The Institute of the Arts and Sciences presents Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous: Exploring the Frontiers of Knowledge and Imagination, Fostering Interdisciplinary Networking
Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous (LASERS) are a national program of evening gathering that bring artists, scientists, and scholars together for informal presentations and conversations. Speakers give brief presentations about the intertwining of art and science. Questions like "why art and science" and "why now" will provide context for the series as a local forum for presenting art and science projects underway throughout the University of California, in the Bay Area, and beyond.
Please join us for refreshments at 6:45 p.m. followed at 7 p.m. with presentations by:
Jeanne C. Finley, "On-Site: The Locus Between Public and Private"
Rita Mehta, "When Life Imitates Science Fiction"
Warren Sack, "Using Software (Art) to See the World"
Erika Zavaleta, "Conserving Nature's Services in An Age of Extinction"
Jeanne C. Finley is a media artist who works in experimental and documentary forms including film, photography, installation, Internet, and site-specific public works. Her work has been exhibited in such international institutions as the Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, and the George Pompidou Center.
Rita Mehta is an assistant professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research explores morphological, physiological, and behavioral evolution. Mehta's recent research focuses on the mechanisms guiding diversification in vertebrate clades whose members have evolved an elongate and limb-reduced (or complete loss) body plan such as snakes, anguilliform fishes, and other eel-like vertebrates.
Warren Sack is a professor of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a software designer and media theorist whose work explores theories and designs for online public space. His field of expertise is social computing.
Erika Zavaleta is a professor in Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is an ecosystem ecologist broadly interested in implications of interacting global and regional environmental changes, biodiversity and ecosystems functioning and stewardship of wild ecosystems. Her research focuses on the drivers and consequences of changing biological diversity and the role of ecology in guiding effective conservation practice.
For more information, contact the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at ias@ucsc.edu.
Moray Eel Image by Rita Mehta