MutaMorphosis in Prague Nov 8-10

If you have not already registered there still may just be time to get to Prague for Mutamorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences, a major conference taking place from 8-10 November, organized as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of MIT press art-science journal Leonardo.

"More than 80 presentations of artists, interdisciplinary researchers, scientists and creative technologists will focus on the growing interest within the worlds of arts and sciences in extreme and hostile environments", says Roger F. Malina, conference co-chair.

There will be a keynote lecture about the architecture of complexity by Albert-László Barabási, who is recognised for the introduction of the scale-free network concept and popularization of
network theory, and a lecture by Roy Ascott, pioneering cyber artist who published in 1967 in the first volume of the Leonardo Journal.

Among the invited speakers there are Stelarc, one of the world-famous artists using technology to extend capabilities of human body, nano artist Victoria Vesna who will be speaking with nano scientist James Gimzewski, the author of 2005 most downloaded paper in Nature on a pocket sized nuclear fusion device, or artist-scientist duo James Crutchfield & David Dunn who
will focus on exploration of bioacoustic ecology of deforestation.

In addition, MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences conference will take place in the framework of art festival ENTER which will feature number of experimental performances, screenings and exhibitions. Among the exhibitions there will be the first retrospective of Frank J. Malina (1912 -1981) who was an American aeronautical engineer and painter as well as
initiator of the Leonardo Journal. He constructed the first rocket to break the 50-mile altitude mark, becoming the first sounding rocket to reach space, while his kinetic paintings embed an ambitious attempt to explore territories of art-science collaboration.

View MutaMorphosis programme

Le Laboratoire opens in Paris

Le Laboratoire is a brand new creative space bringing artists and science together that has just opened in a stunning building in central Paris. Founded by Harvard professor David Edwards, who has just completed the book ArtScience: Creativity and the Post-Google Generation, Le Laboratoire aims to provide a space for the development and display of innovations that involve scientists in collaborations with artists and designers. Currently on show are Bel-Air: News about a Second Atmosphere, a collaboration between Edwards and designer Mathieu Lehanneur, and Matière a Penser, a collaboration between Fabrice Hyber and MIT biotechnologist Robert Langer.

View Le Laboratoire website
Read Nature article (Oct 18) about Le Laboratoire (Nature subscribers only)

Grace Weir exhibition in London until 25 November

The Science Museum in London is currently hosting an exhibition of four thought-provoking films by Irish artist Grace Weir that investigate time. The films are the results of the artist's investigations into black holes, notions of time and light, Einstein's theory of relativity, and questions in philosophy and theoretical physics regarding our shifting relationships with clock time. Science and processes of science are Grace Weir’s subjects. But her perspective is firmly that of an artist investigating the world around her, and her work is as much involved with the qualities and structure of film-making as it is with science. The show ends on 25 November.
View more details

Karl Grimes show in Gallery of Photography and National Museum

Dignified Kings Play Chess on Fine Green Silk is the title of Karl Grimes' extraordinary new exhibition of photographs of the collections of the Natural History Museum. Drawing its title from a mnemomic for the Linnaean classification system (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) the exhibition takes a behind-the-scenes look at the order of nature in one of Ireland's most beloved collections presenting humorous and occasionally disturbing perspectives.

The exhibition, based on work done during an artist-residency that was sadly cut short when a staircase in the museum collapsed, is a must-see for anyone interested in the interplay between art and science. It is in the Gallery of Photography and the National Museum, Kildare Street and runs until November 4.

More details on Karl Grimes' website
Gallery of Photography website