Transdiscourse 1

"Mediated Environments" addresses the problem that society interprets our environment through conditioned and constructed representations of mainstream media and not in a transdisciplinary way with the help of artists, architects, filmmakers, cultural theorists and scientists. The writers who come from these various backgrounds all wish to give media artists, designers and writers a new role in relation to the pressing issues of urban and rural life: ones that can address the challenges of human psychology, recycling, agricultural production, climate chaos and energy conservation. The main aims were to focus on the potentials of creative work to raise public awareness and to find new discourses that can be shared within the areas of mediated architecture, eco art, experimental documentary film, eco-emergent design and art and science collaborations. The editors believe that a closer transdisciplinary working relationship could encourage a more tangible approach to these problems of the future.

• art and science
• interdisciplinary studies
• urban geography and urbanism

Dr. Andrea Gleiniger is a Historian of Architecture and Art. Gleiniger's teaching, research and writing concern Theory of Architecture and Media, History of Modern Architecture and Art.Since 2007, Andrea Gleiniger is a senior lecturer in scenography, history and theory of space in the Theatre Department at The Zurich University of the Arts. From 1983 – 1993 Gleiniger worked as a curator at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt/Main. Since 1993 she was a lecturer and guest professor for history of modern architecture, media and art at different Universities and Art Academies in Europe and Research Associate at the Chair for Computer-Aided Architectural Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Her research focus is 20th Century architecture, and the relations between the concepts of architecture, the environment and new media technologies. With Georg Vrachliotis (ETH Zurich) she is currently editing a new book series entitled: Context Architecture. Fundamental Concepts between Art, Science and Technology. Birkhäuser, Basel/ Berlin/ Boston, 2008.

Dr. Angelika Hilbeck is a senior scientific researcher in the Institute of Integrative Biology at the ETHZ (Swiss Federal University) and an adjunct scientist in the Norwegian Centre for Bio safety (Genoek) at the University of Tromsö in Norway. She has established successful research programs on environmental bio safety and risk assessment of GMOs with funding from the OECD, SNF, EU and governmental organisations. She has published a series of peer-reviewed books on Environmental Risk Assessment of GM crops with publication funding from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Scientific Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) and been a lead author to the “International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development” (IAASTD). The IAASTD was a three-year collaborative effort (2005 - 2007) that assessed AKSTin relation to meeting development and sustainability goals. She also currently works as a supervisor and editorial advisor for artists who are working on their PhDs about the trans-disciplinary relations between art and bioscience at the ZHDK-University of the Arts. Zurich.

Prof. Dr. Jillian Scott is Professor for Research at the Institute Cultural Studies in Art, Media and Design at the ZHDK (University of the Arts) Zurich and Co-Director of the Artists-in-Labs Program: a collaborative project with the Ministry for Culture, Switzerland.(www.artistsinlabs.ch). She is also Vice Director of the Z-Node PHD program on art and science at the University of Plymouth, UK. (www.z-node.net) Her recent publications include: Artists-in-labs Processes of Inquiry: 2006 Springer/Vienna/New York, and Coded Characters Hatje Cantz 2002, (Ed. Marille Hahne) as well as many chapters in books about art, science and education. She has been a Professor in art academies and universities in Europe and Australia including: The Bauhaus University in Weimar and The University of New South Wales, Australia. Since 1975, she has exhibited many artworks, conceptual performances and interactive installations in USA, Japan, Australia and Europe and been a resident artist at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. Her most recent works involve the construction of interactive media sculptures based on trans-disciplinary studies she has conducted in neuroscience and in environmental science.

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