​This month, Cybersentics Book Club asks: is everyone suddenly a creative technologist? We'll look at the landscape of modern media art at the turn of the 21st century, before the now-familiar identity of the artist working across art, science, and technology became so widely defined.

​Together, we’ll explore selected sections from Stephen Wilson’s Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology, a foundational encyclopedia of modern media art that maps how artists have engaged with biology, physics, algorithms, cognition, and other emerging fields.

​This Month’s Reading:
Wilson, S. (2003). Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology. MIT Press.

​Selected sections:
Chapter 1: 1.1, 1.2
Chapter 2: 2.1, 2.5
Chapter 7: 7.7

​You’re welcome to read through and beyond these sections.

​Access Reading
Also Included with RSVP: You’ll receive the reading link in your confirmation email.

​About Information Arts:
In Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology, Stephen Wilson surveys artists working across scientific research, emerging technologies, and experimental media. Published in 2003, the book offers a wide-ranging map of practices that brought together art, biology, physics, computation, perception, cognition, and systems thinking at the turn of the 21st century.

​For this meeting, we’ll use Wilson’s work as a guide to think through the figure of the “creative technologist” before that language became commonplace. What kinds of practices, questions, and identities existed before art-and-technology became a recognizable field? What did artists working across research and technology make visible, and what tensions still remain?

​About Stephen Wilson:
Stephen Wilson (1944–2011) was an artist, researcher, and professor whose work helped define the relationship between conceptual art and emerging technologies. For more than three decades, he directed the Conceptual/Information Arts program at San Francisco State University, where he mentored generations of artists working at the edges of science and culture.

​His landmark book Information Arts remains a foundational survey of artists engaging with biology, physics, algorithms, cognition, and other forms of research-based practice. Wilson’s own work spanned interactive installations, net art, and projects that questioned the cultural assumptions embedded in scientific inquiry.

​About the Cybersentics Book Club:

​Gray Area is pleased to host a new reading group, the Cybersentics Book Club that will explore the human sensorium through the lens of art and technology.

​In the first cycle, Cybersentic's reading list will center key themes related to the bidirectional flow of information between bodies and the environment. The outward perspective examines biofeedback, while the inward perspective focuses on cyborg art.

​This book club is a fit for artists, makers, researchers, scholars, engineers, and anyone curious about the integration of technology and art. Join us as we investigate how to enhance our sensory experiences, from biofeedback and sonification to embedding sensors that challenge our perceptions.

​Our group's purpose is to cultivate a welcoming community that fosters knowledge-sharing and collaboration. Whether you're seeking to connect with potential collaborators, look for answers to pressing questions, gain critical insights, or engage in peer learning, this is the place for you!

​Cybersentics is organized and led by Gray Area Research Fellow Anastasia Chernysheva as part of the Biofeedback Art|Research Network (BARN).

​Accessibility:

​All ages welcome. A high school reading level or above is recommended.

​Hybrid event
In-person meeting hosted upstairs in the Gray Area Incubator, not wheelchair or mobility accessible
Online Zoom link provided upon RSVP

​View our FAQ page for more info, or contact us at [email protected] with any accommodation requests.