 2001 recipient of the nation’s highest career honor in design—the National Design Award—and Japan’s highest honor—the 2001 Mainichi Design Prize. Maeda is author of two books: MIT Press, and the 480-page retrospective Rizzoli/Thames & Hudson. Listed by as one of the “21 Most Important People of the 21st Century,” in 2001 Maeda was honored with the world’s largest solo digital media exhibition, “Beyond Post Digital,” at the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, Japan. Maeda’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and was the subject of two simultaneous one-man shows at the California College of Arts and Crafts Logan Galleries in 2000. Maeda is currently scheduled for a retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England in the summer of 2003, and an exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France in 2005.

Justin Manor (USA) has recently completed his studies under John Maeda in the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab. His work there focused on the realtime manipulation of video and audio, and the use of the body as a controller of media events. He also received a Bachelor’s Degree in Astrophysics from MIT, and modelled the collisions of neutron stars and black holes. Between his stints at MIT he worked under designer David Small building museum installations and physical information browsers. Justin’s work has been shown in the London ICA, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, the Asia Society Museum, and the Museum of Sex in New York.

Jonathan Norton (USA), born 1966. He is currently studying at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University working towards a Ph.D. in computer-based music theory. During his time at Stanford he studied with John Chowning, Julius Smith, Max Mathews, Chris Chafe, and Jonathan Harvey. Before CCRMA, he received his masters in music composition at Northwestern University. His works for dance, acoustic instruments, tape, and soundtracks have been performed and heard extensively. His most recent soundtrack for „Dreams of a City: Creating East Palo Alto“ has been shown on PBS and recently entered into several film festivals. His soundtrack for „ENDGAME“ had its world premiere at Siggraph ‘94 in Orlando, Florida and has since been in festivals and on television in the USA, Russia, Spain, Japan, Monaco, Italy, France, and Switzerland.

James McCartney (USA), composer and author of the object oriented synthesis language
SuperCollider.

Pascal Maresch (A) studied journalism, communications and art history at the Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg; his master’s thesis was entitled “Virtual Reality–The Artificial Paradise?” He has worked in advertising and on photo-documentation assignments in connection with the fashion industry, concerts and events. Since 1998, he has been a staff member of the Ars Electronica Futurelab; since 2001, as content manager. In this function, he works on the conceptualization and design of project content, and is also in charge of public and press relations.

James Patten (USA) is PhD candidates at the MIT Media Laboratory. He designs new ways for people to interact with computers using physical objects, for tasks such as electronic music and interactive simulations. Together with Ben Recht, he has performed with the Audiopad throughout the Boston area, and their installation work has been exhibited at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona as part of the Sonar Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art, the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, Japan, and the Cyberarts Festival in Boston, USA.

Christiane Paul (USA) is the Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the director of Intelligent Agent, a service organization and information resource dedicated to digital art. She has written extensively on new media arts and her book „Digital Art“ (part of the World of Art Series by Thames & Hudson, UK) was published in May 2003. She has also been working with Victoria Vesna and Margot Lovejoy on an essay collection focusing on context and meaning in digital art. She teaches in the MFA computer arts department at the School of Visual Arts in New York and has lectured internationally on art and technology. Her first show at the Whitney, „Data Dynamics“ (March–June, 2001), dealt with the mapping of data and information flow on the Internet and in the museum space. She was one of the co-curators of the New York Digital Salon’s 10th anniversary exhibition (April, 2003) and also curated the net art selections for the 2002

Whitney Biennial (March, 2002); for Fotofest (Houston, Texas, March, 2002); and the exhibition „Evo1“ (Gallery L, Moscow, October 2001); as well as the online exhibitions „CODeDOC“ (Whitney Artport, September 2002) and „Mapping Transitions“ at the University of Boulder, Colorado (September 2002). She is responsible for Artport, the Whitney’s online portal to Internet art.
Norbert Pfaffenbichler (A), born 1967, lives and works as an artist and curator in Vienna; founding member of vidok and lanolin; member of Sixpackfilm; master class in visual media design at the University of Applied Art; numerous exhibitions and works on display at festivals in Linz, Graz, Geneva, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Venice, Osnabrück, Paris, Nyon, Basel, Barcelona, et al.

Fiona Raby (UK) is a senior research fellow and founding member of the Research Studio. She has worked in a cross-disciplinary architectural practice in Tokyo, and has taught in the both the Architecture and Interaction Design departments at the RCA. She headed the FLIRT project at the RCA, and has also collaborated with Anthony Dunne in research into the cultural role of electronic products and systems, resulting in international exhibitions and, most recently, the book Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects (August/Birkhäuser, 2001).

