Presenters for 2004:   Stephanie Andrews   Christopher Bailey   Joanna Berzowska   Shushil Bhakar   and Eric Hortop   Cliff Burgess   Paulo Chagas   Dennis Dollens   Dan Falk   Sarah Filley   Ivette Fuentes-Guridi   Lila Kari   Narendra Pachkhede   Chris Salter   Chelsea Smock   Clara Ursitti   Derek van der Kooy   Yon Visell   Fabian Winkler   Panel Discussion Symposium, 2004 Dielectric By Fabian Winkler School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fwinkler/ In August 2003 rolling blackouts brought public life in vast areas of Canada and the US to a standstill. This major power outage showed that electricity often becomes most present in its absence. Ambiguous in nature, electricity is impalpable and invisible, yet familiar and ubiquitous in everyday life. In this paper, I explore electricity's emerging potential for interactive media art, both structurally and conceptually. I do this by dealing with questions such as: what is electrical energy and who were the protagonists in its scientific discovery? How might inventions and fantasies from the early days of electrification inspire media art practice today? Which previous artworks have explored the idea of electrical energy? Furthermore, in the context of interactive art, I specifically deal with the interactor him/herself: how is the human body susceptible to electrical energy? Considering possible answers to these questions, I focus on the war of currents and the work of its key figures: Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Based on David E. Nye's book "Electrifying America", I discuss a paradox of electricity that still prevails in today's society: the contradictory concepts of comfort and danger. Furthermore, I analyze artworks incorporating the concept of electricity, such as "Capri Battery" by Joseph Beuys, Paul DeMarinis' "The Messenger" and Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne's "Placebo" series that reveals the surprising "secret life of electronic objects" (Rabi/Dunne). Finally, I introduce my own work DIELECTRIC, an interactive installation that critically investigates historical, social and technological aspects of electricity. The installation's main interface is a hammock, woven from power line wires and connected to an analog capacitance sensor. By approaching the hammock, the interactor triggers high voltage arcing of variable strength. The amount of sparks is controlled through the interactor's body capacitance. Should the interactor decide to lie in the hammock, his or her body is assimilated into the hammock's sensor field. The arcing calms down and is only triggered again by other visitors approaching the installation or touching the interactor's body. Thus, the interactor's body goes through a process of transformation: from an external trigger of the sensor to a responsive part of the sensor itself. Biography: Fabian Winkler is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Electronic and Time Based Media at Carnegie Mellon's School of Art. He holds degrees from HfG/ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, UCLA Design | Media Arts and was an invited guest researcher at the Karlsruhe Research Center (FZK). In his works, Fabian Winkler critically investigates the social, cultural and ideological implications of emergent technologies.   Page Top Copyright © 2004 Subtle Technologies Festival