Tag Archives: Sara Diamond

Large Interactive Virtual Environment Laboratory (LIVELab) located in McMaster University’s Institute for Music & the Mind (MIMM) and the MetaCreation Lab at Simon Fraser University

Both of these bits have a music focus but they represent two entirely different science-based approaches to that form of art and one is solely about the music and the other is included as one of the art-making processes being investigated..

Large Interactive Virtual Environment Laboratory (LIVELab) at McMaster University

Laurel Trainor and Dan J. Bosnyak both of McMaster University (Ontario, Canada) have written an October 27, 2019 essay about the LiveLab and their work for The Conversation website (Note: Links have been removed),

The Large Interactive Virtual Environment Laboratory (LIVELab) at McMaster University is a research concert hall. It functions as both a high-tech laboratory and theatre, opening up tremendous opportunities for research and investigation.

As the only facility of its kind in the world, the LIVELab is a 106-seat concert hall equipped with dozens of microphones, speakers and sensors to measure brain responses, physiological responses such as heart rate, breathing rates, perspiration and movements in multiple musicians and audience members at the same time.

Engineers, psychologists and clinician-researchers from many disciplines work alongside musicians, media artists and industry to study performance, perception, neural processing and human interaction.

In the LIVELab, acoustics are digitally controlled so the experience can change instantly from extremely silent with almost no reverberation to a noisy restaurant to a subway platform or to the acoustics of Carnegie Hall.

Real-time physiological data such as heart rate can be synchronized with data from other systems such as motion capture, and monitored and recorded from both performers and audience members. The result is that the reams of data that can now be collected in a few hours in the LIVELab used to take weeks or months to collect in a traditional lab. And having measurements of multiple people simultaneously is pushing forward our understanding of real-time human interactions.

Consider the implications of how music might help people with Parkinson’s disease to walk more smoothly or children with dyslexia to read better.

[…] area of ongoing research is the effectiveness of hearing aids. By the age of 60, nearly 49 per cent of people will suffer from some hearing loss. People who wear hearing aids are often frustrated when listening to music because the hearing aids distort the sound and cannot deal with the dynamic range of the music.

The LIVELab is working with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra to solve this problem. During a recent concert, researchers evaluated new ways of delivering sound directly to participants’ hearing aids to enhance sounds.

Researchers hope new technologies can not only increase live musical enjoyment but alleviate the social isolation caused by hearing loss.

Imagine the possibilities for understanding music and sound: How it might help to improve cognitive decline, manage social performance anxiety, help children with developmental disorders, aid in treatment of depression or keep the mind focused. Every time we conceive and design a study, we think of new possibilities.

The essay also includes an embedded 12 min. video about LIVELab and details about studies conducted on musicians and live audiences. Apparently, audiences experience live performance differently than recorded performances and musicians use body sway to create cohesive performances. You can find the McMaster Institute for Music & the Mind here and McMaster’s LIVELab here.

Capturing the motions of a string quartet performance. Laurel Trainor, Author provided [McMaster University]

Metacreation Lab at Simon Fraser University (SFU)

I just recently discovered that there’s a Metacreation Lab at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada), which on its homepage has this ” Metacreation is the idea of endowing machines with creative behavior.” Here’s more from the homepage,

As the contemporary approach to generative art, Metacreation involves using tools and techniques from artificial intelligence, artificial life, and machine learning to develop software that partially or completely automates creative tasks. Through the collaboration between scientists, experts in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, designers and artists, the Metacreation Lab for Creative AI is at the forefront of the development of generative systems, be they embedded in interactive experiences or integrated into current creative software. Scientific research in the Metacreation Lab explores how various creative tasks can be automated and enriched. These tasks include music composition [emphasis mine], sound design, video editing, audio/visual effect generation, 3D animation, choreography, and video game design.

Besides scientific research, the team designs interactive and generative artworks that build upon the algorithms and research developed in the Lab. This work often challenges the social and cultural discourse on AI.

