Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous of October 15, 2015

Exploring the Frontiers of Knowledge and Imagination, Fostering Interdisciplinary Networking

Stanford, October 15, 2015
c/o Stanford University
Li Ka Shing LK 120
Chaired by Piero Scaruffi

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. The event is free and open to everybody. Email me if you want to be added to the mailing list for the LASERs. Like previous evenings, the agenda includes some presentations of art/science projects, news from the audience, and time for casual socializing/networking.
Where: Stanford University, Li Ka Shing LK 120
There should be ample parking in the structure on corner of Campus Drive West and Roth Way. (Stanford map)
Parking is mostly free at Stanford after 4pm.
What (the order of the speakers might change):
  • 7:00-7:25: Brian Conrad (Stanford/ Math) on "The Mathematics of Symmetry" Mathematical symmetry's applications to art, Rubik's Cube, and the Internet... Read more
  • 7:25-7:50: Andreas Weigend (Stanford and former chief scientist at Amazon) on "Data of the people, by the people, for the people: How the Social Data Revolution changes (almost) everything" Data of the people, by the people, for the people 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: Elizabeth Kessler (Stanford/ Art) on "There and Back Again - Seeing Ourselves Through Telescopes, Satellites, and Space Probes" How we make sense of inhuman notions of time and space... Read more
  • 8:35-9:00: Meredith Tromble (San Francisco Art Institute) on " Dream Vortex: Adventures in Collaboration " An interactive, 3-D, mixed-reality art installation, based on dreams collected... Read more
  • 9:00pm-9:30pm: Discussions, networking You can mingle with the speakers and the audience
  • Watch it live on your mobile device by using
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See also...
  • Other LASER series
  • Leonardo ISAST
  • Art, Technology, Culture Colloquia
  • ScienceSchmoozer
  • LAST Festival
    Bios:
    • Brian Conrad (Stanford) received his PhD under the guidance of Andrew Wiles at Princeton, and since 2008 has been a Professor of Mathematics at Stanford. He works on problems involving symmetry that emerges from number theory, and co-organizes the semi-annual Public Lecture series organized by the Stanford Math department.
    • Elizabeth Kessler is a lecturer in American Studies and Art History at Stanford University. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has been awarded fellowships by NASA-Society for the History of Technology, Stanford University, and the Smithsonian Institute National Air and Space Museum. Her first book, Picturing the Cosmos: Hubble Space Telescope Images and the Astronomical Sublime (University of Minnesota), on the aesthetics of deep-space images, was published in 2012. She is currently working on new project about time capsules.
    • 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. 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.
    • Meredith Tromble is an artist and writer whose areas of interest include creative process and interdisciplinary research. She is the author of Art & Shadows, a series of essays on contemporary in light of contemporary research, funded by the Art Writers Grant Program of the Andy Warhol Foundation. In addition to her work as an Associate Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, she is currently collaborating with Dawn Sumner of the University of California, Davis on a virtual installation, Take Me Me To Your Dream (Dream Vortex).
    • Andreas Weigend, formerly the Chief Scientist of Amazon.com, teaches at Stanford and shares his insights at top conferences, such as the World Innovation Forum 2010 in New York. Known as a lively and engaging speaker, his main goal is to challenge the minds of the audience, helping them understand how the Social Data Revolution changes the behavior of people, companies, and society. He also gives speeches and workshops to the world's most innovative firms that combine cutting-edge ideas with his expertise on behavioral economics and vision for consumer-enabling technologies. Andreas received his undergraduate education in Germany and Cambridge (UK), and his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University. He taught Computer Science and Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Information Systems at the Stern School of Business at NYU and published more than 100 scientific papers. His career as a data scientist combined with his deep industry experience across information-intensive organizations allows him to successfully bridge the gap between academia and industry. See more at: http://weigend.com/blog/bio/#sthash.lIN0pcKZ.dpuf

    Extended abstracts:

    Kessler.
    The technologies used in space exploration - spaces probes, satellites, and telescopes - have dramatically increased humanity's reach into the cosmos. The spatial and temporal scales dwarf our human experiences, even human civilization. Through a discussion of two triumphs of NASA science and public relations - the Voyager space probes and the Hubble Space Telescope - my paper will examine how we make sense of these inhuman notions of time and space, an endeavor that involves remaking the alien into something familiar.



    Weigend.
    Data of the people, by the people, for the people


    Tromble

    "Dream Vortex" is an interactive, 3-D, mixed-reality art installation, based on dreams collected from a visualization research community. Originally intended for a CAVE, the work is now being developed for new 3-D technologies such 3-D monitor and Oculus Rift. The hyper-creative environment of the Djerassi Residency brought unexpected gifts of collaboration to the development of this ongoing project.


    Conrad.
    Conrad will explain through the work of Escher how the visual idea of symmetry can be developed as a mathematical subject, with unexpected applications to art, Rubik's Cube, and the Internet.


    Photos and videos of this evening