Professor for Interface Culture
University of Art and Design Linz, Austria
&
Associate Professor
IAMAS Institute of Advanced Media Art and Sciences, Gifu, Japan
http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~christa

Since the early 90ies artist/researchers Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau develop interactive computer systems where the user input data become essential components for the development of dynamic software structures that are not predetermined by the artists but instead develop, evolve and adapt to their external environment.

One of the main targets of Sommerer and Mignonneau's interactive systems is to show how interaction is a key component in the development of complexity, diversity and emergence in life as well as in artificial systems.

Sommerer and Mignonneau developed several intuitive, natural and multi-modal interfaces which they link to adaptive and evolutionary software structures. In this talk several of these interactive systems will be presented and interfaces the artist/researchers developed range from plants, to camera detection systems to light interfaces to multi-modal interfaces including speech and voice. All interfaces are designed to allow maximum openness and adaptability to create interaction experiences that constantly change and adapt depending on the users' interactions.

Christa Sommerer is an internationally renowned media artist working in the field of interactive computer art. She is Associate Professor at the IAMAS Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan and has been Researcher and Artistic Director at the ATR Media Information Science Research Lab in Kyoto, Japan. She was a Guest Professor at the Art University in Linz, and a Visiting Associate Professor at Kyoto University’s Department of Social Informatics. In 2002 she completed her Ph.D. degree at the University of Wales College in Newport in the CAiiA-STAR program.

Sommerer collaborates with artists Laurent Mignonneau since 1992, and their interactive artworks have been called "epoch making" (Toshiharu Itoh, NTT-ICC museum) for pioneering the use of natural and intuitive interfaces, generative image processes as well as novel forms of interactions with dynamic data content. Their collaboration has been influenced by the combination of their different fields of interest, including art, biology, modern installation, performance, music, computer graphics and communication. After joining these interest in 1992, Mignonneau and Sommerer created interactive computer installations such as

• "Interactive Plant Growing" (1992/93),
• "Anthroposcope" (1993),
• "A-Volve" (1994),
• "Trans Plant" (1995),
• "Intro Act" (1995),
• "MIC Exploration Space" (1995),
• "GENMA" (1996),
• "Life Spacies" (1997),
• "Life Spacies II" (1999),
• "HAZE Express" (1999),
• "VERBARIUM" (1999),
• "Industrial Evolution" (2000)
• "PICO_SCAN" (1999/2000),
• "Riding the Net" (2000),
• "The Living Room" (2001)
• "Nano-Scape" (2002).

Their latest project is "Mobile Feelings" (2003) an artwork for mobile phones. Their works have been shown in numerous exhibitions world-wide and are permanently installed in media museums and media collections around the world, for example at the Media Museum of the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, the NTT-ICC InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, the Cartier Foundation in Paris, the Millennium Dome in London, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the AEC Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria, the NTT Plan-Net in Nagoya, Japan, the Shiroishi Multimedia Art Center in Shiroishi, Japan, and the Museum of Modern Art Website in New York.

Mignonneau and Sommerer have won major international media awards, for example the "Golden Nica" Ars Electronica Award for Interactive Art 1994 (Linz, Austria), the "Ovation Award" of the Interactive Media Festival 1995 (Los Angeles, USA) and the "Multi Media Award ’95" of the Multimedia Association Japan and the "World Technology Award" (2001) in London, UK. Mignonneau and Sommerer have lectured extensively at universities, international conferences, and symposia. They have organized workshops and sessions at various international conferences, such as AlifeVII (Portland, 2000), KES200 (Brighton, 2000) and ART-Science-ATR (Kyoto, 1997). Sommerer and Mignonneau have published numerous research papers on Artificial Life, interactivity and interface design, and in 1998 they edited a book on the collaboration of art and science called "Art@Science," published by Springer Verlag Vienna/New York (ISBN 3-211-82953-9).