Summer 2003 Showcase Event

• Science as Performance, Showcase Event, Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Spring 2003 Events

• Genomic Issue(s): Art and Science exhibition, February 26 –April 5, 2003; opening reception, February 25, 5 - 7 pm
• Thread of Life, a new play, Monday, March 10, 6 pm
• Graphic Science, Frank Burnet, Tuesday, March 11, 5pm
• Artist Discussion: Genomic Issue(s), Friday, March 14, 6 pm
• Dance, Music and DNA, an evening of performance, Friday, March 28, 6 pm

• Science and Theater: new one-act dramas, Monday, May 19, 6pm

• Einstein-related events, Spring 2003

Fall 2002 Events

• ArtSci2002, Science & Arts Symposium, Fri - Sun, December 6-8
• The Science, History and Music of the Concertina, Monday, Nov 4, 6 pm
• Einstein's Dreams,World Premiere of a Staged Reading, Monday, Oct 7, 6pm

Spring 2002 Events: Science & Theater

• Science Vaudville, An original science revue, Monday, March 4, 6 pm
• Schrödinger's Girlfriend, A staged reading, Monday, April 22, 6 pm
• Oxygen, A staged reading, Break-A-Leg Productions Monday, May 20, 6 pm
• Feynman F(Ph)ysics Festivaland the play QED, March 16
• Why Einstein Would Love Spaghetti in Fundamental Physics, April 4

Fall 2001 Events

• Science and Dance: The Physics of Ballet , Monday October 1
• Science and the Art of Fractals, Monday, November 5
• Science and Theater: Fermat's Last Tango, Monday, December 3
• The Resilient Horseshoe Crab: Exhibition & Discussion, Tuesday, December 4

The performing arts can bring science to a wide audience. This event showcases outstanding examples of entertainment that also informs.

This event will feature:

• Excerpts from Einstein’s Dreams, an enchanting new musical inspired by the best-selling 1993 novel of the same title by Alan Lightman. The work explores the concept of time as expressed in the fictional dreams of young Albert Einstein. Book by Joanne Sydney Lessner with music by Joshua Rosenblum.

• Science and Dance: The Physics of Ballet.  Much of science is invisible, mathematical, and abstract, but a dancer's movements bring to life concepts of physics that are easily understood and deepen one's appreciation of the art form. Presenters: Kenneth Laws, Professor of Physics (and ballet instructor), Dickinson College, plus Sara Michelle Murawski, a young ballerina.

• Excerpts from the new play Thread of Life about the role of the scientist Rosalind Franklin in the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Written by Rita Nachtmann. Performed by Break A Leg Productions. Courtesy of the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Project

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The Science and the Arts series will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA by Francis Crick and James Watson. The celebration will include the opening of an exhibition of art related to DNA, in the Graduate Center's Art Gallery in late February 2003. There will be three additional public events featuring theater, art, dance and music.

Growing public awareness of genomic issues has been accompanied by fascination, excitement, confusion, and skepticism.  Genomic Issue(s) features the works of artists who are exploring the rapidly changing genetic landscape of the twenty-first century.  In an age of increasing specialization and complexity, artists play an important role in expanding public dialog by creating images that help to demystify and interpret the language, images, business, and implications of genomic science.  The works on display raise questions about the relationships between art, science and society, and suggest a broad range of issues to be navigated – economic, legal, ethical, intellectual, and spiritual – in the rapidly expanding field of genomic research.

Marvin Heiferman and Karen Sinsheimer, Curators

Genomic Issue(s): Art and Science is based on the exhibition, photoGENEsis: Opus 20, curated by Karen Sinsheimer for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 2002-3.  Genomic Issue(s): Art and Science is funded, in part, by a grant from JGS. Inc., a not-for-profit foundation.

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Thread of Life
Monday, March 10, 2003, 6 pm
Elebash Recital Hall
Free

Thread of Life is a riveting new play about the role of Rosalind Franklin in the discovery of the structure of DNA.  Written by Rita Nachtmann.  Performed by Break-A-Leg Productions.  Courtesy of the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Project.

