yasminers
we have some sad news today of the passing of Harold Cohen
that frieder nake informs us
By all criteria harold cohen was an exemplar of the kind
if hybric practice that we have been discussing on the
YASMIN Mercado Central list
http://computer-arts-society.com/static/cas/computerartsthesis/index.html%3Fpage_id=237.html
His practice, as an artist, pioneered a number of theoretical
and technical innovations that has proved to be both pioneering
and influential on the direction of art-science-technology research
and art making
we welcome yasminers know harold cohen for their memories
and comments from those who knew and admired his work
roger malina
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: nake <nake@informatik.uni-bremen.de
Dear Roger,
I guess you have got the word that Harold Cohen, the greatest in our
small field of algorithmic art, died on 27 April.
Frieder
--
Frieder Nake
University of Bremen, Informatik | Hochschule fuer Kuenste Bremen
P.O. Box 330 440, 28334 Bremen, Germany
nake@informatik.uni-bremen.de | 0421-218 64485 | @CarlCanary |
www.agis.informatik.uni-bremen.de
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Friday, April 29, 2016
[Yasmin_discussions] Yasmin_discussions
Hi Roger
Happy to respond. I'll be forwarding the remainder of my promised Pioneers
'60-''80s
*1**-what is your background In arts and its practice?*
* On through1940s grade school studies, three influential teachers prompted
and assisted my grounded educational directions; and, these foundations
became my direction-finding impetus; and, ultimately I bequeathed my
undergrad challenges toward art, science, humanitarian initiatives, and
the inevitable pathways, which was fraught from multiple hurdles.
Inspirational foundation fr three grade School Teachers and Scientists:
Karl Jansky's rotating radio wave antenna and George Owen Squier's**:
**"**Researching
the possibility that whole forests could be used as radio
stations—broadcasting weather reports, news from the front lines of war,
and much else besides—is described by Scientific American as performing
"tree radio work.**"*
*2--when and how did you become involved in art/science practice? *
*My main question? the world is wired for what?*
*Concentrating on the W W W W H & Ws, exploring conceptually and
experientially between1969 to 1980s. Initial art pivots fr * *a. *
lithography * b. *ats satellite * c.*satellite perspectives * d. *natural
analog wave forms* e. *Gibbs Fjord monitors w/satellite relaying* f. *three
year old American elm sapling * g. *scanning electron microscope *h. *early
terrain instruments * i. *self broadcasting Birch *j. levitating sounding
sculpture k. *walker art center hene laser, Intel 8080 microprocessor
*l. *segues
to final Analog to Digital inter activities, and group funded wifi-based
project collaborations.
* Audible Construct's students' class analog monitoring projects Lake
Michigan gusts *
*http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/SAICRoofc.69-72.jpg
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/SAICRoofc.69-72.jpg> *
*http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/SAICroofhexagram-69_72.jpg
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/SAICroofhexagram-69_72.jpg>*
*http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/hxgtower.jpg
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/hxgtower.jpg>*
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/Hexagram1971.mp4
http://www.academia.edu/21632765/An_Audible-Constructs_Primer
*3--- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?*
*At my back,disappointing post high school experiences, having struggled
following my post orphanage months in Chicago and, finally $ earning my
way- as a draft dogger in Canada, where I became an radio apprentice for
the CBC in Winnipeg. Two years later i relented, registered for the draft,
and was later honorably discharged.*
*4-- what have been the greatest opportunities*
* and breakthroughs? *
MEADOW PIANO http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesc1.html#anchor33428
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesc1.html#anchor252178
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/spec.projects/art-science-environment_bib.html
Brush, "Monitoring Nature's Sounds with Terrain-Based Constructions" (
*Leonardo* 17:1)
BAFFIN ISLANDS http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/GibbsFjord1.jpg
TREES, LAKE SUPERIOR ICE FLOES and other natural phenomena -
http://continuo.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/musicworks-30-sound-constructions/
WINDRIBBON http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesf1.html
WINDSCUBE -http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesd1.html#anchor213267
TREES AS CO-AUTHORS http://www.d.umn.edu/%7Elbrush/lbarchivesf2.html
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesf2.html>
sound sculptures 1964-1975 -http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesYONY
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesYONY.html>
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesb.html#anchor143814
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesYONY.html>
Belgium installation http://www.musica.be/en/windribbon-leif-brush
AllMusic Review by "Blue" Gene Tyranny
Since 1968, Leif BRUSH made sound installations and performances in
galleries and public places around the world using his Terrain instruments
-- The Minnesota Permanent Forest Terrain Instruments: The Signal Disc,
Whistler, Wind Ribbons, Rain drop triggers, Tree leave Filters, Tree harps
Networking, Modified Treeways -- and an array of accelerometer xyz sensors
(solar-powered amplifiers) connected to Intel 8080 microprocessor,
controlled and updated via FM up/down loads - via KSJN Minneapolis and
using telephone wires to connect local speaker-placed spaces in the one
acre environment,which amplified and articulated natural phenomena.
Mysterious and beautiful.
Google Books
"New music in the area of conflict of science and technology "
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/Jorn%20P.%20Hiekel.pdf
Terraplane performance http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/BraubSixtant.jpg The
Braun Sixtant dirigible receives data from a variety of sensors and
simultaneously resends these analog mirrorings- which are varied aural
surface layerings, including the escarpment's face together with an array
of terrain sound and vibrations for multiplex input- and utilizing radar,
satellite andFM-transmitting/receiving channels. Together in tandem with
visual counterparts, these terrain surfaces are observed by stationary
cameras in the dirigible. Imaging this vision uses heat-imaging sensors
together with a fish-eye video lens. Incoming inputs are mixed together in
the dirigible. This fusion merging of sound and image is intended to
provide a perceptually faux holographic whole. This spatial capture,
necessarily, includes enrichments from nuanced sound playings of earthen
features, whose anomolies may be wind-disturbed, emphasizing aural/visual
textures and expected wide ranging fluxed soundings. Realtime describes his
challenge: these aural and visual counterparts from exisiing inputs are
combined (multiplexed) in the Braun Sixtant and are instantly re-relayed to
the ground-to-satellite uplink. This whole context is simultaneously handed
over (uploaded) to Westar IV satellite and thereafter may be demultiplexed
(decoded) and downloaded into the black set top box for re-construction
into multiple speakers of all the sound and vision details.
DAWN 1980 CHORUS http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/TransCanada_c.80.pdf
*5-- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?*
*Want 10 additional years.*
*6-- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?*
*Crowd source and conceptualize interactive Art-Science recycled across
applications and local community boundaries.*
*7. Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant *
*Douglas Kahn contrasts the early military use of trees as antennas by
Squier, better known as the inventor of Muzak, with the use of trees in the
performative telecommunications of the American artist Leif Brush beginning
in the 1960s, as a way to ask about energies, communications and
survivability in the Warm War.*
*a.**t*errestrial winds, natural phenomena
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/71-72playing.jpg
*b**.* ats satellite
*c. *world stage satellite perspectives
*http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/asatellite68.jpg*
<http://www.utdallas.edu/ah/people/faculty_detail.php?faculty_id=376>
*d**. *comprehending/understanding & sorting natural phenomena's analog
wave forms via
Michigan hexagram roof monitor
*http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/SAICroofhexagram-69_72.jpg*
<http://www.utdallas.edu/ah/people/faculty_detail.php?faculty_id=376>
*e**. *Gibbs Fjord monitors w/satellite relaying
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/GibbsFjord1.jpg
*f**. *An three year old American elm sapling was removed from our front
lawn and allowed to dry before being subjected to a mildly vibrating
miniature motor. It was attached to its base with a rubber cushion (for
dampening). This specimen appeared to me to be a miniature of its full and
mature growth. In effect, I felt that some vibrations would generally be in
the analog frequency ranges of a mature tree. I plan on obtaining aural and
visual signatures in future projects.
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/ditheredElmimage.jpg
*g.*scanning electron microscope
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/MapleleafSEM.jpg
*h.**terrain instruments defined*
*http://weblackwhole.net/Aspects%20Of%20The%20Terrain%20Instruments%20.pdf
<http://weblackwhole.net/Aspects%20Of%20The%20Terrain%20Instruments%20.pdf>*
*http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/terraininstruments.html
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/terraininstruments.html>*
*conceptual and terrain instrument prototypes *
*http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesb.html
<http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesb.html>*
*1980 *Terraplane Chorography II: International. Listening (1980, New Music
America, Walker Art Center, loring. Park, Minneapolis
*New Music America: 1980: Selected Highlights, Program 2*
*http://radiom.org/detail.php?omid=NMA.1980.06.XX.02.A
<http://radiom.org/detail.php?omid=NMA.1980.06.XX.02.A>*
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/Walkerlaser.jpg
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/TIwcubed.jpg
Terrain Instrumenthttp://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/terraininstruments.html
*i.* self broadcasting Birch
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesf2.html#anchor823475
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/selffbroadcastingv2.jpg
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesf1.html#anchor385911
j. levitating sound sculpture
k. performance walker art center mineapolis mod-laser, Intel 8080
microprocessor
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/LBw_TI202.jpg
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/terraplanelaser.jpg
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/Walkerlaser.jpg
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/202.jpg
l. segues to final A to D projects
http://classic.rhizome.org/commissions/proposal/2588/
Tackling collaborative iniatives, in particular, the social net-worker's
ethical, humanitarian and creative challenge re one to many 'for 0common
good"; U.S.G. neighborhood and leadership subsidies for solar roofs,
appliances, e.g.,12 volt refrigerators based on the evolving global Nano
revolution, .gov and commerce upgrades.
why
a pioneering .edu endeavor- seeks unique collaborative global
artists-scientists, like-minded and path-searching people- via global,
zeroing school newspaper ads; Skype and, as foundation, an epicentral
platform from which to eventually segue a World Playing wiki resulting =as
orchestral leader of a prototypical Mesh node http://projectmeshnet.org/.
