AFFILIATED RESEARCH PROJECTS
BLUE TRAIL – Imagination + Innovation for Ocean Sustainability
Blue Trail is a “trail” of interactive art-design-science-tech installations that will take place along the San Francisco waterfront in September 2013.
Mass Transfer in Binary Stars
Lead Artists Sudhu Tewari and Drew Detweiler are developing an interactive sculpture project inspired by Mass Transfer in Binary Stars to better understand matter flow interacting binary stars and to visualize what it might look like in a three dimensionally. Advisors: UCSC Astrophysicist Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz and Artist Jennifer Parker
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Infant-Family Program: a non-profit serving infants, families and professionals
THRIVE studies the infants’ capacities for emotional communication and social relatedness as well as the coresponding abilities of the caregiver. Our treatment clarifies infant communication and facilitates caregiver empathy and response. THRIVE provides training and education for professionals and disseminates knowledge to the community.
THRIVE’S vision is to understand the emotional development of the infant from the beginning, facilitate communication in the infant-caregiver relationship, and to provide an environment for infants to thrive from the beginning.
The THRIVEfamilyLAB is a new initiative for the creation of iPhone/iPad APPS for parents in the NICU and at home. In addition to the creation of new APPS, the THRIVE familyLAB will provide inter-disciplinary training for professionals, Infant Observation Courses and pregnancy accompaniment groups from the THRIVE director, Julie McCaig in association with artists, infant researchers, scientists, and with the help of THRIVE’S Forward Observer and THRIVE President, Vladimir Lipovetsky, M.D.
Project Website: Dr. Julie McCaig, Director THRIVE
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Latex balloons: a major cause of death in marine turtles, birds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions as well as other wildlife
Robin Dunkin, Ph.D. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, LML Marine Mammal Stranding Network
Latex balloons are a major cause of death in marine turtles, birds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions as well as other wildlife. Despite claims to the contrary, there has been very little work to quantify the degradation time of latex in the environment. This data gap is continuously exploited by pro-latex lobbying groups to claim that latex balloons and balloon releases are safe and even environmentally friendly. Read More
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ArtHERE
OpenLab has helped to launch a new exciting on-line tool for art, science, tech, and education at the ZERO1 Biennial:Seeking Silicon Valley please visit the site for more information
website: ArtHERE.org ArtHere Video
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Listening to the Earth
The Listening to the Earth, research cluster, (originally sponsored by the Davis Humanities Institute (2010-12)), brings together graduate students and faculty at both UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz to explore the diverse creative possibilities that promise to emerge out of conscious collaboration between environmental studies, landscape architecture, the visual arts and performance studies. In the face of the most trying environmental challenges in human history, we are compelled to explore the collaborative possibilities that can emerge from a mutual exchange of knowledge, research and creation. This collaboration rejects the ‘arts as illustration of science’ model and advocates for new transdisciplinary knowledge generated from close, interactive project work that deepens engagement with environmental issues while envisioning possible productive ways to lessen their impending impact. This collaboration is intended to strengthen and broaden both faculty and graduate students research in ecological performance, while expanding the dialog between the arts, humanities, the sciences and the public. The cluster’s research will be made available to broader audiences through artworks, performances, seminars, and publications about interdisciplinary projects focused around environmentalism.
Contact: Professor Elizabeth Stephens, estephe[@]ucsc.edu
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
John Matthias + Nick Ryan
THE SOUND OF SMALL BRAIN CIRCUITS: THE NEUROGRANULAR SAMPLER, PLASTICITY AND CORTICAL SONGS
The level of synchronization in distributed systems is often controlled by the strength of interaction between the individual elements. Read More…
Websites: Nick Ryan: nick.ryan{@}mac.com, John Matthias: john.matthias{@}plymouth.ac.uk
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AUX
Aux is a collaborative research group lead by Sudhu Tewari, graduate student pursuing a PhD in Cultural Musicology and MFA in Digital Art and New Media. Aux takes its name from the auxilary input often found on older stereo equipment, an acknowledgment of the potential offered by something other than the traditional/standard phonograph, tape or radio input. The goal of Aux is to explore the world of sound art, primarily though experimentation with kinetic sound producing sculptures and electronic devices.