Casey Reas is an associate professor at the newly established Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in northern Italy. With Ben Fry of the MIT Media Lab, he is currently developing Processing, a platform for learning fundamentals of computer programming within the context of the media arts. Reas’ work explores kinetic systems through diverse digital media including software art, prints, animation, installations, and responsive sculpture. In 2001, Casey received his M.S. degree in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Laboratory, where he was a member of the Aesthetics and Computation Group (ACG). Casey has lectured and exhibited in Europe, Asia, and the United States. His work has recently been shown at the American Museum of the Moving Image, Ars Electronica, New York Digital Salon, Museum of Modern Art, P.S.1, and Siggraph. http://www.groupc.net, http://www.proce55ing.net, http://www.interaction-ivrea.it, http://acg.media.mit.edu

Ben Recht (USA) is a PhD candidates at the MIT Media Laboratory. He spends his days constructing circuits and deconstructing sounds, and has released recordings on the American imprint Adhesive under the moniker localfields. Together with James Patten, he has performed with the Audiopad throughout the Boston area, and their installation work has been exhibited at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona as part of the Sonar Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art, the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, Japan, and the Cyberarts Festival in Boston, USA.

Heimo Ranzenbacher (A), born 1958, journalist, art critic, theorist and artist. Various publications in catalogues and specialized journals; diverse addresses at symposia. In 1993, he founded TXTD.sign, a studio for aesthetic services. Diverse art projects (Klang Figur, 1991; Lichtzeichen, 1994; Sonderartikel, 1995; Ipzentrum, 1997; Liquid Space, 1999; Wet_Ware, 2000; Klimakonverter, 2002; R.E.M., 2002).

Howard Rheingold (USA) is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the social implications of technology. Over the past twenty years he has traveled around the world, observing and writing about emerging trends in computing, communications, and culture. One of the creators and former founding executive editor of HotWired, he has served as editor of The Whole Earth Review, editor-in-chief of The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog, and on-line host for The Well. The author of several books, including The Virtual Community, Virtual Reality, and Tools for Thought.


Daniel Rozin (USA), born 1961, is an artist, educator and developer, working in the area of interactive digital art. As an interactive artist Rozin creates installations and sculptures that change and respond to the presence and point of view of the viewer. As an educator, Rozin is the Director of Research and Adjunct Professor at Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School Of The Arts, New York University where he teaches such classes as Interaction Design and Expressing with Technology. As developer, Rozin owns Smoothware Design, a software company that creates tools for the interactive art and multimedia authoring community. His work has been exhibited widely and featured in publications such as The New York Times, Wired, ID, Spectrum and USA Today. His work has earned him numerous awards including Prix Ars Electronica, ID Design Review and the Chrysler Design Award.

Steve Sacks (USA), Web developer, founder and director of Bitforms Gallery, New York, devoted to digital and digitally influenced art. The space is designed by the New York architecture firm Archi-Tectonics, and includes an Interactive Digital Catalogue touch screen archive of the artists’ works.

Giaco Schiesser (CH) is professor for the theory and history of the media as well as head of the department „New Media“ at the „University of Art and Design Zurich“ (Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich, HGKZ). He studied philosophy and German studies at the Freie Universität (FU) in Berlin. From 1984 to 1987, he was a junior lecturer for New German Literature in the German Seminar at the University of Basel. From1983 to1993, he was co-editor of the magazine “Widerspruch” (Zurich) and between 1989 and 1994 he was scientific editor of the “WochenZeitung”. From 1991 to 1996, he was a member of the Institute for Migration and Racism Research in Hamburg. Since 1994, he has been a senior lecturer in the history and theory of visual communication at the “School of Design Zurich” (SfGZ). From 1996 to 1997, he assisted assisted in establishing the university department “New Media” at the “University of Art and Design Zurich” (HGKZ) as head of the university department, and in autumn 1998, he was also appointed professor of this department. His work focuses on the culture of media, ideology, democracy, subject theory and everyday life.

