Oliver Grau is a new-media art historian, Lecturer in Art History at Humboldt University, Berlin, visiting Professor at the Kunst Universaet Linz, leader of the German Science Foundation's project on immersive art in Berlin, and developer of the first international data base resource for virtual art. He published widely and lectured in Europe, Japan, Brasil and the US. His research focuses on the history of illusion and immersion in media and art, the history of the idea and culture of telepresence and telecommunication, genetic art, and artificial intelligence. His most recent book is Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, Cambridge: MIT-Press, 2003.