Student Moderator: Stacey Manley
Faculty Respondent: Virgil Wong
Mr. Wong has studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Pont-Aven School of Art in France, and the Institute of Human Anatomy at the University of Rome Medical School. His work has been shown around the world, most recently at the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Yucatan, Mexico, the Museum of Image and Sound in San Paolo, Brazil, and the PaperVeins Museum of Art in NYC. Mr. Wong received a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and he was a recipient of the JGS Foundation's arts and genetics award. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, U.S. News and World Report, and Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine as well as other print publications worldwide. He is currently head of Web design and development at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

PANEL:

Donna Bulford
Digital Art and the Formation of Professional Standards
(Paper not available for download at this time)

Abstract: Digital Arts, Media Studies, Design and Technology, and a host of M.A. and M.F.A. programs have recently blossomed in universities the world over. Despite the professional schooling that has come to accommodate this burgeoning world, the prospect of professional specs and regulations have not. The need to build a foundation that cites formats, pixel aspect ratio, copyright and intellectual property attitudes, color and sound specs, and the appropriate use of open source and shareware can be essential. This paper searches to establish a set of standards for the Internet and Web-casting before the Federal Communications Commission diminishes the true possibilities of this medium with its kow-towing to communication business interests. Key points to be addressed include: What can be learned from the gatekeepers of traditional media and their objectivist structure? Is building an historical consciousness for eager professionals, within the annals of analogue and written media, a positive and productive strategy? How will the coming nanotech and biotech waves affect our new practices of media? And, is white-collar criminality affecting the look of new media and/or compromising its future?

Gail Walker
The Impact of Coded Communication on the African American Community
(Click here to download paper)

Abstract: This paper examines the historical role of both coded and ritualistic communication within the African American community from the pre-slavery era to the present day. Calculated attempts to deny slaves access to a common language forced blacks to adopt alternative methods of communicating that continue to be used today. These coded forms of communicating are similar to what scholar James C. Scott refers to as hidden transcripts - that is, discourse that takes place beyond the direct observation of power holders. The strong tradition of oral history and storytelling within the African American community developed over the centuries despite numerous obstacles. This occurred primarily in the African slave trade that was intentionally aimed at stripping slaves of their identity and their ability to communicate with one another. This paper traces much of the tradition in which a variety of coded gestures and expressions have evolved and continue to be at play today. By examining distinct modes of communication - namely, the transmission and ritual views of communication - this paper explores how the history of nonverbal, coded and ritualistic communication within the black community has impacted the community's use of current and emerging communication technologies.