Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my advisor, Roy Ascott, who was always available to share his wealth of knowledge and his extraordinary insight in the world of telematic art. Without his steadfast encouragement to trust my instincts while following the unusual path this research took, this thesis would not have been possible. My second advisor, Alan Liu, was a perfect complement to Roy, who with his expertise in English literature and hypertext had extremely helpful comments on the structure and flow of the narrative. I would also like to thank David Smith who added the third complementary point, with his background in biology which he has successfully merged into his multimedia education practice. My heart goes out to my partner and collaborator, Robert Nideffer, whose unique merging of the social sciences and the arts has made him a particularly qualified commentator when discussing online public spaces. I would also like to thank Allegra Snyder-Fuller, who directs Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI), for taking the time to answer many questions, directing me to important sources, and for allowing me full access to the archives. At the BFI, Gary Millikan's help in locating material was invaluable and John Ferry was always a helpful intermediary. The practical aspect of this research would have never taken place without the support from the University of California, Santa Barbara, particularly through the Research Across Disciplines (RAD) grant initiated by the Vice Chancellor of Research, France Cordova. I am grateful to her for taking the risk with something that is yet to be defined and being open to a highly interdisciplinary and experimental process. Finally, I would like to thank Jennifer Jones for taking on the pain-staking task of copy editing and making very valuable comments on the way.
