Principals of Limited Sloppiness

Adam Brown and Robert Root-Bernstein Speaking in Vienna 2011

This fascinating lecture was sent to us by John Chalmers. It speak to the origins of the species and to the use of the arts in science in a profound way. 

Thurs Oct 13, Art and Science Forum

Presents: David Borgo, Associate Professor of Music, UCSD and James Fowler, Professor of Medical Genetics and Political Science, UCSD. " Sync or Swarm - The Complex Dynamics of Improvisation and Influence" Thursday, October 13, 2011, 7:00 PM The Neurosciences Institute auditorium TIckets: Free and Required* Complete Details Below An evening of improvisational conversation between two disparate individuals: David Borgo, a jazz musician (and much more) together with James Fowler, an expert on social networks (and much more). An evening of music and science at the margins. Possible topics for discussion: The emotional content of music and language and how small changes can make a big difference. The influence of Gatherings or Jam sessions. Finding one’s own voice. Working at the margins and why the improbable is important. What is borrowed and what is original and the role of luck. and possibly tackling Big Questions. What is creativity? What is genius? What is unique? What is elegance? How do we know when it arises? And following, audience participation with your questions and comments. A very big evening - and a bit of jazz. The evening’s distinguished Presenters DAVID BORGO is an Associate Professor of Music at UCSD. Throughout his career he has integrated creative work as an instrumentalist, improviser and composer with scholarly research focused on the social, cultural, historical and cognitive dimensions of music-making. His book, Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age, looks through the lens of contemporary science to illuminate the process of improvising music and it explores the ability of improvisation to offer a visceral engagement with the emerging scientific notions of chaos and complexity. In 1994, David won first prize at the International John Coltrane Competition, and since that time he has released seven CDs and one DVD and has toured internationally, including performances in Europe, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Brazil. In 2006, David’s book was awarded the Alan Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology as the most distinguished book in the field. David currently performs with his electro-acoustic duo KaiBorg, which explores the intersections between live audio and video processing and free improvisation, and with his sextet Kronomorfic, which explores polymetric time. JAMES FOWLER is Professor of Medical Genetics and Political Science, UCSD. James Fowler earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1992, a master's degree in International Relations from Yale University in 1997, and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University the in 2003. He was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1992 to 1994. He was recently named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers. James's work lies at the intersection of the natural and social sciences. His primary areas of research are social networks, behavioral economics, evolutionary game theory, political participation, cooperation, and genopolitics (the study of the genetic basis of political behavior). James Fowler and colleagues have published numerous scientific papers showing links between our genetics, and in some cases, specific genes with some of our behavioral characteristics such as our political ideology and our voting tendencies. This research has examined the correlation in parent and child partisanship, our willingness to be adventurous, or not within certain group settings. These studies have provided evidence for a link between our genetics and our behavior. Together with Nicholas Christakis, Dr. Fowler has written the well received book: Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. James has also been featured on numerous television shows including two appearances on The Colbert Report . TICKET DETAILS Tickets are free and can only be obtained online at : http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2206523772 Please Register and print out your ticket(s) and bring them with you. Showing your tickets will facilitate the orderly admittance process. IF however, you misplace your tickets, Do Not order replacement tickets. Your name will have been placed on the eventbrite.com signup list when you ordered your ticket and we will have this list. Please do not re-order. Please be seated no later than 6:50, at which time any non-ticketed individuals will be admitted, to the seating capacity of the auditorium. Anticipate that this Forum may be over subscribed. Plan accordingly. Ron Newby Founder and Curator The Bronowski Art&Science Forum ronnewby34@gmail.com

To Sciene and Art

This article was sent to us by Mark Rodma Smith and written by Fred Wilson is a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures.

I was passing by Cooper Union the other day and was struck by the words on the front facade of its iconic building on Astor Place.

This phrase "to science and art" has been stuck in my mind since. I've been thinking about what happens at the intersection of science and art, how science impacts art, and how art impacts science, how New York City has been blessed to be at the intersection of science and art for at least two centuries, and how much of what is interesting to me in the technology revolution of the moment, the Internet, is at the intersection of science and art.

Peter Cooper, the founder of Cooper Union, was an inventor, industrialist, and NYC resident in the 19th century. He designed and built the first steam powered train in the US. He was the "Tim Berners-Lee" of the railroad technological revolution in the US. Cooper went on to become a very wealthy industrialist and businessman and was behind the company that laid the first cross atlantic telegraph cable. He was all about technology, science, innovation, and business. And yet, when he created and endowed a free institution of higher education, he understood that it had to be for both science and art.

