Encountering the Unseen
Encountering the Unseen: Artist-Actualized Lectures in Topics in Science, Technology, and Engineering
Encountering the Unseen 2019 was the second volume of a lecture series produced by Isla Hansen and Tucker Marder
Sunday May 19, 2019 @ The Jan Popper Theater at UCLA
Produced by Isla Hansen (Assistant Professor Design Media Arts UCLA) and Tucker Marder (Lecturer Design Media Arts UCLA) with support from the UCLA Arts Initiative, UCLA Design Media Arts, UCLA Art|Sci Center + Lab, and the Center for Musical Humanities, Encountering the Unseen is an academic symposium as work of experimental live theater. The project pairs artists, choreographers, performers, and musicians from both UCLA and the greater Los Angeles area with professors working in STEM fields. The event is an evening of five brief, stimulating lectures on topics ranging from plant evolution to atomically precise manufacturing, including distinguished speakers from the fields of ecology and evolution, biochemistry, physics and astronomy, and biomolecular engineering. Abandoning their powerpoint slides, speakers will instead be accompanied by thought-provoking visual phenomena, live music, physical manifestations, props, and kinetic sculpture — all activated and brought to life by artists, dancers, and musicians.
FEATURING
FELIPE ZAPATA
Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
with
SUSAN SIMPSON accompanied by Heather Lockie
LA-based artist, puppeteer, Founder of Automata
JIM GIMZEWSKI
Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry
with
ANNA WITTENBERG
LA-based artist
MAYANK MEHTA
Professor of Physics and Astronomy
with
RACHEL MASON accompanied by Haylee Nichele & Chenhui Mao
LA-based video and performance artist
NANDITA GARUD
Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
with
WEBREAK
LA-based Hip Hop Dance Company
AMIR SHEIKHI
Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Penn State
with
TUCKER MARDER & JONATHAN FLETCHER MOORE
LA-based artists
Volume 1 @ Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA 2014
SHERIE EDENBORN
Ph.D. Professor of Microbiology, Chatham University
with
ISLA HANSEN and TUCKER MARDER
Pittsburgh Based Artists
REGIS KOWALSKI
MS, M(ASCP), Research Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh and Executive Director of the Charles T. Campbell Ophthalmic Microbiology Lab
with
ISLA HANSEN and TUCKER MARDER
Pittsburgh Based Artists
AMBROSE CHEUNG
M.D., Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Dartmouth Medical School;
with
NICK FUSARO and ZHIWAN CHEUNG
THE CARNEGIE MELLON iGEM TEAM
(Alexandra Celentano, Domonique Maccalla, Nicole Matamala, Danielle Peters, Courtney Pozzi, Niteesh Sundaram, and Lena Wang)
with
JONATHAN ARMISTEAD
UK Based Artist
EVAN STARR
Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley
with
BRITT MOSELEY
New York Based Artist and Puppeteer
CONNOR WALSH
Graduate student in the School of Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
with
DAN ALLENDE
Los Angeles Based Artist