Lotte Schreiber (A), born 1971, lives and works as an artist in Vienna; studied architecture at the Technical University in Graz and the Universities of Edinburgh and Naples; since March 2001, assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Art in Linz; numerous exhibitions and works on display at festivals in Linz, Graz, Geneva, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Osnabrück, Paris, Nyon, Basel, Barcelona, et al.; award for Best Experimental Film at the 2003 New York Underground Film Festival; nominated for the 2003 International Media Art Prize of the ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Alexei Shulgin (RUS) is a Moscow based artist, musician, curator, activist and professor. In his work he explores the boundaries between art, culture and technology in their relation to “real life” effects and vice versa. His favorite methods are mixing contexts and questioning the existing states of things. Shulgin has participated in numerous exhibitions and symposiums on photography, contemporary art and new media.

Christa Sommerer (A) and Laurent Mignonneau (F) are internationally renowned media artists working in the field of interactive computer installation. They currently work as researchers and artistic directors at the ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab in Kyoto, Japan and as Associate Professors at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan.

They also hold a position of Visiting Research Fellows at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies in Boston USA. Mignonneau and Sommerer have collaborated since 1992, and their interactive artworks have been called “epoch making” (Toshiharu Itoh, NTT-ICC museum) for pioneering the use of natural interfaces to create a new language of interactivity based on artificial life and evolutionary image processes. Their collaboration has been influenced by the combination of their different fields of interest, including art, biology, modern installation, performance, music, computer graphics and communication.

A. Benjamin Spaeth (D) was born in 1973; after vocational training in carpentry, he studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Stuttgart and the École d’architecture in Paris; lectureship at the Institute for Representation and Design; in 2002, he founded gedanken_gebaeude, a source of virtual environments, architectural concepts and multimedia architectural representations.

Minako Takeno (J), born 1969 in Tokyo, graduated from Tama Art University. 1995 M.A., University of Tsukuba (Master’s Program in Art and Design).

Eugene Thacker (USA) is a cultural theorist and net.artist currently teaching at Rutgers University. He is director of [techne] New Media + Digital Arts and his work has been featured on Alt-X, Ars Electronica 99, Ctheory, Body & Society, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, mute, Semiotext(e)’s “Flesh Eating Technologies” issue, and Theory & Event. He is a contributing editor to The Thing and a collaborator with Fakeshop.

Otto Leopold Tremetzberger (A), born in 1974; studied cultural and media management, theater and philosophy; cultural and media projects with an emphasis on regional development, marketing and organizational development; journalistic activities, literary publications and prizes; mediator and chief executive of Radio FRO 105.0 MHz in Linz.

Roman Verostko (USA), artist, historian, and MCAD Professor Emeritus, was born in 1929 in the coal fields of Western Pennsylvania (USA). As a child he made his first paintings using a mail-order paint set. In the early 1980's, following 30 years of painting, he began executing algorithmic drawings with a pen plotter. Today his studio includes a network of computers coupled to pen plotters driven with his own original software. By 1987 he had created the world’s first software driven “brushed” paintings with oriental brushes mounted on his pen plotter. His studio integrates coded digital procedure with fine arts traditions.

Fred von Lohmann (USA) is a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in intellectual property issues. In that role, he has represented programmers, technology innovators, and individuals in litigation against every major record label, movie studio, and television network (as well as several cable TV networks and music publishers) in the United States. In additon to litigation, he is involved in EFF’s efforts to educate policy-makers regarding the proper balance between intellectual property protection and the public interest in fair use, free expression, and innovation.

Otomo Yoshihide (J) has always been very active in playing free improvisation—using oscillators, tapes, radios, etc. during his early years in Japan. Until his own signature band, Ground Zero, disbanded in March 1998, the group was always at the core of his musical creativity. Otomo has created and organized various groups and projects in addition to Ground Zero, among others the Double Unit Orchestra and Celluloid Machine Gun. Another of Otomo's major projects at that time was the Sampling Virus Project (‘92 to ‘98), in which sampling processes were applied to musical works which were “passed around” among musicians. Otomo has demonstrated an exceptional talent as a composer of movie /TV/ video sound tracks. He has in particular enjoyed an excellent relationship with creators in the Chinese and Hong Kong film worlds. He also served as music director of the theater group Rinkogun from ‘92 to ‘95, creating the music for such works as Bird Man, Inu no Seikatsu, Hamlet Symbol, and Picnic Conductor.

Mia Zabelka (A), electric violinist, multimedia artist and curator, studied music, the violin, composition, electro-acoustic music and journalism in Vienna, Cologne, Berlin and New York. Numerous concerts and intermedial performances in Austria and abroad, in addition to CD, video, radio and TV productions.