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Euphoria & Dystopia : The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues

The Banff New Media Institute, an international think-tank for the intersections of new media, art, culture, science, technology, design, economics, and law, was the leading new media research institute from its founding in 1995 until its dissolution in 2007, organizing hundreds of events and coproducing hundreds of artworks. This publication derives from research by Cook (who was post doctoral research fellow and curated exhibitions for the centre) and documents its work. It is a major anthology in the field of media studies. The book includes new essays from significant media theorists including Eric Kluitenberg, N. Katherine Hayles, and Allucquere Rosanne Stone, alongside hundreds of edited transcriptions (drawn from thousands of hours of audio material) by international thinkers such as Lev Manovich, Laurie Anderson, Edward A. Shanken, and Tomas Ray. The book documents the exhibition "The Art Formerly Known As New Media" (which coined the phrase) curated by Cook and Dietz in 2005. It is organized by themes including data visualization, the interface of technology and the body, video-gaming and media art histories. The themes and contributions were selected to represent a variety of viewpoints (politics, gender, ethnicity of the speakers). It includes fully annotated references and biographies of participants, a detailed appendix of events that took place at Banff 1995-2005, and a DVD of the bilingual journal Horizon Zero. Chapter introductions were written by the co-editors (Sarah Cook and Sara Diamond), based on new textual and archival research. Funders for the research included: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; Canada Council for the Arts; Telefilm Canada; Ontario College of Art and Design University; GRAND NCE.