Browse Books

Reviewer: Spiros Tsaltas

This is a well-written and interesting book on the modern interactions and boundaries between science, technology, and art. It focuses on computer-based environments and events, and on the elements of cognitive and learning activities. Please note that the title might be a bit misleading; the "art and technology" part is more about digital art, mainly a combination of visual arts and just computer science, rather than about art and all sorts of technology. A historical introduction is presented in the first part of the book, from the first computer art activities, to the creation of the Creativity and Cognition Research Studios at Loughborough University in England, the technological environment employed there, and their artistic collaboration with researchers. The second part of the book is made up of a variety of papers from artists-in-residence, some of them a bit more extensive than others. What is very refreshing in this book is that one can read about the experience of these collaborations from the artists' point of view, instead of from the standard technocratic point of view (which has had plenty of coverage in all of the ACM SIGCHI and SIGGRAPH conferences). If this is what you are after, then you will really enjoy this book; otherwise, stick to the SIGCHI and SIGGRAPH proceedings. Online Computing Reviews Service