ISEA 2015 - The Ostrich Effect

Hosted by Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts + Technology and FCAT, the 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA 2015) presented innovative and groundbreaking digital art works from all over the world. ISEA 2015 was a five-day symposium which featured over 450 speakers in workshops, tutorials, panels, papers, artist talks and institutional presentations. The symposium showcased a selection of over 160 cutting-edge digital artworks carefully selected by the international art and science community, and explored artistic, scientific, technological and social manifestations of disruption as a cultural phenomenon.

The symposium featured keynote addresses by visionary pioneers from various domains, including Brian Massumi, Michael Connor, Dominique Moulon, Hildegard Westerkamp and Sara Diamond. The Yes Men closed the symposium with an address on the use of creative expression for subversion and disruption.

Cotterrell's The Ostrich Effect was shown over four days at the symposium. This generative installation was built using commercial automated call-centre servers, customising their IVR (Interactive Voice Response) programs to broadcast and handle telephone campaigns. It explores the recursive loops that might occur in a hypothetical scenario wherein the computer-based conversation will never be resolved and is continuously re-attempted.