CHAIRS: Tami Spector and Piero Scaruffi

Program:

7:00-7:25:  Piero Scaruffi (Author and LASER founder) on "Science, Tech and Art in Modern China." In a few years China is likely to be the largest economy in the world, but it is not clear what impact this will have on science, tech and art.

7:25-7:50:  Jennifer Berry (Beekeeper and Media Artist) on "Industrial Evolution." What do innovations in design and technology mean to the non-human animals of the planet?

7:50-8:10: BREAK. Before or after the break, anyone in the audience currently working within the intersections of art and science will have 30 seconds to share their work. Please present your work as a teaser so that those who are interested can seek you out during social time following the event.

8:10-8:35:  Tamira Elul (Touro University) on "Patterns in Nature and Art." Applying morphometric tools used in cell and developmental biology to discern patterns in nature and art.

8:35-9:00:  Ian Winters (Media Artist) on "Summer, Winter, Spring - Observing the Seasons." A time lapse performance-film observing the seasons of San Francisco.

Speakers:

Jennifer Berry is an artist and biologist who works in the ecotone of urban design and wildlife. As a field biologist and educator, Jennifer highlights the adaptations that nature makes to thrive in cities and altered landscapes, and how the decisions humans make for themselves can ultimately create opportunities for partnership or signal doom for urban animal populations. In her art practice, Jennifer builds artificial environments and then invites wildlife to participate to alter sculptural forms in a collaborative partnership. In working with living organisms, Jennifer seeks to encourage her audiences to consider other animals in our race to evolve beyond the corporal and temporal limitations within which we currently struggle as a species.

Tamira Elul is an Associate Professor at Touro University California and a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Berkeley. She teachers Cell Biology, Histology and Biophysical Neurobiology, as well as Art of Observation and Vision and Art. Her research focuses on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the structural development of the nervous system. In recent years, she has pursued several interdisciplinary research projects determining novel patterns in nature and art. She received her B.A. and Ph.D in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Piero Scaruffi is a cultural historian who has lectured in three continents and published several books on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, the latest one being "The Nature of Consciousness" (2006). He pioneered Internet applications in the early 1980s and the use of the World-Wide Web for cultural purposes in the mid 1990s. His poetry has been awarded several national prizes in Italy and the USA. His latest book of poems and meditations is "Synthesis" (2009). As a music historian, he has published ten books, the latest ones being "A History of Rock and Dance Music" (2009) and "A History of Jazz Music" (2007). His latest book of history is "A History of Silicon Valley" (2011). The first volume of his free ebook "A Visual History of the Visual Arts" appeared in 2012. His latest book is "Intelligence is not Artificial" (2013). He has also written extensively about cinema and literature. He founded the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) in 2008 and the Life Art Science Tech (LAST) festival in 2014. Since 2015 he has been commuting between California and China, where several of his books have been translated.

Ian Winters is a video & media artist working at the intersections of physical performance, installations / architectural form, and time-based media. In addition to individual work he often collaborates with composers, directors, and choreographers to create staged and site-specific media environments through performance, visual and acoustic media. He teaches and lectures widely on intersection of live media, installation, and performance and is a 2018-2019 visiting research fellow at the University of Sussex Digital Humanities Lab. Recent residencies enclude a master artist residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts and residencies at at Djerassi, Sussex University, Duke, Amherst and Earthdance. Recent collaborations include projects with Myra Melford, Netia Jones, Mary Armentrout Dance Theater, Chitresh Das, Pamela Z, Robert Moses Kin, Francis Ford Coppola, Shotgun Players, Shadowlight Puppet Theater, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, LightBulb Ensemble, DSDT, ODC Dance/ Brenda Way, Lenora Lee Dance, Evelyn Ficarra, blindsight and others. His work (either solo or as a video/media designer) has been seen at many venues worldwide including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Ft. Mason Center for the Arts, Zellerbach Hall, the Barbican, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, Zero-1 Gallery, ODC, Z-Space, The Asian Art Museum, Center for New Music-SF, The Kitchen, EMPAC, London City University, The Phoenix- Brighton, Attenborough Centre for the Arts, Conservatory Electro-acoustic Center, Journees de l'Electroacoustique in Paris, London Cutting Edge Festival, OPEN Cinema Festival (RU), CNMAT, Highways, Shotgun Players, The Magic, Luckman Center for Arts (LA).

SPONSORS:

LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Talks is Leonardo's international program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversations. LASER Talks were founded in 2008 by Bay Area LASER Chair Piero Scaruffi and are in over 30 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. 

The mission of the LASERs is to provide the general public with a snapshot of the cultural environment of a region and to foster interdisciplinary networking.