Bio-Art Mixer 1
Bio-Art Mixer #1
Thursday, February 8th, 2018, 6 pm.
The Bio-Art Mixer is an event where art and life sciences meet, where faculty and graduate students are invited to share their research, to get ideas for their new projects or to simply view their own work from the perspective of a different discipline. Every meeting we will have four short presentations and plenty of time for informal conversations. The mixer will take place twice a semester.
Our ambition is to make the Bio-Art Mixer a foundation for future exhibitions, demonstrations and new collaborative projects involving art and life sciences, and to inspire interdisciplinary research across the universities in the region and to engage local communities.
The Bio-Art Mixer is an initiative of Heidi Hehnly, Ph.D. Assistant Professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Boryana Rossa Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Transmedia Department at Syracuse University in collaboration with the Canary Lab and the Everson Museum.
Thursday, February 8th, 2018
6pm- talks will be held at Shaffer Art Building, Syracuse University, room 121
7.30pm- Confab will occur at the Canary Lab, Syracuse University
Smith Hall, 2nd floor where libations will be served.
Our first four speakers are Heidi Hehnly (Cell and Developmental Biology, SUNY Upstate), Wenyi Feng (Biochemistry, SUNY Upstate), Boryana Rossa (Department of Transmedia, VPA, Syracuse University) and Edward Morris (Department of Transmedia and The Canary Lab, Syracuse University).
We are accepting proposals for future presentations on an ongoing basis.
Heidi Hehnly (Cell and Developmental Biology, SUNY Upstate).
Building an embryo, one cell at a time
A developing embryo is made up of numerous dividing cells that assemble to build a tissue, but how do they do this? Our lab has found that during the process of a single cell duplicating into two it assembles the correct structure to define and shape a specific tissue. In this talk my lab will highlight the power of light microscopy in understanding how a single fertilized egg can assemble into a complex 3-dimensional being.
Wenyi Feng (Biochemistry, SUNY Upstate).
Molecular affairs: messy break-ups and unions
How stable is your genome? Are your chromosomes blissfully maintaining their constitutions or are they bound in a struggle of sorts, causing your genome to plummet into a “copy number disparity” or even “death by a thousand cuts”? When DNA breaks up, do the ends find each other again or are they destined for separate paths? Come and ponder these questions together while we visualize the fascinating tapestry of our genome and the molecular affairs within.
Boryana Rossa (Department of Transmedia, VPA, Syracuse University)
"The Mirror of Faith"
“The Mirror of Faith” is an art and science project meant to provoke in a playful and humorous manner public dialogue about genetics. The project is related to the research of the molecular biologist Dean Hamer on genetic predisposition of human spirituality. Besides the questions of nature vs. nurture, raised by research, proposing genetic predisposition of social behavior, our project exposes the possible social and political issues this notion can create by review of its media representation so far.
Edward Morris (Department of Transmedia and The Canary Lab, Syracuse University)
The Canary Lab: Ecological Thinking
The Canary Lab at Syracuse University produces art and media about ecology, primarily through courses offered each semester and related programming. We define ecological thinking as understanding interrelatedness through a process of questioning and revealing. We believe in the value of contemplative forms of knowing that complement the sciences. We will discuss the Canary Lab considering two recent projects, an on-going effort to depict climate change in photographs and an effort to capture the poet W.S. Merwin’s relationship to palm trees.