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Events

INAUGURAL UC DAVIS LASER: 3 OCTOBER 2013

The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program at the University of California, Davis presents its inaugural Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) on 3 October 2013, 6:30 p.m. Speakers include the co-founders of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, artist/educator Donna Billick and scientist Diane Ullman, on “Fusion and Perception”; composer/performer/author/media artist Bob Ostertag speaking about his work; artist Meredith Tromble and physicist/programmer Jordan Van Aalsburg on “The Vortex Touches Down”; and scientist Jim Crutchfield of the Complexity Sciences Center speaking about his work and interests. Location: 3001 PES (Plant and Environmental Sciences Building), UC Davis. Find out more

INAUGURAL UC SANTA CRUZ LASER: 8 OCTOBER 2013

The Institute of the Arts and Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz presents its inaugural Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER), “Exploring the Frontiers of Knowledge and Imagination, Fostering Interdisciplinary Networking,” 8 October 2013, 6:45 p.m. Speakers will lay the foundation for the series by speaking about the intertwining of art and science. Questions like "why art and science" and "why now" will provide context for the series as a local forum for presenting art and science projects underway throughout the University of California, in the Bay Area, and beyond. Presenters include Ken Goldberg, New Media, UC Berkeley; Jennifer A. González, History of Art and Visual Culture, UCSC; Gregory Laughlin, Astronomy and Astrophysics, UCSC; Piero Scaruffi, Founder, LASER Series; Gail Wight, Art and Art History, Stanford. Location: UCSC, Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) Rm. 108. For more information, contact the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at ias@ucsc.edu. Find out more

NEXT DASER: 19 SEPTEMBER 2013

Join us for the next DASER on Thursday, 19 September 2013, 6 PM at the Keck Center, Washington, D.C. Speakers include director of the American Meterological Society Education Program Jim Brey, neuroscientist and neurothicist Jim Giordano, assistant professor of entomology and biology David Hughes and artist and professor of art Judith Waller. The event is free and open to the public. Registration and photo ID required. For those of you who will not be able to make it, the event will be webcast live starting at 5:30 PM. Find out more

SPECIAL NYC LASER: 24 SEPTEMBER 2013

A special NYC LASER will take place Tuesday, 24 September 2013, 6:30–8:30 PM at LevyArts to discuss SPLICE: At the Intersection of Art and Medicine, a traveling exhibition curated by Nina Czegledy and appearing at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery 19 September–9 November 2013, that aims to investigate changing corporeal perceptions influenced by scientific, social, political and cultural interpretations. SPLICE presents a scientific gaze at the human body by showcasing historic anatomical art as both complemented and challenged by international contemporary artworks. Discussants will include Jack Butler from Toronto, Canada, Joyce Cutler Shaw from San Diego, U.S.A., and SPLICE project curator Nina Czegledy from Toronto, Canada. This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited; to reserve your place, send an email to Ellen Levy at . Find out more

MATHEMATICAL RHYMES: 6 SEPTEMBER–6 OCTOBER

Leonardo Electronic Almanac, in conjunction with Operational and Curatorial Research as well as Boston Cyberarts, is pleased to present Mathematical Rhymes, an exploration of art-making practices based in algorithmic and mathematical systems that translate into generative forms of moving image media. The exhibition pairs some of the earliest artworks dealing with the aesthetics of code and the structure of the computer screen with contemporary artists working with the visual and aural effects of computer data and networked technologies. By showcasing influential historical predecessors identified with the beginnings of computer art (Stephen Beck, Manfred Mohr, Lillian Schwartz and Stan VanDerBeek) alongside leading contemporary experimental media artists (Ryoichi Kurokawa, Yoshi Sodeoka and Casey Reas), Mathematical Rhymes promotes an expansive view of the procedural logic and imaginary that characterizes the aesthetic program of generative art. Find out more

Publications

Linda Henderson Interview on Expanding Mind

Linda Dalrymple Henderson, author of The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidian Geometry in Modern Art—published by MIT Press as part of the Leonardo Book Series—recently spoke with Erik Davis on his podcast Expanding Mind (Progressive Radio Network) on the subjects of abstract art, mysticism and the fourth dimension of space. The interview is available online. Find out more

Leonardo Affiliates

The UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences & UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program

Leonardo welcomes two new Affiliate Members:

The Institute of the Arts and Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is based in the Arts Division at UCSC. John Weber is the founding director of the Institute, joining the university in January 2013 to launch dynamic programming that supports, engages, and exhibits collaborative, cutting-edge research. The Institute looks forward to the groundbreaking of an innovative public space that will further its rigorous program of art projects, lecture series, and publications, and function as a gathering place committed to new learning experiences that challenge perceptions of the arts, sciences, and their relationships to the world. Find out more