As catalyst-teacher re this projection, the expected base goal would be to
demonstrate humanitarian values and explore perceptions among one mind and
many- in all forms of two-way human interactions.
Who
A predetermined number of contributors - yet to be identified by this
process - would coalesce the prototypical neighborhood to neighborhood
fluxing of the inherent toward node-construction, which would coalesce and
transmit from multiple terrestrial vantages; among its objectives would be
to; (a) mirror an unimaginable phenomena re physical and organic aspects of
the natural world- in an effort to include eye-ear parity; (while
acknowledging the intuitive perceptions of prehistoric people, (b)
elucidate intertwined thinking beyond borders and countries, achieving a
meticulously new coin from which to formulate international commerce, its
corporate stewardship, and sponsorship.
What How
includes (wifi/laser) optical aspects and vital Nano-"commerce/interactive,
global humanitarian, and feedback-partnerships.
http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/2012/02/re-yasmindiscussions-networking-50.html
Leif
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[Yasmin_discussions] mercado central
yasminers
Antonio Catalano sends us his lessons learned in in hybrid art-science work
roger malina
Hello Roger,
So here are my answers:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or humanities ?
I hold a Msc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, a Master in Bioethics and a
Master in Cognitive Science and Interactive Media. Ops, well, the last
one is between science, technology, design & culture, so things
already become blurring... In arts I have training in music (private
school) and currently training for 5 years as an actor in an
independent theatre company. Many other little courses opened me to
different approaches that I am trying to apply to contemporary art.
I am currently working as Technical Director for a private R&D and
production center in the pharma&beauty sector, based in Italy, while
working with an NGO called MetaArte Associazione Arte&Cultura as an
actor and organizer. Sometimes I create contemporary art
installations. I am interested in complex systems.
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
I was running on two tracks since high school, studying science but
playing with my band in the meanwhile. Then I slowly started reasoning
on the two of them togheter, as ways to internalize the world around
us and externalize the world inside us. I cooperated with a small
local NGO trying to organize international events dealing with
art&nanotechnologies, and finally discovered that there is a whole
world of art/science professionals at Mutamorphosis, Prague, 2007. It
was real!
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
I don't think I overcame them yet! In my country nowadays it is really
hard to define yourself as an artist. Imagine a sciartist! Biggest
difficult I am facing is to keep credible to the scientific community
e.g. working both as a toxicologist and performing street art with
stilts. And to keep credible to the arts community making art and
surviving by working in an industry.That's why I keep the two
professional tracks separate, and created a stage name, Antonio Irre,
for my artistic works. And time, oh time. That's another big
difficulty when you work on different fronts. And identity...
sometimes you just get lost. Really lost. Other difficulties are much
more fun, e.g. create a work of art and science that goes beyond
art&technology, but these are the challenges that I like. But they
takes time. Oh, time!
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
My parents gave me much liberty in my choices, allowing me to explore
different approaches, to create my personal track. Even if it was/is
quite strange! Then, things happen if you go for them long enough.
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
I don't know enough yet.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
Keep exploring, read, read, read, and then do, work on your weak
points, approch things that are very far from you and your world,
connect the dots. Don't follow this track if you want a life full of
friends & spare time & other amenities. But consider that it is a
useful track, a cross-contamination that greatly improves creativity
and smart thinking. Ah, create nets! E.g. adding me on FB as Antonio
Irre.
Well, thank you for the invitation, I have not a big experience, still
trying to grasp how to manage and what to do with that, but I am happy
to share my thoughts with you all.
Hope to meet you around soon!
Greetings,
Antonio
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Antonio Catalano sends us his lessons learned in in hybrid art-science work
roger malina
Hello Roger,
So here are my answers:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or humanities ?
I hold a Msc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, a Master in Bioethics and a
Master in Cognitive Science and Interactive Media. Ops, well, the last
one is between science, technology, design & culture, so things
already become blurring... In arts I have training in music (private
school) and currently training for 5 years as an actor in an
independent theatre company. Many other little courses opened me to
different approaches that I am trying to apply to contemporary art.
I am currently working as Technical Director for a private R&D and
production center in the pharma&beauty sector, based in Italy, while
working with an NGO called MetaArte Associazione Arte&Cultura as an
actor and organizer. Sometimes I create contemporary art
installations. I am interested in complex systems.
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
I was running on two tracks since high school, studying science but
playing with my band in the meanwhile. Then I slowly started reasoning
on the two of them togheter, as ways to internalize the world around
us and externalize the world inside us. I cooperated with a small
local NGO trying to organize international events dealing with
art&nanotechnologies, and finally discovered that there is a whole
world of art/science professionals at Mutamorphosis, Prague, 2007. It
was real!
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
I don't think I overcame them yet! In my country nowadays it is really
hard to define yourself as an artist. Imagine a sciartist! Biggest
difficult I am facing is to keep credible to the scientific community
e.g. working both as a toxicologist and performing street art with
stilts. And to keep credible to the arts community making art and
surviving by working in an industry.That's why I keep the two
professional tracks separate, and created a stage name, Antonio Irre,
for my artistic works. And time, oh time. That's another big
difficulty when you work on different fronts. And identity...
sometimes you just get lost. Really lost. Other difficulties are much
more fun, e.g. create a work of art and science that goes beyond
art&technology, but these are the challenges that I like. But they
takes time. Oh, time!
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
My parents gave me much liberty in my choices, allowing me to explore
different approaches, to create my personal track. Even if it was/is
quite strange! Then, things happen if you go for them long enough.
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
I don't know enough yet.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
Keep exploring, read, read, read, and then do, work on your weak
points, approch things that are very far from you and your world,
connect the dots. Don't follow this track if you want a life full of
friends & spare time & other amenities. But consider that it is a
useful track, a cross-contamination that greatly improves creativity
and smart thinking. Ah, create nets! E.g. adding me on FB as Antonio
Irre.
Well, thank you for the invitation, I have not a big experience, still
trying to grasp how to manage and what to do with that, but I am happy
to share my thoughts with you all.
Hope to meet you around soon!
Greetings,
Antonio
_______________________________________________
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If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
Thursday, April 28, 2016
[Yasmin_discussions] test
Roger F Malina
is in Dallas 1-510-853-2007
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is in Dallas 1-510-853-2007
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016
[Yasmin_discussions] STEAM: How do educators prepare students for jobs that don’t even exist yet?
Yasminers
thanks to those of you who have been sending in your responses to the
questions developed
by Francois Joseph Lapointe= Let me encourage you for a few more days
to send in your
own response- in a few days we will move on to another question" what
are exectional
examples ( exemplars" of hybrid art-science practice.
thanks to those of you who have been sending in your responses to the
questions developed
by Francois Joseph Lapointe= Let me encourage you for a few more days
to send in your
own response- in a few days we will move on to another question" what
are exectional
examples ( exemplars" of hybrid art-science practice.
In the meantime here are the questions that we hope more yasminers
will send in their response to:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or humanities ?
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
7. Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
Meanwhile for your amusement this announcement just hit my desk:
How do educators prepare students for jobs that don't even exist yet?
Bringing powerful STEAM learning to your school
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 | 02:00 PM EDT // 11:00 AM PDT
ABOUT THE EVENT
Now more than ever, it is important that students engage in STEAM
learning in order to be ready for what is
around the corner. STEAM – adding Arts to STEM – provides a full
360-degree approach to 21st-century learning.
This webinar will give you the inspiration to start your own STEAM
learning initiative in your school or district as well as the
necessary tips
, tricks, and tools for implementing a successful program.
Find out how STEAM permeates the entire curriculum and how tools
such as littleBits get students inventing and
reimagining the world around them.
roger malina
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[Yasmin_discussions] Mercado Central; Lessons learned and advice for hybrid science-art careers
Dear Yasminers,
Thank you for the opportunity to join this fascinating discussion!
I am a conceptual/sound artist with a background in marine biology and scientific illustration. I've spent most of my life in the northeast (NY/New England), but am currently based in the high desert of far West Texas, near the town of Marfa.
With Best Regards,
Alyce Santoro
alycesantoro.com
@alyceobvious
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or humanities?
As a young person fascinated by science and nature but with a penchant for the arts (including music...inspired by Laurie Anderson's tape-bow violin, I had an electric pick-up installed in my flute during my early teens), I decided that my life's mission would be to communicate about the wonders of science and nature through art. Not knowing exactly what this would look like and having no mentor to guide me (in the mid-1980's, a high school student with an interest in what may now be referred to as interdisciplinary education was steered into "liberal arts"...but this did not quite seem to fit the bill for me...I wanted to be a "real" scientist...), formulated a plan: I would gain a formal education in science first, followed by training in scientific illustration.
As an undergraduate I pursued a BS in Biology at Southampton College, part of Long Island University (this campus and its excellent math, chemistry, and physics-heavy marine biology program unfortunately no longer exists). I am so grateful to have received this rigorous education...from it I learned the kind of critical/analytical thinking and experimental design that informs every aspect of my current work.
