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The LASERs are a national program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversation with an audience. See the program for the whole series.
Leonardo ISAST and USF invite you to a meeting of the Leonardo Art/Science community.
The event is free and open to everybody.
Like previous evenings,
the agenda includes some presentations of art/science projects,
news from the audience, and time for casual socializing/networking.
See below for location and agenda.
Email me if you want to be added to the mailing list for the LASERs.
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See also...
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Program:
- 7:00-7:25:
Anna Davidson (UC Davis/ Plant Sciences) on "It's Alive!"
A brief history and overview of Bioart... Read more
- 7:25-7:50:
Hideo Mabuchi (Stanford/ Applied Physics) on "Creative Process in Applied Science and Art"
Scientific research follows a process similar to that of artistic exploration... Read more
- 7:50-8:10: BREAK. Before or after the break, anyone in the audience currently working within the intersections of art and science will have 30 seconds to share their work. Please present your work as a teaser so that those who are interested can seek you out during social time following the event.
- 8:10-8:35:
Fabrice Florin (Artist and Technologist) on "The Pataphysical Slot Machine"
A community-created poetic oracle created by a collective of artists, engineers, teachers and students... Read more
- 8:35-9:00:
Rieko Yajima (AAAS and Stanford/ Design) on "Art/Science Policy"
- 9:00pm-9:30pm: Discussions, networking
You can mingle with the speakers and the audience
Bios:
- Anna Davidson is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in art studio for sculpture/biological arts at UC Davis. In 2014 she received her Ph.D. in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis where she studied ecophysiology of trees. She teaches at the intersection of art and science and her research incorporates both disciplines.
- Fabrice Florin is a multimedia innovator who has worked with innovators such as Apple and Macromedia. He now consults on worthy projects, with a focus on content strategy, community engagement and product development. He previously worked as movement communications manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, where he managed and edited the Wikimedia blog -- and helped nurture a 'culture of kindness' across Wikipedia communities. Prior to that, he was product manager, leading the development of many new tools for Wikipedia, such as Notifications, Media Viewer and Thanks. His previous ventures include: NewsTrust.net, a nonprofit social news network, helping folks tell apart fact from fiction; Handtap / GoComics, a wireless content provider for mobile devices; Shockwave.com, a web entertainment site we started at Macromedia; Zenda Studio, award-winning multiplayer game developer; Apple Computer's Multimedia Lab, a research and development group; Videowest, a producer of rock journalism and entertainment for young adults.
- Hideo Mabuchi, Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University, received an A.B. (Physics, 1992) from Princeton University and a Ph.D. (Physics, 1998) from Caltech. He is currently serving as the Chair of his Department at Stanford. His scientific research focuses on quantum engineering and single-molecule biophysics, but recently he has begun to explore applications of his technical training in the artistic realm of studio ceramics. Related interests include craft theory and the development of new educational approaches in higher education that integrate science, culture and art.
- Piero Scaruffi is a cultural historian who has lectured in three continents and published several books on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, the latest one being "The Nature of Consciousness" (2006). He pioneered Internet applications in the early 1980s and the use of the World-Wide Web for cultural purposes in the mid 1990s. His poetry has been awarded several national prizes in Italy and the USA. His latest book of poems and meditations is "Synthesis" (2009). As a music historian, he has published ten books, the latest ones being "A History of Rock and Dance Music" (2009) and "A History of Jazz Music" (2007). His latest book of history is "A History of Silicon Valley" (2011). The first volume of his free ebook "A Visual History of the Visual Arts" appeared in 2012. His latest book is "Intelligence is not Artificial" (2013). He has also written extensively about cinema and literature.
- Rieko Yajima is a biochemist with interests that lie at the intersection of science and society-which include design and policy. She has organized national symposia on these topics. She has given talks on the nexus between scientific research and design thinking at Stanford University's d.school and the Design Principles and Practices Conference. For the past eight years, she has worked for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in Washington, DC, where she advises the scientific community on ways to strengthen research and innovation and in the use of informed decision-making for funding research. In 2015, Yajima was elected to the Global Young Academy, a rallying point for outstanding young scientists from around the world to come together to address topics of global importance. She holds a doctorate degree in integrative biosciences from Penn State University and served as a science policy fellow at the National Academy of Sciences.
Address and directions:
University of San Francisco
2130 Fulton Street
SF, CA 94117
Fromm Hall - FR 115 - Berman Room
2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117-1080
Fromm Hall is behind the church, best accessed from Parker Ave.
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Extended abstracts
Mabuchi
We all learn in school about the so-called Scientific Method, but I will argue that creative scientific research may follow a substantially different process similar to that of artistic exploration. One might conclude that the latter therefore should be an integral part of our training regimen for young scientists and engineers; I will describe an attempt to begin introducing craft and creative exploration as integrated components of undergraduate physical sciences education at Stanford.
Florin
The `Pataphysical Slot Machine is a poetic oracle created by an art collective in Mill Valley that includes Fabrice Florin, Howard Rheingold and dozens of artists, engineers, teachers and students. Their unique exhibit invites you to face mysterious `cabinets of curiosity', hear words of wisdom from a surreal character called Ubu, and open magical "wonderboxes" for more inspiration. Along with the exhibit, the group also offers maker workshops to help students of all ages create their own interactive art. This collaborative project is inspired by the maker culture, combinatorial poetics - and `Pataphysics, the "science of imaginary solutions." In this talk, Fabrice will discuss how this project came about, what they discovered together, and how it has now grown into a "peer learning network" that lets them experiment together, learn from each other and create something greater than any of them had imagined.
Davidson
Bioart, distinguished by its medium, is living matter in the form of tissues, bacteria, fungi, or entire living organisms and their life processes as art. I will provide a general overview of bioart, touch on its history and discuss the contemporary artists working in this field.
Photos and videos of this evening
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