Frank Burnet is the Director of Graphic Science, a portfolio of innovative projects designed to take science to targeted audiences. He has also played a leading role promoting the discussion of the key issues facing individuals and organizations that undertake Science Communication activities, both within the United Kingdom and internationally.

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The Genomic Issue(s) exhibition addresses some of the most urgent questions of our times.  Are engineered identities and medical therapies a threat or a hope?  Join artists Helen Donis-Keller, Steve Miller, and Eva Sutton, and Adam Bly, Editor-in-Chief of Seed magazine, for a discussion of the artwork and a lively dialog with the audience.  The panel will be moderated by Michael Rush, Director of the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art.

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Discover DNA-inspired dance and music.  Dancer/choreographer John Pennington, Pomona College, CA, will perform a piece he composed in collaboration with a molecular biologist and an artist. The Patrick Grant Group will perform a musical suite from GENOME: The Autobiography of a Species in Twenty-Three Movements.   Lori Belilove & Company, resident troupe of The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation, will present a new work, commissioned for this event.

Co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and the Science Center.

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Join us for a performance of two new one-act dramas about the pioneers of physics. 

Robert Marc Friedman's "Remembering Miss Meitner" takes as its subject the role of Lise Meitner in the splitting of the atomic nucleus.

Lauren Gunderson's "Background" is a dramatization of the story of cosmologist Ralph Alpher and the origins of the universe. Both plays will be performed by Break-A-Leg Productions.

Co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and the Science Center.

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Elebash Recital Hall, The Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue
World Premiere of a Concert Reading of an Original Musical Play "Einstein's Dreams"; Based on the novel Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman; Book and lyricist, Joanne Sydney Lessner; Composer and co-lyricist, Joshua Rosenblum
Produced by Brian Schwartz, Associate producer, Linda Merman
Sponsored by the Science Center and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. An "Open Dress Rehearsal" at 3 PM in the same venue and date. 
For tickets contact (212) 817-8215.

The ground-breaking writing and composing team of Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum have created an original musical adaptation of Alan Lightman's captivating and enchanting novel Einstein's Dreams. Lightman's novel caused a literary sensation when it was published in 1994, with one critic calling it "a brilliant novel of time in its marvelous flight. . . gorgeous in its writing, spellbinding and profound in its effects." Lessner and Rosenblum, the authors of the cult hit musical Fermat's Last Tango, weave Lightman's ingenious fantasy vignettes about the nature of time into an infectious musical tapestry that revolves around Einstein himself and a compelling, elusive, beautiful woman who haunts his dreams. This provocative but lighthearted new work of musical theater is guaranteed to stimulate, move and entertain. No physics background required..

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This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the inventor of the concertina, the English physicist, Sir Charles Wheatstone, known widely for the "Wheatstone Bridge" (a device for measuring electrical properties). The speaker-musicians will discuss how the instrument works, the science and acoustics of the concertina as a "free reed" instrument, and its history and changing social status. In addition to the science, the presentation also includes a complementary program of music for the concertina from Victorian England, present-day chamber music, the early twentieth-century music hall, and the English Country Dance tradition.

Sponsored by the Science Center and the CUNY Graduate Center's Ph.D. Program in Music.

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In this 4th international art-sci symposium, organized by ASCI, we will continue to highlight exemplary models of art-sci collaboration while providing an open forum for dialogue about current artscience practice and interdisciplinary collaboration in general. We anticipate there will be projects about art-in-space or even particle physics, as well as those that explore the body's inner workings via MRI, scanning electron microscopy, and other imaging devices. We also hope to showcase new models of interdisciplinary art-sci curriculum.

Registration required, see http://www.asci.org/artsci2002/intro.html, for more information.

NEW: Photos of the Show!

All too often science is viewed as a serious subject with little humor and fun and reserved for the laboratory and the nerds. In this original production, a group of scientists and performers present an original vaudeville flavored evening of science, song, humor, legerdemain and entertainment. The cast includes The Physics Chanteuse (Lynda Williams), the science comedian (Brian Mallow), the philosopher magician (Bob Friedhoffer) and the Techno-tainer (Joe Gizmo). Directed by Kurt Tarroff and produced by Brian Schwartz.