Much to my surprise I received the Metacreation Lab’s inaugural email newsletter (received via email on Friday, November 15, 2019),

Greetings,

We decided to start a mailing list for disseminating news, updates, and announcements regarding generative art, creative AI and New Media. In this newsletter: 

  1. ISEA 2020: The International Symposium on Electronic Art. ISEA return to Montreal, check the CFP bellow and contribute!
  2. ISEA 2015: A transcription of Sara Diamond’s keynote address “Action Agenda: Vancouver’s Prescient Media Arts” is now available for download. 
  3. Brain Art, the book: we are happy to announce the release of the first comprehensive volume on Brain Art. Edited by Anton Nijholt, and published by Springer.

Here are more details from the newsletter,

ISEA2020 – 26th International Symposium on Electronic Arts

Montreal, September 24, 2019
Montreal Digital Spring (Printemps numérique) is launching a call for participation as part of ISEA2020 / MTL connect to be held from May 19 to 24, 2020 in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1990, ISEA is one of the world’s most prominent international arts and technology events, bringing together scholarly, artistic, and scientific domains in an interdisciplinary discussion and showcase of creative productions applying new technologies in art, interactivity, and electronic and digital media. For 2020, ISEA Montreal turns towards the theme of sentience.

ISEA2020 will be fully dedicated to examining the resurgence of sentience—feeling-sensing-making sense—in recent art and design, media studies, science and technology studies, philosophy, anthropology, history of science and the natural scientific realm—notably biology, neuroscience and computing. We ask: why sentience? Why and how does sentience matter? Why have artists and scholars become interested in sensing and feeling beyond, with and around our strictly human bodies and selves? Why has this notion been brought to the fore in an array of disciplines in the 21st century?
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: WHY SENTIENCE? ISEA2020 invites artists, designers, scholars, researchers, innovators and creators to participate in the various activities deployed from May 19 to 24, 2020. To complete an application, please fill in the forms and follow the instructions.

The final submissions deadline is NOVEMBER 25, 2019. Submit your application for WORKSHOP and TUTORIAL Submit your application for ARTISTIC WORK Submit your application for FULL / SHORT PAPER Submit your application for PANEL Submit your application for POSTER Submit your application for ARTIST TALK Submit your application for INSTITUTIONAL PRESENTATION
Find Out More
You can apply for several categories. All profiles are welcome. Notifications of acceptance will be sent around January 13, 2020.

Important: please note that the Call for participation for MTL connect is not yet launched, but you can also apply to participate in the programming of the other Pavilions (4 other themes) when registrations are open (coming soon): mtlconnecte.ca/en TICKETS

Registration is now available to assist to ISEA2020 / MTL connect, from May 19 to 24, 2020. Book today your Full Pass and get the early-bird rate!
Buy Now

More from the newsletter,

ISEA 2015 was in Vancouver, Canada, and the proceedings and art catalog are still online. The news is that Sara Diamond released her 2015 keynote address as a paper: Action Agenda: Vancouver’s Prescient Media Arts. It is never too late so we thought we would let you know about this great read. See The 2015 Proceedings Here

The last item from the inaugural newsletter,

The first book that surveys how brain activity can be monitored and manipulated for artistic purposes, with contributions by interactive media artists, brain-computer interface researchers, and neuroscientists. View the Book Here

As per the Leonardo review from Cristina Albu:

“Another seminal contribution of the volume is the presentation of multiple taxonomies of “brain art,” which can help art critics develop better criteria for assessing this genre. Mirjana Prpa and Philippe Pasquier’s meticulous classification shows how diverse such works have become as artists consider a whole range of variables of neurofeedback.” Read the Review

For anyone not familiar with the ‘Leonardo’ cited in the above, it’s Leonardo; the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology.

Should this kind of information excite and motivate you do start metacreating, you can get in touch with the lab,

Our mailing address is:
Metacreation Lab for Creative AI
School of Interactive Arts & Technology
Simon Fraser University
250-13450 102 Ave.
Surrey, BC V3T 0A3
Web: http://metacreation.net/
Email: metacreation_admin (at) sfu (dot) ca

Programming announcements for the International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) 2015 in Vancouver, Canada

I last wrote about ISEA (International Sympsosium on Electronics Arts) in an April 24, 2015 posting when announcing this,

Our paper (Raewyn Turner, an artist from New Zealand,  and mine, Maryse de la Giroday), Steep (I): a digital poetry of gold nanoparticles, has been accepted for the 2015 International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) to be held in Vancouver, Canada from Aug. 14 – 18, 2015. I last wrote about ISEA 2015 in a Dec. 19, 2014 post where I indicated more information about our project would be forthcoming—the next week. Ah well, better late than never, eh?

