Of interest given the recent discussion here. Proceedings are online. http://www.lmcc.net/futureofwar/index.html The Future of War: Aesthetics, Politics, Technologies Presented at The New School by Thundergulch -the new media initiative of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council- in association with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, the World Policy Institute, and the Computer Instruction Center at the New School. What do the Department of Defense and the computer gaming industry have in common? What kinds of strategic alliances is the Pentagon making with Hollywood? How is the American Institute of Architects connecting with the military's designs for a "new security environment?" Are artists collaborating with, exposing, or resisting the military by deploying technologies of simulation, data surveillance, tracking, and computer vision in their work? A group of internationally renowned panelists explored these and other questions in The Future of War: Aesthetics, Politics, Technologies, a two-day conference that examined the increasingly complex exchanges between the military, the entertainment industry, the computer industry, the media, and the arts. What impact do these exchanges have on war, technology and related visual cultures in the American public sphere? How is war -as concept, technique, and practice-reorganizing our everyday life and sense of future? The conference looked at war not simply as a utilitarian means to an end, or within the more familiar political and strategic accounts of it, but as a cultural process involving particular ways of seeing, narrating, and imagining: from the physical and virtual spaces of war, to the cinematic language of Hollywood combat films; from online gaming and military simulations, to the computer and installation work of artists. The Future of War was organized by Wayne Ashley, LMCC's curator of New Media and public programs.