After Southampton I went directly to Providence, RI where I enrolled in Rhode Island School of Design's Graduate Certificate program in scientific illustration. This too was a rigorous curriculum that, in addition to providing solid training in traditional illustration, allowed me to explore other media, such as sculpture and printmaking. Providence in the early 1990's was a fertile place for artists...lofts in old factory buildings were cheap, and silkscreeners, bands, painters, industrial designers, and other creative practitioners lived and worked in close proximity, willingly sharing studios, skills, and equipment. To support myself while going to school at night, I was fortunate to get a job as a research assistant on a biochemistry and aquaculture project at the University of Rhode Island. I felt like a bit of an impostor in both worlds...by day, my friends at the lab thought of me as some crazy artist, and by night, my artist-friends saw me as a professional scientist who happened to make art.
Not long after graduating from the RISD program, I got hired as a seagoing oceanographic research assistant on the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) project. I spent three months total a year at sea, in increments of three weeks at a time, floating around Georges Bank in the North Atlantic, for over four years. This was a pivotal time for me...which leads to the next question...
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
While at sea, I had lots of time to think, read, draw, write...and converse with my fellow scientists (this was in the mid-1990's, before the internet was available on ships at sea!). Over the course of the years that I worked on the GLOBEC project, it was becoming clearer that things in the North Atlantic were amiss...counts of zooplankton and larval fish were rapidly dropping. I asked the lead scientists whether and how this informations should be communicated to the public. That's not our job, they said. Our job is to collect data, not interpret it, they said. I was given the impression that scientists putting any "spin" whatsoever on data – no matter how dire the results may appear – was bad practice. I felt conflicted...I wanted to be a "real" scientist. If the scientist's job isn't to sound the alarm bells...whose job is it? I believe that because there have historically been so few individuals in the position of "science communicator"...not just a journalist or an illustrator, but someone whose job it is to cross fluidly between those worlds, and understands what it means to be a "good scientist"...this is in part why we are now in the mess we find ourselves in re: climate change. Fear of bias has actually led to extreme bias...the vast majority of media on science comes from the corporate media, the kind of media that has a vested interest in suppressing the reality of what is happening.
Alarmed by this, I started making art about the foibles and hubris of science. I began designing "experiments" and making "laboratory equipment" to study the intangible, the parts of reality and the human experience that are unquantifiable. In other words, I became a kind of philosopher...
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
As others have already mentioned, one persistent obstacle is the prevailing view in our culture of "art" as something "extra", an embellishment, something that exists in a support capacity for science but not as something integral, with equal importance or value. The STEM to STEAM movement has been extremely helpful, and "sci-art" and "eco-art" have become much more common and widely accepted in recent years. But there is still much work to be done to dispel the idea all these neat categories are really anything more than convenient descriptors that, upon closer examination, are not nearly as neat in practice as they are in theory.
In addition, perhaps like many people on this list, I work in a nebulous, sort of "genre-free" zone. Some of my work involves sound and music, some of it is sculptural, much of it is ephemeral or conceptual....I tend to use whatever medium I feel is necessary to convey a particular idea. It's the ideas that are, to me, important...the pieces are just artifacts of a concept....and the concepts are free for the taking. For me the joy – and the point – is that ideas should be freely exchanged, open-source, collaborative...information is power, and everyone should have equal access to it. This leads to a variety of problems: a) the work doesn't fit neatly into any handy category that makes it easy to show, sell/buy, or write about, b) it does not tend to generate a significant amount of income.
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
Delighted to read that others have mentioned Goethe here! When I first learned of his concept of "delicate empiricism", it was a breakthrough for me. Confirmation of my hunch that we are not as separate from our experiments as we make ourselves out to be...and that "bias", or intuition based on sustained, earnest reflection might actually be useful...these assurances gave me permission to further develop my own "hypotheses".
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
I would have abandoned my role as a "good scientist" and embraced my role as one whose job it is to act as a liaison between scientists and the public sooner...I would have helped sound the alarm bells about climate change in the mid/late-1990's when I could see what was happening and was discouraged from speaking out.
Although my plan to study biology first and scientific illustration later ultimately worked out in its own way, I wish I'd known sooner of other options for someone who wanted to become well-versed in both art and science. I would have liked to pursue a PhD so that I could eventually teach, but I am only just now discovering PhD programs that seem to accommodate interdisciplinary studies.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
• People who understand science and can communicate clearly &/or creatively about it are more urgently needed than ever. Thus far, the problems of our time – when conveyed accurately at all – have been presented in cold, detached ways that have not tended to inspire action on the scale necessary. In my view, "the poetics & aesthetics of science communications" could be a course of study unto itself. A young person looking for ways to combine art and science might consider seeking out or self-directing such a program.
• Without creativity, there can be no innovation in art, science, technology, or anywhere in between...and if we are to effectively confront the challenges we currently face, we need to teach, learn, and practice creativity.
• For those whose practices are not well-defined or well-compensated, living simply and staying out of debt are strategies that can result in greater freedom, time, and flexibility.
• A couple of offerings for anyone who may wish to know more about my path in particular:
This is a talk I gave for incoming freshman at the New School in NYC in 2005 on "The Art of Science, The Science of Art":
https://vimeo.com/82805251
My book, which was written with a young reader setting out on a path to combine art and science in mind, is available as a free download:
http://alycesantoro.com/philosoprops_book.html (the download button is at the bottom of the page)
7- Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
Added question: What are you working on now?
• In collaboration with my husband guitarist/composer Julian Mock I am working on developing a means of visualizing the intervals and modes commonly used in the Western 12-tone musical system. This method employs a tertiary color wheel to depict tonal relativity and shapes to depict intervals. As a musician who is constantly seeking to improve my skills and pallet as an improvisor, I developed this method out of frustration for the ways that the modes are taught in most standard music theory books. More on this project here: http://alycesantoro.com/mode_chart.html
• For Issue #25 of Leonard Music Journal, I asked 20 composers of new and experimental music the same single question that SOURCE: Music of the Avant-Garde asked of 20 composers in 1969: "Have you, or has anyone, ever used your music for political or social ends?" On May 1, I will post all of the new responses on my Academia.edu page...meanwhile, the 1969 responses can be found here and several individual responses from the contemporary composers (including Terry Riley, Frederik Rzewski, Anne LeBaron, and others) can be found on my blog.
• I am one of the co-founders of a group here in the Big Bend region that is resisting against the 42" high-pressure Trans-Pecos Pipeline. I mention this because the fight is putting all of my skills as both an artist and a scientist to the test – I find myself serving in the capacity of environmental journalist and creative direct-action/social media strategist...in other words, "science communications poetics/aesthetics"! Fascinatingly...local scientists on the ground here whose jobs are funded through the government – including Big Bend National Park employees, UT-funded astronomers, and state funded archeologists – have been silenced by the pipeline company. In other words: the very experts who could comment most authoritatively on threats to this region's plants and wildlife, aquifers, dark skies, etc. have had their jobs threatened by an industry that pours money into the state's coffers. Who is left to fight, and to point out this conflict of interest? The answer is artists, students, self-employed and retired people, and others without affiliations or anything much to lose. This is not just happening here – this is the story of what has been happening on a national and global scale for many, many years. Again, I implore any young person to bear this in mind when choosing a career path: those who can understand the gravity of the issues we are facing and are willing and able to speak out on them eloquently and effectively...you are urgently needed!
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
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If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
Thank you for the opportunity to join this fascinating discussion!
I am a conceptual/sound artist with a background in marine biology and scientific illustration. I've spent most of my life in the northeast (NY/New England), but am currently based in the high desert of far West Texas, near the town of Marfa.
With Best Regards,
Alyce Santoro
alycesantoro.com
@alyceobvious
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or humanities?
As a young person fascinated by science and nature but with a penchant for the arts (including music...inspired by Laurie Anderson's tape-bow violin, I had an electric pick-up installed in my flute during my early teens), I decided that my life's mission would be to communicate about the wonders of science and nature through art. Not knowing exactly what this would look like and having no mentor to guide me (in the mid-1980's, a high school student with an interest in what may now be referred to as interdisciplinary education was steered into "liberal arts"...but this did not quite seem to fit the bill for me...I wanted to be a "real" scientist...), formulated a plan: I would gain a formal education in science first, followed by training in scientific illustration.
As an undergraduate I pursued a BS in Biology at Southampton College, part of Long Island University (this campus and its excellent math, chemistry, and physics-heavy marine biology program unfortunately no longer exists). I am so grateful to have received this rigorous education...from it I learned the kind of critical/analytical thinking and experimental design that informs every aspect of my current work.
After Southampton I went directly to Providence, RI where I enrolled in Rhode Island School of Design's Graduate Certificate program in scientific illustration. This too was a rigorous curriculum that, in addition to providing solid training in traditional illustration, allowed me to explore other media, such as sculpture and printmaking. Providence in the early 1990's was a fertile place for artists...lofts in old factory buildings were cheap, and silkscreeners, bands, painters, industrial designers, and other creative practitioners lived and worked in close proximity, willingly sharing studios, skills, and equipment. To support myself while going to school at night, I was fortunate to get a job as a research assistant on a biochemistry and aquaculture project at the University of Rhode Island. I felt like a bit of an impostor in both worlds...by day, my friends at the lab thought of me as some crazy artist, and by night, my artist-friends saw me as a professional scientist who happened to make art.
Not long after graduating from the RISD program, I got hired as a seagoing oceanographic research assistant on the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) project. I spent three months total a year at sea, in increments of three weeks at a time, floating around Georges Bank in the North Atlantic, for over four years. This was a pivotal time for me...which leads to the next question...
