To write an all-encompassing article about the ever-changing states of cybernetics in art and culture is virtually impossible. Although every digital machine is grounded in the balanced order of Eastern religions through its binary yin-yang core, the one fundamental concept that dominates digital arts today is chaos. Furthermore, chaos and change are themselves only elements of the vast collective rush of information experience that is carrying us on into the virtual spaces of post-industrial society.

I recently enjoyed the very chaotic experience of attending the Fifth International Symposium on Electronic Art in Helsinki, co-sponsored by the Inter-Society on Electronic Arts (ISEA) and the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design (UIAH). The five-day conference in late August was attended by around 400 people and covered a wide range of topics, while a parallel array of artistic side-shows provided absolute proof of the far-ranging activity happening in cyberspace arts.

As an introduction, it is worth mentioning briefly that the ISEA was officially founded in 1990 as a result of the First International Symposium on Electronic Art held in Utrecht in 1988. The global aim of the organization is to provide a structured approach to the problems and potentials of electronic art, as well as to stimulate communication between artists, scientists, and technologists on the issues involved. The ISEA now co-ordinates the continuation of the International Symposia on Electronic Arts. Practically, the Society also publishes a monthly newsletter, has a network/database on the subject, and sponsors electronic art projects with the goal of setting up collaborative efforts between qualified experts. Its membership includes leading figures in electronic arts education as well as artists, musicians, scientists, and others.

The primary focus of the previous four ISEA conferences (Utrecht'88, Groningen'90, Sydney'92, and Minneapolis'93) was not to display art works made with digital machines, but rather to stimulate a broad-based dialogue on the aesthetic and social issues that surround the medium. This focus was not lost in Helsinki where the discourse was well-developed, critical, and was genuinely reaching to define the position of the artist in relation to this new medium. There was also a complete agenda of papers and panels discussing educational, cultural, personal, and social intersections between technology and art. While there was a sizeable minority of North Americans present, there was also diverse representation from many countries of the former Soviet Republics, Asia, and Latin America, and a strong Scandinavian and European presence. Most impressive was the mix of hard-core scientific/academic/artistic expertise that many times was combined in a single individual. The conference hosts, the staff of the vibrant Media Lab/UIAH, provided excellent organization, guidance, and warm Finnish hospitality.

The dialogue ranging around the symposium was loosely organized under a number of session including "Pedagogical Policies", "Interactivity: the Next Generation" "Spacescapes", "Cyberfeminism", "Soundscapes", "Visualization", "East&West", and "Media Archaeology". Critical to many of the issues was the absolute importance of involving artists in developing new directions, new ideologies, and new understandings for digital media. Rather than having the multinational technocrats, the government bureaucrats, and the war-makers decide the face and substance of the market-driven technological world, it is necessary and essential for artists to synergize the powerful creative possibilities of digital media. It is not a tool for all artists, but, like photography before it, whether or not the artist chooses to use the computer directly, it has and will continue to have a powerful impact on both the form and the content of contemporary art and the culture that informs it.

A short list of the many questions raised and discussed in depth included:

The eclectic selection of artwork shown parallel to the conference included live interactive installations; CD-ROM works; electroacoustic (computer-generated) music performances at the Sibelius Academy's special chamber music hall; a 24-hour-a-day programmed narrowcast FM radio station featuring commissioned audio works; various examples of virtual reality devices; and "traditional" two-dimensional digitally-produced works on paper. It was immediately evident that formal consideration of the works presented would perhaps be a more difficult issue than dealing with the contents.

