- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event, free and open to the public, begins at 6:15 with networking, followed by speaker presentations at 6:30, conversations at 7:15, and ending with “Rapid Fire Community Sharing.”
The speakers are Veronika Hubeny, UC Davis professor of physics, who will speak on “Wonders of Black Holes”; Marit MacArthur, lecturer in the UC Davis University Program, “Poetry Reading Performative Speech and Sound Studies”; and Grant Ballard, chief science officer for the Point Blue Conservation Science, headquartered in Petaluma, speaking on “Providing the Scientific Basis for Protection of the World's Last Pristine Ocean.”
Hubeny is a theoretical physicist who explores the fundamental underpinnings of the universe. She focuses her research in the areas of string theory and quantum gravity, exploring the underlying nature of space time. “I am particularly fascinated by holographic qualities which describe higher-dimensional gravitational theory by a lower-dimensional non-gravitational one,” she says. Much of her work involves deeper understanding of black holes within this context, and “the mysterious links to quantum information theory.” (See YouTube video)
Grant Ballard currently leads projects investigating and communicating the effects of landscape-scale environmental stressors on ecosystems and human stakeholders in western North America and the Southern Ocean. He is responsible for shaping and growing Point Blue's multi-investigator scientific research and conservation programs towards the vision that healthy ecosystems will continue to sustain thriving wildlife and human communities in California and beyond, on land and at sea, for decades to come. He will talk about his research on Antarctica's Ross Sea ecosystem, the creation of a large marine protected Area, and climate-smart
The Leonardo Art, Science, Evening Rendezvous (LASER) talks at UC Davis are evening presentations that engage the public as participants in conversations with artists, designers, scientists, and technologists making significant contributions to their fields. The evenings are designed to encourage unexpected juxtapositions between seemingly unrelated projects, facilitating the interdisciplinary conversations that engage the challenges of the 21st century.
Coordinator is Jiayi Young, assistant professor, the Department of Design. Several personnel in the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, including artists/scientists Diane Ullman, professor of entomology, and Anna Davidson, now a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, founded the LASER program at UC Davis.
The UC Davis LASERS are sponsored by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies College of Letters and Science; and Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST),
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Free and open to the public, it will include presentations by Manuelita Antonio Rangel-Sosa (aka MARS) of San Francisco, architect, designer and artist; Megan Dennis, UC Davis biochemist, and Matthias Hess, UC Davis microbiologist.
The LASER presentations are an outgrowth of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, co-founded and co-directed by UC Davis professor of entomology Diane Ullman and Donna Billick, self-described rock artist based in Davis. The new co-directors of the UC Davis LASER programs are Timothy Hyde, assistant professor, Department of Art and Art History, and Jiayi Young, assistant professor, Department of Design.
“Tim Hyde and I envision LASER taking on a modality beyond just presentations,” Young said. “Adding a conversation component designed to engage the public in conversations with artists, designers, scientists and technologists, we will provide opportunities for unexpected juxtapositions that occur at the intersection of seemingly unrelated research and projects.”
The first event will feature:
Anna Davidson, artist and scientist and active in the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, founded the UC Davis LASER Program while she was studying for her master of fine arts degree from the Department of Art and Art History from 2014 to 2016.
Additional LASERs are scheduled for Feb. 9 and May 11. (Check with UC Davis LASER Facebook for ongoing information and updates.)
Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology is a nonprofit organization that serves the global network of scholars, artists, scientists, researchers and thinkers through programs focused on interdisciplinary work, creative output and innovation.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The LASER, free and open to the public, will begin with socializing and networking from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Each speaker will deliver a 25-minute presentation. "This possibly may be the last LASER event on the UC Davis campus," said coordinator and moderator Anna Davidson.
Ian Pollock, assistant professor of art who directs the Graduate Multimedia Program at California State University, East Bay, will speak on his work from 7 to 7:25. His creative work with communications technologies is featured in several anthologies of digital media art. In addition to fruitful collaborations in Guerrilla Grafting, he is involved in mapping prejudice and developing an after-school program in neuroscience and game making. He holds a master of fine arts degree from UC Berkeley.
Ciera Martinez, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley where she researches comparative genomics in fruit flies, will discuss “The Concealed Beauty of Plant Architecture” from 7:25 to 7:50. Her presentation will revolve around her doctorate work, which focused on plant development. As a biologist, she is interested in how organisms evolve and get their shape.
Sarah Strand will cover “The Evolution of Religion” in her talk from 8:35 to 9 p.m. Strand teaches psychology classes at California State University, Sacramento. She holds a doctorate in behavioral neuroscience and has lectured on neurobiology topics (including religion, morality and love) for six years.