Science and art are seen as two very distinct endeavors and I suppose they are. But I see science and art as the yin yang of creative culture and innovation. To quote from Wikipedia, science and art are seemingly contrary forces that are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and they give rise to each other in turn.

I was talking to a longtime reader of this blog, Chris Dorr, last night. Chris has been working in the film industry for a long time and blogs at the Tribeca Film Festival Blog. We were talking about changes in the film business and Chris blurted out that "filmakers and software developers need to start sleeping together and it is starting to happen." Filmmaking is art, particularly great filmmaking. But the art of filmmaking has always been based on a number of fundamental scientific inventions. And Chris' point is that the art of filmmaking will continue to be impacted by scientific inventions that are happening in real time.

And science is equally inspired by art. Just check out the music playing at the all nighter coding sessions that go on at New Work City or the number of listeners in the coding room on turntable.fm and you'll see that coding computers benefits from musical stimulation.

When I look at our portfolio, I see companies like Tumblr, Etsy, Canvas, Shapeways, SoundCloud, Boxee, Kickstarter, and GetGlue that exist somewhere in the overlap between technology and art. Most of these companies are based in NYC and the ones that aren't have a strong footing here.

I was at a meeting yesterday with an economic development group in NYC. We were talking about 3D Printing, an important new technology that was "science" a decade ago. The economic development types were explaining to me why 3D Printing technology is so important to NYC. They explained that our artist and design communities need 3D Printing technology because it allows these artists to turn their ideas into objects rapidly and at lower cost. It is a game changer for artists, designers, and architects. Our portfolio company Shapeways and other innovators like MakerBot are doing just that right here in NYC.

Peter Cooper understood the importance of science and art back in the mid 19th century when he created Cooper Union. He put the two words on the facade of his building. And they remain the twin towers of innovation in NYC and all over the world two centuries later.

Posted in Venture Capital and Technology, Web/Tech
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/06/to-science-and-art.html#disqus_thread

SymbiticA at Dublin Ireland

SymbioticA and Science Gallery, Dublin begin a new experiment in January 2011 when science and art collide in Visceral: The Living Art Experiment.

VISCERAL will confront audiences with the delicate processes of modern biology to explore our changing understandings and perceptions of life in the light of rapid developments in the life sciences and their applied technologies. A range of award-winning work from 17 different artists will challenge visitors to consider the tension between art and science and the cultural, economic and ethical implications of biosciences today.

The exhibition will explore and provoke questions about scientific truths, what constitutes living and the ethical and artistic implications of life manipulation. The exhibition also marks ten years of intensive and challenging work carried out at SymbioticA.

Curated by SymbioticA’s Director Oron Catts and SymbioticA’s leading researcher Dr Ionat Zurr, Viseral will bring together more than a decade of work developed through SymbioticA’s art-science residency program at The University of Western Australia.

More info at http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/activities/exhibitions/visceral

Works in the exhibition will include ‘Midas’ by Paul Thomas, which examines the space where skin and gold meet; ‘Silent Barrage’ by Neurotica, an architectural scale arrangement of pole robots that stimulate neuronal activity of cells and provoke epilepsy in a culture dish in response to audience movements; ‘The Vision Splendid’ by Alicia King, an installation of cultured tissue within an artist-designed bioreactor and The Tissue Culture and Art Project’s ‘Semi-Living Worry Dolls’ offer absolution through whispering your troubles to bioengineered worry dolls. The exhibition will also include the unique ‘Lab Out of Context’, where artists and scientists will create new work and research in view of Science Gallery audiences.

World Science Festival Live Webcase

Michele Mitchell sent me a link to an article that led me to the World Science Festival this weekend in NYC. Good news is that there are some free webcasts for those able to join in from SD.Check out this site or use the schedule below http://worldsciencefestival.com/live_schedule. These webcast are for sold out event, so save the air fare!

The events at this fair should give us some inspiration for our meeting on June 21 at 6:30 and I urge you to check them out before you attend. Yes, you will get another reminder and a full agenda before the meeting.

World Science Festival Live Webcast Schedule

Can’t make it to New York for the Festival? Watch the 2011 World Science Festival live from your commuter. We’re excited to provide free, high-quality streams of the select events below, with live on-site commentary from the editors of Scientific American and other award-winning journalists. Tune in. Join the conversation. Expand your mind.

