LASER Louisville: a Leonardo/ISAST In-Person Rendezvous Event

The Louisville LASER program is a series of lectures and presentations on art, science, and technology-related projects and an affiliate of Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology (ISAST). Leonardo/ISAST LASER Talks is a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of LASER is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities and 5 continents worldwide.

Chaired by: MaybeItsFate co-founders Rebecca Norton & Clare Hirn

EVENT INFO

• Sunday / January 18th / 1pm / EST
• MaybeItsFate, 1425 Story Ave, 40206 
• www.maybeitsfate.com

Our next Louisville Laser Talks will take place Sunday, January 18th at 1pm, with Bernheim 2025-26 Artist-in-Residence Gracelee Lawrence, Louisville-based artist and educator Sara Noori, and 2025-26 Louisville Orchestra Creator-in-Residence Anthony R. Green. We invite you to join us in this weekend afternoon edition of Louisville Laser Talks. Light refreshments and snacks will be served. 

SPEAKERS BIOS

Gracelee Lawrence makes work testing the intersections of food, the body, and technology, occupying the transfigurative space between physical and digital realities. Manipulating their body by merging it with edible plants through 3D scanning and software manipulation, their sculptures investigate the gendered and fragmented nature of bodies while navigating the ecological and ethical complexities of bioplastics, particularly those derived from GMO corn. Their work questions sustainability narratives, industrial agriculture, and the compartmentalization of digital and physical spaces, all while staying grounded in materiality. Lawrence has attended more than 20 residencies worldwide and debuted their second solo show in New York at Postmasters in June 2022, earning a glowing review by Roberta Smith in The New York Times. They are the Head of Sculpture at the University at Albany, SUNY, with recent exhibitions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Wasserman Projects, and CHART. Their large-scale outdoor sculptures have been installed at Wave Hill, Franconia Sculpture Park, and other venues. A member of the MATERIAL GIRLS collective, they are a recipient of the 2024 Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Leave, a 2019 Jerome Fellowship, and a 2016–17 Luce Scholarship. Press highlights include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Hyperallergic, The Creative Independent, and MAAKE Magazine. Outside of their work, they are an enthusiastic dancer, lifelong horse person, and avid gardener.

Sara Noori is an artist and educator whose work explores identity, collaboration, and the body, both individual and collective, as a host for culture, memory, and creative survival. Drawing from community-based artmaking and museum education, their practice considers how ideas emerge in response to environmental conditions rather than individual authorship. They have organized and facilitated public programs including Family Day at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; led public and private art classes at elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the Chicago area; taught art at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago; and collaborated with the Community Belonging program at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY. In 2023, Noori was invited to co-create a site-specific mural titled Homecoming for Amy Sherald’s Portrait of Breonna Taylor: In the Garden at the Speed Art Museum. As an arts educator in Louisville, Noori has worked with the Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs, Dreams With Wings, First Hour Grief, Fund for the Arts, Frazier History Museum, and in school classrooms supporting students, participants, and communities through material exploration, collaborative making, and confidence-building practices. Across institutions and community spaces, their work prioritizes care, adaptability, and the cultivation of environments where creative growth can take root.

The creative practice of Anthony R. Green includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original works or works in the repertoire, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all of his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom, which manifest themselves in diverse ways in a composition, a performance, a collaboration, or social justice work. As a composer, his works have been presented in over 25 countries across six continents by various internationally acclaimed soloists and ensembles, including : vocalists Julian Otis, Anna Elder, and Amanda DeBoer Bartlett; violists Ashleigh Gordon, Carrie Frey, and Gregory Williams; pianists Kathleen Supové, Jason Hardink, Lewis Warren Jr., Clare Longendyke, and Eunmi Ko; percussionists Bill Solomon, Michael Skillern, and Dame Evelyn Glennie; and ensembles fivebyfive, NorthStar Duo, Transient Canvas, the McCormick Percussion Group, Meraki Duo, the American Composers Orchestra, the String Archestra, the Brooklyn Orchestra, the Playground Ensemble, Ossia New Music Ensemble, and Alarm Will Sound. His music has been presented at Symphony Space, Jordan Hall, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Elbphilharmonie, and Lincoln Center's Hearst Plaza, amongst others. As a multidisciplinary performer, he has appeared at venues in the US, Cyprus, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, South Korea, Brazil, and Ghana, premiering original works and working with student, emerging, and established composers such as Renée C. Baker, and George Crumb. His creative practice has been supported by grants from the Argosy Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, numerous consortium commissions, a McKnight Visiting Composers fellowship, a fellowship from the Berlin University of the Arts, and 11 artist residencies. Green is the co-founder of Castle of our Skins, the co-artistic director of the Cortona Sessions summer new music festival, and a visiting professor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.

SPONSOR

MaybeItsFate is a Louisville-based and member-owned social collective and club. Our mission is to foster the conditions for emergence — the emergence of new connections, ideas, art, and opportunities — through spaces designed for anyone who desires to be plugged into the creative pulse of the city. The collective is a member-owned cooperative that fosters a physical space and virtual space to fulfill its mission. The physical space offers a public art gallery and a members-only salon. The virtual space offers access to ideas, art, events, and opportunities for members from anywhere.