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
While at sea, I had lots of time to think, read, draw, write...and converse with my fellow scientists (this was in the mid-1990's, before the internet was available on ships at sea!). Over the course of the years that I worked on the GLOBEC project, it was becoming clearer that things in the North Atlantic were amiss...counts of zooplankton and larval fish were rapidly dropping. I asked the lead scientists whether and how this informations should be communicated to the public. That's not our job, they said. Our job is to collect data, not interpret it, they said. I was given the impression that scientists putting any "spin" whatsoever on data – no matter how dire the results may appear – was bad practice. I felt conflicted...I wanted to be a "real" scientist. If the scientist's job isn't to sound the alarm bells...whose job is it? I believe that because there have historically been so few individuals in the position of "science communicator"...not just a journalist or an illustrator, but someone whose job it is to cross fluidly between those worlds, and understands what it means to be a "good scientist"...this is in part why we are now in the mess we find ourselves in re: climate change. Fear of bias has actually led to extreme bias...the vast majority of media on science comes from the corporate media, the kind of media that has a vested interest in suppressing the reality of what is happening.
Alarmed by this, I started making art about the foibles and hubris of science. I began designing "experiments" and making "laboratory equipment" to study the intangible, the parts of reality and the human experience that are unquantifiable. In other words, I became a kind of philosopher...
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
As others have already mentioned, one persistent obstacle is the prevailing view in our culture of "art" as something "extra", an embellishment, something that exists in a support capacity for science but not as something integral, with equal importance or value. The STEM to STEAM movement has been extremely helpful, and "sci-art" and "eco-art" have become much more common and widely accepted in recent years. But there is still much work to be done to dispel the idea all these neat categories are really anything more than convenient descriptors that, upon closer examination, are not nearly as neat in practice as they are in theory.
In addition, perhaps like many people on this list, I work in a nebulous, sort of "genre-free" zone. Some of my work involves sound and music, some of it is sculptural, much of it is ephemeral or conceptual....I tend to use whatever medium I feel is necessary to convey a particular idea. It's the ideas that are, to me, important...the pieces are just artifacts of a concept....and the concepts are free for the taking. For me the joy – and the point – is that ideas should be freely exchanged, open-source, collaborative...information is power, and everyone should have equal access to it. This leads to a variety of problems: a) the work doesn't fit neatly into any handy category that makes it easy to show, sell/buy, or write about, b) it does not tend to generate a significant amount of income.
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
Delighted to read that others have mentioned Goethe here! When I first learned of his concept of "delicate empiricism", it was a breakthrough for me. Confirmation of my hunch that we are not as separate from our experiments as we make ourselves out to be...and that "bias", or intuition based on sustained, earnest reflection might actually be useful...these assurances gave me permission to further develop my own "hypotheses".
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
I would have abandoned my role as a "good scientist" and embraced my role as one whose job it is to act as a liaison between scientists and the public sooner...I would have helped sound the alarm bells about climate change in the mid/late-1990's when I could see what was happening and was discouraged from speaking out.
Although my plan to study biology first and scientific illustration later ultimately worked out in its own way, I wish I'd known sooner of other options for someone who wanted to become well-versed in both art and science. I would have liked to pursue a PhD so that I could eventually teach, but I am only just now discovering PhD programs that seem to accommodate interdisciplinary studies.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
• People who understand science and can communicate clearly &/or creatively about it are more urgently needed than ever. Thus far, the problems of our time – when conveyed accurately at all – have been presented in cold, detached ways that have not tended to inspire action on the scale necessary. In my view, "the poetics & aesthetics of science communications" could be a course of study unto itself. A young person looking for ways to combine art and science might consider seeking out or self-directing such a program.
• Without creativity, there can be no innovation in art, science, technology, or anywhere in between...and if we are to effectively confront the challenges we currently face, we need to teach, learn, and practice creativity.
• For those whose practices are not well-defined or well-compensated, living simply and staying out of debt are strategies that can result in greater freedom, time, and flexibility.
• A couple of offerings for anyone who may wish to know more about my path in particular:
This is a talk I gave for incoming freshman at the New School in NYC in 2005 on "The Art of Science, The Science of Art":
https://vimeo.com/82805251
My book, which was written with a young reader setting out on a path to combine art and science in mind, is available as a free download:
http://alycesantoro.com/philosoprops_book.html (the download button is at the bottom of the page)
7- Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
Added question: What are you working on now?
• In collaboration with my husband guitarist/composer Julian Mock I am working on developing a means of visualizing the intervals and modes commonly used in the Western 12-tone musical system. This method employs a tertiary color wheel to depict tonal relativity and shapes to depict intervals. As a musician who is constantly seeking to improve my skills and pallet as an improvisor, I developed this method out of frustration for the ways that the modes are taught in most standard music theory books. More on this project here: http://alycesantoro.com/mode_chart.html
• For Issue #25 of Leonard Music Journal, I asked 20 composers of new and experimental music the same single question that SOURCE: Music of the Avant-Garde asked of 20 composers in 1969: "Have you, or has anyone, ever used your music for political or social ends?" On May 1, I will post all of the new responses on my Academia.edu page...meanwhile, the 1969 responses can be found here and several individual responses from the contemporary composers (including Terry Riley, Frederik Rzewski, Anne LeBaron, and others) can be found on my blog.
• I am one of the co-founders of a group here in the Big Bend region that is resisting against the 42" high-pressure Trans-Pecos Pipeline. I mention this because the fight is putting all of my skills as both an artist and a scientist to the test – I find myself serving in the capacity of environmental journalist and creative direct-action/social media strategist...in other words, "science communications poetics/aesthetics"! Fascinatingly...local scientists on the ground here whose jobs are funded through the government – including Big Bend National Park employees, UT-funded astronomers, and state funded archeologists – have been silenced by the pipeline company. In other words: the very experts who could comment most authoritatively on threats to this region's plants and wildlife, aquifers, dark skies, etc. have had their jobs threatened by an industry that pours money into the state's coffers. Who is left to fight, and to point out this conflict of interest? The answer is artists, students, self-employed and retired people, and others without affiliations or anything much to lose. This is not just happening here – this is the story of what has been happening on a national and global scale for many, many years. Again, I implore any young person to bear this in mind when choosing a career path: those who can understand the gravity of the issues we are facing and are willing and able to speak out on them eloquently and effectively...you are urgently needed!
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Lessons learned and advice for hybrid science-art careers
Hello Yasminists, ,
Reading the posts inspired me to reply:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or humanities
?
* Scientist: MSc. Work: Discovered the long-term memory ability of AWA and
AWB neurons in C. elegans nematode after vitrification (cryonic suspension)
and resuscitation. (2015). Over 15,000 downloads in first 3 weeks. MIT
picked up on it
https://www.technologyreview.com/contributor/natasha-vita-more/
* Arts: BFA. Works: Paintings, performance, film, video: All pertaining
to consciousness and human enhancement. Created whole body prosthesis (Primo
Posthuman) are viable concept (1996).
* Design: Ph.D. - Works: Theory of life expansion (extension across time
and space) of personal identity existing across multiple platforms
(substrates) as multiple rather than fractured, with the inclusion of a new
meaning of body (not disembodied) as essential for sustainability and to
counter theory of existential risk. All life exists within a system. Human
biology calls this a body. The entire ecology of Earth is a system, a series
of bodies of life.
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
* Around 1979, which I left Telluride Colorado and became a filmmaker in
residence at the University of Colorado and made "Breaking Away", sculpting
my body into Red Rocks. The narrative focused on relationship between body
and ecology, as a metaphor for Tesla who engineered the water plant for
energy in Telluride. Just prior to this, I was a participant in "Arts &
Sciences '79" produced by Ricard Lowenberg where I composed a work the
Observatory based on constellation at that time of year and in that
atmospheric local. In 1997, my ideas were put in writing and included
onboard the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft mission to orbit Saturn carried my
art manifesto on it stating a desire for a more humane world.
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
* In the arts: Being a woman, being an artist, and being a transhumanist.
The latter is due to the overreaching bias of Postmodernists in academics
and the bias of the Bioart field (especially in Australia) and through
curators. My work is early bioart, yet I have been blocked from
participating in many exhibitions and writings (except for the amazing work
chaired by Leonel Moura called INSIDE [art and science] in Lisbon,
Portugal. http://inside-lx.wix.com/insidearteciencia
* In the sciences: Nothing, other than hard work.
* In technology: Being a woman, being an artist. Spend a decade going to
conferences, events, etc. to learn as much as possible about biotechnology,
nanotechnology, robotics, and artificial general intelligence.
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
* Scientific breakthrough. Working with C. elegans nematode: trained simple
animal to imprint olfactory smell associated with chemical. Vitrified
(cryonic suspension). Resuscitated (warmed up and brought back to life).
Tested to see if the simple animals retained imprinting. They did. This
was the first time this science was approached, tested, and proven.
* Working with world leading scientists and technologists to develop Primo
Posthuman, and then to take it through the iterative process of evolving,
based on emerging sciences and technologies, to become its current state of
innovation as Whole Body Prosthetic - Platform Diverse with a what I call
Substrate Autonomous Persons (continuation of identity acorss time and
space) as a new "normal" rather than abnormal or splintered or fractured
identity).
*Invitation to SportAccord Convention in Russia to talk on the future of the
Olympics and introducing what a concept for Super Olympics.
