A bow towards the collective endeavour, the concordance of the bounds of all our relations. This respect of one to the other is basal to the blossoms we wish to experience as our social.
If there is one thing that digital arts is dependent upon, it is the network of creativity that weaves the hardware, the software, the codifications to the spectrum of our abilities, the spectrums of our knowledge, and the spectrums of our imagination.
This publication is part of a larger initiative that included workshops, salons, interviews and seminars on the topic of net art, digital arts, AI, and generative arts.
Most of these events occurred in real life — before COVID slammed into the civilization.
Special thanks to Keiko Honda and the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society (VACS) for hosting their series of public and student seminars. VACS is a pioneering public arts organization whose mandate is far-reaching and inclusive:
“Our programs are designed to build lasting, supportive, symbiotic networks between artists and communities… Our programs are heavily intergenerational and intercultural, and utilize untapped public and private spaces. The objective is to develop inclusive communities of cultural exchange with more culturally diverse points of view…
“Art evokes empathy, and empathy leads to action. We recognize art as not just an abstract way to pursue aesthetic pleasure, but as a way to see oneself and the world differently... By reaching across social boundaries to share personal and creative struggles, we not only reveal the illusory nature of some societal constructs based on differences, but we release the forces of social change.“
I would also like to thank the Curiosity Collider Art-Science Foundation for conducting two video interviews with practitioners.
“Curiosity Collider Art-Science Foundation is a Vancouver-based non-profit organization that is committed to providing opportunities for artists whose work expresses scientific concepts and scientists who collaborate with artists.”
Thanks as well to subTerrain (Brian Kaufman and Jessica Key) at Anvil Press who worked with me to commission and edit a special sci-fi issue of their literary magazine. The fiction stories in this e-publication are derived from that print publication.
Thanks to autodidact, Victoria-based savant, computer artist, conversationist, universalist and walking, breathing, eclectic database and aging cyberpunk, Derek Robinson. Derek features prominently in a number of sections. His contributions upgraded the program of the initiative by sitting for interviews with video artist Dinka Pignon, with professor Niranjan Rajah, with myself — and the work is much richer for his involvement.
Much due thanks to all the contributors, fiction and non-fiction, who shared their time, thoughts and creativity, and to the design team who have shaped this all-sorts into a cohesive whole.
I am immensely grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Literacy and Intelligence Fund which sponsored the honorariums and granted me time to tie these knots together.
And finally, a personal thanks to Paulina Nelega, my proofreader and plague-time, lockdown partner and loving one.