DIGITAL BOUNDARIES:
MULTICULTURALISM, IDENTITY, AND AWARENESS

At no time in history has technology had the prospect of making a stronger cross-border impact on culture. Technology can be used to create or reinforce boundaries (being fingerprinted and photographed at an airport-- a multimedia experience), as well as to dissolve them (we are bombarded by images and sounds from all over the world). Many of us are being empowered with the ability to easily create digital content, document and share our own experiences and those of others, challenging the roles of art (passive vs. interactive) and revolutionizing the way we see and hear the world. At the same time, only a small percentage of people have access to technology (boundaries of those that have it versus those that don't).

Multimedia content and technology are of special consideration because they appeal directly to our senses, elevating the age-old dilemma of the distinction between reality and representations of reality. Does this new proliferation and imbalance of multimedia technology help reinforce boundaries and cultural differences? Does it contribute to define cultural identity in a new age in which everyone talks about multiculturalism? Does it raise cultural awareness or simply numb our senses making us take deep cultural differences for granted because what we "see" or "hear" is commonplace in this "new" multicultural world? Does it create new boundaries in art or help unify multiple art forms? How can art, in its many roles, make use of the same technology that raises these issues to address them?

For this exhibition, we seek multimedia artworks that challenge the participants (art "viewers") to consider these questions through the innovative use of new multimedia technologies and the combination of multiple media (photography, video, sound, etc.). All formats are welcome (narrative, performance, interaction, immersion, etc.).

The exhibition will be held at Columbia University. Click here for the press release for the art program.

Exhibition Submission Instructions

Notification of acceptance for full papers, short papers, and exhibition will be sent out on July 7th.

The ACM MM 2004 Interactive Art Program will consist of three tracks. The following information refers only to submission of artworks for the Multimedia Art Exhibition. See the Interactive Art Program page for submission information to the tools tracks.

The submission deadline for the ACM Multimedia Interactive Art Exhibition is May 3, 2004.

Please read these instructions carefully. Incomplete submissions will be rejected without review. All of the following MUST be submitted on-line (see note on supporting materials).

Each submission to the art exhibition should include the following three components:

1. Complete project information sheet. Please download: html, MS word, or PDF.

2. Complete project statements.
This one to two page paper will be published in the proceedings of the conference for selected work. The statement should have an abstract, discuss related work, artistic motivation, and technical details.

The statement must adhere to the ACM MM template and be submitted in Microsoft Word format, Portable Document Format (PDF), or PostScript (version 2 or later) format, formatted in two-column conference style. Papers that do not adhere to the 2 page limit and do not use the template will be rejected without review.

Please see the ACM proceedings template available at: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/pubform.doc

You can also download a sample paper here (MS Word format) to write your paper. Since the file has the proper 2-column formatting you can write your paper by simply replacing the text with your own text.

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How to Submit your Proposal Online

You are requested to submit only two files containing all of the information.

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Publication

If a work is selected for the exhibition, the corresponding project statement will be published in the ACM MM 2004 Conference Proceedings. Notification of acceptance is July 1st and the camera-ready copy of the statement is due July 20th, 2004. Works submitted to the exhibition may include a publishable video of the work. If the work is selected and the author wishes to have the video published in the proceedings (on DVD and on a dedicated website of the ACM dedicated to the exhibition), the author must obtain all the necessary permissions (see information below). Artist's whose work falls outside the theme of the exhibition are encouraged to submit their videos to the separate Video Demonstrations Program. Selection of submissions to that program is separate from the exhibition and is not performed by the exhibition curatorial committee.

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Registration

Artists whose work is selected for the exhibition are highly encouraged, but not required to register and attend the conference. Artists, however, are fully responsible for installation and delivery of artworks. Anyone who attends the conference must register. The exhibition, however, will be open to the public (no registration needed).

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Additional Information

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Curatorial Committee

Mark Tribe, Director of Art & Technology, Columbia University School of the Arts (USA)
Christina Yang, Curator of Visual Art and New Media, The Kitchen (USA)
Pamela Jennings, School of Art and the HCI Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (USA)
Alejandro Jaimes, Fuji Xerox, Multimedia Analysis and Interaction, Nakai Research Center (Japan)

Click here for Interactive Art Program Poster.

Click here for the Exhibition Poster.

Technical Program Committee

Click to view.

Important Dates

March 15, 2004
On-line submission available

May 7, 2004 Final deadline extension !!!
Exhibition submission deadline

June 1, 2004
Short papers submission deadline

July 7, 2004
Notification of acceptance for full papers, short papers, and exhibition

July 25, 2004
Camera-ready papers due