Participants at the Edges of Astronomy Conference, Australian Academy of Sciences.

In December 2014, IFF Director Margaret Wertheim was honored to be a speaker at the Edges of Astronomy conference hosted by the Australian Academy of Sciences. Held as part of the Academy’s ongoing series in support of early and mid-career scientists, this unusually eclectic event aimed to locate astronomy within a wider cultural matrix. In addition to reports on the latest developments regarding the Square Kilometer Array (the world’s largest radio astronomy project, currently under construction in the Western Australian desert ), and the importance of Big Data in unravelling the mysteries of the universe, speakers also gave presentations about indigenous cosmology and efforts to encourage aboriginal students to peruse careers in science. Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt  – who shared the physics Nobel prize in 2011 for helping to discover that the universe is expanding faster than expected, thus leading to the realization that the cosmos is filled with a mysterious dark energy – was in attendance chairing discussions and inspiring young scientists to dream big. In other sessions astrophysicists Tamara Davis and Luke Barnes speculated about the literal edges of the universe and considered the question of whether or not there may be limits to our cosmological knowledge. All this under the architectural marvel of the Shine Dome, an exquisite example of mid-century techno-futurist architecture that fittingly resembles a spaceship.

The IFF extends thanks to Professor Alan Duffy of Swinburne Institute of Technology, for his elegant chairing of Ms. Wertheim’s session on the importance of science outreach. You can catch Professor Duffy – aka Astroduff (astronomy blogger + tweeter par excellence) here.

From vampires and werewolves to Resident Evil and The Walking Dead, we have long taken delight in the strange and monstrous. But do monsters mean the same thing in every culture? And what do they tell us about our own humanity? On Tuesday November 18, IFF Director Margaret Wertheim hosts a discussion about monsters in art, science and culture, with game designer Leonard Boyarsky (Diablo III, Fallout), USC professor and multimedia artist Charlie White and USC professor and folklore scholar Tok Thompson. The event is held in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition “What Makes A Monster” in the Treasure Room of USC’s Doheny Memorial Library. [Exhibition Dates: October 30, 2014 – May 31, 2015]

WhatMakesMonster_Postcard

Vibration has long been perceived as both a physical phenomenon and a vitalizing spirit or force. How does resonance influence our bodies, our psyches and our interactions? From November 17-21, IFF director Margaret Wertheim is participating in an online forum on the subject of “sympathetic vibrations” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, along with artist Sergei Tcherepnin, composer Alex Waterman, and cultural historian Shelley Trower, author of Senses of Vibrations: A History of the Pleasure and Pain of Sound.

During late October 2014, IFF Director Margaret Wertheim is participating in an online forum with Leonardo – the international journal of art and science – on the subject of the supernatural in relationship to the burgeoning art-and-science movement. Margaret’s interest in the subject is related to its historical underpinnings. In the essay attached here she outlines the historical process by which artists of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries paved the way for the development of modern physics through their working out of the techniques of perspectival representation. The essay discusses how painters from Giotto to Raphael brought into Western consciousness the idea that space is a Euclidean void, the spatial construct eventually taken up by physicists of the seventeenth century. The story told here is one of deep collaboration between art and science that has profoundly impacted both fields. At the same time Wertheim shows how adopting a mathematical conception of space has led to a uniquely modern psycho-social angst.

Download essay pdf: Lost-in-Space

Leonardo Yasmin discussion is moderated by Stephen Nowlin, director, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design. To follow the discussion go to:

http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Around the world, coral reefs are being devastated by pollution, global warming and ocean acidification. Scientists are racing to learn if these vital organisms can adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions, while artists are responding with innovative visual and socially engaged strategies. In this event at the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, IFF director, Margaret Wertheim, co-creator of the Crochet Reef project, is joined by cultural critic Lawrence Weschler and coral scientist John Burt to discuss how science and art can work together to enhance our ecological consciousness. On the heels of major climate-change-action rallies (in New York, London and elsewhere), this wide-ranging interdisciplinary discussion frankly asks how we as individuals, and as societies, can respond to the most pressing environmental issue of our time. Event moderated by Alexis Gambis.

Presented in conjunction with the NYUAD Institute’s exhibition of the Crochet Coral Reef.

Coral outcrop at Flynn Reef, Queensland, Australia. Photo © Tony Hudson.

Margaret Wertheim: Co-creator Crochet Coral Reef project; director Institute For Figuring.

Lawrence Weschler: Director emeritus, NYU Institute of the Humanities, New York University NY.

John Burt: Expert on Middle Eastern corals; Professor of biology, New York University Abu Dhabi.

Moderator: Alexis Gambis: Visiting Professor of Biology, and Film and New Media, New York University Abu Dhabi.

Margaret Wertheim at “Crochet Coral Reef” exhibition at the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, Sept 2014.

A giant coral forest crocheted out of wool and plastic trash; a life-sized crochet reproduction of a mountain lion; undulating playspaces handicrafted from tons of nylon fiber. Crochet has long since burst traditional boundaries and established itself as a sculptural medium. In this event at the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, Crochet Coral Reef co-creator Christine Wertheim is joined by two other internationally acclaimed fiber artists – Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam and Shauna Richardson – for a discussion about the new ‘radical craft’ movement, and how crochet can open unexpected paths to imagining and being in the world. The event is presented in conjunction with the NYUAD Institute’s exhibition of the Crochet Coral Reef. Panel moderated by Jill Magi.

Crocheted playspace by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam.

Panelists:

Christine Wertheim: Co-creator of the Crochet Coral Reef project, Christine Wertheim is also a poet-performer-artist-critic-curator-crafter-and-collaborator who teaches at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. Wertheim’s work operates at the intersections of art, language, semiotics and embodiment. [See more]

Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam: For the past twenty years, Japanese artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam has been crocheting giant sculptural ‘playscapes.’ These fantastical undulating structures – at once visually gorgeous and functional – aim to connect art with the human body, providing visual, tactile and kinetic pleasure. [See more]

Shauna Richardson: British artist Shauna Richardson invented the term Crochetdermy® to describe her unique body of work – an on-going taxonomy of realistic life-size animal sculptures created using crochet . By employing traditional craft, objects, the plinth, the artists hand, audience, realism, and popularity, Richardson asks questions that challenge ideas about what constitutes ‘art’ in the modern world. [See more]

Moderator: Jill Magi Senior Lecturer, Writing Program, NYUAD

“Crochetdermy” black panther (life-size) by Shauna Richardson.

Sunday, September 28, the IFF’s latest Crochet Coral Reef exhibition opens at the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute in the United Arab Emirates. Two years in the making, the exhibition centers around the IFF’s new Crochet Coral Forest – a collection of six large, ‘snakey-armed sculptures’ crocheted from yarn and plastic thread. Included also is an expanded collection of our miniature coral Pod Worlds, each a tiny fantastical landscape featuring works by some of the IFF’s most skilled crafters.

The exhibition also debuts the NYU Abu Dhabi Satellite Reef, the newest addition to the wooly archipelago of crochet reefs worldwide.

Exhibition dates: September 29 – December 4 @ NYUAD Institute, Sadiyatt Island, Abu Dhabi. [More information coming soon]

“Medusa” – from the “Crochet Coral Forest” series by the Institute For Figuring, 2014. Photo by Christina Simons © IFF Archive