• Building bridges between art and pig science
• 1000 cubes at Melbourne's Fringe Festival
• When do pigs loose cautiousness?

The sight of young pigs (finishers) exploring a new paddock is an exhilarating experience. The opportunity to see them turning everything over was given in a collaborative PIGVISION project with a school class in Tasmania last year. Incidently, it occurred to me, and anyone who witnessed a similar scene would agree, that a pig never approaches an unfamiliar object without some sort of cautiousness. As if locked in a dance whirling from object to object, the behaviour would swing from exploration into a brief halt of cautiousness, give in to curiosity and move to exploration again. It was that hesitating halt which fascinated me most, and I wondered whether it had a pivotal function. How could this moment of cautiousness be captured, and perhaps compared to human behaviour? Could it be that curiosity, search and discovery evolve around this brief halt of cautiousness? The prospect of finding the hypothetical hub of exploratory behaviour - and consequently of any research activity - was reason enough to turn the initial observation into a full-blown investigation. This latest PIGVISION project is well under way, and bears the title "Spinning a Yarn with Sisyphus" (formerly "Codename Sisyphus"). I invite you to check out the project's WWW documentation at URL http://www.artschool.utas.edu.au/pigvision/current.html
It will give more details on the project, including information on a number of collaboration opportunities.

Sincerely,
Raymond Rohner

WHAT'S NEW:

In the next few months PIGVISION will mail out its annual report '98 to people associated with the art world or the pig industry. It comes as a poster featuring a calendar for 1999, and - as a collectable work of art - is suited to be mounted on a wall. If you would like to receive a free copy, you should lodge your interest and your postal address at the following email address: mailto:rrohner@ozemail.com.au

New Website Design

Since the early years of the World Wide Web PIGVISION maintained its own website. Version 3.0 has been installed recently, making it easier to navigate through the virtual institute. The main innovation is the publication of essays highlighting the research philosophy of PIGVISION. The access to the institute is via the homepage at URL
http://www.artschool.utas.edu.au/pigvision/home.html

PIGVISION at Melbourne's Fringe Festival

Have you ever seen children cheerfully playing with 1000 (!) wooden cubes? As part of the research project "Cubical Thousand", PIGVISION invited families visiting the festival to construct patterns and structures with one thousand colourful cubes. Please take your time to look at the photos at URL
http://www.artschool.utas.edu.au/pigvision/cubephotos.html
The event was a success. Many thanks to Melbourne Fringe, Multicultural Arts Victoria and all helping hands involved!

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PIGVISION, PO Box 523, Melbourne VIC 8007, Australia

PIGVISION's Homepage:
http://www.artschool.utas.edu.au/pigvision/

PIGVISION seeks and promotes the refinement of artistic aspects in research. The purpose for which PIGVISION is established is:

• to maintain a portfolio of concrete research projects, set within the field of pig science, which give evidence of PIGVISION's mission and philosophy.
• to foster active debate about the relationship between art and science.
• to develop and engage in collaborations with artists, scientists and people from other fields.