Thursday

The Dark Side of the Universe
7:45PM — 9:30 PM
For all we understand about the universe, 96% of what’s out there still has us in the dark. More
Live webcast commentary: Scientific American’s Philip Yam, accompanied by WSF’s Greg Boustead and Michael J Kennelly

Friday

The Illusion of Certainty: Risk, Probability, and Chance*
4:45 PM — 6:30 PM | Watch Live »
Risk, probability, chance, coincidence—they play a significant role in how we make decisions about health, education, relationships, and money. But where does this data come from and what does it really mean?(*Instant Rebroadcast from Thursday) More
Live webcast commentary: Boing Boing’s science editor Maggie Koerth-Baker , accompanied by WSF’s Maki Naro and Michael J Kennelly

The Mind after Midnight: Where Do You Go When You Go to Sleep?
7:45 PM — 9:30 PM | Watch Live »
We spend a third of our lives asleep. Every organism on Earth—from rats to dolphins to fruit flies to microorganisms—relies on sleep for its survival, yet science is still wrestling with a fundamental question: Why does sleep exist? More
Live webcast commentary: Scientific American’s Robin Lloyd, accompanied by WSF’s Greg Boustead and Maki Naro

Saturday

Cool Jobs
1:45 PM — 3:30 PM | Watch Live »
Imagine hanging out with some of the world’s kookiest critters in the jungle’s tallest trees, building a robot that does stand-up comedy, inventing a device that propels you into the air like Batman, or traveling back in a DNA time machine to study ancient animals! Meet the scientists who make it possible. More
Live webcast commentary: Scientific American’s Anna Kuchment, accompanied by WSF’s Maki Naro

Rebooting the Cosmos: Is the Universe the Ultimate Computer?
7:45 PM — 9:30 PM | Watch Live »
As computers become progressively faster and more powerful, they’ve gained the impressive capacity to simulate increasingly realistic environments. Which raises a question familiar to aficionados of The Matrix—might life and the world as we know it be a simulation on a super advanced computer? More
Live webcast commentary: To be announced

Sunday

2011 WSF Street Fair
10:00 AM — 6:00 PM | Watch Live »
Live scenes from the Street Fair at Washington Square Park in New York City on Sunday, June 5, 2011.

Special thanks to Livestream for hosting these broadcasts.
Visit our channel, where you can find embeddable widgets of these streams and much more

The Art of Human Enhancement

See 'Technological Convergence' and the combination of sciences such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information science, cognitive science, and robotics... and the aesthetic opportunities opening up to mankind. More on the Art of Human Enhancement here

Jordan Crandall, associate professor UCSD, has won this year's Vilém Flusser Theory Award for outstanding theory and research-based digital arts practice. The award is given by the Transmediale in Berlin in collaboration with the Vilém Flusser Archive of the University of Arts, Berlin.

Crandall is being recognized for his essay and lecture/performance titled GATHERINGS 1: Event, Agency and Program. This piece is grounded in research on surveillance and tracking and explores how tracking technology has been incorporated into our everyday lives.

The Vilém Flusser Theory Award promotes innovative media theory and practice-oriented research exploring current and pending positions in digital art, media culture and networked society. Echoing media philosopher Vilém Flusser's unique investigative, cross-disciplinary and analytic approach, the Award is a call to reflect upon, act and challenge the rapidly changing technological and societal conditions that underpin the contours of digital culture.

Held each year in January and February, Transmediale presents renowned artists, scientists and media practitioners from all around the world. The festival includes exhibitions, competitions, conferences, film and video programmes, live performances and a publication series. Transmediale presents and pursues the advancement of artistic positions reflecting on the socio-cultural, political and creative impact of new technologies, network practices and digital innovation. It seeks out artistic practices that not only respond to scientific or technical developments, but that shape the way in which we think about and experience the technologies which impact virtually all aspects of our daily lives. As such, Transmediale understands media technologies as cultural and aesthetic techniques that need to be embraced in order to comprehend, critique, and shape global societies.

Click Here to view the award ceremony and an interview with the artist.http://creative.arte.tv/fr/space/transmediale_tv/message/626/Transmediale_Award_2011/

Visions of Science Go Viral

See the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, jointly sponsored by the journal Science and the National Science Foundation. The visualization contest, currently in its eighth year, recognizes scientists and artists who use visual media to promote understanding of scientific research. This model of the HIV virus courtesy of Visual Science Company, is one of the winners in the 2010 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. See more here: Cosmic Log