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Northern Sparks

Innovation, Technology Policy, and the Arts in Canada from Expo 67 to the Intern et Age

Part of Leonardo

Author Michael Century
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$35.00 US
| $47.00 CAN
The MIT Press
On sale Jun 28, 2022 | 280 Pages | 9780262045001
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An “episode of light” in Canada sparked by Expo 67 when new art forms, innovative technologies, and novel institutional and policy frameworks emerged together.

Understanding how experimental art catalyzes technological innovation is often prized yet typically reduced to the magic formula of “creativity.” In Northern Sparks, Michael Century emphasizes the role of policy and institutions by showing how novel art forms and media technologies in Canada emerged during a period of political and social reinvention, starting in the 1960s with the energies unleashed by Expo 67. Debunking conventional wisdom, Century reclaims innovation from both its present-day devotees and detractors by revealing how experimental artists critically challenge as well as discover and extend the capacities of new technologies.

Century offers a series of detailed cross-media case studies that illustrate the cross-fertilization of art, technology, and policy. These cases span animation, music, sound art and acoustic ecology, cybernetic cinema, interactive installation art, virtual reality, telecommunications art, software applications, and the emergent metadiscipline of human-computer interaction. They include Norman McLaren’s “proto-computational” film animations; projects in which the computer itself became an agent, as in computer-aided musical composition and choreography; an ill-fated government foray into interactive networking, the videotext system Telidon; and the beginnings of virtual reality at the Banff Centre. Century shows how Canadian artists approached new media technologies as malleable creative materials, while Canada undertook a political reinvention alongside its centennial celebrations. Northern Sparks offers a uniquely nuanced account of innovation in art and technology illuminated by critical policy analysis.
Michael Century, a musician and media arts historian, is Professor of Music and New Media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He founded the Media Arts program at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
 
Michael Century View titles by Michael Century
Series Foreword xi
Preface xiii
1 An Episode of Light: Canada from 1967 to 1992 1
2 Norman McLaren and Proto-Computationality 25
3 Hunger/La Faim: When the American Computer Had an Eye, and the Canadian Computer a Hand 53
4 Calculated Motions: Gesture and Expression at the Interface 75
5 Tuning, Tundra, and Treasure: Canada's Expanded Musicality 103
6 Two Faces of Cultural Networking 131
7 Contesting a "New Art Form": Virtual Reality as Cultural Probe 159
8 Apres le Deluge: Periodizing Canada's Episode of Light 183
Appendix A: List of Interviews Conducted for This Book 195
Notes 197
Works Cited 225
Index 251

About

An “episode of light” in Canada sparked by Expo 67 when new art forms, innovative technologies, and novel institutional and policy frameworks emerged together.

Understanding how experimental art catalyzes technological innovation is often prized yet typically reduced to the magic formula of “creativity.” In Northern Sparks, Michael Century emphasizes the role of policy and institutions by showing how novel art forms and media technologies in Canada emerged during a period of political and social reinvention, starting in the 1960s with the energies unleashed by Expo 67. Debunking conventional wisdom, Century reclaims innovation from both its present-day devotees and detractors by revealing how experimental artists critically challenge as well as discover and extend the capacities of new technologies.

Century offers a series of detailed cross-media case studies that illustrate the cross-fertilization of art, technology, and policy. These cases span animation, music, sound art and acoustic ecology, cybernetic cinema, interactive installation art, virtual reality, telecommunications art, software applications, and the emergent metadiscipline of human-computer interaction. They include Norman McLaren’s “proto-computational” film animations; projects in which the computer itself became an agent, as in computer-aided musical composition and choreography; an ill-fated government foray into interactive networking, the videotext system Telidon; and the beginnings of virtual reality at the Banff Centre. Century shows how Canadian artists approached new media technologies as malleable creative materials, while Canada undertook a political reinvention alongside its centennial celebrations. Northern Sparks offers a uniquely nuanced account of innovation in art and technology illuminated by critical policy analysis.

Author

Michael Century, a musician and media arts historian, is Professor of Music and New Media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He founded the Media Arts program at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
 
Michael Century View titles by Michael Century

Table of Contents

Series Foreword xi
Preface xiii
1 An Episode of Light: Canada from 1967 to 1992 1
2 Norman McLaren and Proto-Computationality 25
3 Hunger/La Faim: When the American Computer Had an Eye, and the Canadian Computer a Hand 53
4 Calculated Motions: Gesture and Expression at the Interface 75
5 Tuning, Tundra, and Treasure: Canada's Expanded Musicality 103
6 Two Faces of Cultural Networking 131
7 Contesting a "New Art Form": Virtual Reality as Cultural Probe 159
8 Apres le Deluge: Periodizing Canada's Episode of Light 183
Appendix A: List of Interviews Conducted for This Book 195
Notes 197
Works Cited 225
Index 251

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