CHAIRS: Ellen Levy and Patricia Olynyk
NY LASER is a series of lectures and presentations on art and science projects, in support of Leonardo/ISAST’s LEAF initiative (Leonardo Education and Art Forum). Former LEAF Chairs, Ellen K. Levy, former IDSVA Special Advisor in the Arts and Sciences and Patricia Olynyk, Director, Graduate School of Art, Washington University co-direct these presentations to promote dialogue at the highest level among artists, scientists, scholars, and historians. Space is limited, so please rsvp by sending an email to levy@nyc.rr.com or olynyk@wustl.edu. There will be feature presentations by Peder Anker, Dan Kevles and Maddy Rosenberg.
Peder Anker is a scholar and a writer whose teaching and research interests lie in the history of science, ecology, environmentalism and design, as well as environmental philosophy. He received his PhD in the history of science from Harvard University and has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions. He is the co-author of Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned (Prestel, 2014) together with Louise Harpman and Mitchell Joachim and author of From Bauhaus to Eco-House: A History of Ecological Design (Louisiana State University Press, 2010). Peder will discuss his Times Square Electronic Garden project, which initiated a conversation about climate change, energy use and green urban spaces. Designed and fabricated by New York University students where he teaches, Electronic Garden sought to “re-nature” Times Square so the public could contemplate new natures within cities.
Daniel Kevles is a historian and writer whose work encompasses science, technology, and society past and present. He has taught at Caltech and Yale University and is currently a visiting fellow at NYU Law School. Dan is the author of several books and articles, essays, and reviews in scholarly and popular journals, including the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. Kevles will present The Apples of Our Eyes, drawn from a book he is writing on the history of innovation and intellectual property protection in living organisms. His talk will explore how in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries art, especially chromolithography, was used to identify and protect intellectual property in new fruits.
Maddy Rosenberg is an artist and curator based in NYC who is working internationally. She received her MFA from Bard College and has been the recipient of numerous recognitions, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant for her New York Dialogue Paris curatorial project. In 2009, Rosenberg founded CENTRAL BOOKING, a gallery that highlights the breadth of book art while exploring the convergence of art and science. More recently, CENTRAL BOOKING has collaborated with public institutions on a variety of projects, including Plant Cure, a multi-venue curatorial project that began in 2017 at the New York Academy of Medicine. Maddy will discuss the newest iteration of this project: Plant Cure/Brooklyn, currently on exhibit at the Humanities Gallery of LIU Brooklyn and at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 2020.
SPONSORS:
NY LASER is a series of lectures and presentations on art and science projects, in support of Leonardo/ISAST’s LEAF initiative (Leonardo Education and Art Forum). Former LEAF Chairs Ellen K. Levy and Patricia Olynyk co-organize these presentations on behalf of the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts and Washington University in St. Louis, respectively.
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.