Leonardo Vol. 47 | Number 4 | 2014
journal of the international society for the arts, sciences and technology
SIGGRAPH 2014 ART PAPERS AND ACTING IN TRANSLATION ART GALLERY
Guest Editorial
Teri Rueb
ACM Siggraph Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art
Harold Cohen
Leonardo is a print journal, published five times a year. Leonardo is edited by Leonardo/the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, and published by the MIT Press. Subscriptions to Leonardo include access to electronic versions of journal issues available on The MIT Press website.
Our contribution, Velikov, K., Thün, G., O’Malley, M., & Simbuerger, W. (2014). Nervous Ether: Soft Aggregates, Interactive Skins. Leonardo: The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology, 47 (4), 344-351 describes exploration and experimentation with cellular pneumatic aggregates for kinetic, environmentally responsive envelope systems. The work is situated within the history and technology of pneumatic structures, biological paradigms, the agency and aesthetics of material, information translation, and the tension between performance and affect within responsive
environments. The paper elaborates on the physical and computational development of novel pneumatic systems, experimentation with their interactive capabilities, and a recently completed installation, Nervous Ether, a pneumatic spatial envelope that operates as an instrument to register and communicate remote environmental information while also developing affective interaction with
inhabitants.