Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous of March 2008

Constructive Interference of the Arts and Sciences

San Francisco, 10 March 2008
c/o SFSU
835 Market
San Francisco

An event about Artists and Scientists who work/think/imagine/engage at the intersections of the Arts and Science.

Chaired by Piero Scaruffi.
Part of a series of cultural events


Leonardo ISAST invites you to a meeting of the Leonardo Art/Science community. See below for location and agenda.

The event is free and open to everybody. Feel free to invite relevant acquaintances.

Please RSVP to p@scaruffi.com . Admission is limited.

Like previous evenings (See the january meeting) the agenda includes some presentations of art/science projects, a couple of brief "news", and time for casual socializing/networking.

See also...


When: March 10, 2008

Where: Donwtown facilities of SFSU

835 Market, between 4th and 5th Streets, 6th floor
BART and MUNI tip: the building is above the Powell Station
See directions below
What (see speakers' bios below):
  • 6:00pm-7:00pm: Socializing/networking. We encourage you to interact with Leonardo board members:

  • 6:55-7:00: Welcome by Jeff Babcock, Executive Director of the International Center for the Arts, SFSU and Leonardo ISAST board member
  • 7:00-7:30: Tami Spector of USF on "Chemistry and Contemporary Visual Art" Relative to physics, mathematics, and biology the intersections of chemistry and contemporary visual art have been relatively neglected. In this talk I will explore some of the ways that modern and contemporary artists have explored this connection, focusing on how the visual arts share unique material and conceptual aspects with chemistry. Specific works by artists who self-define their art in relation to chemistry and others whose work can be recontextualized through the lens of chemistry will be discussed. See also this page.
  • 7:30-8:00: Amy Ione of the Diatrope Institute on "Perception, Photography, and the Art/Sci Equation" The USA film and video critic Gene Youngblood once wrote that "all art is experimental, or it isn't art." This presentation examines some historical experiments between artists and scientists, primarily those who brought perception and photography together, to show the value of an interdisciplinary approach. I will then relate this model to the contemporary Art/Sci environment.
  • 8:00-8:10: Piero Scaruffi on the Leonardo Day of the "Big Bang" conference Berkeley's New Media Center and Leonardo ISAST are organizing a two-day academic conference to be held in June 2008 at the Berkeley Museum. I will briefly remind the audience of this conference and specifically of the program for the Leonardo day (second day of the conference). At the next Leonardo event on May 12 Richard Rinehart, Curator of the Berkeley Museum, will present the Berkeley day of the conference (first day of the conference).
  • 8:10-8:30: Kathelin Gray of Ecotechnics on "Organic Realism" The Institute of Ecotechnics (I.E.) was founded in the '70's with the premise that action and interaction promote learning and creativity. Annual conferences, projects in different ecological zones worldwide, in conjunction with scientific and artistic collaborations, have resulted in a network of people and efforts. The focus of this presentation will be the role of the arts and performance and the concept of organic realism, in such efforts.
  • 8:30-8:50: Sharon Daniel of UCSC on "Public Secrets" Public Secrets provides an interactive interface to an audio archive of hundreds of statements made by current and former prisoners which unmask the secret injustices of the war on drugs, the criminal justice system and the prison industrial complex. Visitors navigate a multi-vocal narrative that links individual testimony and public evidence, social theory and personal statements, in an effort to challenge the assumption that imprisonment provides a solution to social problems.
  • 8:50: Piero Scaruffi on the next Leonardo Art/Science evening I will simply preview the line-up of speakers for the next Leonardo Art/Science Evening event that will take place on May 12.

    9:00pm-9:45pm: Discussions, more socializing

Bios:
  • Tami Spector is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of San Francisco and serves on the Board of Leonardo. She has a strong interest in the intersections of chemistry and art and aesthetics and has published a number of papers related to these topics. She is currently serving as a guest editor for an on-going special section of Leonardo on nanoscience/technology and art and welcomes comments and/or submission on this topic from the audience.
  • Amy Ione, an international lecturer, painter, and writer, is presently the Director of the Diatrope Institute in Berkeley. She has published several books, most recently Innovation and Visualization: Trajectories, Strategies, and Myths (Rodopi, 2005), and is working on a special issue for the Journal of the History of Neuroscience on Visual Images and Visualization.
  • Kathelin Gray, artistic director, Theatre of All Possibilities, is known for her wide-ranging interdisciplinary collaborations involving performance, music, science and installations. She is co-founder of October Gallery and Institute of Ecotechnics in London, October Galley in London, Synergia Ranch in Santa Fe, Caravan of Dreams Performing Arts Center in Texas, and more. Theatre of All Possibilities is a 35-year-old international performance and event production company (www.allpossibilities.org). She has traveled all over the world, organised 30 interdisciplinary conferences, been selected as one of the most innovative CEO's by the Tarrytown 100, served on the board of directors to the Biosphere 2 project.
  • Sharon Daniel is an Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media and Chair of the Digital Arts and New Media MFA program at the University of California, Santa Cruz where she teaches classes in digital media theory and practice. Her research involves collaborations with communities that focus on the use and development of information and communications technologies for social inclusion.
  • Piero Scaruffi is a cognitive scientist 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. As a music historian, he has published ten books, the latest ones being "A History of Rock Music" (2003) and "A History of Jazz Music" (2007). He has also written extensively about cinema, literature and the visual arts. An avid traveler, he has visited 121 countries of the world.

Directions:

From Market Street, Enter at SFSU (835 Market) and take elevator to 6th Floor. Signs will be posted If coming on BART, take POWELL STATION exit, enter Concourse Food Court, look for Out The Door restaurant on the left. Immediately past the restaurant, turn left, walk past the first set of elevators to the second set of elevators and go to the 6th floor.

If coming on MUNI, take POWELL STATION exit, enter Westfield Centre and head through the first mini-food court to main concourse food court. Walk straight across the food court and walk between Amoura and Out the Door restaurants, past the first set of elevators to the second set of elevators and go to the 6th floor.

If driving, Park in the 5th and Mission Garage. Enter through Market Street or walk through Bloomingdale's, look for the signs to San Francisco State University and take elevator to 6th floor.

SFSU Downtown Campus 835 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94103

ICA Office: 415.817.4476


Confirmed so far:
Photos