*Invitation to TOPOS conference in Tokyo to meet about the growing
population of people over 60 and the reduction of births, and to work to
brainstorm how Japan can deal with this by coming up with what I call the
"Regenerative Generation" where retirement can be a choice, but a type of
time out and that the workforce can be seen as generating wisdom,
experience, and nurturing. People need a purpose in life and to contribute
to the socio-economic stability of their communities.
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
That being a woman and artist need not segregate me from high-level fields
such as biotechnology, nanotech, AI/AGI and contributing to the mechanics of
humanity, rather than being an subjective practice or as entertainment. That
it can be edutainment.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
Get it done! Just do it! Get a PhD! Don't let people who are biased hurt
your feelings and be kind to them. They are just doing what they think is
best and their lack of knowledge is inexperience or fear of the unknown. Be
kind. Be generous. Pay it forward.
7. Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
Modestly, no.
Natasha
Natasha Vita-More
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
Reading the posts inspired me to reply:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or humanities
?
* Scientist: MSc. Work: Discovered the long-term memory ability of AWA and
AWB neurons in C. elegans nematode after vitrification (cryonic suspension)
and resuscitation. (2015). Over 15,000 downloads in first 3 weeks. MIT
picked up on it
https://www.technologyreview.com/contributor/natasha-vita-more/
* Arts: BFA. Works: Paintings, performance, film, video: All pertaining
to consciousness and human enhancement. Created whole body prosthesis (Primo
Posthuman) are viable concept (1996).
* Design: Ph.D. - Works: Theory of life expansion (extension across time
and space) of personal identity existing across multiple platforms
(substrates) as multiple rather than fractured, with the inclusion of a new
meaning of body (not disembodied) as essential for sustainability and to
counter theory of existential risk. All life exists within a system. Human
biology calls this a body. The entire ecology of Earth is a system, a series
of bodies of life.
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
* Around 1979, which I left Telluride Colorado and became a filmmaker in
residence at the University of Colorado and made "Breaking Away", sculpting
my body into Red Rocks. The narrative focused on relationship between body
and ecology, as a metaphor for Tesla who engineered the water plant for
energy in Telluride. Just prior to this, I was a participant in "Arts &
Sciences '79" produced by Ricard Lowenberg where I composed a work the
Observatory based on constellation at that time of year and in that
atmospheric local. In 1997, my ideas were put in writing and included
onboard the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft mission to orbit Saturn carried my
art manifesto on it stating a desire for a more humane world.
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
* In the arts: Being a woman, being an artist, and being a transhumanist.
The latter is due to the overreaching bias of Postmodernists in academics
and the bias of the Bioart field (especially in Australia) and through
curators. My work is early bioart, yet I have been blocked from
participating in many exhibitions and writings (except for the amazing work
chaired by Leonel Moura called INSIDE [art and science] in Lisbon,
Portugal. http://inside-lx.wix.com/insidearteciencia
* In the sciences: Nothing, other than hard work.
* In technology: Being a woman, being an artist. Spend a decade going to
conferences, events, etc. to learn as much as possible about biotechnology,
nanotechnology, robotics, and artificial general intelligence.
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
* Scientific breakthrough. Working with C. elegans nematode: trained simple
animal to imprint olfactory smell associated with chemical. Vitrified
(cryonic suspension). Resuscitated (warmed up and brought back to life).
Tested to see if the simple animals retained imprinting. They did. This
was the first time this science was approached, tested, and proven.
* Working with world leading scientists and technologists to develop Primo
Posthuman, and then to take it through the iterative process of evolving,
based on emerging sciences and technologies, to become its current state of
innovation as Whole Body Prosthetic - Platform Diverse with a what I call
Substrate Autonomous Persons (continuation of identity acorss time and
space) as a new "normal" rather than abnormal or splintered or fractured
identity).
*Invitation to SportAccord Convention in Russia to talk on the future of the
Olympics and introducing what a concept for Super Olympics.
*Invitation to TOPOS conference in Tokyo to meet about the growing
population of people over 60 and the reduction of births, and to work to
brainstorm how Japan can deal with this by coming up with what I call the
"Regenerative Generation" where retirement can be a choice, but a type of
time out and that the workforce can be seen as generating wisdom,
experience, and nurturing. People need a purpose in life and to contribute
to the socio-economic stability of their communities.
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
That being a woman and artist need not segregate me from high-level fields
such as biotechnology, nanotech, AI/AGI and contributing to the mechanics of
humanity, rather than being an subjective practice or as entertainment. That
it can be edutainment.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
Get it done! Just do it! Get a PhD! Don't let people who are biased hurt
your feelings and be kind to them. They are just doing what they think is
best and their lack of knowledge is inexperience or fear of the unknown. Be
kind. Be generous. Pay it forward.
7. Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
Modestly, no.
Natasha
Natasha Vita-More
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[Yasmin_discussions] [Yasmin] Lessons learned and advice for hybrid science-art careers
Dear Yasminers,
I have enjoyed your posts, please find my contribution to your discussion:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or
humanities ?
Education: BA Fine Art, MA Printmaking, Practice-based PhD 'Drawing as
Epistemology for Morphology' (in collaboration with Natural History Museum)
(2015).
Wellcome Trust Arts Award (2009-2010), Artist in Residence in Imperial
College London Mathematics Department (2011-ongoing), Artist in Residence
for Northern Ireland Science Festival (2016).
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
As an MA student at the Royal College of Art (2005), I was interested in
Morphology and began drawing from the Natural History Museum's research
collections, which is how I began talking to and working with scientists.
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
I agree with Malina when he says 'The hardest thing has been convincing my
scientific colleagues that art-science was more than science illustration
or science education outreach, and that the interaction would change the
way science is done and what it studies'. As a 25 year old MA student at
the RCA I began these difficult conversations with scientists at the NHM in
London. This seems to be a recurring experience.
Understanding what shapes the fate of art-science endeavours, I feel, are
related to the social conditions that make these kinds of explorations
possible – and the conditions that make them impossible. My reflection
points at the institutional forms and processes that open or close spaces
for careers to be forged – and intellectuals (artscientists) to grow.
I am currently working on an Arts and Humanities Research Council
application for post-doctoral research. It has been a long and voluntary
process (approx. 6 months) for which there is no way to be compensated. The
project is in collaboration with a Philosopher and Biologist who are both
in tenure positions which restricts the amount of time they can devote to
the application process. The project is genuinely inter-disciplinary and
(we hope) ground-breaking as an unusual opportunity for art, science and
philosophy to hold equal shares in a research project.
A disproportionate amount of art-science funding comes from science RC's
meaning that collaborations and successes are shaped in science's own terms
(here I use the term "science" in its institutional meaning, not in the
"intellectual discovery"): goals (publications, audiences, media).This is
not only a question of opportunities for the specific individuals involved,
it also affects what kinds of opportunities are there for art-science at
all, about what topics, etc.
4- What have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
Although not entirely positive, the practice based PhD to some extent has
provided a legitimisation of my artistic research to the scientific
community at the NHM. As a PhD-researcher and artist, I was given access
and support that had not been offered as a self-employed researching
artist. Now with a PhD, I have more opportunities to apply for research
funding, to teach and to collaborate with universities and other
institutions that would not be available otherwise.
A breakthrough was publishing my first PhD paper (2011) in Leonardo
'Endangered: Morphological drawing in Zoological Taxonomy' (2014) as this
helped me to grow confidence that I could contribute to academic
discussions on art/science, biology and philosophy… this was later followed
by another paper co-authored with the mathematicians at Imperial College I
have collaborated with since 2011.
5- What would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
I would have studied German at school (and later) so that I could read
Goethe and Klee's works in German.
6- Any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
Don't be afraid to ask questions, no matter how stupid you may think they
are. Remember there are many ways to approach understanding/creating
knowledge from the world… and there is no strict hierarchy to this,
scientific methods are not always exact, artistic methods are not
necessarily intuitive and vague.
All best + thanks,
Gemma
Dr Gemma Anderson
Artist and Lecturer in Drawing at Falmouth University
Honorary Research Fellow, Egenis, University of Exeter
http://www.gemma-anderson.co.uk/
*The **Cornwall Morphology and Drawing Centre*
www.cmadc.uk
*The Isomorphology Project*
http://www.isomorphology.com/
@Isomorphology <https://twitter.com/Isomorphology>
https://falmouth.academia.edu/GemmaAnderson
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Monday, April 25, 2016
[Yasmin_discussions] Lessons learned and advice for hybrid science-art careers
dear yasminers,
here is my modest contribution to your discussion:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or
humanities ?
computer science: 1st half of carreer Natural Language Processing, 2nd
half
in computer graphics (augmented reality)
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science
practice?
in 2003 when I shifted research topic, I thought that I could combine my
interests for the visual arts with my scientific research through
art/science
collaborations.
I also took a 1-year education in 3D computer graphics for the arts at
ENSAD (a French national school in applied arts). It is througn
encounters
with artists at this school that I started my first art-science
collaborations.
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
My research lab did not show any interest for this field during the
first
6 years. Then it became better acknowledged and recognized as one of the
activities of the lab. But it however never got any human or financial
support.
It has always been difficult for me to find funding for art-science
projects.
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
some of my collaborations with artists have opened the scope
of my interests and my research far beyond the mere limits of
my scientific fields.
unfortunately there is not recipie for these encounters, and
they are more risky than traditional science/science collaborations.
however, when they succeed they can be a source of expansion and
exploration in unexpected research areas in arts and science...
