CHAIRED BY: Piero Scaruffi

SCHEDULE

• 7:00-7:25:  Krishna Shenoy (Stanford/ Neuroscience) on "Brain-machine Interfaces: From basic science and engineering to clinical trials"
• 7:25-7:50:  Lars Steinmetz (Co-Director, Stanford Genome Technology Center) on "Emerging Technologies to Prevent Disease"
• 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:  Terry Berlier (Kinetic Artist) on "Nonorientable: Queering Objects"
• 8:35-9:00:  Christine Marie (Shadow Theater Artist) on "Creating (antiquated) Augmented Reality"

SPEAKERS

Terry Berlier is an interdisciplinary artist who investigates the evolution of human interaction with the natural world, queerness, and ecologies. This results in sculptures that are kinetic and sound based, and multi-media installations. She emphasizes the essential roles played by history, cultural memories, and environmental conditions in the creation of our identities. Using humor, she provides tools for recovering and reanimating our faltering connections with self, queerness, nature, and society. Interweaving movement, sound, and interaction as a metaphor for both harmonious and dissonant interactions, Berlier acts as an archaeologist excavating material objects to challenge our understanding of progress and reveal how history is constructed within a cultural landscape. Berlier has exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally including Japan, Norway, Spain, and Hungary. Recent exhibitions include the Yerba Buena Center for Arts, Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco, Catherine Clark Gallery, Southern Exposure, Contemporary Art and Spirits in Osaka Japan, Arnoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery at Stanford University, Montalvo Arts Center, Weston Art Gallery, Babel Gallery in Norway, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art in Sacramento, Kala Art Institute Gallery, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Natural Balance in Girona Spain and FemArt Mostra D'Art De Dones in Barcelona Spain. She has received numerous residencies and grants including the Center for Cultural Innovation Grant, the Zellerbach Foundation Berkeley, Artist in Residence at Montalvo Arts Center, Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Fellowship, Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research Fellow at Stanford University, Recology San Francisco, Hungarian Multicultural Center in Budapest Hungary, Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco, California Council for Humanities California Stories Fund and the Millay Colony for Artists. Her work has been reviewed in the BBC News Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle and in the book `Seeing Gertrude Stein' published by University of California Press. Her work is in several collections including the Progressive Corporation in Cleveland Ohio, Kala Art Institute in Berkeley California and Bildwechsel Archive in Berlin Germany. Terry Berlier is an Associate Professor and Director of the Sculpture Lab and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University where she has taught since 2007.

Christine Marie is an inventor and creator of installations, performances, and experiences. She seamlessly integrates performers, objects and special effects to elicit connections with concepts, phenomenology and history in emotional and visually stimulating experiences. Christine Marie strives to break new ground within her form while being intrinsically tied to ancient art forms and the metaphysical exploration of light. She is pioneering the use of large-scale 3D shadows by reinventing the stereoscope and casting up to 40' shadows into cubic space. Her work has appeared at the REDCAT, the Geffen Playhouse, Southcoast Repertory, Z Space, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, the Exploratorium, Pop-Up Magazine, Sundance New Frontier and others and has received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, MAP fund, the Zellerbach family foundation, the Paul Dresher Residency, Intersection for the Arts, Cal Arts Center for New Performance and others. Christine Marie received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Integrated Media, Puppetry and Theater. Christine Marie is a TED Fellow. Engaging The Unknown, TED talk. Marie has taught shadow animation at Pixar and DreamWorks studios. She studied Wayang Kulit traditional shadow puppetry in Bali and is a former 15-year member of ShadowLight theater. She lectures and conducts workshops at universities, schools and at juvenile hall. She has worked with shadows for decades and has a life-long commitment to continuing working with light. She is currently creating a series of light toys.

Lars Steinmetz studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University and conducted his Ph.D. research on genome-wide approaches to study gene function and natural phenotypic diversity at Stanford University. After a brief period of postdoctoral research at the Stanford Genome Technology Center, where he worked on functional genomic technology development, he moved to Europe in 2003. At the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, he started his own group, focused on applying functional genomic approaches and high-throughput methods to study complex traits, transcription and the mitochondrial organelle at a systems level. In parallel, he maintained a focused group at the Stanford Genome Technology Center working on technology development. From 2009 to 2016, Lars acted as Joint Head of the department of Genome Biology at EMBL.In October 2013 Lars became Professor of Genetics at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center. His lab develops and applies cutting-edge technologies to investigate the function and mechanism of transcription, the genetic basis of complex phenotypes and the genetic and molecular systems underpinning disease. Their ultimate goal is to enable the development of personalized, preventative medicine. In parallel to his research activities at Stanford, Lars continues to lead his lab at EMBL. His Stanford and EMBL labs collaborate very closely. In addition to his academic endeavours, Lars is a consultant and board member of several companies, advising in the areas of genetics and personalized medicine.

Krishna Shenoy is the Hong Seh and Vivian W. M. Lim Professor of Engineering. He is with the Departments of Electrical Engineering and by courtesy, Bioengineering and Neurobiology at Stanford University. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Prof. Shenoy holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Irvine (1987-1990), a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT (1990-1995), was a postdoctoral fellow in Neurobiology at Caltech (1995-2001), and has been on faculty at Stanford since then (Assistant Prof. 2001-2008, Associate Prof. 2008-2012, Full Prof. 2012-2017, Endowed Chair 2017 to present). Prof. Shenoy directs the Stanford Neural Prosthetic Systems Lab (basic neuroscience and engineering) and co-directs the Stanford Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory (clinical trials), which aim to help restore lost motor function to people with paralysis. Honors and awards include a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, a Sloan Fellow, a McKnight Technological Innovations in Neurosciences Award, an NIH Director's Pioneer Award, the 2010 Stanford University Postdoc Mentoring Award, and he was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. Prof. Shenoy serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of The University of Washington's Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center), CTRL-Labs Inc., MIND-X Inc., Inscopix Inc. and Heal Inc. He is also a consultant for Neuralink Corp

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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.