Vera Bühlmann Livres

MetaWorx is a foundation supported by the leading design schools and art academies of Switzerland. In this publication, MetaWorx presents the next generation of "Swiss Graphics," providing a challenging contribution to the research into the theory and expression of interactivity which must surely be one of the most stimulating and fascinating fields of art and design in our time. The transdisciplinary perspective opens a wide field where moments of interactivity are expressed in surprising and visionary installations.The projects are presented by the artists and designers themselves and accompanied by theoretical texts which reflect on interactivity in general and set the projects within the broader context of modern day culture. The accompanying DVD provides a video documentation including texts, pictures, sounds and applications. MetaWorx went public in October 2003 when an exhibition took place at Viper Basel, an international festival for film, video and new media.

Recent developments in computer science, particularly ”data-driven procedures“ have opened a new level of design and engineering. This has also affected architecture. The publication collects contributions on Coding as Literacy by computer scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, cultural theorists, and architects. The main focus in the book is the observation of computer-based methods that go beyond strictly case-based or problem-solution-oriented paradigms. This invites readers to understand Computational Procedures as being embedded in an overarching ”media literacy“ that can be revealed through, and acquired by, ”computational literacy“, and to consider the data processed in the above-mentioned methods as being beneficial in terms of quantum physics. ”Self-Organizing Maps“ (SOM), which were first introduced over 30 years ago, will serve as the concrete reference point for all further discussions.

In The Digital, a Continent? , the author argues in favor of a way of thinking about digital technology that draws on the new materialism. She uses photosynthesis and nuclear fission as examples of processes that are as artificial as they are natural to explain how digital technology can be viewed within the paradigm of a „communicative physics“ in which poetics interacts with mathematical thinking. The author concludes that we can better understand ourselves and digital technology by developing notions of the multifaceted ways energy, form, and intellect interact in global architectonics. Theoretical consideration of digital technology Visual language and science New volume in the Applied Virtuality Book Series