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
start art-science much earlier in my career and be more voluntary
about it from the beginning.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
start art/science as early as you can, no later than for your PhD
project.
dare contacting possible PhD thesis supervisors with such a project
in mind. dare mentionning your art/science interest when applying for
a position even if it nos explicitely mentioned in the job profile.
dare organizing events (workshops, conferences, seminars...) on
such topics, you will expand your network. Because of the high
diversity in arts and science here is rarely an identified
art science community corresponding to your field, contrary to
arts or science taken separately. For this reason, it is really
useful to create events, publications, blogs, social network groups...
that can help you to find other scholars or artists interested
in similar topics.
7. Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
my question is: if you have your own artistic activity as a scientist,
what is best:
- make it visible with the risk of blurring your image
- keep your scientific and artistic activities with the risk of missing
opportunities to valorize them jointly
sorry I do not have "the" reply to this question...
whatever you choose for your own way - enjoy, it is fun !
thank you to all the moderators who open and support discussions
on this list
--
Christian Jacquemin
CNRS-LIMSI & Univ. Paris-Sud, bat 508, rue John von Neumann, 91400
Orsay, France
tel +33 (0)1 69 85 81 01 / fax -- 80 88
http://perso.limsi.fr/jacquemi/
http://vida.limsi.fr/
Service Arts et Culture, Maison des Etudes, bat 330/EVE, 91405 Orsay
http://www.culture.u-psud.fr/
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If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
here is my modest contribution to your discussion:
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or
humanities ?
computer science: 1st half of carreer Natural Language Processing, 2nd
half
in computer graphics (augmented reality)
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science
practice?
in 2003 when I shifted research topic, I thought that I could combine my
interests for the visual arts with my scientific research through
art/science
collaborations.
I also took a 1-year education in 3D computer graphics for the arts at
ENSAD (a French national school in applied arts). It is througn
encounters
with artists at this school that I started my first art-science
collaborations.
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
My research lab did not show any interest for this field during the
first
6 years. Then it became better acknowledged and recognized as one of the
activities of the lab. But it however never got any human or financial
support.
It has always been difficult for me to find funding for art-science
projects.
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
some of my collaborations with artists have opened the scope
of my interests and my research far beyond the mere limits of
my scientific fields.
unfortunately there is not recipie for these encounters, and
they are more risky than traditional science/science collaborations.
however, when they succeed they can be a source of expansion and
exploration in unexpected research areas in arts and science...
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
start art-science much earlier in my career and be more voluntary
about it from the beginning.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
start art/science as early as you can, no later than for your PhD
project.
dare contacting possible PhD thesis supervisors with such a project
in mind. dare mentionning your art/science interest when applying for
a position even if it nos explicitely mentioned in the job profile.
dare organizing events (workshops, conferences, seminars...) on
such topics, you will expand your network. Because of the high
diversity in arts and science here is rarely an identified
art science community corresponding to your field, contrary to
arts or science taken separately. For this reason, it is really
useful to create events, publications, blogs, social network groups...
that can help you to find other scholars or artists interested
in similar topics.
7. Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
my question is: if you have your own artistic activity as a scientist,
what is best:
- make it visible with the risk of blurring your image
- keep your scientific and artistic activities with the risk of missing
opportunities to valorize them jointly
sorry I do not have "the" reply to this question...
whatever you choose for your own way - enjoy, it is fun !
thank you to all the moderators who open and support discussions
on this list
--
Christian Jacquemin
CNRS-LIMSI & Univ. Paris-Sud, bat 508, rue John von Neumann, 91400
Orsay, France
tel +33 (0)1 69 85 81 01 / fax -- 80 88
http://perso.limsi.fr/jacquemi/
http://vida.limsi.fr/
Service Arts et Culture, Maison des Etudes, bat 330/EVE, 91405 Orsay
http://www.culture.u-psud.fr/
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
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Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
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[Yasmin_discussions] Mercado Central; Lessons learned and advice for hybrid science-art careers
yasminers
marco nardelli send us these thoughts in response to the questions !
roger malina
Super short bio: Marco Nardelli
I am a University Distinguished Research Professor at the University
of North Texas, a computational materials physicist, a composer,
flutist and a member of iARTA, the Initiative for Advanced Research in
Technology and the Arts. My music has been premiered, among others, by
the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, London's C.O.M.A. group, the
Accessible Contemporary Music ensemble of Chicago, the Raleigh Civic
Chamber Orchestra, GaTech's Sonic Generator, ICMC and the NOVA
Ensemble. I am a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the
Institute of Physics, a founding member of the AFLOW Consortium and a
Parma Recordings artist.
1- what is your background as a scientist? In the arts, design or
humanities ?
As a scientist, my research activities are focused on the application
of ab initio electronic structure techniques to the theoretical study
of important aspects of the physics of materials. Current research
programs in my group focus on various aspects in the fields of
computational materials and high performance simulations, such as:
materials and processes for energy and environment applications,
nano-catalysis, molecular electronics at the nanoscale and quantum
electronic and thermal transport in molecules and molecular materials;
design of novel electronic devices; physics and chemistry at
interfaces and surfaces; theoretical developments of ab initio
DFT-based methods, high-throughput techniques in materials genomics
and computational materials design. My group is a member of the AFLOW
consortium, a distributed materials genome properties repository from
high-throughput ab-initio calculation, and one of the representative
members of the QUANTUM ESPRESSO Foundation, a foundation that fosters
and supports the design, implementation, maintenance, and free
dissemination of high-quality, high-performance open-source scientific
software for ab-initio quantum numerical modeling of materials.
As for my arts background, I have been a musician and a composer well
before I become a physicist and materials scientist. I started to
study music at a very young age and I have been always fascinated by
the connections between music and mathematics. Actually, thanks to the
teachings of my first mentor, Mo. Pablo Colino at the Accademia
Filarmonica Romana in Rome, Italy, I actually learned to spell my
first notes as numbers. Over the years I never abandoned this broad
perspective and I used it in many of my compositions. One example is
"Tzolk'in", a piece for three marimbas entirely based on the structure
of the Mayan calendar. The composition exploits the interlocking
structure of the Tzolk'in calendar, where 20 melodic units are
superimposed to 13 different meter regions, creating a cycle where
pitch and rhythmic structures follow each other for 260 four-beat
units for a total duration of 13 min. This piece, which won a
honorable mention at the II Louisiana State University Percussion
Society's Percussion Ensemble Composition Contest and first prize in
the Volta Trio composition competition in 2010, is indeed very
mathematical! You can actually watch a full performance of the piece
here http://ermes.unt.edu/tzolkin.htm. However, I would say that my
most recent project , materialssoundmusic, is definitely a high point
of my quest of merging music, mathematics and science in a coherent
artistic message.
2- when and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
As I mentioned above, I have always been interested in all aspects of
music and science (I have also developed a course on the Physics of
Music), but the turning point recently has been the design,
development and realization of my project materialssoundmusic (at
www.materialssoundmusic.com). materialssoundmusic is a new
computer-aided data-driven composition (CADDC) environment based on
the sonification and remix of scientific data streams. Sonification of
scientific data, i.e. the perceptualization of information through
acoustic means, not only provides a useful alternative and complement
to visual data representation, but provides also the raw data for
potential artistic remixes and further musical interpretation. The
materialssoundmusic project starts with the sonification of the
materials property data from the online computational materials
science repository AFLOWLIB.org. Databases such AFLOWLIB.org are of
enormous scientific and technological value because they provide the
materials scientists with complete compilations of materials
properties that can be used for materials discovery, development and
rational design. The initial process of sonification provides an
abstract representation of the data that can be used for navigation
and data mining of the database on scientific grounds. From there, the
data stream is open for elaboration as principal element of a
data-driven compositional environment.
3- what have been the major obstacles to overcome?
I am not sure about obstacles so far, but I can see obstacles ahead.
And as it happens, all boils down to funding. I have ideas that will
cost money to realize (see the Crystal Gallery, below), and as far as
I know there is very limited funding to support art and science
initiatives. I always try to have a paragraph or two in my proposals
where I talk about data sonification (the scientific aspect of my
musical work). But it is very little… As a community we have to rally
behind major funding agencies and demonstrate that art and science
project have an intrinsic value that should be supported.
4- what have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
I think that the greatest opportunity has been the realization that
notwithstanding the impact of materials science in our everyday lives,
the appreciation of the general public for this particular aspect of
science and technology is quite feeble, and the interest on materials
and their properties is not receiving the curiosity and engagement
that they deserve. We are familiar with the intricacies and vastness
of the universe but we give little thought to the universe of
processes that happen constantly inside the materials that surround us
and on which we depend for almost everything. Part of the reason is
that over millennia we have developed a familiarity with celestial
objects, seen as obeying mathematical and musical laws, and we have
embodied a synergy between the scientific and artistic interpretation
of our universe. A similar concept has never existed for the world of
materials. materialssoundmusic is meant to engage and educate the
public on the inner reality of crystalline structures and materials
properties via a range of art and science collaborations originating
from the sonification of materials property data and their use in
musical composition. These compositions are meant to provide an
immersive experience when they are embedded in installations like the
Crystal Galleries (see figure below). You can hear one of these
soundscapes in my piece "EleKtrIoN (music of diamond)"
[soundcloud.com/materialssoundmusic/elektrion-I]. While EleKtrIoN is a
relatively faithful representation (or sonification) of the electronic
structure data of diamond, in other compositions I use the materials
data much more freely, as a sculptor would use clay (the raw data) to
mold any object or create any design. These compositions, like
"Contrappunto" (for player piano and electronics)
[soundcloud.com/materialssoundmusic/contrappunto], "Ricercare" (for
flute, player piano, electronics and live data stream)
[soundcloud.com/materialssoundmusic/ricercare] "Amargosa Triptych" (for piano),
[soundcloud.com/materialssoundmusic/amargosa-triptych],
and "Music for 88 keys (to Conlon Nancarrow, in memoriam)" for player
piano and electronics
[soundcloud.com/materialssoundmusic/sets/music-for-88-keys],
are the result of this personal compositional approach and would be
ideal candidates for performance in one of my Crystal Galleries.
