Is it art? Technology? The future of home entertainment? Or all of the above?

This exhibit of interactive pieces from Studio IMC (Interactive Multimedia Culture)—a New York City-based new media agency comprised of an international team of artists and software engineers—envisions the future of group entertainment and collaboration and imagines what's waiting for us beyond the relatively passive, "hands-off" experience of watching TV. Studio IMC fuses old and new media concepts and technologies to create a brave new world of participatory—at times even immersive—media consumption. There are no "Do Not Touch" signs here—instead, you're encouraged to touch everything and actually become part of the artwork yourselves. Previous Studio IMC exhibits—hosted by art museums and galleries—focused on how these works expand the boundaries of art and the museum experience. This collaboration with MT&R (now The Paley Center for Media) ponders the ways in which Studio IMC's new media creations both borrow from and advance traditional home entertainment media like television and radio. Scholars Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin call this progression "remediation"—throughout time, emerging media have achieved aesthetic and cultural significance not by divorcing themselves from antecedents, but by paying homage to and refashioning them. Photography remediated painting; film remediated theater and photography; and television remediated film, vaudeville, and radio. New media represents not only the remediation of TV and radio, but also the convergence of sound, image, the human body, and the real world, all integrated into an immersive experience that mixes the virtual and the real. This seismic shift toward a type of "total art," or "Gesamtkunstwerk" (a term coined by Richard Wagner) will empower people in ways we can only begin to imagine. Of course, the new media revolution in home entertainment has already begun. With digital video recorders, viewers dictate their own viewing schedules. Broadband allows viewers to watch programming via the Internet and post questions to actors, view deleted scenes, and build virtual communities around TV content. And let's not forget about iPods, cell phones, blogs, and interactive billboards. The artists and engineers of Studio IMC see a future in which the convergence of such technologies will form the fabric of the Next Net, creating a new hybrid platform that will encourage open creativity and thus spur greater innovation. Developing technologies like the BlackBox, IMCvote, and IMCspace, it is our mission to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration and inspire a new generation of artists and inventors. What role will works like those around you play in this revolution? Entertainment-based applications might include immersive-environment concepts similar to the Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation (like the piece, CINE, exhibited here), bringing multiplayer computer games to the next level, with players participating in narratives unfolding on multiple screens simultaneously from homes across the world. Sure, they're just games, but new media enthusiasts rave about the benefits of collaboration and social interaction. Ultimately, that may be new media's greatest gift to the future: a revolutionary way for people to communicate across physical and cultural boundaries. Today, in technology as in art, we are seeing the first stirrings of this possible future. David Bushman, Curator, The Paley Center for Media James Tunick & Tony Rizzaro, Studio IMC Cofounders

On Display
	CINE 2.0 (Collaborative Immersive Networked Environment, pronounced "sign") Artists: James Tunick, Miro Kirov, and Houston Riley with Tony Rizzaro and Braden Weeks Earp A mixed-media environment inspired by Star Trek: TNG's Holodeck. You—and others—fly through an urban datascape in an immersive environment by using body gestures. Participants in the environment can also collaborate to compose music, while people out in the city itself can send photographs from their cell phones to the environment. CINE takes the computer screen out of the box and reconfigures it as a life-size environment. Control of visuals and sound takes place through full-body gestures rather than just mouse clicks. As the traditional computer screen and mouse-keyboard interface transforms to fill the room, future entertainment platforms like CINE will enhance collaboration among multiple users, opening up whole new worlds of learning, art, creativity, and play. CINE is powered by a network of servers and computers that includes Studio IMC's BlackBox and IMCvote mobile technology. James Tunick is the president and founder of Studio IMC, a new media agency. He is also founder of the IMC Expo, a new media art show and tradeshow. He has developed new media technologies for the Paley Center of Modern Art at PS1, Heineken (displayed at the Time Warner Center), Yale, and Diesel, and his artwork and multimedia events have been featured in Rolling Stone, the LA Times, NY1 News, the Discovery Channel, and Sony News Network. Miro Kirov is an artist from Bulgaria. He has exhibited new media art, paintings, and sculpture at FIT, Werkstatt Gallery, Elsa Mott Ives Gallery, and the IMC Expo. His awards include the Bronze Medal, International Bienalle, Ravenna, Italy, for sculpture. His artwork is in private and museum collections in the US, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Austria, Poland, and Bulgaria. He currently works at NYU Medical school, building a 3-D virtual patient to train young doctors. Houston Riley is a designer, musician, advertiser, and communications specialist.
