Environment

Abstract

Intersection between art and technology in the 1960s was led by artists and computer specialists whose commitment was essential for the survival of those early ventures. It was also a time when academic equipment proved a useful resource for experimentation. From the 1980s onwards, the rapid changes in technologies presented new opportunities and demanded different approaches. Inter-disciplinary research, such as the early Xerox PARC work on user interfaces, was to have a profound effect on the take up of digital technology in the wider community. The invention of new metaphors for interaction made available in the Xerox Star, Apple Lisa and Apple Macintosh user interfaces and later, as Windows on PCs, were to open access to widespread computer use that would have been unimaginable twenty years before [2, 3, 4, 5].

The challenge in creating a strategy designed to explore the nature of the relationship between artists and scientists is to create circumstances that engender the kind of communication that leads to a successful exchange of knowledge and perspectives and to an opportunity to explore new territory. The symbiotic merging establishes a pattern of exploration, development, and innovation, as each participant responds to te other’s viewpoints and areas of expertise.