Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous of 13 February 2020

Exploring the Frontiers of Knowledge and Imagination, Fostering Interdisciplinary Networking

Stanford, 13 February 2020
LiKaShing building - Room LK120
Chaired by Piero Scaruffi and prof. Curtis Frank

The LASERs are an international program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversation with an audience. See the program for the whole series and the dates for the Bay Area. The event is free and open to everybody. Email me if you want to be added to the mailing list for the LASERs. Like previous evenings, the agenda includes some presentations of art/science projects, news from the audience, and time for casual socializing/networking.
Where: Stanford University, LiKaShing building - Room LK120
There should be ample parking in the structure on corner of Campus Drive West and Roth Way. (Stanford map)
Parking is mostly free at Stanford after 6pm.
Program (the order of the speakers might change):
  • 7:00-7:25: Krishna Shenoy (Stanford/ Neuroscience) on "Brain-machine Interfaces: From basic science and engineering to clinical trials" Brain-machine interfaces aim to restore lost functions due to brain disease or injury by converting neural activity from the brain into control signals... Read more
  • 7:25-7:50: Lars Steinmetz (Co-Director, Stanford Genome Technology Center) on "Emerging Technologies to Prevent Disease" Medicine is quickly becoming personalized, predictive, and participative... Read more
  • 7:50-8:10: BREAK. Before or after the break, anyone in the audience currently working within the intersections of art and science will have 30 seconds to share their work. Please present your work as a teaser so that those who are interested can seek you out during social time following the event.
  • 8:10-8:35: Terry Berlier (Kinetic Artist) on "Nonorientable: Queering Objects" Kinetic and sound sculptures to queer the possible... Read more
  • 8:35-9:00: Christine Marie (Light Artist) on "Creating (antiquated) Augmented Reality" A celebration of the current moment in which technologies and content are being developed for and by women... Read more
  • 9:00pm-9:30pm: Discussions, networking You can mingle with the speakers and the audience