Conceptual drawing for Crystal Gallery #1 based on the geometry and
electronic structure of Diamond. The electron densities (plastic
balloons) are the results of Density Functional Theory calculations on
the AFLOWLIB database entry C1_ICSD_52054. These are the same data
that have been used for creating the composition EleKtrIoN.
5- what would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
This is hard to say. Probably nothing, or maybe small things here and
there. Being both a musician and a scientist gives me a great freedom
and independence. I know both realms quite well (at least in my
respective fields) and I do not have to depend on anybody else, if I
so choose. This is a great advantage.
6- any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
Just follow your passion. Without passion there is no Science and no Art.
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[Yasmin_discussions] Mercado Central::
yasminers
ramon guardans, a long time yasminer and scientist sends us this
interesting reflection as a working scientist on the art science
questions we are raising in Mercado Central
Ramon is Scientific Advisor to the National Reference Centre on
Persistent Organic Pollutants Spanish National Implementation Plan of
the Stockholm Convention Ministry of the Environment.
He says
Next week im going to Tsokuba in Japan to work for a couple of weeks
at the labs in NIES (Nat Inst Env Studies) the people under the Min of
Env that do environmental motoring of chemical substances. Since the
1970s they have been collecting samples all overt the country in land
and in the sea, air, water, soil, sediment, invertebrates, fish,
birds, mammals and humans, (some of them kept in a mighty sample bank)
and the samples were analyzed for a number of substances including
isotopes , heavy metals, pesticides and industrial chemicals. So by
now for a number of chemicals groups (PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, PCCDFs) field
measurements of tested QA&QC are available for a number of sites over
several decades (1980/2015) in different media.
he tells us that is about to use gaming engines to explore the
scientific data, a recent example of how the arts and design have
developed approaches, orginally for entertainment , now routinely
being used by scientists
He is about to embark on an integrated study of these data is now
possible and relevant to understand pathways mass balances time lags
and interactions, at a scientific and policy level this is obviously
important, to make sense of the current state of things and think
about future developments and potential actions. For many years i have
been thinking that the competence and power in the world of games was
an optimal environment to explore such data, navigate through them ,
model past and future developments that can or could have been.
he goes on
In many senses the whole art science dichotomy is quite ridiculous,
and toxic and deserves to be subverted, one by making scientist
understand that what they do is art and artist that what they do is
mostly rational and can be very valuable for scientist.
In my view today what technically specialized groups in society[3]
such as artists, scientists, technicians, administrators, academics,
etc (and individual people can belong to or be conversant with many of
those guilds) should do is work together to face the obvious
challenges facing society. What can we do to overcome the aporia in
the simultaneous occurrence of delicate logical thought and criminal
violence across the board. Really the theatrical squabbles between
guilds and styles of work are interesting but I think should not be
the issue, I would argue that the point its not how artist talk to
scientists or viceversa it is how artist and scientists cooperate to
help in sorting out the mess and trying to avoid predictable mistakes,
crimes and disasters. Its not about epistemic or ontological
horsetrading its about enhancing critical autonomy and analytical
competence, efficacy in undoing violence against women, workers, its
on workers rights, fairness, transparency and accountability, in my
view that is what art and science are about.
Here is his full text
roger malina
Madrid 25
April 2016
To open the play let me quote from Horkheimer and Adorno 1944
Dialectic of the Enlightenment, a great text I have been working with
recently, lucid and brutal[1]. The basic point in it is : how come
such a nice "method of of thinking" (ie, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel
etc) has sprouted the kind of crap we are seeing (1944 was crappy
indeed). I think much of this puzzlement is sill pertinent today when
you see the simultaneous occurrence of delicate logical thought and
criminal violence across the board.
Homer, Plato argued, had procured neither public nor private reforms
through his much-vaunted art, had neither won a war nor made an
invention. (p13)
...
The making of images was proscribed by Plato as it was by the Jews.
Both reason and religion outlaw the principle of magic. Even in its
resigned detachment from existence, as art, it remains dishonorable;
those who practice it become vagrants, latter-day nomads, who find no
domicile among the settled. Nature is no longer to be influenced by
likeness but mastered through work.(p13)
…
According to Schelling, art begins where knowledge leaves humans in
the lurch. For him art is "the model of science, and wherever art is,
there science must go." (p14)
I would agree with the later, in fact as I see it for many millenia
and in many contemporary configurations producing beauty is an aspect
of the social production of knowledge. The construction and
reproduction of methods, ideas and objects that stimulate and enhance
the collective and individual awareness and understanding. Then of
course there is a social division of labor and different people do
different things and this division of labor is entangled with
different forms of power and agency at a given point in time.
So for instance in the late 1600 the power structures in the European
area where moored, and enforced in a world of certitudes and dogmas
(aristocracy, church, nation etc), many of these came to be challenged
in theoretical terms and this had political consequences about forms
of hegemony and power in society. A set of very powerful tools,
mechanical engines and calculations proved to be effective and quite
detached of the philosophical principles on which the structures of
domination were articulated. So railroads, arithmetics and guns had
more power than kings and bishops, consequently a political fight was
on, and is on, to harness the potential subversive power of straight
thinking.
That s how this whole parody of art-science was enacted by the 1700,
on one hand you had obedient and disciplined "scientists" (a social
division of labor enshrined in hegemonic academic institutions such as
the Royal Society) mastering and confining the power of rationality in
a politically safe structure where "humanists/artist" can play as free
individuals disobedient, undisciplined and powerless, quite on line
with the Platonic ideas above.
In most places through history (think of Mesopotamia, the Vedas,
Mayas, Yoruba, Inuit, Japan, China ….) there is no distinction or
conflict in the practicalities of working through life between art
(critical beauty, personal satisfaction in perception) and science
(practical efficacy, material satisfaction in action), the distinction
invented in the 17h century in Europe is a result of the political use
of the distribution of labor to maintain forms of domination, and
that is where the art science dichotomy appears as meaningful. It is
not a description of facts its a political project, an ongoing
project.
One interesting subplot here is the role of uncertainty. In the
"standard model" science is all about decreasing , confining, erasing,
uncertainty and consequently deterministic, predictable outcomes are
good and unpredictability is bad. I have been searching over decades
for environments were uncertainty is seen as constructive, positive,
enjoyable. There are a number of environments such as games, sports,
music, poetry and other arts where uncertainty is not only valued but
a the core of the process. This is of some consequence in terms of
the ambition of the cognitive process , individually and socially. Do
we want to dominate in certitude and fear[2] or enjoy subtle
perception of uncertainty and the challenges and beauty of navigating
in it.
In many senses the whole art science dichotomy is quite ridiculous,
and toxic and deserves to be subverted, one by making scientist
understand that what they do is art and artist that what they do is
mostly rational and can be very valuable for scientist.
Obviously a scientifically trained worker does some things in rational
ways such as designing experiments , analyzing data or writing a
paper, but then much of the in between time is not rational is
intuitive, personal and based on feelings, the choice of subjects,
dealings with colleagues, method and location of work are certainly
not only the result of a logical sequence of postulates, they are a
form of art. A worker in art, in the narrow meaning this has in
current academic , curatorial and art production and marketing
environment, needs much science to work out technical competence in
producing her work and getting accreditation as a professional an
making a meaningful trajectory.
So the gradient is more in terms of attitude than in terms of competences.
In my view today what technically specialized groups in society[3]
such as artists, scientists, technicians, administrators, academics,
etc (and individual people can belong to or be conversant with many of
those guilds) should do is work together to face the obvious
challenges facing society. What can we do to overcome the aporia in
the simultaneous occurrence of delicate logical thought and criminal
violence across the board. Really the theatrical squabbles between
guilds and styles of work are interesting but I think should not be
the issue, I would argue that the point its not how artist talk to
scientists or viceversa it is how artist and scientists cooperate to
help in sorting out the mess and trying to avoid predictable mistakes,
crimes and disasters. Its not about epistemic or ontological
horsetrading its about enhancing critical autonomy and analytical
competence, efficacy in undoing violence against women, workers, its
on workers rights, fairness, transparency and accountability, in my
view that is what art and science are about.
________________________________
[1] Max Horkheimer and Theodor W.Adorno. 2002 Dialectic of
Enlightment, Philosophical Fragments. Ed Gunzelin Schmid Noerr,
Translated Edmund Jephcott Stanford University Press, Stanford,
California. 2002.282pp.
[2] Enlightenment is mythical fear radicalized. The pure immanence
of positivism, its ultimate product, is nothing other than a form of
universal taboo. Nothing is allowed to remain outside, since the mere
idea of the "outside" is the real source of fear. (Horkeimer, Adorno
1944 p11)
[3] On division of linguistic labor see for instance the beautiful
Hilary Putnam 1973 Meaning and Reference. The Journal of Philosophy,
Vol. 70, No. 19, Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American
Philosophical Association Eastern Division. (Nov. 8, 1973), pp.
699-711.
