2019 CURRICULUM

CurriculumThe Sci|Art Lab+Studio offers a cutting-edge, 4-credit lab/studio course designed specifically to expose High School students to the concept of the scientific method and the artistic process as complimentary tools for rethinking traditional models of exploration and innovation by making connections between cutting edge scientific research, popular culture and contemporary arts.  

Lab visits, workshops, hands-on experiments, and meetings with world renowned scientists will be balanced with visits to museums, daily movie screenings and meetings with famous contemporary artists who collaborate with scientists. This course aims to expose students to the works of scientists and artists that explore new forms of creative expression, communication, and collaboration within this multi-disciplinary field while introducing them to current research specific to nanotechnology. 

To foster this process, groups of students will develop an original concept for a collaborative project under the challenge of ‘Imagine the Impossible’. With the assistance skill workshops and the knowledge base of the Sci|Art Team, groups of students will create and deliver a multimedia presentation during the closing ceremony.

 

2019 Theme

500 -- 50 -- 5: from nano structures to star dust what’s next?

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ― Albert Einstein

2019 is 500 years since Leonardo’s death; 50 years since the landing on the moon and science and technology are moving with such incredibly fast speed that we envision the impossible happening only 5 years from now.

500:

On May 2, 1519, -- Leonardo da Vinci, polymath and true genius of the Renaissance left this world. We will learn about his scientific, anatomical, and engineering studies and hope to inspire students by his endlessly enquiring mind and ask – how would Leonardo respond to the challenges the current state of the world faces?

Recently the Art Sci center got involved in a major conference and exhibition organized by group of surgeons and art historians from UCLA and Cambridge, UK -- “Leonardo da Vinci, Inventing the Future” will take place on October 18-19, at UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). We follow the four foci of Leonardo’s work: “Flight, the Heart, Robotics & Artificial Intelligence, and the Environment—and look into the future and what may be waiting for humanity as our knowledge and impulse to explore the unknown unfolds over time.”

You can find out more about the conference HERE.

50: 

“We are stardust

Billion year old carbon

We are golden

And we've got to get ourselves

back to the garden”

Woodstock, 50 years ago

50 years ago, July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the surface of the moon while astronaut Michael Collins orbited the lunar surface. The Apollo 11 mission is perhaps the most tremendous feat of engineering and courage, going where no one had gone before. But in the decades since that memorable “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” humans have pushed their limits in outer space and robotic crafts have extensively explored the sun, all the planets and beyond. 

50 years later, January 3, 2019, the robotic spacecraft Chang’e 4 made a soft landing in the South Pole-Aitken Basin area of the moon, otherwise known as the “far side” or “dark side” of Earth’s only natural satellite. It is the first spacecraft in history to attempt or achieve a landing on this unexplored area, which is never visible from Earth.

50 years ago we saw our planet for the first time from a distance, and we started a journey into the planetary system. Now we are facing the unknown, the invisible and this creates a whole new set of challenges – especially for the new generation. This is because those of us who teach cannot tell them what to expect, we can only prepare the students to have a wide angle view and be able to go from micro to macro easily and understand and embrace complexity they face.

Last year, we celebrated 50 years since the Leonardo journal was established by it’s founder, astrophysicist and kinetic artist Frank Malina. He was a strong believer in the importance of reconnecting art and science and would be proud to see how this field has grown exponential in the last few years. We are interested in building a community of Young Leonardos! MORE about the journal.

50 years ago, UCLA was one of the first nodes of what is to become today’s Internet and the room where this took place is next door to CNSI (and we will visit with the students) – “When my team of graduate students and I sent the first message over the internet on a warm Los Angeles evening in October, 1969, little did we suspect that we were at the start of a worldwide revolution. After we typed the first two letters from our computer room at UCLA, namely, “Lo” for “Login,” the network crashed. Hence, the first internet message was “Lo” as in “Lo and behold” – inadvertently, we had delivered a message that was succinct, powerful, and prophetic.” UCLA Professor –emeritus Dr. Leonard Kleinrock

5:

All is moving with such speed that we don’t need to go too far into the future – what’s next in only five years ahead of us?

Lectures:

  • Tools of Visualization – Dr. Adam Stieg
  • Understanding Nano - Sam Lilak 
  • The need for STEAM in Society 5.0: an era of social and technological fusion – Aki and Reiko Yamada
  • Extreme Environments – Scott Hessels 
  • CRISPR + Applications – Sam Locascio 
  • Ethics in Art and Science – Dr. Rita Blaik
  • Design & Complexity – Dr. Claudia Jacques

Workshops: 

  • Ecosensing – Mick Lorusso, Maru Garcia, Clarissa Ribeiro
  • Baker Remediation – Mick Lorusso, Maru Garcia, Clarissa Ribeiro, Sam Lilak 
  • Communication with Plants – Mick Lorusso, Maru Garcia, Sam Lilak 
  • Mycology and Mycoremediation – Kaitlin Bryson and Andrew Ortiz 
  • Micrometeroites – Shane Houchin 
  • Origami and DNA - Ellen Farranto 
  • Psychobiotonic: Anthropology at the molecular level – Clarissa Riberio 
  • Network Activity – Ariel Levi Simons 
  • Molecules in VR - Zeynep Abes 

Lab visits:

Field Trips: