- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
LASER, an acronym for Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous, engages the public with artists, designers, scientists and technologists who are making significant contributions to their fields.
The event, free and open to the public, begins at 6 with networking, followed by speaker presentations at 6:30 p.m., and conversations at 7:15, followed by “Rapid Fire Community Sharing” when audience members share some of the projects they're working on. Registration is recommended: access http://ucdlaser02.eventbrite.com.
The speakers are:
- Fiamma Montezemolo, an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Cinema and Digital Media and a scholar in border studies who works with installation and video.
- Lillian Cruz-Orengo, an assistant professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine-Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology whose research focuses on the impact of environmental exposure and sexual dimorphisms on blood-brain barrier function and neuroimmune interaction, particularly the central nervous system autoimmunity
- Cy Keener, a lecturer at Stanford University and an interdisciplinary artist focused on creating field recordings of natural phenomena and experiential representations of these recordings
UC Davis LASER is funded by a UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES) Programmatic Initiative that Ullman wrote. Faculty and graduate students from CA&ES, Humanities Arts and Cultural Studies and College of Biological Sciences are working to support LASER. This year the directors are Jiayi Young, UC Davis Department of Design faculty; Timothy Hyde, Art Studio faculty; and Breanne Sparta, doctoral candidate, UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
LASER is described as the “only speaker series on campus that is truly interdisciplinary across multiple colleges” and “is designed to encourage unexpected juxtapositions between seemingly unrelated projects, facilitating interdisciplinary conversations that engage the challenges of the 21st century.”
Montezemolo, who works mainly with installation and video, will discuss her work in art and anthropology with a special emphasis on border-related methodologies. She is both an artist (master's degree at the San Francisco Art Institute) and a cultural anthropologist (doctorate at the Universita' degli Studi Orientali di Napoli). She exhibits her work nationally and internationally; she is represented by the Magazzino Gallery in Rome. Montezemolo has authored or co-authored several articles and books, including “Tijuana Dreaming: Life and Art at the Global Border” (Duke University Press), and “Here Is Tijuana” (Black Dog Publishing).
Keener will share reflections on the role of data collection in art through the context of recent projects. He is an affiliate resident at Autodesk's Pier 9 workshop, where he creates buoys to capture wave dynamics and sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean. He holds a master's degree in art practice from Stanford University and a master's degree in architecture from UC Berkeley. “My installations coax strings of numbers into immersive environments of light, space and sound,” he says. Keener completed commissioned installations for Stanford University, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas, El Paso.
Cruz-Orengo said she will share “some provocative glimpses about the triad of sexual dimorphism, autoimmunity, and multiple sclerosis.” In her research, she asks: “Do sexual dimorphisms matter to human health? For centuries, biomedical research was ‘androcentric.' The extensive focus on women's health, which roughly began in 1990, brought forward new scientific questions and ideas for research in the field.”
“We expect a range of efforts to emerge from LASER that will include innovations in instruction and research building on the synergy from connecting art and science,” Ullman wrote in the proposal.
LASER is the public outreach component of Leonardo International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo ISAST), an international organization that represents innovative discoveries at the cross section of art, design, science, and technology. MIT Press publishes its peer-reviewed journal, book series, and online presence. The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion program, that Ullman has directed with Donna Billick, is the official Leonardo-Affiliated Program that brings LASER to the UC Davis campus.
For directions to the Art Annex Building, see http://ucdlaser02.eventbrite.com. The Art Annex is located south of the Art Building and about halfway between the Memorial Union and Mrak Hall on the UC Davis campus. The building was formerly known as the TCS Building.
The UC Davis LASER Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/laser.ucd.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
One of the names proposed is the Da Vinci Institute.
To discuss the concept, a colloquium will take place from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday, March 16 in Room 3001 of the Plant Environmental Sciences Building. A reception will follow the discussions from 5 to 6 p.m.
"The program for the afternoon is designed to engage the scholars, scientists, and artists of the UC Davis community," said entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor of entomology in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. "What is the potential for a Da Vinci Institute on our campus? What kinds of program could such an institute generate?"
The keynote speaker will be Roger Malina, distinguished professor of art and technology, and professor of physics at the University of Texas (UT), Dallas. Since 1982, he has served as executive editor of the Leonardo Publications at MIT Press. He founded, and serves on the board of two nonprofits, Leonardo/ISAST in San Francisco and OLATS in Paris, which advocate and document the work of artists involved in contemporary science and technology.
Leonardo/ISAST is an acronym for the Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology. OLATS is an acronym for Observatoire Leonardo pour les Arts et les Techno-Sciences.
Malina founded the ArtSciLab in the ATEC Program at UT Dallas in the fall of 2013. This transdisciplinary research lab hosts projects which involve in-depth collaboration between artists and scientists; the aim of the lab is to carry out research which results in art works, scientific data analysis tools, a technology testbed. In addition, the lab develops education activities involving the integration of the arts, design and humanities in science, technology, education and mathematics (STEAM).
The program agenda:
1:00-1:15 Introduction and Goals (Diane Ullman)
1:15-2:15 Keynote Address and Q&A (Roger Malina)
2:15-2:30 BREAK
2:30-3:00 Discussion Breakout Sessions Facilitated By Organizers
3:00-3:30 Large Group Summary Facilitated by Roger Malina and Diane Ullman
3:30-4:00 Discussion Breakout Sessions Facilitated By Organizers
4:00-4:30 Large Group Summary Facilitated by Roger Malina and Diane Ullman
4:30-5:00 Final Thoughts from Roger Malina and Next Steps (Organizers)
5:00-6:00 Reception
Those involved in the formation of the UC Davis based-project include
- Diane Ullman, professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who co-founded and co-directed the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program
- Terry Nathan, professor of atmospheric science, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources
- Wendy Silk, professor emerita of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, and distinguished art scientist
- Colin Milburn, Gary Snyder Chair in Science and the Humanities; and professor of English, Science and Technology, and Cinema and Technocultural Studies, Department of English
- Petr Janata, professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain.
- Youngsuk Suh, co-chair of the Department of Art and Art History and associate professor of art
- Robin Hill, professor, Art Studio, Department of Art and Art History
- Timothy Hyde, assistant professor of art, Art Studio, Department of Art and Art History
- James Housefield. assistant professor of design, Department of Art and Art History
Those planning to attend should RSVP Diane Ullman at deullman@ucdavis.edu by March 14.
About Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote."--Wikipedia.