Nov. 4, 2008
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| Corey Keller will speak on "Sight Unseen: Picturing the Invisible: 1840-1900" at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the ARC. The lecture is free and open to the public. |
DAVIS—Early astrophotographs, or photographic images taken through telescopes, will be shown when Corey Keller, associate curator of photography for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, speaks on “Sight Unseen: Picturing the Invisible, 1840-1900” on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at the University of California, Davis.
Keller’s lecture takes place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Ballrooms A and B of the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC), located at the corner of LaRue Way and Orchard Park.
This is the first in a series of four lectures on “The Consilience of Art and Science,” a centennial colloquium sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program. The lectures are free and open to the public.
E. O. Wilson’s book, “Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge,” helped inspire the colloquium, said Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology.
Keller will show some of the first astrophotographs, “which resulted from emulsion coated plates that could collect and accumulate light through the telescope over many hours, thus revealing stars and galaxies that were not visible when looking through the telescope with the human eye--which can’t accumulate light to create images,” Ullman said.
“They were quite popular and published in popular science magazines of the time, like La Nature,” said Ullman, who co-directs the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program with Donna Billick.
Van Gogh was reportedly so awed by the astrophotographs that they influenced his famous painting, Starry Night.
Keller also will discuss the advent of X-rays and people’s negative reactions. Some feared they would be seen “naked.”
Keller recently guided Ullman’s honors class on a tour of the “Brought to Light” exhibit.
Other speakers in the centennial colloquium are:
Jan. 7: Catherine Chalmers, a professional artist and author of Food Chain who explores the connections between humans and insects
March 5: Eduardo Kac, a professional artist who explores the connections between scientific technology and art
April 9: David Edwards, biomedical engineer and artscientist and author of Art/Science: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation.
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Catherine Chalmers, a professional artist and author of Food Chain who explores the connections between humans and insects, will speak Jan. 7. |
In addition, a special showing of a filmed lecture by Leonard Shlain, author of Art and Physics, is planned soon, Ullman said. Leonard was initially scheduled to speak in person, but had to cancel.
The centennial colloquium will culminate in a public exhibition of students’ work from the Art-Science Fusion Program, the Department of Art and Art History, the Design program and juried entries from the general public. The purpose: to explore the connections between art and science through visual and performing arts.
“While UC Davis is home to cutting edge programs in biological, physical and social sciences, humanities and cultural studies; there are very few opportunities for harnessing the creative energy that lies in the intellectual borderland where these disciplines meet,” Ullman said.
“One of the goals of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program is to explore the connection between art and science through undergraduate programs, intellectual exchanges and visual and performing arts,” Ullman said.
Ullman anticipates that the colloquium will stimulate “interaction and discussion” as the distinguished scholars focus on the “interlocking principles that bind art and science.”
In addition to Ullman and Billick, the multidisciplinary organizing committee includes Terrence Nathan, Atmospheric Sciences Program, part of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources; Matthias Geiger, Department of Art and Art History. Also assisting: Gale Okumura of Design Program, College of Letters and Science, who with independent student Design students, developed marketing materials.
The program is funded by a College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Programmatic Initiative Grant; the departments of Entomology, Land, Air and Water Resources, Plant Pathology and Plant Sciences; the UC Davis Arboretum; and the Pence Gallery.
More information about the series is at http://artsciencespeakers.ucdavis.edu/.
