[-empyre-] "what is to be done?" introducing Ollivier Dyens

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

dear -empyre-


Please welcome Ollivier Dyens.

Ollivier Dyens is Chair of the Department of French at Concordia  
University in Montreal, Canada. He is the founder and webmaster of  
Metal and Flesh (metalandflesh.com) 1998-2003, as well as Continent X  
(http://continentx.com), websites dedicated to the study of  
cyberculture. He is also the author of "Metal and Flesh, The  
Evolution of Man, Technology Takes Over", published by MIT Press  
whose French version (VLB Éditeur) was awarded Best Essay by the  
Société des Écrivains Canadiens. Among his other publications are Les  
murs des planètes, suivi de la cathédrale aveugle (VLB Éditeur),  
short listed for the Revue Estuaire/Terrasses St-Denis prize for  
Poetry, Continent X, Vertige du Nouvel Occident (VLB Éditeur), long  
listed for the prix Roberval, and The Profane Earth (Mansfield  
Press), long listed for the ReLit Award. He has lectured in Europe,  
the United States and Canada. He was guest speaker at the Parson  
School of Design, at the New Museum of Modern Art, at the Baltimore  
Institute College of Art, on the Empyre list, at the Centre Européen  
de Technoculture, at Ars Electronia, etc. His digital artwork has  
been exhibited in Brasil, Canada, Venezuela, Germany, Argentina and  
the United States. Ollivier Dyens is also a founding member of the  
NT2 research lab (http://www.labo-nt2.uqam.ca/), dedicated to the  
study of new forms of narrative.


I've asked Ollie to join us as he was the very first guest on - 
empyre- back in January 2002. Coming full circle five years later,  
along with documenta (2002 was the 11th, this year is the 12th).
https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2002-January.    
Celebrating five years of -empyre-, we are honored to be a forum once  
again for his reflective and compassionate perspective as an artist
and scholar of new media.

At the beginning of things in January 2002  Melinda wrote,

"I first came across Ollivier in the mid 1990's when I read his  
article 'The Emotion of Cyberspace: Art and Cyber-ecology,' in  
Leonardo. At the time i was deeply questioning my newly formed  
relationship with
computer technology; and on reading his essay,  the lines  "the  
living being is the sacred text of cyberspace... our body is the  
screen (the signifying surface ) by which the machine has access to  
reality" deeply ressonated with me, and profoundly influenced my  
approach towards working on the net."


cm