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Sunday, April 24, 2016
[Yasmin_discussions] Mercado Central
Yasminers
please find my own thoughts/responses in reaction to the questions that
Francois-Joseph Lapointe
Roger Malina
An Art-Science Career is like Piloting Through Chaos
ROGER MALINA answers to the Mercado Central questions for art-science
hybrids and lessons learned:
Astrophysicist, Editor and Publisher and Art Science Researcher
CONTRIBUTION TO THE YASMIN DISCUSSION: Scientist's Mercado Central
Exchange Advice FOR YOUNG ART SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS
1- 1- What is your background as a scientist?
In the arts, design or humanities?
I obtained a BSc in Physics at MIT, followed by a PhD in Astronomy at
UC Berkeley. I was lucky enough as an undergraduate to be involved in
the beginning of x ray astronomy, and got the bug for the 'thrill of
discovery'. I went on to lead a team that built the telescopes and
instruments for a NASA satellite
(https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/euve/euvegof.html ) and then
operated the satellite. I was then head hunted and started a career in
research administration leading to my job as Director of an
Astronomical Observatory (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille_Observatory ) .
I started a career in the art world when my father died in 1982. I was
then a postdoc in space astrophysics. My father had started the
art-science journal Leonardo in 1966
(http://leonardo.info/isast/leostory.html ). I decided to try and keep
it going and started two art-science non profits one in Paris
(http://www.olats.org/ ) and one in San Francisco
(http://leonardo.info/index.html ). I was 32. I took a conscious risk
at a time I was 200% consumed by my scientific career. Since then I
have been very involved in the art science world, through publishing,
organized workshops and artists residencies in scientific
laboratories.
Lesson learned (see end section) This is piloting through chaos. When
your personal life, in this case my father's death, intrudes on your
professional life- think it through and jump, take the risk if there
is a connection essential to one's personal integrity. Initially my
work in art was motivated by the memory of my father and his legacy.
35 years later, that instinctive decision to keep Leonardo going has
become a core of my motivation in life. I had never run a publication
or a nonprofit, but we had the startup mentality and with a group of
friends and colleagues it worked.
2- When and how did you become involved in a hybrid art/science practice?
I distinguish my career in publishing in art science from my new
career as an art-science researcher. The later began in 2015 when I
started the ArtSciLab at UT dallas (http://artscilab.utdallas.edu/ ) .
I am now collaborating in a fascinating art science project (Data
Stethoscope) (https://www.utdallas.edu/news/2016/2/12-31902_Collaborative-Minds-Bringing-Sounds-to-Brain-Data-_story-wide.html
), to create in a gaming engine new forms of data representation,
including immersive, interactive and sonified data. The collaboration
includes a neuroscientist, an astrophysicist, three artists and
composer, two gaming company entrepreneurs, a computer scientist and a
user experience designer. This is the most difficult research project
I have been involved in, certainly since I was at Berkeley in a group
inventing extreme ultraviolet astronomy. And the thrill of discovery
is there again. I was recruited in Dallas in 2014 by a long colleague
Tom Linehan with whom I had worked in 1987 on a Leonardo SIGGRAPH
issue (http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Image-Digital-Cinema-Siggraph-Supplemental/dp/B003X5KGIK
). I was 63 when I started my new career.
Lesson learned: when someone shares your obsession, they probably will
still share it 30 years later: we kept in touch. Keep in touch with
partners in crime!.
Lesson Learned; Art Science research is as difficult as any other
field. It takes method, discipline and invention,
3- What have been the major obstacles to overcome?
I have basically kept my separate careers separate until recently (I
used to maintain a science CV and separately an Arts CV). But I have
been extremely lucky that my art career, which never paid me anything
until three years ago after 30 years of volunteer work, is now my full
time employment.
The hardest thing has been convincing my scientific colleagues that
art-science was more than science illustration or science education
outreach, and that the interaction would change the way science is
done and what it studies. It has been gratifying to see the STEM to
STEAM movement in the last few years where the ideas that hybrids have
espoused for decades at least are now getting public discussion and
attention. The work of Robert Root Bernstein
(https://vimeo.com/157058429 ) has helped me understand the sociology
of what is going on. A book I enjoyed recently is Randall Collins The
Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change.
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Sociology-Philosophies-Global-Intellectual/dp/0674001877
)
Another hard thing was keeping the Leonardo non-profits going
(Leonardo Journal is now celebrating its 50th). Running and keeping
going an arts nonprofit is really difficult; we have been lucky to
have a dedicated collaborators (I think particularly of the late Steve
Wilson and the former Leonardo managing editor Pam Grant Ryan.
4- What have been the greatest opportunities/breakthroughs?
It has been exhilarating seeing the success of the art science and art
technology creative community. Leonardo has been a witness, a
promoter, and a documenter of an international group of pathbreakers
that developed so much of the basis for the digital culture that is
now emerging.
Some of the proudest moments have been setting up programs and
workshops. In the 1990's Annick Bureaud and I organized a series of
space and the arts workshops in Paris
(http://www.olats.org/space/space.php ). At the beginning this was a
dozen people in my living room with professionals in space and
astronautics and professional artists. Innumerable collaborations were
spawned by this series of 'convenings. Lesson learned – if you are
working in a hybrid field, often the professionals are invisible to
each other. Create situations where they meet each other.
Similarly I worked on setting up a number of artists residencies in
science settings beginning in the early 1990s
(http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/arts/ACEfellow/information.html ) , but
notably the art-science residency program at the Mediterranean
Institute of Advanced Studies
(http://malina.diatrope.com/2013/02/25/call-for-art-science-residency-applications-at-imera-in-marseille-france/
)– such residencies are now flowering internationally.
Lesson learned: all risky innovations require champions inside the
organization you want to work with. Find them.
And right now I am really excited by the work I am involved in in data
sonification- I think we are path breaking new interesting research
methods and awesome art.
5- What would you do differently, knowing then what you know now?
I have been lucky, each step in my career grew out of the previous
step ( I moved from MIT, to Berkeley, to Marseille, to Dallas and next
?). Again it comes down to the piloting through chaos thing. I can
think of mistakes I have made ( hmm we jumped on too quickly on CDI
technology. ) In terms of doing things differently, I wish I had read
David Bohm's 'On Dialogue'
(http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/Chaos-Complexity/dialogue.pdf ) before
I was 55. Figuring out the new context in which one is stepping takes
a lot of real exploration and dialogue. I only learned about
translation studies after I got to Dallas. It is easy to misread
signals from people who are important in the context you are trying to
do something a bit unusual in.
6- Any advices to someone who may want to walk in your footstep?
If you are working deeply in a hybrid practice – bring people with
shared interest together. This can just be a few people in your home
city, or begin on line. Dhru Deb who is also in this discussion and is
a cancer researcher and artist is doing just that trying to connect
the cancer researchers involved in the arts
(http://www.leonardo.info/isast/journal/calls/artandcancer.html ) . As
I said above- people in this hybrid careers are often not visible to
each other (our organisations generally marginalize them in the public
presentation of their activities).
Document your work and show it to others. This can be podcasts in the
Creative Disturbance platform we just started
(http://creativedisturbance.org/ ), or articles in publications or
papers at relevant conferences or just a good personal web site. It is
so much easier now than 50 years ago to reach and connect with people
with shared interests.
Develop a reputation management plan. I never did this and wish I had
invested the time articulating what I was trying to do and making this
visible across my activities. And with your reputation management plan
draw attention to your work (as documented above)
Seek out mentors. Often your close environment may not have older
professionals who share your double interest. They probably exist
within 50 kilometers of you. Find them.
7. Add other questions and your responses you think are relevant
Much art science practice is collaborative. I believe collaboration
can be taught as a skill and practice. The collaboration and
management training I received at NASA taught me much – in this case
on projects involving scientists, engineers, managers, companies. Art
Science collaboration is even more difficult. I don't think it's just
an implicit skill. I am very impressed with the group working on the
Science of Team Science. Check out their best method manuals
(http://www.scienceofteamscience.org/scits-a-team-science-resources )
.
I like to say 'interdisciplinary is not a discipline'. Each
art-science collaboration has complications that arise from the very
different research and production cultures. And Art Science Career is
like piloting through chaos.
For thirty year I have had a friend and colleague Julian Gresser. When
I first met him he was working on 'strategic alliance' management.
Getting companies to collaborate ( eg Japanese, American and
European). If you think art-science collaboration is difficult try
those! In the last ten years Julian has written a couple of books
about "Piloting Through Chaos" (http://explorerswheel.com/about ). In
general I am not a big fan of self-improvement books (and I sometimes
find Julian a bit too 'spiritual' for me). But his core idea of
piloting through chaos using the multiple compasses of ones dividuated
self : professional goals and activities, personal, physical and
philosophical ( spiritual) structured using the principle of
integrity, to re integrate the dividuations seems like common sense
when trying to break a path through a world dominated by disciplinary
structure and reward systems.
This set of responses is submitted to : WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS WHO ARE SEEKING TO PURSUE HYBRID ART-SCIENCE
CAREERS ?
ANNOUNCING A YASMIN DISCUSSION: Scientist Mercado Central Exchange
Advice FOR YOUNG ART SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS
We are starting a discussion on the YASMIN discussion list: you can
subscribe and contribute to the discussion at
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
You can just follow the discussion on this blog,
or by subscribing to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
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Saturday, April 23, 2016
[Yasmin_discussions] yasmin in your spam file
yasminers
some of you have been finding yasmin emails in your
spam folder- you might check and un spam them !
we are checking into it
roger malina
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