Bridges Leeuwarden

Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture

CHN University Netherlands
Leeuwarden, Native Town of M.C. Escher

http://www.bridgesmathart.org/

A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT BY
Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science
Municipality of Leeuwarden, the Netherlands

July 24-28, 2008 (Excursion on Saturday July 26)
July 29 -- Mathematical Art Public Activity Day

Please see http://www.bridgesmathart.org/2008/2008.html for the
call for papers, art exhibit submissions, teacher workshops, and
other details.

We also invite you to click on "2008 Conference Flyer", and post
printed copies.

See you in Leeuwarden!
The Bridges Organization

Bridges mailing list
Bridges@lists.uwaterloo.ca
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/bridges

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

Stop! Look and Listen -- Multimedia Systems exhibition

Want to interact with a waterfall, probe a brain for memories, or talk
with a therapist made of pins?

Every year students participating in the M.Sc. in Multimedia Systems
Programme at Trinity College collaborate to create exciting and
innovative projects for display to the general public. This year is no
different, with students producing interactive environments that
explore the diverse nature of multimedia.

26th - 30th September, Regent House, Trinity College, Dublin 2.

More details

Gormley sculpture for Liffey inspired by Weaire-Phelan structure

The Dublin Docklands have recently announced a giant sculptural commission for the Liffey by Anthony Gormley inspired by the bubble-matrix structure discovered by physicist and SEED salon habitué Professor Denis Weaire with Robert Phelan. This structure is the most efficient form of foam yet discovered. More art-science-technology projects are in the pipeline with the Dublin Docklands including a visit by Australian performance artist STELARC in November.

Read more about the Docklands commission
Read more about the Weaire-Phelan structure

Constant Light -- Sean Hillen wins Omagh commission

Artist and SEED member Sean Hillen, working with landscape architect Desmond Fitzgerald, has recently been awarded the commission to develop the Omagh Bomb memorial with a piece entitled Constant Light using mirrors tracking the sun to pour 31 sunbeams (one for each victim of the Omagh bombing) onto a heart in a large glass pillar marking the site of the blast.

Read more about the project

July 11: SEED salon: EDUARDO KAC

Wednesday July 11, 7 pm at the Odessa Club, Dame Court, Dublin 2.
Donation: 5 Euro

SEED presents a rare opportunity for an informal conversation and discussion with Brazilian artist EDUARDO KAC (www.ekac.org), one of the most famous and controversial of contemporary artists in the world working with the materials and tools of science and technology.

In 2000 Kac caused a media storm with GFP Bunny (pictured), a new life form consisting of a living green fluorescent rabbit. Another work, Genesis, involved encoding the beginning of the King James Version of the Bible into the DNA of bacteria and allowing Internet participants to mutate the scriptural text at a distance.

Kac was recently featured as himself in the science fiction novel NEXT written by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. In the 1980s and 1990s he was responsible for pioneering experiments in telepresence art, including his robotic parrot installation Rara Avis. New projects explore the convergence of the digital and biological, the cultural impact of biotechnology, and nanotech poetry. Kac's book Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond was published by the MIT Press in June of 2007.

As places at this event are limited please confirm your attendance by email to seed.artscience@googlemail.com

This event is presented in partnership with the Chester Beatty Library and Science Gallery

July 3 SEED salon with PHILIP ROSS -- LIFE INDOORS

Tuesday July 3, 7 pm at the Odessa Club, Dame Court, Dublin 2.
Donation: 5 Euro.

Many of the artworks made by Bay Area biological artist PHILIP ROSS are created through the design and construction of controlled environmental spaces.

Juggernaut (pictured) is a self-contained habitat for one living plant. Three blown glass enclosures provide a hydroponic environment; the plant's roots are submerged in nutrient-infused water, while LED lights supply the necessary illumination. In creating it Ross drew on two culturally divergent traditions - Chinese scholar's objects and Victorian glass conservatories, which share the belief that nature is best understood when seen through the lens of human artifice.

In this SEED art-science salon, Philip Ross will present the evolution of his own artwork, which consists of transforming a variety of living species into sculptural artifacts that are at once highly crafted and naturally formed, skillfully manipulated and sloppily organic. Mr. Ross is based in the Bay Area of California, where he teaches courses on art, technology, and philosophy at Stanford University and the California College of the Arts.

June SEED art-science salon: BRIAN SCHWARTZ on Science As Performance

Wednesday June 13, 7 pm at the Odessa Club, Dame Court, Dublin 2.
Donation: 5 Euro.

THEATRE, MUSIC, DANCE, the literary and the visual arts can convey the joys and controversies of science. In this SEED art-science salon, New York-based physicist BRIAN SCHWARTZ will illustrate a program at the CUNY Graduate Center entitled Science & the Arts which is designed to communicate to the public the excitement and wonder of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

BRIAN SCHWARTZ is VP for Research, Professor of Physics, and co-director of the New Media Lab at the Graduate Center of CUNY. In 2000, Dr. Schwartz ran a landmark symposium, Creating Copenhagen, prior to the opening of the play Copenhagen on Broadway. He produces major public programs at the Graduate Center on the interface between science and theater, art, music and dance (link) He operates a National Science Foundation grant entitled Science as Performance: A Proactive Strategy to Communicate and Educate Through Theater, Music and Dance. Another NSF grant is with the Feminist Press focused on developing science related books for women (link). Currently he is co-producing a musical based on the novel “Einstein’s Dreams” by Alan Lightman.

Image: Richard Wiseman in a Faraday cage with a million volt spark