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Participants in The Violence of Information symposium:

The Artist as a cultural identity provider
Avi Rosen

“Using computers as tools for artistic creation has given rise to many new opportunities for artists. Moreover, by using computers, artists have been able to overcome traditional barriers so that art can become more accessible, more interactive, more inexpensive and more available to everyone on an equal footing.
“Art, which was previously so concerned with a finite product, a composed and ordered outcome, an aesthetic finality, a resolution or conclusion reflecting a ready-made reality, is now moving towards a fundamental concern with processes of emergence and of coming-into-being. This raises critical, theoretical, and aesthetic questions which we can no longer avoid.” (Ascott, 1993)
My latest artwork, “Untitled #13/98”, implements the features of the computerized virtual creative process by simulating and displaying my own body in virtual space (Avatar). The virtual presentation is associative, and the relative proportions of the various parts of the body deviate from reality. This virtual body is created through samples taken of my own body from photographs, sound samples, video, X-rays, written examples, and from some of my previous VR works. The artistic creation also incorporates my favorite music, things I love, my thoughts and reflections, my hates and fears. Viewers can maneuver at will through the virtual body, selecting the desired perspective, or they can select the “guided tour” option that I prerecorded. They can add their own comments to the text, include drawings, record their voice, visit my Internet site or any other website, send me e-mail, and many other functions as well. In short, this creative work changes its image in accordance to viewer demands so that the viewer actually becomes an active creator. From the moment that an artist establishes a creative work in virtual space, he relinquishes control over his creation. The old order in which a work of art eventually becomes an exclusive classic and the object of sacred veneration has been destroyed. Control of art has been expropriated from the powerful ruling elite and transferred to the general dominion for the good of all. Distribution of information over the Internet has enabled almost everyone to consume and create art according to their individual preferences and understanding, in their free time, without official censors and dictating forces. The art creation has become an integral part of the artist; it is an additional limb or bodily organ or an antenna through which he can transmit his message to the world and absorb his surroundings.”

1970-76. Practical Engineer in Electronics at the “Junior Technical Collage”, Haifa. 1980-84. B.F.A “Bezalel” Art Academy, Jerusalem. 1994-98. M.sc. Industrial Design Technion, I.I.T. Works at the Signal Processing Lab.Department of Electrical Engineering Haifa Technion I.I.T. Teaches “Computer Art” in Art Department of Haifa University municipality, Art Department of ‘Oranim’ college, Tivon, ‘SciTech’ Technion .I.I.T. and “ Bet -Sefer Lehistalmuyot Morim” in Haifa.Teaches “Basic Design” in the Faculty of Architecture in Technion.

From 1984 to 1998 participated in more than 40 exhibitions, forums and festivals in the sphere of the computer arts. For example: “Young Artists’ Exhibition”, “Arcadia”, ‘FAX ART’, “Leaves”, “The Count”, ‘Computer Art Net’, “Tikshuv 2000”, ISRAELI ART ON THE INTERNET’. “PANIM”, ‘Gallery on the Internet ­ A New Era in Art, Symposium of the Israeli Computer Music Forum (IL-CMF), “Shimshon and Delilah Now”, ‘ISIS SYMMETRY’ The Fourth International Congress and Exhibition in Israel and ISEA94, REIFF II Virtual Museum Aachen Germany, BEYOND HUMACHINES - Berkeley UK, International Internet Art exhibition in Scotland, CAiiA ‘CONSCIOUSNESS REFRAMED’ - University of Wales College, Newport and many other.