Schrödinger's Girlfriend is best described as "Einstein meets 'The Blue Angel." Peppered with cabaret songs, vaudevillian comedy, and stirring moments of passion and epiphany, Schrödinger's Girlfriend is an Orton-esque romantic comedy about love, sex, and quantum physics. In 1926 the physicist Erwin Schrödinger proposed the famous non-relativistic Schrödinger equation and recognized soon thereafter that it was equivalent to Heisenberg's matrix mechanics formulation for what is now known as quantum mechanics. The play follows the odd, erotic, symbiotic relationship between Erwin Schrödinger, a physicist, and Hansi Haas, a cabaret star whose thirst for knowledge is insatiable.

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At the beginning of the 21st century, the Nobel Committee for Chemistry is meeting to discuss the awarding of the first "retro" Nobel Prize as a way of marking the centenary of the first Nobel Prize in 1901. After some discussion, the committee decides to investigate the claims of three chemists, Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier, and Carl Wilhelm Scheele associated with the discovery of Oxygen. Oxygen has a relatively simple plot. The play shifts between the 18th-century characters, their process of science, politics and ambitions, and the Nobel committee's 21st century sensibilities as they argue about which of these men should be awarded the first "retro" Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Oxygen is the fruit of a unique collaboration between two world-renowned chemists who are also prolific authors, Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann and Carl Djerassi, developer of the oral contraceptive pill.

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Professor Gates is a prominent scholar in theoretical physics, an educator and an entrepreneurial leader. His important research is in an area called string or superstring theory, also known as the Theory of Everything. This theory uses complex mathematical descriptions to explain how gravity and other natural forces are connected and it may one day allow scientists to understand a unified theory of all forces.

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There is a scientific basis to most art forms. Much of science is invisible, mathematical, and abstract. But a dancer's movements bring to life concepts of physics that are easily understood and deepen one's appreciation of the art form. In this presentation, professional ballet dancers will demonstrate some analyzable movements including illusions in which physical laws appear to be violated. How can a dancer leap into the air and then start turning, or appear to float horizontally in a leap? How does a toppling dancer regain balance if the only source of force is the floor? Aspects of the art of dance will be illuminated by straightforward applications of the science of physics.

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The natural world has long been an inspiration and model of beauty to artists, writers and musicians. Mathematics and science, on the other hand, can sometimes be viewed as cold, dry and uninteresting. In the mathematics of fractal geometry and the science of chaos, however, we now have a rich new language for capturing, illuminating and simulating nature. This lecture will illustrate the deceptively simple and creative power of fractals and chaos through computer-generated images, animation, sounds and music. Examples of practical applications of fractals to economics, the genetic code, early Chinese landscape paintings and the reading of x-rays will be presented. We can now build mountains and clouds from mathematics (as seen in Hollywood films) and generate music from the stock market. Both will be demonstrated.

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Mathematics takes to the stage with excerpts from the very successful, highly acclaimed recent off-Broadway production of Fermat's Last Tango. This comical musical was inspired by the story of Princeton professor Andrew Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (also the subject of the PBS film The Proof and Simon Singh's book, Fermat's Enigma). Fermat's Last Tango tells the story of Professor Daniel Keane, who discovers a proof which the great mathematician Fermat couldn't possibly have developed 350 years ago, finds a flaw in the proof, and then fixes it under the watchful eye of Fermat and other great mathematicians.

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A combined Americas Center on Science and Society (ACSS) exhibition and multidisciplinary celebration of this Living Fossil with sculptor/artist Brian Nissen. The exhibition will consist of three overlapping areas: art, science and society. Panelists include: Dr. Sylvia A. Earle (Scientific Explorer, National Geographic Society); Brian Nissen (Artist); John Tanacredi (Professor of Marine Ecology, Dowling College and ACSS/IACERE Scientist); Mary Ann Caws (Professor of Art History, CUNY Graduate Center); Richard Chappell, Janis Roze and Martin Schreibman (Professors of Ecology-Biology, CUNY Graduate Center); William Kornblum (Professor of Human Ecology, CUNY Graduate Center); Paul Stoutenburgh (Naturalist and Educator).

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