Sunday, January 13th, 2019

Call for Artists

ARTISTS, SCIENTISTS, AND INNOVATORS!

We’re archived in Stanford University Libraries and we think you & your work should be too!

OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS // International Deadline: February 10, 2019.

Underlying theme: Architecture. Urban Decay. Street Art. Post-Industrial Society. Humanity. Technology. Metaphysics. Otherworldly. Outer Space. Terraforming. Extraterrestrial Colonization. New World.Robots. Artificial Intelligence. Cybernetic Revolt. Fermi Paradox. Science Fiction. Mystery.

More details here: https://esquaredmagazine.com/submit/

Tuesday, January 1st, 2019

Smart is the New Sexy

Dear Sapiosexuals,

This year, we think smart is the new sexy. We’re talking about art here, folks but not just any art…intellectual art. We have always felt that which is intellectual is attractive, exciting, provocative, and yes, we’ll say it again, sexy. It’s the kind of art that makes you think. Deeply ponder. Feel inspired. Of course, we’re not denying that aesthetic art has its place too. We have great respect for all art and art movements throughout history.

What has become important to us though is art that is intellectual, progressive…art that moves humanity forward in some kind of way. We’ve been busy saying no to all the candy art. There’s a place for that. What we desire though is the kind of work that isn’t just about the wow factor, but the kind that makes you really think and then the double wow comes after you comprehend it. Honestly, in just six months of opening our minds to the art + science scene, we haven’t been able to think about art the same way.

We’re currently working hard on the fifth Issue of E-Squared Magazine. We look forward to our fresh group of artists and romanticizing you with new and inspiring content. Stay tuned for behind the scenes at E-Squared Studios during the making of Issue #5 and while you wait, consider ordering a copy of Issue #4

Because smart is the new sexy.

Cheers!

Emily A. Dustman

Founder & Director
E-Squared Magazine

Thursday, December 20th, 2018

New Findings on Alcohol & Memories

Cover Photo: Brain of Drosophila. Green areas show cells where Notch has been activated. Photo credit: Dr. Petruccelli.

“Our findings in flies help mammalian researchers understand how it may be a driving mechanism that underlies alcohol, and possibly other forms of addiction.”—Dr. Emily Petruccelli

As we approach winter break and begin to participate in the festivities of the holiday season, a new study by Assistant Professor Dr. Emily Petruccelli at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville may have you thinking twice about your celebratory toasts. Outside of instructing in the Department of Biological Sciences, Petruccelli spends time in her laboratory researching flies and getting them drunk.

Yes, you read that right and by now, you might be wondering how on earth you even go about getting flies drunk. To do this, Petruccelli exposes her candidates to ethanol vapor paired with an odor. “What I really seek to answer with my research is, ‘do flies like getting drunk?’ We found that flies avoid odors associated with intoxication right after training, but after 24 hours, the [now] sober flies seek the odor they remember being paired with intoxication,” said Petruccelli.

Flies are a favorite model organism of many geneticists as they are equivalent to humans in many ways, including understanding how alcohol is metabolized in the body. Petruccelli’s findings are groundbreaking as they indicate that when flies get drunk, they are actually making memories in association with alcohol that can be long-lasting, possibly even permanent. “When flies get drunk, Notch—the pathway associated with learning and memory—becomes activated. When I ‘ask’ the flies 7 days later if they want alcohol, they still do,” she stated in regards to her findings.

Petruccelli’s research has wide implications when thinking about addictions like alcoholism—it is possible that after just one drink, your brain chemistry has changed and potentially, for the long-term. “Many people think alcohol is a choice—this is clearly not a choice, this is a disease—the brain has undoubtedly been altered,” said Petruccelli. She plans to continue testing flies in her lab to try and determine what causes the shift from having a seemingly ‘harmless’ social drink to ending up with a full-blown dependency. “I want people to still be able to drink socially and casually—to keep that a possibility,” said Petruccelli. Answers to questions that she poses in her research will likely provide insight into treatment options for those with alcohol dependency and potentially be applicable to other addictions as well.