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See also...
  • Other LASER series
  • Archive of past LASERs
  • Leonardo ISAST
  • Art, Technology, Culture Colloquia
  • CODAME
  • ScienceSchmoozer
  • LAST Festival
  • Other recommended events
    Bios:
    • Terry Berlier is an interdisciplinary artist who investigates the evolution of human interaction with the natural world, queerness, and ecologies. This results in sculptures that are kinetic and sound based, and multi-media installations. She emphasizes the essential roles played by history, cultural memories, and environmental conditions in the creation of our identities. Using humor, she provides tools for recovering and reanimating our faltering connections with self, queerness, nature, and society. Interweaving movement, sound, and interaction as a metaphor for both harmonious and dissonant interactions, Berlier acts as an archaeologist excavating material objects to challenge our understanding of progress and reveal how history is constructed within a cultural landscape. Berlier has exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally including Japan, Norway, Spain, and Hungary. Recent exhibitions include the Yerba Buena Center for Arts, Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco, Catherine Clark Gallery, Southern Exposure, Contemporary Art and Spirits in Osaka Japan, Arnoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery at Stanford University, Montalvo Arts Center, Weston Art Gallery, Babel Gallery in Norway, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art in Sacramento, Kala Art Institute Gallery, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Natural Balance in Girona Spain and FemArt Mostra D'Art De Dones in Barcelona Spain. She has received numerous residencies and grants including the Center for Cultural Innovation Grant, the Zellerbach Foundation Berkeley, Artist in Residence at Montalvo Arts Center, Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Fellowship, Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research Fellow at Stanford University, Recology San Francisco, Hungarian Multicultural Center in Budapest Hungary, Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco, California Council for Humanities California Stories Fund and the Millay Colony for Artists. Her work has been reviewed in the BBC News Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle and in the book `Seeing Gertrude Stein' published by University of California Press. Her work is in several collections including the Progressive Corporation in Cleveland Ohio, Kala Art Institute in Berkeley California and Bildwechsel Archive in Berlin Germany. Terry Berlier is an Associate Professor and Director of the Sculpture Lab and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University where she has taught since 2007.
    • Christine Marie is an inventor and creator of installations, performances, and experiences. She seamlessly integrates performers, objects and special effects to elicit connections with concepts, phenomenology and history in emotional and visually stimulating experiences. Christine Marie strives to break new ground within her form while being intrinsically tied to ancient art forms and the metaphysical exploration of light. She is pioneering the use of large-scale 3D shadows by reinventing the stereoscope and casting up to 40' shadows into cubic space. Her work has appeared at the REDCAT, the Geffen Playhouse, Southcoast Repertory, Z Space, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, the Exploratorium, Pop-Up Magazine, Sundance New Frontier and others and has received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, MAP fund, the Zellerbach family foundation, the Paul Dresher Residency, Intersection for the Arts, Cal Arts Center for New Performance and others. Christine Marie received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Integrated Media, Puppetry and Theater. Christine Marie is a TED Fellow. Engaging The Unknown, TED talk. Marie has taught shadow animation at Pixar and DreamWorks studios. She studied Wayang Kulit traditional shadow puppetry in Bali and is a former 15-year member of ShadowLight theater. She lectures and conducts workshops at universities, schools and at juvenile hall. She has worked with shadows for decades and has a life-long commitment to continuing working with light. She is currently creating a series of light toys.
    • Lars Steinmetz studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University and conducted his Ph.D. research on genome-wide approaches to study gene function and natural phenotypic diversity at Stanford University. After a brief period of postdoctoral research at the Stanford Genome Technology Center, where he worked on functional genomic technology development, he moved to Europe in 2003. At the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, he started his own group, focused on applying functional genomic approaches and high-throughput methods to study complex traits, transcription and the mitochondrial organelle at a systems level. In parallel, he maintained a focused group at the Stanford Genome Technology Center working on technology development. From 2009 to 2016, Lars acted as Joint Head of the department of Genome Biology at EMBL.In October 2013 Lars became Professor of Genetics at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center. His lab develops and applies cutting-edge technologies to investigate the function and mechanism of transcription, the genetic basis of complex phenotypes and the genetic and molecular systems underpinning disease. Their ultimate goal is to enable the development of personalized, preventative medicine. In parallel to his research activities at Stanford, Lars continues to lead his lab at EMBL. His Stanford and EMBL labs collaborate very closely. In addition to his academic endeavours, Lars is a consultant and board member of several companies, advising in the areas of genetics and personalized medicine.
    • Krishna Shenoy is the Hong Seh and Vivian W. M. Lim Professor of Engineering. He is with the Departments of Electrical Engineering and by courtesy, Bioengineering and Neurobiology at Stanford University. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Prof. Shenoy holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Irvine (1987-1990), a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT (1990-1995), was a postdoctoral fellow in Neurobiology at Caltech (1995-2001), and has been on faculty at Stanford since then (Assistant Prof. 2001-2008, Associate Prof. 2008-2012, Full Prof. 2012-2017, Endowed Chair 2017 to present). Prof. Shenoy directs the Stanford Neural Prosthetic Systems Lab (basic neuroscience and engineering) and co-directs the Stanford Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory (clinical trials), which aim to help restore lost motor function to people with paralysis. Honors and awards include a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, a Sloan Fellow, a McKnight Technological Innovations in Neurosciences Award, an NIH Director's Pioneer Award, the 2010 Stanford University Postdoc Mentoring Award, and he was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. Prof. Shenoy serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of The University of Washington's Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center), CTRL-Labs Inc., MIND-X Inc., Inscopix Inc. and Heal Inc. He is also a consultant for Neuralink Corp
    • Piero Scaruffi is a cultural historian who has lectured in three continents and published several books on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, the latest one being "The Nature of Consciousness" (2006). He pioneered Internet applications in the early 1980s and the use of the World-Wide Web for cultural purposes in the mid 1990s. His poetry has been awarded several national prizes in Italy and the USA. His latest book of poems and meditations is "Synthesis" (2009). As a music historian, he has published ten books, the latest ones being "A History of Rock and Dance Music" (2009) and "A History of Jazz Music" (2007). His latest book of history is "A History of Silicon Valley" (2011). The first volume of his free ebook "A Visual History of the Visual Arts" appeared in 2012. His latest book is "Intelligence is not Artificial" (2013). He has also written extensively about cinema and literature. He founded the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) in 2008. Since 2015 he has been commuting between California and China, where several of his books have been translated.

