Overview
CAiiA-STAR is a world-wide transdisciplinary research community founded
by Roy Ascott in 1994 Its innovative structure involves collaborative work
and supervision both in cyberspace and at regular meetings around the world.
It combines, as an integrated research platform, CAiiA, the Centre for Advanced
Inquiry in the Interactive Arts established in 1994, at University of Wales
College Newport, and STAR, the Science Technology and Art Research centre,
established in 1997 at the University of Plymouth. CAiiA-STAR has the aim
of creating new knowledge through research in the theory and practice of
interactive art, and is recognised as a leading centre in this field. CAiiA-STAR
has a transdisciplinary perspective which seeks the integration of art,
science, technology, and consciousness research within a post-biological
culture, and is involved in advancing the parameters of this emergent field
(e.g. telematics, immersive VR, Mixed Reality, Alife, architecture, hypermedia,
telepresence and agent technology, transgenics, data imaging, intelligent
environments, generative music, technoetics). It is a community of closely
connected doctoral candidates and graduates, post-doctoral researchers,
advisors, associates and supervisors. These high level professionals are
committed, through collaboration and shared discourse, to pushing the boundaries
of their art. For these reasons the level of research is extremely high
and the methodologies employed are extensive and rigorous.
Research Sessions
Research is conducted online and at three mandatory ten-day face-to-face
Composite Sessions each year, involving individual tutorials, research seminars,
critical round tables, and a public conference. The Centre is regularly
invited to hold its Composite Sessions at universities and media centres
abroad. These sessions and conferences have been hosted by Artspace Media
Centre, Dublin (1997); La Beneficia Cultural Centre, Valencia (1998); CYPRES,
Marseilles (1999); Federal University, Rio de Janeiro (1999); University
of Arizona, Tucson (2000); the Ecole National Supérieure des Beaux-Arts,
Paris (2000); Fondazione Fitzcaraldo, Turin (2001); Universitat Oberta de
Catalunya, Barcelona (2001); University of California DARNet, Santa Cruz
and Los Angeles (2001); University of Arizona, Tucson (2002); Curtin University,
Perth Additionally, CAiiA-STAR initiated and co-sponsored the international
conference Invenção in Sao Paulo, Brazil (1999) in collaboration
with the ITAU Cultural Centre, the International Society for Electronic
Arts (ISEA), and the journal Leonardo.
