Grapevine - New York City ArtSci conference

Mark Hansen, statistician with Bell Labs, and media artist Ben Rubin spoke about "Listening Post," presented recently at the Brooklyn Academy for Music. Drawing on their joint interest in real-time data sonification--and respective expertise in statistics and sound-design--Hanson and Rubin developed an installation that visually and sonically tracks topics and clusters of subject matter on tens of thousands of Web sites.

By revealing the inherent structures and dynamics in the data stream--including current day topics--the work has social relevance and practical applications in terms of monitoring communications networks.

Throughout the conference, the value of artists was often described in terms of their ability to help scientists 'see' things differently, or act as 'consciousness-raisers', at a time when scientists increasingly face issues of subjectivity and quality. The more memorable collaborations combined work on the cutting edge of arc and science practice, With Rubin and Hansen, for example, there appeared to be a real balance between the conceptual input and creative energy that each provided--coming close to an integrated practice that was posited by some (although not all) participants.

Other presentations seemed less even, with artists fulfilling what seemed to be a primarily 'aesthetic' role, or--in the cases where collaborating scientists were absent--the deeper impact on science remaining less clear. Perhaps as more universities and institutions support both the teaching and presentation of interdisciplinary practice, art/science collaborations will receive the broader critique and public they deserve. For a f ull list of participants, institutions and credits, please see the ASCI Web site, www.asci.org/ArtSci200l/index.html.>