CHAIRS: Ellen Levy and Patricia Olynyk
New York LASER
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 Alexis Gambis, Jane Philbrick and Patricia Watts.
Speaker Bios
Alexis Gambis is a filmmaker and a biologist whose interdisciplinary work aims at transforming the way science is communicated to the public through film and visual arts. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. His first feature film The Fly Room about the birthplace of genetics in New York has toured festivals and academic institutions worldwide ending with a theatrical release in New York, Paris, and Berlin in the fall of 2017. Alexis has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Nature, Cell, TED, and WNYC. At NYU and he teaches in both the Biology and Film departments. He will discuss science as cinema and the repurposing of scientific footage for artistic endeavors.
Jane Philbrick is an artist, educator, and writer working at the community level in the global context. Her large-scale installations and sculpture range in media from ultrasound and rammed earth to magnetic levitation and found space. She works across disciplines in science and engineering, architecture, music, and performance and teaches in the Art, Media, Technology Program, Parsons School of Design/The New School, NYC, and is the former artist fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT. Her presentation will discuss how she seeks to reframe the built and natural world in our era of superabundant capital and her five-year project to revitalize a long-abandoned wire mill sited 55 miles northeast of NYC in southwestern Connecticut.
Patricia Watts is founder and west coast curator of ecoartspace, a curatorial platform presenting the work of artists addressing environmental issues since 1997. Watts has curated over thirty art and ecology exhibitions, has written numerous essays for books, and has given lectures internationally. Since 2008 she has also focused on under-recognized artists of the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently completing a monograph on painter Richard Bowman (1918-2001). Bowman portrayed early scientific imaging of phenomena such as atomic and subatomic structures employing florescent daylight paints beginning in 1950. Watts will share her research on Bowman for her upcoming book titled Richard Bowman: Radiant Abstractions.
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.