Click here to download the Searching for New Metaphors, New Practices Bridges II conference report (.pdf).
Click here to view Mark Beam's report Bridging Chaos: A Perspectives on Bridges Consortium II (.pdf).
Click here to view Fatoumata Kande Senghor's report REFLECTING after Bridges conference (.pdf).
Click here to view Sha Xin Wei's report A Note on Bridges 2 (.pdf).

BRIDGES is an international consortium for the study and exploration of interdisciplinary collaborative processes in art, culture, science and technology. Creating with technology increasingly requires both deeper levels of specialization, and greater levels of collaboration between people with creative and technical expertise. The BRIDGES Consortium works from the belief that the great challenge of convergence is not technology, but communication between people. And as technology further enables global multi-cultures and economies, the challenges of communication become even more urgent. Differences in work and communication styles, priorities, educational principles, institutional frameworks, temperaments, and fundamental beliefs and values have the potential to become either obstacles or stimulants to effective collaboration. BRIDGES pinpoints collaboration itself as a skill to be identified, studied, and learned, and proposes practical strategies for including it as a vital component in education, creation and research. It identifies best practices, amplifies networks and provides a means of communication for those engaged in the reality of collaborative research across disciplines, borders and cultural contexts.

The BRIDGES Consortium is structured around an annual summit that includes case study presentations, discussion groups, and hands-on workshops in interdisciplinary collaboration. The first of these was held May 31-June 2, 2001 at the Annenberg Center. It brought together top experts from educational, research and funding institutions and the private sector, as well as independent artists, technologists, and scientists. BRIDGES II will be held October 4 - 6, 2002 at The Banff Centre for the Arts.

The 2002 conference has expanded to include delegates and speakers from around the world. As well as computer science and engineering, it includes scientists from a range of disciplines. It has a strong focus on social science and humanities collaboration as well as art and technology.

The BRIDGES web site provides the general public access to the results of this work, including transcripts of each event, as well as special features from members. It also encourages ongoing dialogue, networking, and support, and the opportunity to form new collaborative partnerships. We are also forming alliances with other organizations working on related issues to help support and encourage further development of interdisciplinary skills in this growing arena.

BRIDGES was co-founded by Celia Pearce, formerly a Visiting Scholar at The Annenberg Center for Communication of the University of Southern California and currently Research and External Relations Manager for the Media Arts Layer of Cal- (IT)2 at the University of California, Irvine, and Sara Diamond, Artistic Director, Media & Visual Arts, Executive Producer Television & New Media, The Banff Centre, and The Banff New Media Institute in Banff, Alberta.