In short, I will be presenting at the conference and (fingers crossed) so will Raewyn.

A July 7, 2015 Simon Fraser University (SFU) news release reveals more about the conference programming,

For the first time in two decades, the 2015 International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) is returning to Canada and will be hosted by Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Communication, Arts and Technology, and its School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT), the School for Contemporary Arts (SCA).

I attended the 2009 edition of ISEA which was held in Northern Ireland and Ireland where some people were still raving about the Québec-hosted event. Vancouver has a lot to live up to.

Back to the news release,

ISEA 2015 will be held in Vancouver from August 14-19. Over the five days the symposium will feature more than 450 speakers, workshops and presentations. Its theme, “Disruption,” will examine the borders between academia and artwork, practice and theory, systems and reality, and art and society.

The symposium will also feature some of the most innovative and groundbreaking digital artworks from all over the world and will transform Vancouver into a “city-sized” dynamic art space, says symposium coordinator and SIAT professor Philippe Pasquier. More than 160 digital artworks will come to life in multiple venues throughout Vancouver, including SFU Woodwards.

“We are excited that Simon Fraser University, with its core commitments to innovative education and community engagement, will host one of the world’s most prominent international arts and technology events,” said SFU President Andrew Petter. “Featuring leading experts and innovators in the field, including those from SFU, and a global arts showcase, ISEA 2015 will bring great energy to the city.”

A committee of distinguished experts has curated a program for ISEA 2015 that will explore how disruptions manifest in science, artistic practice, activism, geopolitics, media, sound, sound ecology and embodied practices.

Panels and roundtable programs will feature discussions on artistic research, communications, computational media technologies, dance and performance. These will explore how art intersects with climate change, contemporary curatorial practices, media activism and subversion, IY technology, bio art and sound, embodied art practices, geopolitics and more.

To frame the discussion around the artistic, scientific, technological, and social manifestations of disruptions as a phenomenon, keynote speakers will include Brian Massumi, Michael Connor, Dominique Moulon, Sara Diamond, as well as SFU’s Hildegard Westerkamp. The Yes Men will close the symposium with an address on the use of creative expression for subversion and disruption.

The symposium will feature 19 workshops across several disciplines. MOCO’15, the 2nd international workshop on movement and computing, aims to gather academics and practitioners interested in the computational study and generation of movement in art and science. As part of MOCO’15’s artistic program visitors can attend Hakanai, a dance performance, taking place in a cube of moving images.

Keynote speakers (and master disruptors) Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, better known as the Yes Men, will share the history of media activism, following up with a mater-class on creating media activist campaign base on unscripted responses.

  • MUTEK Cabaret, organized by the MUTEK Festival and curated for ISEA 2015 by Alain Mongeau.
  • Computer code meets contemporary art as ISEAS 2015 presents an Algorave, a participatory performance that invites visitors to dance to music generated by algorithms. This is the first time an Algorave will take place in Canada.
  • Beyond the Trees: WALLPAPERS in dialogue with Emily Carr is an exhibition by the WALLPAPERS collective that will run at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

For more information on specific programs please visit: www.isea2015.org

As for the paper and video we’re (Raewyn and I) presenting, it’s called “Steep (1): a digital poetry of gold nanoparticles. It is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 16, 2015 in session no. 9 (Interactive Text 1), 11:30 am – 1 pm. You can find the schedule here.

Steep (1) at International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) 2015 in Vancouver, Canada

Our paper (Raewyn Turner, an artist from New Zealand,  and mine, Maryse de la Giroday), Steep (I): a digital poetry of gold nanoparticles, has been accepted for the 2015 International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) to be held in Vancouver, Canada from Aug. 14 – 18, 2015. I last wrote about ISEA 2015 in a Dec. 19, 2014 post where I indicated more information about our project would be forthcoming—the next week. Ah well, better late than never, eh?