Contact: Sudhu Tewari, Research Director + Founder, Aux , loopstick [at] hotmail [dot] com
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Finger Codes
dy of artwork produced by Eleanor Gates-Stuart as part of her artist residency at the University of California Santa Cruz. Using the fingerprint as a device for human identity, Gates-Stuart merged numerous reference information meshed into multiple grids and layers as a new visual translation of complex systems and network existence.Human fingerprints are translated into numerical symbols, coded through the artist’s drawings and used as symbolic data. Patterns that merge are also to be lost, woven and undone again, in layers adding complexity in the language of code and information architecture. The artist strives for simple representation, the artworks to appear non-technological and seemingly painterly, a result that belies the underlying infrastructure and composition of this creative endeavour.website: Eleanor Gates-Stuart
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
S.S. Palo Alto Project
The S.S. Palo Alto Project is a proposal for a new public ArtPark focusing on the sustainability of the ocean environment. Located off of Seacliff State Beach on the West Coast of the U.S., it has the potential to become a rallying symbol for the precarious future of California’s State Parks, and the health of the world’s oceans.
The team is to be composed of artists and environmentalists, marine biologists, scientists, sea explorers, architects, activists, designers, and an engineer. Working in tandem with colleagues at the University of California at Santa Cruz, in the new Social Practice Arts Resource Center, as well both the Art and Marine Science Departments.
In dialogue with the Friends of the California State Parks to make the “Cement Ship” as it is colloquially called, a place for environmental awareness and public outreach on the pending marine issues of our time. We hope to call attention to not only the plight of the marine environment, but California State Parks, who actually own the Ship. The S.S. Palo Alto ArtPark project is also championed by the United Nations SAFE PLANET Campaign, (under the auspices of the the 3 Secretariats of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions).
Website: Barbara Benish, Project Organizer & Director, SS Palo Alto, UN Safe Planet Campaign
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Astrophysics Visualization Lab
Empirically, astrophysical objects are not amenable to experimental studies; we rely on careful observations rather than laboratory experimentation to obtain data. Theoretically, astrophysical objects are rarely amenable to simple physical models; we rely more and more on computational methods to understand the complicated physics that governs the phenomena we observe. With the advancement of computer technology and numerical algorithms, complex astrophysical phenomena such as supernova explosions, accretion of material onto stars, stellar pulsations, and the granular patterns of solar convection are now accessible via simulation almost as if they were accessible via experiments in the laboratory. But humans are visual creatures. Numbers alone do little to feed our physical understanding and intuition. To fully realize the scientific and aesthetic potential of these simulations, we also need sophisticated visualization tools.__________________________________________________________________________________________
SonicSENSE
SonicSENSE is an expandable and evolving site for art, culture, new technologies, digital media, collaboration, and participation. Founded by Barney Haynes and Jennifer Parker in 2008.SonicSENSE uses the creative diversity of computational media and traditional visual art practices to cultivate space for sharing, questioning, and exploring interdisciplinary frameworks, methodologies, and experiences. Each exhibition of the platform is a new iteration consisting of a series of mechanical sound sculptures and interactive objects that drive data mined from the internet and biometrics gleaned from the audience.
Project Website: SonicSENSE
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Eco-Art: Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison
Website: The Harrison’s Studio
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Innovation & Design Lab
Website: Innovation & Design Lab
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nomadpad
Nomadpad is committed to providing a free and accessible multifunctional product designed to deliver comfort and protection to those who are imposed-by the difficulties of the urban nomadic experience. Nomadpad is a nondiscriminatory, non-profit organization whose aims are to successfully supply a utilitarian product available to all users in the community of the city.
Website: NomadPad
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________