Laser Talks in Santa Fe: The Aesthetics of Placemaking Through Land-based Practices

On the relationships between place, community and history in one’s artistic practice, and how aesthetics can forge connections.

EVENT INFO

When: June 24, 5:30 PM MDT (UTC-6). Find your timezone here!

Where: Online, Zoom webinar, ZOOM Link will be provided upon registration via eventbrite. 

Registration/ more information: http://sciartsantafe.org

*LASER will be offered in English with Spanish translations  

SciArt Santa Fe and University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts, in conjunction with Leonardo / International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, present The Aesthetics of Placemaking Through Land-based Practices, a Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER).

This webinar will examine the relationships between place, community and history in one’s artistic practice, and how aesthetics can forge connections. Featuring artists Chrissie Orr and Joanna Keane Lopez in conversation with Dr. Susan Elizabeth Ryan, Professor of Art History at Louisiana State University and an expert on dress, technology and wearables. Joanna Keane Lopez works with adobe mud, merging art and architecture to create sculptures and installations that seek to heal and repair a sense of fragmentation towards land, home, family and community, all of which are connected to her own multi-generational roots in New Mexico. Chrissie Orr, an interdisciplinary artist creating innovative, provocative community-based projects is co-founder of Seed Broadcast, a community-engaged art practice exploring seed, arid-land agri-Culture, resiliency and climate change.

This is the second in SciArt Santa Fe’s three-part series, in which diverse humanities scholars, artists, and scientists consider regional land use histories and ethics of place.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Susan Elizabeth Ryan, Ph.D. is Professor of Art History at Louisiana State University and Affiliate of the LSU Center for Computational Technology (CCT). She taught contemporary and new media art history and co-founded an interdisciplinary Art/Engineering curriculum at LSU for more than 25 years. She has lectured internationally on dress and technology and MIT Press published her history of art, dress, and technology entitled Garments of Paradise: Wearable Discourse in the Digital Age in 2014. Earlier publications include Somehow a Past: The Autobiography of Marsden Hartley (MIT Press 1995) and Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech (Yale Univ. Press 2000). She is retired and resides in Santa Fe.

Chrissie Orr was born in Scotland, a descendant of the Picts (the painted ones) She is an artist, animateur and creative investigator focused on animating “a relational aesthetic around community (human and non-human) and site with issues relevant to both.” Orr has created innovative, provocative community - based interdisciplinary projects in diverse areas of the world and is recognized internationally for her pioneering work. She is the recipient of the Santa Fe Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and she is a founder of the SeedBroadcast Collective. She is the co-founder of the Academy for the Love of Learning’s EL Otro Lado Project and the Institute for Living Story and is presently the Academy’s Creative Practice Fellow. She has kept a journal for more years than she can remember, their broken worn spines line her bookshelves and contain her secret memory lines. One day she might share these. In her spare time, she grows ancient varieties of corn and beans to learn new ways of being in this world and loves to instigate beautiful trouble.

Joanna Keane Lopez (b. Albuquerque, NM) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blurs the boundaries between contemporary sculpture and architecture through the medium of adobe mud. By working with materials of adobe architecture, earthen plaster and alíz (a clay slip paint) her work addresses conceptions of sculpture in engagement with land. Joanna’s work seeks to heal and repair a sense of fragmentation towards land, home, family and community, all of which are connected to her own multi-generational roots in New Mexico. Joanna is a grant recipient of the Fulcrum Fund of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and was included in Americans for the Arts - Public Art Year in Review Award. Her work has been exhibited at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. She has completed residencies at Ucross Foundation, Herekeke Arts Center and A-Z West.

SPONSORS: 

This series is possible with the generous support of the New Mexico Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About Leonardo/ISAST and LASER talks

Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST) is a non-profit serving a global network of distinguished scholars, artists, scientists, researchers and thinkers through programs focused on interdisciplinary work, creative output and innovation. Leonardo provides a virtual community for networking, research and events in Art/Science/Technology. Leonardo began hosting a network of Leonardo Art, Science, Evening Rendezvous (LASER) public outreach talks around the world in 2008. LASERs take place in Zurich, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, New York City, London and Montreal, Santa Fe (via Biocultura) and other locations. For more information on LASER  go to: http://www.leonardo.info/isast/laser.html

About SciArt Santa Fe

SciArt Santa Fe, 501(c)3, creates public programming bridging the arts, sciences, and technology for practitioners, students, and the general public, creating opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration and the exchange of ideas. SciArt Santa Fe programming advocates for sustainable environmental practices, local and global scientific and artistic literacy, technological equity, and freedom of thought and imagination.  Sciartsantafe.org

About New Mexico Humanities Council

NMHC supports public programs in New Mexico communities that inspire inclusive conversations that strengthen our civil society and celebrate diverse human experiences. Since 1972, the New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC) has sought to engage New Mexicans with history, culture, and diverse humanities topics through Council-conducted public programs and grant funding for special projects. https://nmhumanities.org