Leonardo Network News

Leonardo Affiliates

Leonardo Affiliates are top-ranked universities, independent nonprofits and corporations engaged in research and creative activities at the intersection of the arts, sciences and technology. We are pleased to feature three of our newest Affiliates:

Media Design Practices/Lab+Field at Art Center College of Design is an interdisciplinary design MFA program grounded in media and technology. Their mission is to educate designers, not for the world as it is, but as it is becoming, and to think hard about what it means to use their participants’ agency as designers to make the world as they may want it to be. To take this on, Media Design Practices offers two tracks: Lab and Field. Each track prepares students to work in emerging roles and contexts for design. Lab students explore the cultural impact of new ideas from science, technology and culture, while field students tackle social issues in international settings. See <www.artcenter.edu>.

The Polytech.Science.Art program of the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, Russia, is dedicated to one of the most significant phenomena of contemporary culture: interdisciplinary collaboration among artists, scientists and technology specialists. The program launched this year with a series of workshops and lectures embracing such scientific disciplines as information technology, neurobiology, physics and psychoacoustics. Program experts help to formulate comprehensive ideas on the synthesis of science, art and technology as an artistic method; they also provide a space for innovation, presenting art projects demonstrating scientific and technological approaches and innovative methods. In the coming years, the program will be developed through artist-in-residence programs, exhibitions, conferences and public and professional events. See <www.polymus.ru>.

Tracing its heritage to 1743, the University of Delaware, based in Newark, DE, combines a rich legacy in undergraduate and graduate education with the latest in advanced technology. UD has a strong tradition of distinguished scholarship, research, teaching and service that is grounded in a commitment to increasing and disseminating scientific, humanistic and social knowledge for the benefit of society. UD is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a research university with very high research activity, a designation accorded less than 3% of U.S. colleges and universities. The university has seven colleges, more than 70 research centers and interdisciplinary institutes, and prominent programs focusing on agriculture and natural resources, arts and sciences, business and economics, engineering, earth and ocean science, education and human development, and health sciences. See <www.udel.edu>.

For more information about the Leonardo Affiliates Program, see <www.leonardo.info/affiliates>.

Announcing the Leonardo Fellowship

Leonardo/ISAST launched the Leonardo Fellowship program this past year to recognize accomplished graduate students and junior faculty from Leonardo Senior Affiliate organizations. Selected Leonardo Fellows will have an opportunity to advance their research or project area through such activities as publishing in the internationally renowned Leonardo journal or creating a unique art-science project under the auspices of Leonardo, as well as to receive mentorship from senior Leonardo editors. Senior Affiliates are institutions, departments, labs and organizations that are creating work at the intersection of art, science and technology and that have joined as Senior members of the Leonardo Affiliate Members Program. See <www.leonardo.info/fellowship>.

Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous

Since its inception in San Francisco in 2008, the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) series has provided spaces for progressive thought leaders to come together to form community and explore the intersections of disciplinary thinking. This fall we welcomed two additions: LASER: Montréal/Hexagram, hosted by Hexagram, and LASER: Toronto, hosted at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (University of Toronto) and supported by the ArtSci Salon and Subtle Technologies Festival.

LASER: Montréal/Hexagram facilitates exchanges between Montreal and Toronto and features presentations by Hexagram members as well as local and visiting art/science practitioners. LASER: Toronto provides outreach opportunities for local and international innovative research projects in the sciences and in the arts; fosters critical dialogue on topics and concerns shared by the sciences and the arts; and facilitates new forms of collaboration across fields. To attend a LASER near you, visit <www.leonardo.info/laser>.

Leonardo Electronic Almanac

Leonardo Electronic...