EDITORIAL
Editorial
30 years is a long time. But it just flew, since the first issue, to the many people with whom a path, long or short, has been shared over time and space. This is another special issue, and it ’s even more proof of the spirit we have never abandoned: it has been done thanks to the generous support of a few collaborators. For the 30th anniversary issue, we have interviewed only theorists (although some of them are artists too) to bring new perspectives, instead of just looking back over the past three decades. In a critical and uncertain historical moment, we certainly need new ideas, and Neural has always attempted to be a magazine of ideas, so in this issue you can see a clear and determined effort to manifest this attitude, once more. Their intriguing answers address the past, the present and the possible future, going back and forth in time, to be aware of what has happened, to reflect on our present reality in critical digital cultures, in order to act accordingly in the near future. The subscribers (our main support network) will find an exceptional object attached to the centrefold: a flexi disc (!). It constitutes a small dream come true: after so many years we have been able to produce an official music release in full, making it also an ‘artists' record’. It is another incredible collaboration: it ’s a split release with the Crónica label, who are celebrating their own 20 years of activity, hence the joint title 30+20, and without whose experience, knowledge and patience, it would have never been possible. It has been a fantastic journey as all the thirty artists that we have jointly selected and involved have agreed to donate 9 seconds of sounds, collectively realising an homage to the above mentioned spirit and the quality of the results (which is recursively part of our spirit too). Furthermore, we’ll celebrate in person during an evening supported and organised by V2_, the historic media art institution in Rotterdam, on the 23rd of November, with a program that has been shared and underpinned by different entities including Crónica and @c, Annet Dekker, Zane Cerpina, Stahl Stenslie and a number of renowned artists, theorists and curators who have kindly agreed to remotely share their experiences with the magazine. Finally, the special cover has been made by Daniel Temkin, building on his Glitchometry series. It has been created with simple shapes exported as raw digital data, and then ‘sonified’ - its data reinterpreted as sound. Sound effects were then applied, distorting and transforming the shapes even further. This process leaves no way with which to control it , giving room to the algorithm to act independently. Temkin thinks that in this case, the computer is a meta-medium where data no longer has an inherent meaning. In his words: ‘It pays tribute to Neural's engagement over the past thirty years with image, sound, and computation. New media is more than a medium of its own, but a superset, transformative to all other media, an idea that has been part of Neural's DNA from the beginning.’ Being very proud of what you have in your hand we want to deeply, so deeply thank all the wonderful people that have made the journey possible till now. Even if only to honour them, we will continue to investigate and experiment.
ALESSANDRO LUDOVICO
02 Neural — ISSUE 74
