Hott
I will explore many different forms of nets that enlace, trace, and weave in visible and invisible ways. Following the path of a wandering research practice, we will walk a line from the earliest known nets to the development of the electric grid.

Sequin
A Klein bottle is a single-sided surface with no borders and with a shared "inside" and "outside." Klein bottles are best experienced and most easily understood when holding a physical model in your hands. By grafting together simple Klein bottles, one can form "Super-Bottles" of higher genus (i.e., with a higher degree of connectivity). Modular parts have been fabricated on a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) machine; they can be connected in many different ways into high-genus "Super-Bottles." Some of the resulting topological models are attractive enough, so that they can be enjoyed as art-works even by people who do not know the underlying mathematical background.

Schwarzer
Habitat dioramas occupy significant square footage in most natural science museums. Yet, their value has been hotly debated. Created before the age of jet travel and the Discovery Channel, and more theatrical than scientifically accurate, are they still relevant as museum exhibitions? Some museum professionals regard dioramas not only as misleading, but boring and static, while visitors have called them creepy displays of dead animals. Perhaps, however, we can appreciate them as a powerful fusion of art and science. "Dioramas," writes former natural science curator Stephen Quinn, "are an illusion created not to deceive us, but ... to tug at our hearts and open our minds." In this talk, drawn from research I conducted for the Oakland Museum of California, I will illustrate this point through discussing the evolution of the diorama as a fascinating artifact that reveals the relationship between urban dwellers and our fantasies about wildlife.