Held March 3-4, 2017, at the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at the New School, 65 West 11th Street, Wollman Hall, New York, NY 10011. Organized by Ligo Project in collaboration with the Eugene Lang College Department of Science & Mathe…

Held March 3-4, 2017, at the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at the New School, 65 West 11th Street, Wollman Hall, New York, NY 10011. Organized by Ligo Project in collaboration with the Eugene Lang College Department of Science & Mathematics at the New School

 

Overview

Science and our larger culture have gone through radical change over the past century. We are now beginning to realize these changes can either lead us to destruction or become the seeds of our revival.

As we more and more readily take into our own hands the future evolution of our bodies, our minds, the civilizations we create, and the very planet we inhabit, it is imperative that we reach across disciplines and across cultures to guide what we do by what we know and guide what we know by what we value.

Until recently, art and the humanities in general have been perceived as mutually exclusive disciplines compared to science. Over the past several years, however, there has been increasing interest in bringing these fields together to explore overlapping themes and methods. Scientific breakthroughs in areas like biochemistry, particle physics, and genetic research have radically changed our view of the world, and simultaneously more and more artists have started to work with scientific areas of research, technologies, and methods in the field of “sci-art,” often in collaboration with scientists.

Parallel to this, scientific institutions have begun to examine the creative aspects of research processes and the broader dissemination of their research results. This has generated a new receptiveness to having a dialogue with artists and their often more experimental methods and ability to represent complex connections. Yet despite formal artist-in-residency programs, some economic support, and countless collaborations and exhibition projects, it remains unclear how and on which terms—if any—art and science can be seen to cross-pollinate each other today.

Here in NYC, work at the intersection of science and art as well as efforts to more broadly intermingle science and the humanities continue to gain enthusiasm with many organizations focused on these efforts and even corporations and institutions taking an interest.

Together, organizations, educators, artists and individual community members across NYC are leading a movement toward living, thinking, working, and being in the space that lies between disciplines.

Goals

This conference will use the science/art as it’s central axis but is interested in developing interdisciplinarity more generally. The conference will be a forum for reflective scientists, artists, and scholars, organizational leaders, and educators to creatively share ideas related but not limited to:

● social practice and public engagement across art, science & culture
● community building and collaboration across science, art, culture
● realization of new creative works and other ‘products’ stemming from interdisciplinary collaboration
● developing new paradigms across disciplines
● the pairing of creative practices with scientific research frameworks, exploring impact of these
● awareness of NYC art-science cooperatives and initiatives
● identifying common goals across organizations

Video