Thursday, March 3, 2011

Feb 16 Community Report

Who did you meet at the Feb 16 DASER?
Did you hear something that impacted your perspective on your own work or project?  We would like to hear about any collaborations that might have formed.  Please share!!!!

4 comments:

  1. It was an amazing event where the number and diverse backgrounds of the people who attended was exceptional. I met too many wonderful people to list and who I would like to work with but some highlights were pioneer media artist Bill Seaman (who had apparently driven up just for the event from Duke); Max Kazemzadeh and Kevin Cole (who teach at Gallaudet) and their students from the university who seemed all excited; Reiko Yajima (who works with the AAAS on research competitiveness); Shawna Vacca (who works collaborates with the Hamiltonian gallery); and of course my great fellow panelists. I was especially struck by the similar approaches that Tom Skalak (VP for Research in University of Virginia) and I in thinking about and workin on art / science collaborations. I recognized a kindred spirit!

    I have also had some fruitful conversations online with Veena Kumar (a medical doctor) and his colleague Hunter Whitney on visualization. So, it has been extremely productive meeting so many like-minded people who I hope to continue a fruitful dialogue on the intersecting opportunities between art and science.

    Thanks again to the CPNAS and Leonardo for their vision and kind hospitality in organizing this event.

    ReplyDelete
  2. To add to Guna’s list of diverse community members at the February DASER, I would like to add a few:

    Panelist Lee Boot whose work focuses on art, culture and the impact of science has a very interesting blog that addresses this concern in a very creative way:
    http://whoweam.com/about-1/


    Harvey Seifter attended to share information about a series of three conferences on “The Art of Science Learning” that will be held across the country. The first one will be in Washington DC on April 5,6, and 7. For more information visit:
    http://www.artofsciencelearning.org/

    Barbara Berrie and Paola Ricciardi were present among several people from the National Gallery of Art working with advancements in science and technology to better address issues in art conservation and research. We hope to see more of these folks and hear about the work that they are doing at future DASER events. On this same note, I would like to point our community towards a past Sackler Colloqium that was hosted by the NAS. The proceedings can be read free online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11413#toc
    This was held in 2003 so I’m sure Barbara and Paola’s group will be able to provide us with more updated insight!

    Additionally on the same topic of science and art conservation, Brian Baade from the University of Delaware talked about their work with the Kress Foundation:
    http://www.artcons.udel.edu/news/2010/12/01/kress-funding-for-old-master-reconstructions
    and
    http://www.kressfoundation.org/news/Article.aspx?id=35202&blogid=132
    Webcast of Brian’s talk at SAAM can be found at
    http://americanart.si.edu/calendar/lectures/archive/ossawa/

    Local author Michael Chorost was on hand and shared information about his recent book World Wide Mind. We will have Michael as a panelist on the May 19th DASER panel.
    http://www.michaelchorost.com/


    Multi-media artist and art professor from Gallaudet University, Max Kazemazdeh was on hand with a number of students and faculty from Gallaudet. Max mentioned a collaborative project on campus between the art, theater and physics deparment: FunCoLAB. http://www.funcolab.com/ Max will talk more about his work as a DASER panelist on April 21.

    Like Guna, I'm only beginning to scratch the surface. I hope that others will add more here.

    JD Talasek
    Director/ CPNAS

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a lively, engaging, and stimulating evening at the inaugural DASER event in DC! I had arrived in the DC area the day before (from my home in Cambridge, UK), to work with JD Talasek for a few days on the edited proceedings of an online symposium on "Visual Culture and Evolution" (co-sponsored by CPNAS, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Maryland, Baltimore County). The DASER evening not only erased my jet-lag, it also provided a fitting kick-off for the two days of intense editing of the proceedings of a symposium that dealt with the very issues discussed there that night.

    I was very impressed with the turn-out and with the breadth of interests and wide-ranging backgrounds of the attendees. People didn't just show-up, they spoke-up and interacted! I got to see old friends, such as Lee Boot and Bill Seaman from UMBC. (Bill is now at Duke but came-up just for this event.) Meeting Guna Nadarjan from MICA in Baltimore was a treat; during my occasional travels back to Baltimore, I shall definitely link-up with him for fruitful banter. And I learned a lot about developments in the art-technology interface from a long chat with Max Kazemazdeh from Gallaudet (later that night at one of DC's finest bars). Also, I made a very useful contact with Richard Hollinshead from the UK, that may lead to some projects here in the UK in connecting academics to art in the real world.

    As a historian of science, and a former university dean of arts and sciences, I have seen how often advances in human thought come from human intellectual contact at "interfaces." I wish there were more enterprises like DASER. As CP Snow argued so forcefully, the constructive interface between the "two cultures" of the arts and the sciences is ever so vital in the world today. Congrats to JD Talasek at CPNAS (and to Leonardo) for a successful launch of DASER. What better locale for such a discourse to unfold?!

    ReplyDelete
  4. For those who work at the intersection of art and science, or any other two distinct disciplines, when you're not at a DASER event, things can be a little quiet sometimes. By quiet, I mean lonely. (And then there are the odd looks those in the silos give you for standing in the rain between their buildings. Kidding. Sort of.) Being part of the wonderfully heartening gathering CPNAS and Leonardo convened was an antidote. The audience talks at the beginning were genius--both the speakers and J.D. for structuring the evening that way. It was great to meet my fellow panelists. (I'd heard Carol on the radio but never met her and really enjoyed her take on the Hubble work.) Hearing Thomas Skalak's thoughts about what works at UVA. Guna is always a wealth of wisdom on the art/science mission. I had lot's of great conversations afterward as well. Terrific catching up with Rick Welsh, and nice to hear about the project with UMBC, Hopkins and NAS. Great stuff from all. Looking forward to the next one.

    ReplyDelete