In her abstract, Strand says: “Darwin's theory of natural selection provides a spring board for a discussion about the evolution of ideas, including religion. From this perspective, the biopsychological origins of religion and atheism are discussed. Concluding statements focus on evidence of how religion has ‘survived' by expanding and adjusting to changes in culture, a.k.a. it's ‘environment.'”
The series of LASER events on the UC Davis campus are affiliated with the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, co-founded by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomoogy and Nematology, and self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick.
For more information, contact Anna Davidson at adavidson@ucdavis.edu or access the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/1715690135315290/
Related links:
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/laser.html
http://www.scaruffi.com/leonardo/
Map: http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/plantsciences/visitors/map.htm
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event, free and open to the public, will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and will begin with socializing and networking from 6:30 to 7 p.m. It is affiliated with the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, co-founded by Diane Ullman, professor of entomology at UC Davis and artist Donna Billick.
Patricelli, a professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, will present her talk on “Tools of the Pornithologists” from 7 to 7:25 p.m. Patricelli studies bioacoustics, breeding behaviors and the impacts of noise pollution on birds. Much of the research in the Patricelli lab addresses sexual selection and breeding ecology of greater sage-grouse. This has included detailed studies of courtship behaviors using robotic females and microphone arrays, as well as remote telemetry to address how foraging ecology relates to lekking behaviors. The Patricelli lab has also examined the impacts of noise from vehicle traffic and energy development on greater sage-grouse lek attendance, stress levels, and behaviors.
Other speakers are
Jeff Mayry, a master of fine arts candidate in the Art Studio, UC Davis Department of Art and Art History, who will speak on “Dream House” from 7:25 to 7:50 p.m. He received his master's and bachelor of science degrees from Sacramento State University.
Sharon Bladholm, who fuses art with science on scientific expeditions to the Amazon, will speak on “The Interface Between Art, Science and Conservation” from 8:35-9:00. “My work is profoundly influenced by my participation as an artist, on scientific expeditions to remote and biologically diverse ecosystems of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon on expeditions with the Field Museum, Conservation International and Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program,” she says. She explores the interfaces of art, science, conservation and nature in her many series of artworks in numerous mediums, including sculptural works in glass, bronze and ceramic. In February she will return to Peru with Project Amazonas.
In between speakers, networking and socializing will take place from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m., and “anyone can have 30 seconds to share their work, announce an exhibitor or a show or an idea,” said moderator and organizer Anna Davidson. She holds a doctorate in plant ecophysiology from the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and is currently a master of fine arts candidate in Art Studio, UC Davis Department of Art and Art History.
More information is available on Facebook at! https://www.facebook.com/events/854193051353509/
Related Links:
LASER:
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/laser.html
http://www.scaruffi.com/leonardo/
Map:
http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/plantsciences/visitors/map.htm
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A reception (free admission and open to the public) will take place Friday, Feb. 12 from 6 to 9 p.m. The evening will include juror talks from 5:15 to 6:45 p.m., and an awards presentation at 7:30. This is the fourth biannual multi-media display of the artists' work.
Sharon Bladholm, a Chicago-based sculptor and Shih-Wen Young, a Sacramento physicist and installation artist, juried the show. Bladholm will speak from 5:15 to 6 p.m. and Young from 6 to 6:45 p.m.
“Sharon Bladholm has pursued her artistic vision through the steady acquisition and command of a variety of disciplines, including cast glass, bronze, and ceramic in the sculptural realm, as well as stained glass, printmaking and works on paper,” according to her website. “The recurring theme in Bladholm's work is the interface of people with the natural world, integrating the sciences of anthropology with biology and botany from the plant world.”
Her website indicates that she has "participated on expeditions with the Field Museum, Conservation International and Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program to the Brazilian, Venezuelan and Peruvian Amazon, documenting the life ways of the Yanomami people through her art, and exploring conservation of endangered plant and animal species in isolated communities."
Young will speak from 6 to 6:45 p.m. about the selection of the work for the current show. He is a professor in the physics department of American River College, Sacramento. He and his wife, a new faculty member in the UC Davis Design Department, have created art/science connections for years. For one of their major shows, "One Moment in Time," they explored sound. Of that art, Young writes on a web page: "Sound is a unique quality Earth possesses. Our planet wouldn't be what it is today without sound. However, moment after moment, sound is generated, then disappears like the ocean waves crashing onto the shore and parishes without a trace. If you could see sound and capture the image, what would sound look like? We use the physics of sound propagation to calculate and visually map sound using our innovative real-time, 3D, sound visualization model." (See images)
The show includes the work of local favorites as well as artists throughout the country. Among the local artists is Anna Davidson, who recently received her doctorate at UC Davis in the Department of Plant Sciences and is now studying for her master of fine arts degree. She organizes the UC Davis LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) events.
The Pence Gallery is open from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays. For further information on the show, contact the Pence Gallery at (530) 758-3370.