Margaret Crane has been a Xerox PARC Artist in Residence (PAIR) for the past 3 years. The PAIR program teams artists with scientists to enhance the creative endeavors of both. She spoke about her experiences in the program, on the impact of their collaboration on both artists and scientists, and discussed creativity as a tool to enhance our professional lives.

Over the past 15 years, the collaboration Margaret Crane/Jon Winet has produced work that revolves around the language and images of the information age, focusing on the psycho-social pathology of contemporary urban life. From 1994 through 1998, they were artists in residence at Xerox PARC, a technology think tank, working with researchers Dale MacDonald and Scott Minneman exploring the intersection of art and technology and the impact of the Internet and interactive media on public space. In 1997 they produced Sunset, an interactive branching narrative displayed on two Sony JumboTrons on Hollywood’s legendary Sunset Boulevard as part of SIGGRAPH 97’s Electric Garden.

During the summer of 1998 they presented Nightfall, a related hypertextual multimedia narrative installation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Nightfall examined personal relationships against the backdrop of social malaise and psychic unrest in the waning moments of the 20th century. In September 1998, they inaugurated The Eliza Project: Phase I, a project dealing with artificial life and psychotherapy, the most recent addition to General Hospital, an ongoing exploration of mental health and art and technology issues.