Numerous news sources picked up on Dr. Emily Petruccelli’s findings, which were recently published in Neuron. See below for the list: Newsweek, The Independent, Forbes, Inverse, DailyMail, News-Medical.net, Earth.com, Science Daily, Infosurhoy, Medical Xpress, Futurity, WILX-TV, TheFix.com, The University Network, Interesting Engineering, Global News Radio, Yahoo News, Wine Spectator, Tribune India, Sun Star Times, CBS News Radio, VICE, MSN, Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Standard, Technology Networks, Outlook India, Neuroscience News, Lab Manager, Midibulletin, NDTV, The Boar, Science Trends, The Spirits Business, Inquirer.net, Devdiscourse, Daily Pioneer, the fix, the Brown Daily Herald…

Wednesday, December 19th, 2018

CALL FOR Images from Science 3

Project Overview

Images from Science 3 is being organized to celebrate the production of extraordinary images featuring science. At its core mission, the project seeks to explore the interface of science, technology, art, design, and communication. Science images unlike most other genres of images rarely find their way into art museums.

Rochester Institute of Technology Professors Michael Peres, Ted Kinsman, Bob Rose, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Professor Norman Barker are passionate and talented scientific photographers. They have enjoyed long and storied careers in this unique field as photographers, but also as authors, educators, and industry leaders. Because of their interests in science images, they are collaborating to produce the third traveling exhibition sharing some of the world’s most extraordinary images and image makers who explore science.

Images from Science 3 will build upon the successes of the Images from Science I and II exhibitions. Images From Science I premiered fall 2002 in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Launched at the infancy of the Internet and digital photography, it contained 59 photographs and traveled to 22 venues in 7 countries until 2007 when it was retired.

Images From Science 2 premiered in the Fall of 2008 and was displayed in 13 venues before being lost in shipping from the UK to the Netherlands in 2014. A complete listing of these exhibitions history can be found by following this link. Both exhibitions were produced as experiments to explore the power of the Internet as the sole tool used to advertise, identify and ultimately display some of the world’s most powerful photographs of science at the time of their production.

Much has changed since those exhibitions were displayed including the explosion of new applications of imaging technologies. Coupled with new optical and other imaging software, nothing seems out of the realm of what is possible in the creation of images for science. The dynamic release of new imaging equipment including the smartphone coupled with the explosive use of social Media including Twitter®, and Instagram® for example, has allowed for images to be shared worldwide synchronously. One could make a compelling argument that imaging has become a science unto itself and is an integral part of every contemporary research center.

Images from Science 3 seeks to identify and showcase up to 75 extraordinary examples of both still and moving images that reveal science in new and unique ways. Similar to past projects, it too will use the Internet as its primary voice to promote IFS 3 but this exhibit will feature computer generated images (CGI) including animations and illustrations. The organizers hope to include student images as a part of the exhibition as well. The images that will comprise the exhibition will be selected by an international panel of experts from around the world.

Images from Science 3 invites both new and recognized image-makers to submit their extraordinary illustrations, animations, photographs, and short-run videos for consideration in this unique collection of work. Nothing like this has ever been undertaken.

Download the IFS 3 Poster by clicking on this LINK

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

Issue #4–On Sale Now!

Purchase Issue #4 — $35.00 USD SOLD OUT!

Issue #4: Letter from the Founder

Lately, the parable of the boiling frog has come mind. If unfamiliar, the story is about a frog placed in a pot of lukewarm water. The water warms, but as it does, the frog remains tranquil, unaware of any temperature changes. The temperature continues to warm, and eventually, too late to change its fate, the frog boils to death.

The parable of the boiling frog has not always been a fictional story though – it was first realized as a series of experiments conducted by German physiologist Friedrich Goltz in an attempt to locate the soul. In 1860, Goltz removed cerebral regions from frogs and immersed them in gradually warming water, comparing their behavior to that of normal frogs that were exposed to the same environmental conditions. As it turns out, the frogs with portions of their brains removed did not react to the warming water and boiled to death while the normal frogs, with brains fully intact, leapt out of the water when it began to warm. Though Goltz did not scientifically find the soul, his experiment has lived on and has been reinterpreted and utilized by philosophers and artists alike.

So, why has this specific parable come to mind? I think the frog in the gradually warming pot of water is an incredibly relevant analogy for humans, with an invaluable lesson at core. Last year scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ranked 2017 as the second-warmest year on record since reliable record-keeping began (ca. 1880). “This is the new normal,” stated Gavin A. Schmidt, director of the NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Temperatures are not likely to plateau, either. How do we find hope? Though humanity may sometimes appear to act in stupor and without a cerebral brain, hope lies in our awareness – of the gradually warming pot of water that not just the frogs are in, but that we are in.