Before getting to our project, here’s a little information on the symposium’s theme (from the Theme page),

ISEA2015’s theme of DISRUPTION invites a conversation about the aesthetics of change, renewal, and game-changing paradigms. We look to raw bursts of energy, reconciliation, error, and the destructive and creative forces of the new. Disruption contains both blue sky and black smoke. When we speak of radical emergence we must also address things left behind. Disruption is both incremental and monumental.

In practices ranging from hacking and detournement to inversions of place, time, and intention, creative work across disciplines constantly finds ways to rethink or reconsider form, function, context, body, network, and culture. Artists push, shape, break; designers reinvent and overturn; scientists challenge, disprove and re-state; technologists hack and subvert to rebuild.

Disruption and rupture are fundamental to digital aesthetics. Instantiations of the digital realm continue to proliferate in contemporary culture, allowing us to observe ever-broader consequences of these effects and the aesthetic, functional, social and political possibilities that arise from them.

Within this theme, we want to investigate trends in digital and internet aesthetics and revive exchange across disciplines. We hope to broaden the spheres in which disruptive aesthetics can be explored, crossing into the worlds of science, technology, design, visual art, contemporary and media art, innovation, performance, and sound.

At least two of the speakers are going to be very well aligned with the disruption theme (from the Keynote Speakers page),

TheYesMen Yes Men

Session Title: Tactical and Creative Resistance

The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, have been called “the Jonathan Swift of the Jackass generation” by author Naomi Klein. The Yes Men have impersonated World Trade Organization, Dow Chemical Corporation, and Bush administration spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world. They do this (a) in order to demonstrate some of the mechanisms that keep bad people and ideas in power, and (b) because it’s absurdly fun. As the Yes Men, they use humor, truth and lunacy to bring media attention to the crimes of their unwilling employers. Their second film, The Yes Men Fix the World, won the audience award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, the Grierson Award for Most Entertaining Documentary, and went on to become a smash box-office sensation, only just barely surpassed by Avatar. Their main goal is to focus attention on the dangers of economic policies that place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment.

connorMichael Connor

Sessions Title: TBD

Michael Connor is the Editor and Curator of Rhizome at the New Museum. Connor’s work focuses on artists’ responses to cinema and new technologies. His past solo and collaborative projects as curator include: ‘Liquid Crystal Palace,’ Honor Fraser, Los Angeles; ‘Street Digital’ (works by artist duo JODI); ‘Wild Sky,’ Edith-Russ Haus, Oldenburg, Germany; ‘Screen Worlds’, ACMI in Melbourne; ‘Essential Cinema’ at the Toronto Film Festival, and ‘The New Normal’ touring exhibition. Connor previously worked as Curator at FACT, Liverpool and Head of Exhibitions at BFI Southbank, London.

Brian Massumi

Session Title: No One Without Another: Creativity and Decision in the Transindividual Fold

Brian Massumi is professor of communication at the University of Montreal. He specializes in the philosophy of experience, art and media theory, and political philosophy. His most recent books include Politics of Affect (Polity, 2015), The Power at the End of the Economy (Duke UP, 2015), and What Animals Teach Us about Politics (Duke UP, 2014). He is co-author with Erin Manning of Thought in the Act: Passages in the Ecology of Experience (co-written with Erin Manning; University of Minnesota Press, 2014). Also with Erin Manning and the SenseLab collective, he participates in the collective exploration of new ways of bringing philosophical and artistic practices into collaborative interaction, most recently in the frame of the “Immediations: Art, Media, Event” international partnership project.

DMoulon

Dominique Moulon

Sessions Title: TBD

Dominique Moulon studied visual art at the Fine Art School (ENSA) of Bourges and holds a Master’s Degree in aesthetics, science and technology from the University of Paris 8. Member of the Observatory of Digital Worlds in Humanities (OMNSH), of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), of the Opline Prize for online contemporary art and founder of MediaArtDesign.net ; he also writes articles for Art Press, Digital MCD, The Seen and Neural. He is the Artistic Director of the media art fair Variation Paris and currently curator in residence at the art center of the Maison Populaire in Montreuil. Dominique Moulon teaches new media at Parsons (The New School for Design), ECV (Ecole de Communication Visuelle) and EPSAA (Ecole Professionnelle Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques) in Paris. He has also been a regular guest professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), the National School of Fine Arts (ENSBA) in Paris, The Fresnoy (Studio national des arts contemporains) and the University of Paris 8. His book Contemporary New Media Art was published in French by Nouvelles Editions Scala in 2011 and in English as an e-book in 2013. He is doing research at the laboratory Art & Flux (CNRS) of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne while preparing his next book on the relationships between art, technology and society. As an expert in digital cultures, he has also been sollicited for his input by some companies like Axa, Accenture, Google, Landor or Renault.

