Troy, N.Y. - The public is invited to a series of free presentations hosted by Michael Century, chair of the arts department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Focused on various themes in media arts, such as televirtuality, hypermedia, and relational architecture, the presentations will begin on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. on campus in West Hall, room 212. Each topic will include a demonstration and analysis of pioneering works of media art. Century will draw on rare audio-visual documentation.

The series is an opportunity to expand the understanding of the types of new media that tie in closely with what Rensselaer's new experimental media and performing arts center (EMPAC), in part, will offer to students, artists, and the surrounding community.

Feb. 26: Century will discuss "The Tunnel Under the Atlantic," created in 1995 by artist Maurice Benayoun. The experimental work was a game-like virtual passageway that linked users in museums in Paris and Montreal. The work incorporates televirtuality, which combines three-dimensional computer graphic animation with ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines that transmit voice and images at high speeds for a high-performance virtual-reality setting. Works by new media artists Charlotte Davies, Marcos Novac, and panoramic cinematographer Michael Naimark, also will be presented.

March 5: Century presents three "hypermedia portraits" of major 20th-century artists who created in many different genres: Michael Snow, Antoni Muntadas, and Glenn Gould. Hypermedia is the use of online links that allow readers to navigate through a piece of work at their whim. For example, hypermedia transforms an e-book of plain text to one composed of links, which could contain several small stories, interactive graphics, and music that readers do not have to view in any particular order.

March 19: Century will present several interactive, digital media works, including projects at the Media Art Museum in ZKM, a prominent center for art and media in Germany. EMPAC Director Johannes Goebel is the founding director of the Institute for Music and Acoustics at the ZKM. Other examples include expositions of new media in France and Korea, and a landmark conference on new media and culture in Amsterdam in 1993.

April 2: Century will discuss relational architecture, an art form that explores the intersection between new technologies, urban space, and Internet participation. Century will highlight the work of Rafael Lozano Hemmer, winner of the 2001 Golden Nica at "Ars Electronica" for his "Vectorial Elevation" work. The project transformed Mexico City's historic center using robotic searchlights controlled over the Internet. Visitors to the project Web site could design light sculptures over the National Palace, City Hall, the Cathedral, and the Templo Mayor Aztec ruins.

CONTACT: Rensselaer Arts Department (518) 276-4784.

Contact: Jodi Ackerman
Phone: (518) 276-6531
E-mail: N/A