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 20 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.
What: Wine + Discussion
Where: LevyArts: 40 E 19th St #3-R, NYC
When: Sunday, October 1st from 4:30 – 7:30 pm
Space is limited, so please rsvp by sending an email to levy@nyc.rr.com or olynyk@wustl.edu. There will be four feature presentations by Dan Grushkin, Richard Jochum, Assimina Kaniari, and Marta de Menezes.
Richard Jochum received his MA in philosophy from the University of Innsbruck and his PhD from the University of Vienna. As a media artist, his videos, installations, performances, and sculptures are often participation and/or community based. Richard will speak about two recent public art projects in Odense, Denmark, both of which are immersive sculptures designed in response to the unique landscape around them and the way in which these relate to his larger body of work.
Dan Grushkin is the Executive Director and cofounder of Genspace, a nonprofit community laboratory dedicated to promoting citizen science and access to biotechnology. He is founder and director of the Biodesign Challenge, a university competition devoted to creating new visions for the future of biotech. From 2013 to 2014, he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he researched the field of synthetic biology, and an Emerging Leader in Biosecurity at the UPMC Center of Health Security.
Assimina Kaniari is a Visiting Associate Research Scholar at the Seeger Institute of Hellenic studies at Princeton this fall and an Assistant Professor in Art History at the Department of Art Theory and History of the Athens School of Fine Arts. She received her doctorate from the Department of Art History, University of Oxford, working under Martin Kemp on the location of the ornament in 19th century science and aesthetic theory. Her most recent project is an edited volume on Bio art, Institutional Critique to Hospitality: Bio art practice now (Athens, 2017). She plans to discuss several pictorial strategies in art history and in recent bio art practices.
Marta de Menezes is a Portuguese artist with a degree in Fine Arts by the University in Lisbon, a MSt in the History of Art and Visual Culture by the University of Oxford, and a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden. She has been exploring the intersection between Art and Biology and working in research laboratories, demonstrating that new biological technologies can be used as new art medium. In 1999, de Menezes created her first biological artwork (Nature?) by modifying the wing patterns of live butterflies.