Much of the work exhibited at ISEA'94 unfortunately fell into the heavy cliché of the spectacular. Digital video imagery, often of great visual complexity was combined with various other forms of sensory input with a net result of simple over-stimulation -- the typical "MTV" syndrome. Technology has often been displayed as the grand spectacle -- witness the moon landings of the 60's and 70's -- and frequently electronic art has relied on this hierarchical relationship between viewer(subject) and (master)work. The work dazzled and ultimately oppressed the senses through the force and imprint of the technology alone. All too many of the more spectacular works exhibited lacked content once the technological wizardry was stripped away. It was apparent that one of the dangers working with a digital medium is that the artist tends to get lost in the infinite web of power, possibility, and spectacle that the machine offers. Another serious drawback was that the main exhibition venue was a totally overcrowded space in the Museum of Contemporary Art. Many of the works could not be enjoyed solely because they were jammed into spaces that were just too small. The exhibition took on the feel of a carnival-ground where each "attraction" competed for the attention of the overwhelmed audience. It was a similar situation with the screenings of work in the Electronic Theater where most lower-tech and personal work was overpowered by high-tech commercial-oriented "eye-candy".

One of the more powerful works which involved the use of high-density two-way digital image transmission was "Talking Picture" by Kimmo Koskela and Rea Pihlasviita. Described as a "manipulated live narrowcast" there was a 'live' image of a woman sitting in a bathtub -- the classic subject. The image was hung on the wall in an ornate gilt frame in reference to the onerous history of the captured art object, yet the picture could talk back -- sometimes. Is this woman real at all? Where is the real woman? Is she talking to the audience? Who is the audience? Is there an audience at all (perhaps we who hang back and watch)? She answers questions and engages in a sort of dialogue, but the digital distance, the virtuality makes for a dyslexic conversation with a being who is only partly present. Yet we realize she can see us -- sometimes. We see her in a certain digital grain, a pixellated virtual haze. And somewhere there is the third party who is running the show, manipulating the link between us, dissecting time and space and surgically assembling it into a whole that is not right. This work was challenging in ways that are at the same time ideological and also personal -- who was this woman, what did she have to say, who was brave enough to engage her in conversation, why did she act so distant? And simply by posing these and other questions, the work broke the oppressive cycle of the spectacle clearly and decisively, yet left a disturbing vision of the next state of virtual be-ing.

At the other extreme, the most intimate and accessible works exhibited were artist "book-works" produced with the extensive audio-visual and interactive possibilities of the CD-ROM. These were generally designed to be enjoyed individually, rather than by collective public experience. Most of them were not only interesting and informative, but they are posed fundamental questions about the forms of information transfer that presently dominate society. Probably the best forum for works at the conference was the Media Lounge -- an open library of videos, CD-ROMs, audio CDs and cassettes -- where participants could informally experience hundreds of different works brought or sent in.

Even though the conference in Helsinki was bursting with energy, it seemed that still there are few artists with the discipline, the intellect, the energy, the creativity, and, finally, the money to deal with available digital tools. Fewer still have acquired the talents to synthesize their own forms of digital tools, having found that the consumer market of digital products lacks imagination and possibility. Some artists argued that true expression comes only when the artist engages in the process of writing the machine language-code that directs the digital device. This is not a trivial argument, as it can be easily demonstrated that most software is a direct product of market forces, and the market is linked to the dominating ideology our time. It is clear that the digital medium is an enormously difficult tool to expressively control, and indeed, it questions fundamental precepts of creativity and expression.

However, despite the chaos, it was obvious that digital-based art is no longer a novelty, the orphan child of contemporary art. Rather, it is rapidly developing as a vibrant, powerful, and eclectic medium of expression. There is also a dedicated and growing community of educators, artists, and others who are using digital-based media to redefine the human/machine frontier in ways the technocrats never dreamed of. Many of these same artists are evolving a powerful dialogue that presents serious alternatives to the severely limited popular discourse on technology.

The full proceedings of the ISEA '94 conference can be obtained here.

The next conference, the 6th International Symposium on Electronic Art will take place in Montreal Canada, September 17-24, 1995. The ISEA'95 theme Emergent Senses will focus on the new senses and new cultural meanings brought about by electronic technology.

The author lives in Reykjavík for the past five years and is building up a small photography/electronic media program at the Icelandic College of Art. 28 September 1994