VIRTUAL ART: From Illusion to Immersion' by Oliver Grau (forthcoming from MIT Press) See TOUR DATES below Although many people view virtual and mixed realities as a totally new phenomenon, it has its foundations in an unrecognized history of immersive images. The search for illusionary visual space can be traced back to antiquity. Oliver Grau shows how virtual art fits into the art history of illusion and immersion and shows how each epoch used the technical means available to produce maximum illusion from Pompeiis Villa dei Misteri via baroque frescoes, panoramas, immersive cinema to the CAVE. He describes the metamorphosis of the concepts of art and the image and relates those concepts to interactive art, interface design, agents, telepresence, and image evolution. Grau retells art history as media history, helping us to understand the phenomenon of immersion beyond the hype. Doing that, Grau draws on the work of contemporary artists like Maurice Benayoun, Charlotte Davies, Monika Fleischmann, Eduardo Kac, Christa Sommerer, Michael Naimark, Simon Penny, Daniela Plewe, Jeffrey Shaw et al. Oliver Grau is lecturer in Art History at Humboldt University, Berlin, and head of the German Science Foundation's project on "Immersive Art". He is creating the International Database of Virtual Art with the aid of the Federal Ministry of Education and Science. Grau is visiting professor in Linz. LECTURE TOUR (sponsored by Goethe Institute and various hosts). San Francisco, UC Berkeley, Monday Dec. 2 The Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium 160 Kroeber Hall Curated by Ken Goldberg with ATC Advisory Board 7:30-9:00pm Stanford University, Tuesday Dec. 3 4:15 pm Stanford University, Lane History Building 200, Room 307 Los Angeles, UCLA (Department of Design and Media Arts), Wednesday Dec. 4 6 pm - 7 pm Kinross North Bldg. Room 104 - EDA Chicago, School of the Art Institute, Friday Dec. 6 Noon talk from 12-1p.m. SAIC Auditorium 280 S. Columbus Dr. (Corner of Jackson and Columbus Dr.) Toronto, Goethe-Institut, Sunday Dec. 8 Goethe-Institut Toronto 11:00 am, New Media ,Frühstück' 163 King St. W. Ann Arbor, UMICH/School of Art and Design, Monday Dec. 9 Art & Architecture Building, 5:15 p.m. North Campus, Bonisteel Boulevard New York, Parsons School of Design, Tuesday Dec. 10 Parsons School of Design, Tishman Auditorium 66 West 12th Street, 7 p.m. Moderated by Christiane Paul, the Whitney's adjunct curator of new media arts. (For more information: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?sid=26570CB6-AB47-414B-A780...)