December LASER Event

LASER is a monthly series of lectures and presentations organized by Piero Scaruffi on behalf of Leonardo/ISAST. LASER is sponsored by Arizona State University Art Museum, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, The University of Illinois eDREAM Institute, The University of Calabria Evolutionary Systems Group, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago Sound Department.

Admission is free but limited. Please RSVP to p@scaruffi.com

Schedule:

6:45pm-7:00pm: Socializing/networking. Anyone in the audience is welcome to describe in 30 seconds what they are working on.

7:00-7:30pm: Bathsheba Grossman (Artist) on "3D Printing Sculpture"

Notes on making and marketing geometrical sculpture in the medium of rapid prototyping. Freeform fabrication in archival materials has made a Gutenberg moment for sculpture: printing metal and glass in short runs at reasonable prices doesn't just create a new medium, it also drives new business models.

7:30-8:00pm: Romie Littrell (UCLA) on "DIY Biology"

A movement to put more biological tools in the hands of those outside institutions for hobbyist and artistic purposes.

8:00-8:30pm: BREAK

8:30-9:00pm: Peter Foucault (SFAI) on "Systems and Interactivity in Drawing"

A discussion on how drawings are constructed through mark making systems, and how audience participation can influence the outcome of a final composition, focusing on an interactive robotic drawing installation.

9:00pm-9:30pm: Wayne Vitale (Gamelan Sekar Jaya) on "The Aesthetics of Oscillation in Balinese Music."

The gamelan orchestras of Bali are famous for their brilliant ensemble virtuosity. Underlying the metallic flash is an aesthetic sensibility of periodicity or oscillation that affects every aspect of the music. Based on Hindu cosmology, the Balinese concept of rwa bhineda---interdependent opposites---is manifest in the tiniest details of musical elaboration and interlocking melodies, in the paired tuning system of "detuned" unisons, and in extended gong periods several minutes long. This presentation gives an overview of the Balinese sense of beauty-in-oscillation.

9:30pm-10:00pm: Discussions, more socializing