Pacific Rim

Along with Transvergence, Interactive City, and Community Domain, the Pacific Rim is one of the four chosen themes for the ZeroOne/ ISEA 2006 Festival and Symposium.  As the CADRE Laboratory for New Media at San Jose State University is serving as the academic host institution for the symposium and summit, SWITCH has decided to dedicate the issues leading up to the festival around it’s themes.   Issue 21 is proud to be dedicated to the Pacific Rim. The political and economic space of the Pacific Rim represents a dynamic context for innovation and creativity framed by issues of economic globalization, isolationist nationalism, regional integrations and environmental change. Convergent practices involving art, science, architecture, design, literature, theatre and music are being manifested in new forms of cultural production, academic research, and information technology-based industry. The challenge of new media initiatives to pragmatically address methodologies of interaction is both essential and timely. When SWITCH began to tackle the subject of the “Pacific Rim”, no one really knew where to start.  The vast region of the “Ring of Fire” seemed daunting in both size and content.  What is happening around the Pacific coast?  Why is it happening here and now?  What connections are sewn together because of this common geography?  Our SWITCH team came up with many lists of places, activities, projects, and themes.  Just as the symposium poses this theme for exploration, SWITCH set out not to draw any conclusions, but rather attempts to create connections between and across the Pacific Rim.  The body, code, genetics, privacy, gaming, gender, and karaoke are some of the ideas explored by both SWITCH writers and contributors from around the globe.   Read About the Pacific Rim New Media Summit at ISEA 2006 Why the “Pacific Rim”? And other questions answered by ISEA 2006/ ZeroOne Festival Chair, Joel Slayton. Here Be Dragons!: Bio-art beyond the edge of everything. By Anne Farren and Andrew Hutchison Department of Design at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia Electronic Privacy in Asia: What is the effect of the Fantabulous Kawaii Gizmos, Wireless Privacy Daemons (Waveband: 2.4-GHz) & Orientalism By Adrien David Cheok and Roger Thomas Tan Mixed Reality Lab, National University of Singapore  Karaoke Ice: A Night Out By Nancy Nowacek, Marina Zurkow, Katie Salen and the CADRE City as Interface Group ISEA 2006 "City as Interface" Residency Towards New Bodies and New Biologies: Life as Code, Body as Protocol By Carlos Castellanos SWITCH Editorial Member Ladyboys: Human Art By Skyler Thomas SWITCH Editorial Member  Playing With Culture: Gaming Across the Pacific Rim By Christopher Head SWITCH Editorial Member Pacific Rim Visual Directory By Aaron Siegel SWITCH Editorial Member Ars Virtua By James Morgan SWITCH Editorial Member PacRim Traders By Sarah Lowe, Vera Fainshtein, and Thomas Asmuth SWITCH Editorial Members