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Cyberarts/Cyberculture Research Initiative (CCRI)
A blending of arts and technology, Cyberarts is
a recent course and research innovation at the University Scholars
Programme at the National University of Singapore. The university's
Cyberarts Initiative is the first of its kind in the region and
one of the most comprehensive in the world with its Cyberarts
database, Cyberarts resource
library, Artist-in-Residence
programme, Virtual Reality Collaboration Research, undergraduate,
postgraduate and postdoctoral programme development in Cyberculture
and Cyberarts.
Cyberarts is a part of Cyberculture, a new discipline
with about twenty years of history in Europe, Japan and United States
that studies digital and virtual aesthetics, creative impact of
new technologies and collaborations between art and life sciences.
In Southeast Asia, the discipline is in its infancy.
It is the goal of CCRI to encourage regional artists, scientists,
and theorists to work in this field and to showcase their work on
an international level. With that goal in mind, CCRI attracts some
of the greatest artists and theorists working in the cyberarts scene,
and serves as a clearinghouse for worldwide, but especially Southeast
Asian, activities in cyberarts.
Recent guests to CCRI include prestigious international
figures such as Jeffrey Shaw of ZKM, Gerfried Stocker of Ars Electronica,
and Steve Dietz of the Walker Art Center. The participation of regional
artists and theorists who figure prominently on an international
scale is crucial to the mission of CCRI, and has involved such individuals
as Malaysian curator and artist Niranjan Rajah, resident artist
Margaret Tan whose work will be included in the upcoming International
Symposium on Electronic Art exhibition in Japan, and resident
artist Charles Lim who represents Singapore in the Documenta 12
exhibition in Germany. CCRI staff members not only facilitate the
activities of the Initiative, but also work actively within the
field of cyberarts. Head Irina Aristarkhova is a regular contributor
to Undercurrents of thing.net and the creator of www.virtualchora.com
and Research Assistant Melinda Klayman, as co-creator of the online
game Anime Noir, was recently featured in Wired
News.
For more information about the Cyberarts/Cyberculture
Research Initiative, please contact the Head, Irina Aristarkhova
at uspia@nus.edu.sg.
Behind the Scenes
| Dr. Irina Aristarkhova |
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Irina Aristarkhova teaches the pioneering studio-based course,
Cyberart,
in the University Scholars Programme. She was formerly Senior
Lecturer at the LASALLE-SIA
College of the Arts where she taught various courses,
including Cybertheory, Technology and Embodiment, and Feminist
Aesthetics. She holds an MA from the University of Warwick,
UK, and PhD from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Aristarkhova,
who has published and lectured widely on cyberculture and
cyberarts has a range of research interests including issues
of ethnicity and gender in cyberspace, net-art, immersive
virtual environments, theories of power, technological embodiments,
contemporary psychoanalytic theory, constructions of sexuality,
postcolonial cybertheory, cyberethics and cyberaesthetics.
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| Ms. Lisa Marchenko |
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Lisa Marchenko, originally from the Ukraine, develops the
Cyberart Database in Cyberart and Cyberculture Research Initiative.
Her areas of expertise are Artificial Intelligence, Natural
Speech Processing, and Database Management. Ms Marchenko was
one of the technical collaborators of the "Cyberarts:
Intersections of Art and Technology" at the Singapore
Art Museum, which was part of the Nokia Singapore Art 2001.
She received her Master's degree in Informational Systems
and Bachelor's degree in Management from the Donetsk State
Technical University.
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| Ms.
Melinda Klayman |
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Melinda Klayman comes to the Cyberart and Cyberculture Research
Initiative from the United States, where she was previously
working at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the department
of Modern and Contemporary Art. She is co-founder of Playskins,
a female-run venture that created the online role-playing
game, Anime
Noir, which has been featured in Artbyte,
AVN
Online, and Wired.
Ms. Klayman holds a Masters degree in art history from the
University of Texas at Austin. She has written publications
and given numerous lectures on a variety of art historical
and cultural topics, including computer game development,
fetishism, performance art, feminist theory, historiography,
and hair as a subject and medium in contemporary art.
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| Mr.
Wu Yinghui, Freddie |
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Freddie Wu, from the People's Republic of China, is the webmaster
for the Cyberart and Cyberculture Research Initiative. He
just received his Bachelor's degree in Computing from the
National University of Singapore in 2002. His areas of expertise
are Digital Signal Processing, Software Engineering, Computer
Security, and Database Management. Mr Wu was also one of the
technical colaborators of the "Virtual
Bodies in Reality" project, which was part of Nokia
Singapore Art 2001.
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