Hildegard Westerkamp

Westerkamp_2012

Sessions Title: TBD

Hildegard Westerkamp has lectured on topics of listening, environmental sound and acoustic ecology and has conducted soundscape workshops internationally. By focusing the ears’ attention to details in the acoustic environment, her compositional work draws attention to the act of listening itself and to the inner, hidden spaces of the environment we inhabit. For details check her website: http://www.sfu.ca/~westerka

Her music has been commissioned by CBC Radio, Canada Pavilion at Expo ’86, Ars Electronica (Linz), Österreichischer Rundfunk, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Germany…. She received Honorable Mentions in competitions such as Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, Prix Italia, and the International Competition for Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, as well as a Recommendation for Broadcast from the International Music Council’s 4th International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music. Her articles have been published in Radio Rethink, Kunstforum, Musicworks, MusikTexte and a variety of books… For an extensive exploration into her compositional work see Andra McCartney’s Sounding Places: Situated Conversations through the Soundscape Work of Hildegard Westerkamp, York University, Toronto, 1999, and in the internet at: http://beatrouteproductions.com/Andradiss.pdf

As part of Vancouver New Music’s yearly season she has coordinated and led  Soundwalks for some years since 2003, which in turn inspired the creation of The Vancouver Soundwalk Collective.

A founding member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE, see: www.wfae.net), and long-time co-editor of its journal Soundscape, Westerkamp was a researcher for R. Murray Schafer’s World Soundscape Project in the Seventies, and has taught acoustic communication at Simon Fraser University with colleague Barry Truax.

Sara Diamond

Biography coming soon

As for the last speaker on the list, Sara Diamond is the president of the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD University). Her professional focus is digital media and prior to heading OCAD University she was the Artistic Director of Media and Visual Art and Director of Research at the Banff Centre. You can find out more about Sara Diamond here.

Back to Steep, this is a project concerning gold nanoparticles. Here’s what Raewyn wrote about it on the homepage of the Steep website,

The general atmosphere is saturated and awash with particles and vibrations that are transpired by living beings and everything on earth. Emerging  into the troposphere, sounds and fragrances arise from cultural, social and political systems that have engineered the landscapes and thus mindscapes into settlements, habitations, fields, factories, front lawns and streets.

In the absence of a visceral sensing of the atmospheric ocean of particles and cues which are in dynamic flux with perception., Steep combines art+ science+ technology to explore sensing gold nanotechnology, where it accumulates, changes over time, and how it may affect living beings and the environment

Raewyn, a visual artist (video, painting, sculpture, interactive installations) and concept and design theatre artist and lighting designer located in Auckland, New Zealand, contacted me, located in Vancouver, Canada, a few years ago after reading some of the material I have on gold nanoparticles. She wanted to make contact with a scientist who was examining gold nanoparticles as they circulate from products into the air, the water, and the soil. Eventually I remembered the Duke University mesocosm project, located in Durham, North Carolina, at the Center for the Environmental Implication of Nano Technology (CEINT) led by Mark Wiesner (first mentioned here in an Aug. 15, 2011 post) and so Raewyn found her scientist and, although she wasn’t looking for one, a writer too. Her longtime collaborator, Brian Harris (located in Auckland, New Zealand), has an electronics background and is an independent designer and inventor who “invents and creates large scale finely tuned adaptive mechatronics and bespoke equipment. His inventions for motion control, stabilising camera mounts for aerial photography and robotic trajectories have been used in local and international tv, commercial and film productions.” (from the Steep About Us page).