The mission of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program at the University of California, Davis, is to bring the creative energies of the arts and the sciences into a mixture that catalyzes change and innovation in learning for people of all ages. Described by E.O. Wilson as “a spearhead for future creative work in the intellectual borderland,” the Art/Science Fusion Program is a portal into a new creative territory in which people observe the world around them with fresh eyes, testing their ideas and transforming those ideas into new concepts and new insights. The program is a collaboration among design faculty, science faculty, museum educators, professional artists, UC Davis students and community members. The program revolves around a teaching and learning model in which lectures or workshops combine concepts and site-specific contexts with hands-on experience with artistic media. Find out more

Opportunities and Community Announcements

Viewpoints: Mathematical Perspective and Fractal Geometry in Art

Viewpoints: Mathematical Perspective and Fractal Geometry in Art, by Marc Frantz & Annalisa Crannell is an undergraduate textbook devoted exclusively to relationships between mathematics and art. Viewpoints is ideally suited for math-for-liberal-arts courses and mathematics courses for fine arts majors. The textbook contains a wide variety of classroom-tested activities and problems, a series of essays by contemporary artists written especially for the book, and a plethora of pedagogical and learning opportunities for instructors and students. Cloth $45.00. Available at press.princeton.edu.

INTERSPATIAL: SYMPOSIUM AT THE EXPLORATORIUM

A series of groundbreaking art and technology experiments took place between 1965 and 1971, each seeking to integrate the advances of science and technology within the spheres of art and culture. San Francisco’s Exploratorium, itself a hybrid laboratory/museum environment, officially opened its doors in 1969 with the traveling exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity. The show featured the explorations of artists and scientists inspired by the creative possibilities of computation. On 21 September 2013, Interspatial: E.A.T., Cybernetic Serendipity and the Future of Creative Collaboration, a day-long symposium organized by the Exploratorium’s Center for Art & Inquiry, will bring together key collaborators of the E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) Pepsi Pavilion project along with other artists, theorists, and interdisciplinary thinkers to explore the legacy and influence of art and technology experiments of the 1960s and '70s. Find out more

PRO&CONTRA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF MEDIA CULTURE

This year’s Pro&Contra symposium, organized by "Manege” and MediaArtLab, will take place 16–19 October 2013 in Moscow’s Central Exhibition Hall and focus on the theoretical discussion of new media art and new visuality as a whole. Curators Olga Shishko and Andrey Scherbenok focus the event primarily on the meaning of newness: What is the relationship between the new visuality of media art and classical space? What is the principal difference between new media art and avant-garde experiments? What is the effect of new media on our notion of visible evidence, and how do they affect our everyday perceptions? Four multidisciplinary panels will constitute the core of the symposium. Find out more

AALTO BIOFILIA—BASE FOR BIOLOGICAL ARTS

Biofilia—Base for Biological Arts is a biological art unit launched under Finland’s Aalto ARTS in 2012. It offers a platform and infrastructure for trans-disciplinary research and education that aim at creating cultural discussion and innovation around the topics related to the manipulation of life and biological processes at both a practical and theoretical level. Aalto Biofilia is unique in the world, as it has the only fully equipped biological lab that is operated by an art school and based in an electrical engineering building. Biofilia’s next lecture in the Open Lectures Fall 2013 series is scheduled for 25 September 2013 and will feature artist Oron Catts. The lectures can also be viewed via live stream. Find out more

MANFRED MOHR, ARTIFICIATA II @ DAM GALLERY BERLIN

Beginning 14 September and running until 9 November 2013, DAM Gallery will present digital art pioneer Manfred Mohr’s fourth exhibition, Artificiata II, the sequel to Artificiata I (1969). With Artificiata II, the fifth in Mohr’s series of software works, the artist visualizes in real-time highly complex algorithms for computer animation on a monitor screen. Find out more

DEEP TIME/DEEP FUTURES

Deep Time/Deep Futures, a collaboration between the Finnish Society of Bioart and the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, is a symposium on artistic responses to the dichotomy between human time-perception and biological, environmental and geological time. From 15–22 September 2013, a group of Finnish and international artists, scientists and practitioners will take part in an art-and-science field laboratory at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Lapland. In work groups, think tanks and workshops they will carry out basic interdisciplinary research and field work with specific topics concerning Deep Time and Deep Futures. The five working groups will present and discuss their preliminary findings at the symposium on 23 and 24 September. Find out more

CALL FOR PAPERS: LAVAL VIRTUAL 2014

Papers are now being accepted for Laval Virtual 2014, the 16th International Meeting and Conference on Virtual Reality and Converging Technologies. The ACM-sponsored conference will take place 9–11 April 2014 in Laval, France. Areas of discussion include Natural User Interaction (NUI); Virtual, Augmented and Robotic Humans (VARH); Digital Heritage (DH); Augmented Experience within Real-Time Tele-Immersive Environments (AE); Interactive Art for Active Audience (IAAA); and New Uses of VR, AR, MR (NU). Deadline to submit: 15 October 2013. Find out more