ABOUT THE COVER Communication and the Growth of Information Hans Westman Computer Graphics Cover Editor How will we know if we do not take the time to communicate? Our growth in knowledge and our expanse of horizons comes from seeing things ¦hearing about new things. Signals are sent to the brain, to be caught in a web of collected memories, which we digest; information we use to formulate our impression of the world. We do it on our own, but so does our neighbor unbeknownst to us. I don ™t know you and you don ™t know me unless our paths cross for some reason. The process expands the world we live in, pushing boundaries outward. The process is without strain - one of natural growth - keeping us in a state of transformation whether it is recognized or not. Weaving a web of information and expanding its resources, the Internet continues to grow. Most of us browse the World Wide Web at least once a day. We shop. We look up directions to some place we want to go. We take classes on line and search for jobs, somewhere out there in cyberspace.We even look for love. We connect, then we connect and then we reconnect, over and over again. We may pause, but we never stop. Using the Internet has become a common routine. I check my email everyday, as does my wife and my kids, connecting and collecting information from the Internet. Distance is irrelevant. I can talk to anyone anywhere in the world. The only constraint is the time difference. Staring into the abyss of a monitor can turn into an obsession, filling pockets of time that often should be spent rather than stored. What can I find today? Who can I write? Where can I go? I was immediately attracted to the spiral images accompanying the article œInformation Visualization with Web3D  by Akira Wakita and Fumio Matsumoto. One image is a diagram of their site ™s interface (see front cover); the second a galaxy of images, slowly pulling towards the center of a magnetic black cyber hole (see back cover). At their site (http://alive.wonder-okinawa.jp/), I literally found myself lost in space, randomly clicking on doorways to corridors of information.Whether I could keep track of where I had been or where I was going seemed less important than the exploration of random information floating free in a digital vacuum. There are other architectural exhibits of information Wakita and Matsumoto have experimented with, but it was the spiral galaxy that drew my attention. I want the people in these pictures to speak, the sky to move, like on TV. Then I want to step inside and break down that final difference in time, so I can be there, too, if I choose. I suppose that will be fixed in the upgrade. I wonder if it will happen faster if I tell them ¦if I let them know what I want ¦if I communicate ¦ Front and Back Cover Credit Akira Wakita, Frogvision Fumio Matsumoto, Plannet Architectures About the Interim Cover Editor Hans Westman has been active as an artist and educator in both Sweden and the U.S. since 1976. He discovered animation as an art form in the late ˜70s, which resulted in an experimental film entitled Unitism. In 1987 he was exposed to computer manipulated imagery and has been working professionally with the medium ever since. He is currently the Academic Department Director for Media Arts & Animation at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Hans Westman Academic Department Director Media Arts & Animation The Art Institute of Pittsburgh 420 Boulevard of the Allies Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1328 Tel: +1-412-291-6409 Email: hans.westman@gte.net August 2003

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