	Swarm Artist: Daniel Shiffman Paints a digital portrait of the viewer. Stay still! You'll see your portrait. Move about! The image will look more like an abstract painting. Swarm is an interactive video installation that implements the pattern of flocking birds (using Craig Reynold's "Boids" model) as a constantly moving brushstroke. Taking inspiration from Jackson Pollock's "drip and splash" technique of pouring a continuous stream of paint onto a canvas, Swarm smears colors captured from a live video input of the person looking at the screen, producing an organic painterly effect in real time. The person viewing the screen becomes part of the art. Dan Shiffman is a resident researcher who also teaches at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU's Tisch School for the Arts. His screen-based interactive art installations have been exhibited at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Directors Club of New York, Galapagos Art Space, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Tisch School for the Arts, among others.
	freeSTYLE Artist: Dana Karwas A singing music video created entirely from cell phones. To create your own music video, take out your phone and send a text, picture, or video message to 1@dk22.com. The text from the message will be free-styled back to you with the pictures and videos dancing to the beat. Cell phones offer an extension of one's identity. Users can send messages to freeSTYLE and, in return, they will hear and see their messages free-styled back to them with an added beat. Guided by a hip-hop beat of choice, users can hear and see their mobile presence in the form of a living music video. Dana Karwas is a media artist whose work and academic interests span the spectrum between art, architecture, and technology. She has taught at Harvestworks NYC digital media center, Columbia University, and will be presenting a workshop at Ubicomp 2006.
	Zig Zag Muzig Block (ZZMB) Artist: Inhye Lee Going beyond the tradition of the children's mix-and-match toy, ZZMB allows you to create new characters from four existing singing characters by rotating or sliding each block. Playing with ZZMB's blocks also creates new musical compositions. Each top, middle, and bottom block plays a different character's voice, harmony (chord), and rhythm (beat) of music, which are written as parts of complete scores. Users can make variations of the sound by applying different voices, chords, or rhythms from other blocks. When blocks are matched to compose one identical character, users can hear the full original score. Slide the blocks to the side to make more musical variations. Inhye Lee is an artist from Seoul who specializes in using sound and visuals taken from real people and life. She has worked with SciMedMedia, Discovery Kids, Eculture, and E-motion, and exhibited at Mattel, Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU's Tisch School for the Arts, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Frying Pan.
	LifeForce Artist: James Tunick Cell phone as digital paintbrush. The work comes alive only when you participate, waving a cell phone to "paint" with light and sound. The phones seem to have magical powers, allowing multiple users to control the pulsing visuals, as well as to push sounds across the space. Powered by Studio IMC's BlackBox media player and custom software, the installation invites viewers to collaborate utilizing a flatscreen, stereo sound, and cell phones. The work is a commentary on the need in contemporary museums for more participatory art forms. Converting one's cell phone into a paintbrush and musical instrument, this interactive piece strives to validate the mobile device as a tool for creative expression, especially in public spaces. LifeForce envisions a future in which such artistic tools are commonplace and city sidewalks and sides of buildings become our canvases. James Tunick is the president and founder of Studio IMC, a new media agency. He is also founder of the IMC Expo, a new media art show and tradeshow. He has developed new media technologies for the Paley Center of Modern Art at PS1, Heineken (displayed at the Time Warner Center), Yale, and Diesel, and his artwork and multimedia events have been featured in Rolling Stone, the LA Times, NY1 News, the Discovery Channel, and Sony News Network.