Leonardo Network News

The Newsletter of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences, and Technology and of l’Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Technosciences

Leonardo Network News Coordinator: Maryam Shamlou. E-mail: <isast@leonardo.info>.

Leonardo Welcomes Two New Affiliate Members

The Institute of the Arts and Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is based in the Arts Division at UCSC. John Weber is the founding director of the Institute, having joined the university in January 2013 to launch dynamic programming that supports, engages and exhibits collaborative, cutting-edge research. The Institute looks forward to the groundbreaking of an innovative public space that will further its rigorous program of art projects, lecture series and publications and function as a gathering place committed to new learning experiences that challenge perceptions of the arts, sciences and their relationships to the world. See: <http://arts.ucsc.edu/institute>.

The mission of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program at the University of California, Davis, is to bring the creative energies of the arts and the sciences into a mixture that catalyzes change and innovation in learning for people of all ages. Described by E.O. Wilson as “a spearhead for future creative work in the intellectual borderland,” the Art/Science Fusion Program is a portal to a new creative territory in which people observe the world around them with fresh eyes, testing their ideas and transforming those ideas into new concepts and new insights. The program is a collaboration among design faculty, science faculty, museum educators, professional artists, UC Davis students and community members. The program revolves around a teaching and learning model in which lectures or workshops combine concepts and site-specific contexts with hands-on experience with artistic media. See: <artsciencefusion.ucdavis.edu>.

Sue Denham Joins Leonardo Editorial Board

Leonardo is pleased to announce the appointment of Sue Denham to the Leonardo journal Editorial Board. Denham, director of the Cognition Institute and coordinator of CogNovo, is an expert in neural and cognitive models of perception, especially multi-stability in auditory perceptual organization. CogNovo is an innovative doctoral program funded by the EU Marie Curie Initiative and Plymouth University to foster research training in the emerging field of Cognitive Innovation. CogNovo offers transdisciplinary training that combines scientific studies of the neural correlates and mechanisms of creativity with investigations into the role of creativity in human cognition and applications in sustainable technological and social innovation. See: <www.cognovo.eu/news/>.

Leonardo Book: Illusions in Motion

Media archaeologist Erkki Huhtamo discusses his new Leonardo Book Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles (MIT Press) and media archaeology in general in a long Q&A published on the MIT Press blog. Illusions in Motion is a huge exploration of the formative stages of media culture between the 18th and the 20th centuries. The centerpoint is the moving panorama, once a very popular media spectacle, which has been nearly completely forgotten. The book brings it back to living memory, discussing its relationships with other spectacles, such as dioramas and magic lantern shows. It also investigates how panoramas inspired writers, scientists, philosophers and cultural commentators, contributing to the formation of a media-cultural imaginary. See: <mitpress.mit.edu/blog/qa-erkki-huhtamo>.

Linda Henderson Interview on Expanding Mind

Linda Dalrymple Henderson, author of The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidian Geometry in Modern Art—published by MIT Press as part of the Leonardo Book Series—recently spoke with Erik Davis on his podcast Expanding Mind (Progressive Radio Network) on the subjects of abstract art, mysticism and the fourth dimension of space. The interview is available online: <http://expandingmind.podbean.com/2013/09/01/expanding-mind-the-fourth-dimension-090113/>.

LEAF at CAA 2014

In conjunction with the College Art Association 102nd Annual Conference, 12–15 February 2014 in Chicago, LEAF (Leonardo Education and Art Forum) will present a panel titled “The Art/Science Curriculum in the Classroom and in the Cloud.” This panel will present examples of instruction bringing art and science together in the university classroom. Art, science and technology are linked in the minds of a small but growing subset of faculty and administrators on campuses internationally. The practice...