    Extended abstracts:

    Berlier
    Terry Berlier brings together her interest in queerness and ecologies in I am what I am not yet, a solo exhibition at the Stanford Art Gallery, on view January 21 to March 15, 2020. Using abstract labored forms, kinetic and sound sculpture, her work suggests a path of reorienting to the world, turning things around so they can be understood differently. Berlier approaches her studio practice as a playful, open-ended, experimental process. She used desire lines, the landscape architecture term for marks left on the ground when one veers from the normative path, as her point of departure to explore queer persistence. These deviations leave temporary paths that, when used repeatedly, change the landscape. The works in this exhibit call attention to forced invisibility and attempts to see oneself, to be seen, as they address the small and particular ways we move, delineate, and protect ourselves amidst environmental and political crises. Through archival research, Berlier examined collective responses to political threat and those repeated micro-actions and interactions enacted in everyday life. Conceptually, the works in this exhibition do the same, weaving between the crisis in the current US presidency and world instability to queering the possible. With embossed writing, mobiuses (unending, and nonorientable), hat sculptures, and shoes, Berlier lends form and visibility to those things that are often felt but unseen. Drawing the exhibition title from education and aesthetic philosopher Maxine Greene, I Am What I Am Not Yet, refers to our enduring, even grasping, pursuit of a sense of completion.


    Steinmetz
    Medicine is no longer a one-size-fits-all system, and is quickly becoming personalized, predictive, and participative. To meet these changing needs, my lab develops and applies novel technologies for measuring and modifying biological systems across scales. In an age where gene therapy is touted as the new tool for curing and preventing disease, we focus on improving the accuracy and efficiency of precision editing technologies. With precision genome editing, we have measured the effects of perturbations in isolation to better understand their phenotypic consequences. To complement these genetic approaches, we have developed wearable multi-parametric biosensors and novel measurement devices, including a magnetic levitation device that is a low-cost, high-throughput solution for characterizing circulating tumor cells. Our MagLev device has successfully been applied towards detecting drug resistance, as well as resolving cells and molecules in bodily fluids/tissues. These technological breakthroughs will help build the high-precision and wellness-focused medicine of the future.


    Marie
    Marie has been creating work with light for over two decades. When she heard of the existence of live 3D shadows she set about to create her own instruments for delivering the stunning effect. Her stereoscopes cast 40' shadows of objects and dancers in real-time without computers, rendering or LED's. Marie is taking her interactive installation titled "Shadows In Stereo," and expanding it into an hour-long performance commenting on the current state of womens portrayal in media. "(antiquated) Augmented Reality, began as an experiment in form and movement exploring the axis of depth. As it developed, The Feminine revealed itself, and the possibility for the work to symbolize the recent departure from media of the past and the relinquishing of the Male Gaze. We see women break off the screens and burst out of the "TV" into, literally, full dimensionality. (a)A.R. is a celebration of the current moment in which technologies and content are being developed for and by women. I love that the foundations for the technology used in (a)A.R. were invented in the19th century, the time women began to receive suffrage." The 20-minute version of (antiquated) Augmented Reality was the first-ever non-digital, non-film to be presented as an Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival. It showed at the Egyptian Theater in Park City in 2019. The full-length version will premiere in the Fall of 2020. Visit https://www.antiquatedar.com/


    Shenoy
    Millions of people worldwide suffer from neurological disease and injury leading to paralysis, which is often so severe that people are unable to feed themselves or communicate. Cortically-controlled brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) aim to restore some of this lost function by converting neural activity from the brain into control signals for prosthetic devices. I will describe some of our group's recent investigations into basic motor neurophysiology focused on understanding neural population dynamics, pre-clinical BMIs focused on high-performance control algorithm design, and translational BMI development and pilot clinical trial results focused on helping establish clinical viability.


    Photos and videos of this evening

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    The Stanford LASERs are sponsored by the Stanford Deans of: Engineering; Humanities & Sciences; Research; and Medicine; by Continuing Studies.