SYNTHEISS PROCESSING & COLLABORATION is a retrospective art show by new media art pioneers Dan Sandin and Tom DeFanti, covering a collaboration that started 37 years ago and continues today. Sandin and DeFanti began working together in 1973 when they met at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where they founded the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, and are now directors emeriti. The show can be seen at gallery@calit2, on the campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), from January 14 through March 11, 2011.

Sandin is now a part-time consultant and DeFanti is a full-time research scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UCSD. Throughout their careers, Sandin and DeFanti have invented new ways of artistic mediation - through an ongoing process of collaboration where the synthesis of art, engineering and science have led to new methodologies that influenced the creation of the field of new media art.

The show features videos from the 1970s containing image processing art works and interviews with the collaborators. Also on display is an original Sandin Image Processor (IP), early video camera equipment, and photos from 1970s’ performances and events. In addition to the old, this exhibition also marks the debut of a new virtual-reality installation entitled “Particle Dreams in Spherical Harmonics.”

For information about the SYNTHEISS PROCESSING & COLLABORATION exhibition, see gallery.calit2.net/portal/ and www.calit2.net/events/popup.php?id=1815.

The San Diego Citybeat newspaper reviews the show and provides a very personable interview with the principals, Sandin and DeFanti, where they talk about their 37 year collaboration.

If you are interested in seeing the show but unable to travel to San Diego, check out on the gallery’s webcam at gallery.calit2.net/live.php.