Does this translate to development of advanced rockets and spacecraft so that we can eventually jump ship? Maybe, but I hope that living on other planets is not our only backup plan. I hope, instead, that we as humans choose to shift our focus and energy onto restoration. As human activity continues to transform most of Earth’s natural ecosystems, restoration of these dramatically altered spaces is our last beacon of hope. How do you plan to help? On an individual level, when faced with a problem, I try to remain solution-based. If the solution does not lend itself to an idealized outcome, I ask, “How can I do this differently?” So, here we are… how can we do this differently?

One solution can be found through cross-fertilization. It is time we bring multiple disciplines together with people from diverse backgrounds to exchange and formulate new ideas. Let us work together in this forest of creative hopelessness and develop innovative solutions for the problems that we have created, take necessary measures to preserve what remains, and inform future decision-making regarding the future of our natural resources.

Thus far, the underlying topics of E-Squared have encompassed the animal and what it means to be human (Issue #1); the environment and human impact (Issue #2); and man, machine, and the future of humanity (Issue #3). As E-Squared closes out its first volume, Issue #4 reminds us of our connection to planet Earth, grounding us in the sobering realities of our future. Together, let us begin… again.

Resolve to be a radicle* – emerging differently than before, giving rise to new and groundbreaking roots.

*The first root of the plant

Emily A. Dustman

“A normal frog if immersed in water which is gradually heated, speedily becomes violent in his attempts to escape. In striking contrast to this phenomenon is the behaviour of a brainless frog, which… sits motionless until it is dead from the excessive heat.” – Friedrich Goltz

Tuesday, November 20th, 2018

Art & the Environment: Diane Burko

Devoted to communicating issues of climate change for over a decade, Diane Burko [Issue #4] works diligently to document and expose the dramatic disappearance of glaciers.

The process behind her work is quite noteworthy – first immersing herself in the unsettling truths of climate change, witnessing them directly by travelling to sites of glacial decline. Once there, she documents what she sees firsthand through a series of photographs developed in close collaboration with glaciologists.

Burko’s on-site experience enriches and informs not only her work but audiences at her exhibitions that are not necessarily interested in the science and consequences of shrinking ice fields. Her current work reflects expeditions to the three largest ice fields in the world through a series of photographs and paintings. Endangered: from Glaciers to Reefs, will be on display at the National Academy of Sciences until January 31, 2019.

Sunday, November 11th, 2018

Creating a more accurate picture of the world

“The precise center of the Edwardsville miniature Earth is only four thousand miles distant from the real Earth’s center.”–R. Buckminster Fuller, Geoview

While known for many ideas and inventions, R. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller is most widely revered for his geodesic dome constructions around the world. Fuller was more than an architect though, he was an inventor, theorist, author, and a member of Southern Illinois University faculty from 1960-1974. While at the SIU, Fuller designed a transparent replica of planet Earth for the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability in collaboration with his design partner, Shoji Sadao. The dome first opened in 1971, leaving an indelible mark on the region.

On Friday, Nov. 9 the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability hosted an opening reception to celebrate the opening of the Fuller Dome Gallery located inside the dome. The opening was an especially unusual and intimate experience as Bucky’s daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder, and his granddaughter, Alexandra May were in attendance.

The event was filled with many speeches and I certainly learned a lot more about the dome and Fuller himself. First, the location of the dome marks a most special one, at the 90th Meridian (west). In the late forties, Fuller proposed a new type of map which he and his partner Sadao termed the “Dymaxion Map.” With the 90th Meridian as its center point, it would convert land and ocean into a 2-D map with minimal distortion. His desire? To create a more accurate picture of the world. In 1946, he received a patent in cartography for the Dymaxion Map. With 28 patents, let us remember Fuller as the inventor that he was.

The gallery also featured an exhibition of Fuller’s art-print portfolio, Inventions: Twelve Around One, with the University Museum, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Meridian Society sponsoring the exhibit. The print-portfolio featured 13 of his most significant inventions and was gifted to the center in 2017 by the Estate of Buckminster Fuller and was accessioned into the SIUE University Museum’s Permanent Collection in cooperation with the SIUE Foundation.

Friday, November 9th, 2018

Celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall with WHITEvoid

Issue #3 of E-Squared featured light artists WHITEvoid.

Recently we saw LICHTGRENZE, a project that celebrates “25 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall.” The light installation composed of 8000 lit balloons on poles temporarily separates the city for 3 days and nights. Millions of people came to see the helium filled balloons rise to the Berlin night sky at the end of Berlin’s largest outdoor art installation.

You can see their magnificent installation on video here: LICHTGRENZE.

Read more about WHITEvoid in Issue #3 below.

