The Digital Dialectic was an interdisciplinary jam session about what is happening to our visual and intellectual cultures as the computer recodes technologies, media, and art forms. This single track conference brought together scholars and artists who combine theoretical investigations with analysis of the possibilities (and limitations) of the technologies involved in digital art and media. The digital dialectic grounds the insights of theory in the constraints of practice -- offering conceptual tools based on a user's understanding of how these media are created and work. This conference was intended to build an aesthetic theory for the 1990s, carving out a discourse that is neither mired in the past nor overly enamored of the new.

William J. Mitchell, Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Bits: Space, Place,
and the Infobahn

N. Katherine Hayles, English Dept. at UCLA, author of Chaos Bound:
Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science

George Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University,
author of Hyper/Text/Theory

Brenda Laure, Interval Research, virtual reality expert and author of
Computers as Theater

Michael Heim, philosopher, author of The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality

Christian Möller, Frankfurt-based architect specializing in
interactive environments and installations

Florian Brody, New Media Consulting, Vienna, formerly technical director
of the Expanded Book Project at The Voyager Company

Carol Gigliotti, Education and Technology Liaison,
Wexner Center for the Arts; Department of Art Education, Ohio State University

Lev Manovich, University of Maryland, editor of Tekstura: Russian Essays
on Visual Culture

Peter Lunenfeld, Art Center College of Design, founder of mediawork: The
Southern California New Media Working Group

Erkki Huhtamo, Professor of Media Studies, University of Lapland,
Rovaniemi, Finland

Robert Stein, Founding Partner, The Voyager Company, New York

Friday August 4
6:00 to 7:30
Welcome: Richard Herz, Chair, Graduate Studies, Art Center
Keynote: Robert Stein
7:30 to 9:00
Conference Reception

Saturday August 5
9:30 to 12:30
Florian Brody, George Landow, Peter Lunenfeld
2:00 to 5:00
Lev Manovich, Erkki Huhtamo, Brenda Laurel
6:00 to 9:00
Digital Mediations Gallery Opening and Reception

Sunday August 6
9:30 to 12:30
Christian Möller, William J. Mitchell, N. Katherine Hayles
2:00 to 4:00
Michael Heim, Carol Gigliotti
4:00 to 5:00
Panelists Roundtable