Bio-Art Mixer 5

Come to our fifth BIO-ART mixer on April 5th at the Everson Museum! Please make sure to spread the word in your departments and advertise! It’s great fun for students, faculty, and friends!

Talks by: Suzanne Anker (School of Visual Arts, Sculpture) and John Drake Ph.D. (SUNY – College of Environmental Science and Forestry) each of whom will give 20 min talks followed by a discussion moderated by professor Tom Sherman (Syracuse University, Transmedia).

7 pm – ConfabDiscussions will be followed by informal talks and a cash bar at the museum. Admission: Pay-what-you-wish for SU, ESF, and Upstate Medical students with the presentation of school ID for this event. General admission 5 $, which gives access to the Bio-Art mixer and to all museum exhibitions. Cash bar.

Suzanne Anker (Professor, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY)http://suzanneanker.com

Currently many contemporary artists are harnessing aspects of nature as it relates to cultural transformation. Artist and theorist Suzanne Anker’s talk will look at Bio-Art as it reflects concerns about altering nature of a global world in flux. Suzanne Anker’s exhibition 1.5° Celsius is currently on view at the Everson Museum, accessible for the visitors of the Bio-Art Mixer.“Anker positions her work at the intersection of art and biology using a wide range of media, from genetically modified plants, digital sculpture, and installation to large-scale photography and projected video. 1.5° Celsius references the projected increase in temperature between 2030 and 2052 if global warming continues at its current pace and the world fails to take significant action to reverse the increase, according to a United Nations report published on October 7, 2018. This subtle yet substantial change in temperature will have seismic implications for climate change, species extinction, and toxic degradation. Anker’s investigations into these issues encourage critical and enlightened thinking about the ways humans have altered nature in the past and will be required to alter nature in the twenty-first century.” (Everson Museum)

John Drake (Assistant Professor, SUNY – College of Environmental Science and Forestry) https://drakelab.weebly.com/

Drake is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management at SUNY ESF. Drake is particularly excited about trees as dynamic living systems with complex physiological processes that fulfill many of the same functions as animal behavior. John will present his recent work on the physiological mechanisms by which trees cope with the exceptionally hot conditions of heat waves. Heat waves are expected to increase in frequency and intensity in the future, and we do not know how this will impact trees. John exposed trees to an extreme “heat wave of the future”, expecting to document the physiological processes leading to mortality. The trees were remarkably resistant, however, and they avoided thermal damage by increasing evaporative cooling and leaf thermal tolerance. John’s talk will use this example to discuss how the process of scientific discovery may share some common features with the process of artistic creation.

—This time hosted by the Everson Museum and supported by the department of Transmedia, Syracuse University.

—-What is the Bio-Art Mixer?

The Bio-Art Mixer is an event where art and life sciences meet, where faculty and graduate students are invited to share their research, get ideas for their new projects or simply view their own work from the perspective of a different discipline. Every meeting will include short presentations by artists and biologists, with 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 the life sciences, 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 Syracuse University, Biology Department, and Boryana Rossa Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Transmedia Department at Syracuse University in collaboration with the Canary Lab.