For our first Steep project, Raewyn and I are working on a digital poetry installation. Here’s more about the project from the paper,

Steep is an international art/science research project examining the impact gold and gold nanoparticles have had in the past and could have in the future. Designed as a multi-year, multidisciplinary project with a rotating cast of collaborators, Steep is based on the current state of scientific research and its flexibility as a project reflects the uncertain and disruptive state of nanoscience and nanotechnology (as they are sometimes referred to).

    Steep (I) a digital poetry of gold nanoparticles, our first piece, is largely concerned with the elements of air and earth or more fancifully, gold in all its forms: myth, metaphor, and reality as it transitions visibly and invisibly throughout our environment.

The following poetry excerpt and video sample accompanying this submission [the video sample is not included in this posting] are works in progress and a research project within themselves.

Yearning
(excerpt)

shards of sun
hidden in the river’s silted bed
buried beneath the earth’s skin

a beautiful killing
in the cold, cold river
in the darkness underground

opportunities made of gold
wealth beyond Croesus’ and Midas’ imaginings
shining brighter than the sun

The other two parts of the trilogy are titled: Light/Shadow and Discovery respectively. I may have to change that last three lines to:

opportunities of gold
beyond Midas’ and Croesus’ imaginings
brighter than the sun

Raewyn and I are quite excited but there’s still work to do (our reviewers had comments).

The State of Science and Technology in Canada, 2012 report celebrated

This morning, Sept. 27, 2012, the Council of Canadian Academies released its 2nd report on the state of science and technology in Canada. I haven’t had time to read the full report (officially titled:  The State of Science and Technology in Canada, 2012) but did attend (virtually) a webinar/press conference that was hosted by the Science Media Centre of Canada and found the mood amongst the presenters,

  • Elizabeth Dowdeswell, President of the Council of Canadian Academies and chair of the 1st (2006) report on science and technology in Canada;
  • Dr. Eliot A. Phillipson, chair of the expert panel, Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Toronto and former President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation; and
  • Dr. Sara Diamond, President, Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U)

to be celebratory. The Council of Canadian Academies Sept. 27, 2012 news release on EurekAlert sums up much of what is said in the webinar,

“There is much for Canadians to be proud of as Canada’s international reputation is strong, science and technology research is robust across the country, and globally we are considered to have world-leading research infrastructure and programs,” said Panel Chair Dr. Eliot Phillipson. “The Panel’s findings are comprehensive and represent one of the most in-depth examinations of Canadian science and technology ever undertaken.”

Here are some of the findings (from the news release),

  • The six research fields in which Canada excels are: clinical medicine, historical studies, information and communication technologies (ICT), physics and astronomy, psychology and cognitive sciences, and visual and performing arts.
  • Canadian science and technology is healthy and growing in both output and impact. With less than 0.5 per cent of the world’s population, Canada produces 4.1 per cent of the world’s research papers and nearly 5 per cent of the world’s most frequently cited papers.
  • In a survey of over 5,000 leading international scientists, Canada’s scientific research enterprise was ranked fourth highest in the world, after the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.
  • Canada is part of a network of international science and technology collaboration that includes the most scientifically advanced countries in the world. Canada is also attracting high-quality researchers from abroad, such that over the past decade there has been a net migration of researchers into the country.
  • Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta are the powerhouses of Canadian science and technology, together accounting for 97 per cent of total Canadian output in terms of research papers. These provinces also have the best performance in patent-related measures and the highest per capita numbers of doctoral students, accounting for more than 90 per cent of doctoral graduates in Canada in 2009.
  • Several fields of specialization were identified in other provinces, such as: agriculture, fisheries, and forestry in Prince Edward Island and Manitoba; historical studies in New Brunswick; biology in Saskatchewan; as well as earth and environmental sciences in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

The Council of Canadian Academies webpage which hosts the completed assessment, The State of Science and Technology in Canada, 2012 provides links to the full report, an abridged version, an executive summary, a listing of the 18 member expert panel, and more.

Early media responses (as per my Google search of Sept. 27, 2012, 1338 hours (PDT) suggest one of two attitudes: “Canadian science and technology is healthy” or “Canadians are falling behind in the areas of environmental and resources sciences.”

For the moment, I’m going to celebrate and shelve my critique for a later date (probably early next week, Oct. 1-5, 2012) when I’ve had time to read the full report.