Operating at the interface of art, design, and technology, WHITEvoid was founded in 2004 by Christopher Bauder and is comprised of specialists in interaction design, media design, product design, interior architecture, and electronic engineering. Commissioned by the Festival of Lights Lyon, DEEP WEB is a monumental immersive audiovisual installation and live performance created by light artist Christopher Bauder and composer and musician Robert Henke.

Presented in enormous pitch-dark indoor spaces, DEEP WEB plunges the audience into a ballet of iridescent kinetic light and surround sound. The generative, luminous architectural structure weaves 175 motorized spheres and 12 high power laser systems into a 25-meter-wide and 10-meter-high super-structure, bringing to life a luminous analogy to the nodes and connections of digital networks. Moving up and down, and choreographed and synchronized to an original multi-channel musical score by Robert Henke, the spheres are illuminated by blasts of colorful laser beams resulting in three-dimensional sculptural light drawings and arrangements in cavernous darkness. DEEP WEB brings together decades of separate research and experimentation by two artists with unique visions and passions for sound and light, and by innovative companies working in these fields.

Christopher Bauder has brought his installations and performances to art events and spaces around the world, including Centre Pompidou Paris, MUTEK Montreal, Festival of Lights Lyon, Luminale Frankfurt, The Jewish Museum Berlin, and The National Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan. He is best known for his city-wide light art installation Lichtgrenze, created in 2014 together with his brother Marc, for the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and his large scale kinetic live shows ATOM and GRID, both in cooperation with Robert Henke.

Tuesday, October 16th, 2018

Steve Miller & The Billboard Creative

Among numerous other achievements this year, where else can you possibly find Steve Miller?

On a billboard…in Los Angeles…at Melrose and North Hudson. Congratulations to you, Steve Miller, for being selected as an artist for The Bilboard Creative (TBC).

In October, The Billboard Creative will transform 31 Los Angeles billboards into public art spaces, bringing public art to the Los Angeles area. To view all the billboards on an interactive map of their location visit TBC’s website at www.thebillboardcreative.com.

Steve Miller was an artist in E-Squared’s debut issue. You can read more about him below.

New York native Steve Miller is a forerunner of the sci-art movement with his works serving a dual perspective. To the contemporary viewer, Miller’s early work appeared abstract but to the scientist, were realized depictions of biological cells. Since this initial node of ancestry, Miller has continued down the sci-art path, ever-evolving his work.

Miller’s most recent work, The Health of the Planet, investigates and brings attention to the fragility of the Amazon. Depicted through an interdisciplinary approach, Miller makes use of media from X-ray photographs to laminated glass. With the Amazon representing half of the planet’s rainforests and being a biodiversity hotspot, he reminds us through his work how important the forests of the amazon are to our planet.

Steve Miller’s work does not attempt to answer any questions but instead, elicits questions within the viewer. Miller has been exploring the intersection of art and science for well over thirty years and has had over fifty solo exhibitions on display at places like the National Academy of Science and the SciArt Center in New York.

Monday, October 15th, 2018

Andrew Carnie at the Royal Free Hospital Pathology Museum

Tuesday, October 16th. former artist Andrew Carnie will have an opening exhibition for his body of work, SOMNOTIUM, at the Royal Free Hospital Pathology Museum.

SOMNOTIUM envelops topics regarding the body and sleep with a collision between art, philosophy, and pathology.

The show will be located on the 2nd Floor of the Medical School at Royal Free Campus
[Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF]

We hope you can attend!

Read more about Andrew Carnie of Issue #1 below.

Artist and academic Andrew Carnie explores the inner workings of life and the complexities surrounding what sustains it. In the early stages of his work, Carnie communicates with scientists from different fields regarding his themes and ideas. His work is often time-based in nature, involving slide projections, dissolve systems, or video projected onto complex screen configurations.

Nurturing and tending to, dissolving and diminishing, Carnie’s work engages the viewer in a very intimate way from holding a dissolving heart made of soap to large-scale imagery projections. In a darkened space, layered images appear and disappear on suspended screens, the developing display absorbing the viewer into an expanded sense of space and time through the slowly unfolding narratives that evolve before and around them.

Andrew Carnie’s work is notable as the viewer’s interaction becomes equally important to the meaning of the piece itself. His work has been exhibited at the Science Museum, London, the Natural History Museum, Rotterdam, the Museum of Design in Zurich, Exit Art in New York, among many others. He regularly exhibits and is represented by Robert Devcic at GV Art Gallery London and by Mark Segal at The Artists Agency.