In this the inaugural Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) in Rochester, we will introduce the concept and history of the LASER series, and the opportunities and challenges for Rochester, RIT and beyond presented by hybrid practices that supercede disciplinary boundaries. We will be joined by RIT Associate Professor of Physics Moumita Das and designer, artist and researcher at One Project Raphael Arar. The evening will also include art-science presentations and demonstrations by students from the School of Interactive Games and Media.
300 Lomb Memorial Dr, Rochester, NY 14623
Moumita Das is a theoretical soft matter and biophysicist and is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Das received her Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, and did postdoctoral research at Harvard University, UCLA, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She has been on the faculty at RIT since 2012. Her group’s research focuses on the physics of network-like materials in biological cells, tissues, and synthetic biology, supported by awards from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Research Corporation, the Moore Foundation, and the Keck Foundation. Das is an enthusiastic organizer for the biophysics community and co-hosts a popular weekly virtual seminar series called Biological Physics/Physical Biology Seminar, with participants from all over the world. She is also a strong advocate for underrepresented groups in Physics and is committed to increasing their participation and visibility.
What are the physical rules and principles that govern the form and behavior of living systems like cells and tissues? How can we use the insights from studying them to develop new and better approaches to treating diseases and to designing autonomous synthetic materials? We investigate these questions in a wide range of network-like systems, including the cytoskeleton of cells, extracellular matrices of cartilage tissue, cyanobacteria-based networks in synthetic materials, and synthetic neuronal systems. In this talk, I will discuss some vignettes from our recent work that showcase the power of physics in predicting cartilage tissue function in health and disease, the comparative efficacy of antiviral strategies that disrupt different aspects of the life cycle of viruses, and the rational design of artificial tissue constructs with tunable properties.
Artist and Head of Design
One Project
Governing Board Member
Leonardo/ISAST
Raphael Arar works at the nexus of complex systems, transdisciplinary design, and arts-based research. He currently leads Alternatives at One Project, an operating non-profit and foundation working on designing, implementing, and scaling new equitable, ecological, and effective forms of economics and governance. He also serves as a Board Member at Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology. Previously, he led design for learners at Khan Academy, tackled ethical platforms of AI at IBM Research, taught media theory at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and designed over a hundred iOS apps with Apple.
His artwork has been shown at museums, conferences, festivals, and galleries internationally, including the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Moscow Museum of Applied Art, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Gamble House Museum, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Science Gallery, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, and Athens Video Art Festival. Notable commissions include Noema Magazine, Goethe Institut, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Intel Labs, and IBM Research. His design work has been featured in publications including Forbes, Inc. Magazine, FastCompany, Wired, and others.
Over the last half-century, neoliberal capitalism established itself as the dominant economic order. We find it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. Yet, global capitalism hasn’t lived up to its promise of global governance or world peace. Rampant inequality, accelerating ecological destruction, incessant social upheaval, and threats of nuclear war make the need for alternatives all the more pressing. Visions of a postcapitalist future are not absent. This talk will survey some of these prosocial ideas ranging from prefigurative small-scale experiments to rigorously-defined macroeconomic systems, which have inspired the aesthetic explorations Arar has undertaken to question the ideological underpinnings and contradictions of late capitalism in the hopes of alternative futures.
The Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) are an international program of gatherings that bring the humanities, arts and sciences together for informal presentations and conversation with an audience. As of 2022, they take place in more than 40 universities and cultural institutions in four continents.