We are all “shape junkies”, elemental interest in shapes. Sometimes similarities mean something, sometimes not. Artists, scientists and investigators of all kind keep asking why.

Self organized criticality: i.e. a sandpile, high probability of disaster. An artist friend who was sieving cement dust to create a pleasing micro landscape felt intuitively that it was pleasing; turns out he discovered a basic scientific principle.

Greg Kennedy was a hopeless math geek, he says. He also describes himself as obsessive compulsive who probably would be medicated today. Very inspiring. He says he can concentrate on strategy and physical movement for hours at a time.

Started with a film about gravity and how distance between objects affects the gravitational pull. He’s structuring lecture demo by doing some of the routines he did at State Theater last night preceded by explanation of how they work

Greg Kennedy is getting ready for show, brought a lot aof the equipment from last night’s spectacular for the lecture demo this morning. He is so gracious!!!

Ithaca College President Tom Rochon in a chef’s hat ; violinist Susan Waterbury wearing a chili-pepper apron and playing her heart out for Bruce Adolphe’s Bitter Sour Salt Suite; happy, sold-out audience. What a great way to start the seventh annual LIW festival!!!

Because they’re donating chocolate cake, lemon meringue pie and mixed nuts to be given out at “Bitter Sour Salt Suite” Thursday January 21st at 7pm at Wildfire Lounge. Why?  Ithaca College President Tom Rochon and violinist Susan Waterbury will show you why. Seating is limited!

Ken Libbrect has taken literally thousands of photos of one of the world’s most intricate and fragile subjects: snowflakes.

On October 5th, 2006, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a commemorative set of four first-class postage stamps featuring his snowflake photographs. Over three billion stamps were printed and quickly sold out for holiday mailing.

For a sneak-peek at some of Ken Libbrect’s fantastical images, visit his website here. One of a Kind: The Physics of Snowflakes takes place on Sunday January 24th at 1:30pm in the Statler Auditorium. For tickets and more information, click here.

On Saturday January 23rd, Light and Winter will present Dance of Scales, a performance about the movement of organisms at the nano, micron, and millimeter scales, and beyond.  Dance of Scales is the result of a collaboration between choreographer Maren Waldman, physicist Itai Cohen and Redshift Productions’ Max Evjen and Megan Halpern.  The Light in Winter festival has a history of presenting the results of artist/scientist collaboration, but just what is involved in this kind of collaboration?

Of course, different events involve different sorts of collaborations.  Dance of Scales is not just a unique performance, but also a pretty unique collaboration, even for Redshift Productions, a company with a history of creating performances about science.  For example, there is no definitive director for the piece.  Creative ideas and decisions are shared by everyone involved, including the productions’ dancers Kalay Mordock, Sarah Beth Matilsky and Holly Hibbert.  This production has been shaped by feedback provided by audiences who saw a work in progress sneak peek of the first section of the show, and it is  the first Redshift collaboration that has featured a scientist as a lead in the performance.  The show was inspired by “Across the Great Divide,” a performance from last year’s Light in Winter in which Itai and Maren created a ten minute performance, so this also marks the second collaboration for this artist/scientist pair. But what is it like to be a part of this collaboration?  Light in Winter recently caught up with Maren Waldman, Itai Cohen, and Megan Halpern to find out how a collaboration like this works.

LIW: What attracted you to participating in a science/art collaboration?

Maren Waldman: As a dancer with a background in science (Maren has a degree in Anthropology with a minor in Geology), I was excited about the potential to integrate two disciplines that are often considered to be far apart.  The Light in Winter presentations I had seen in previous years were so interesting and engaging that I was excited about the opportunity to contribute.  Dance doesn’t often provide me the opportunity to apply my scientific training and analytic thinking in the same ways that science does, so to be able to communicate with a scientist would allow me to think in different ways.  I am also drawn to projects that build bridges between people and communities that are often isolated from each other.  It was an exciting way to learn, experiment, and bring dance to a new audience.

Itai Cohen: I am always searching for innovative ways of communicating science to the public. I am also interested in learning about performance as a way of furthering this goal. The main thing that got me to participate was the opportunity to connect with others in the arts community. Megan and Max have been so good at putting all of these elements together. Their enthusiasm and assurance has been wonderful for this collaboration. I had so much fun the first time around that it was a no brainer for me to continue and try to make something bigger.

Megan Halpern: I’ve been working on art/science projects for about ten years now, and I still find that the intersection of art and science is one of the most exciting places to be thinking and working.  After years of working as a producer, I decided I also wanted to be able to break new ground in art/science collaboration as a researcher.  As a PhD student, I’m getting the opportunity not only to do create this work, but to think and write deeply about the process and implications of the relationship between art and science.

LIW: What challenges have you encountered during the collaboration?

Maren Waldman: I have been adamant about keeping the role of the dance as an art form prominent.  So many science/art collaborations use the art as vehicle to explain science concepts, to make the science more accessible and more ‘fun’.  That is a fine way to use the art, but it is important to me to increase education and appreciation for art – dance specifically, as it stands on its own.  Modern dance is often a less-understood art form, so it was important to me to make the role of dance in this collaboration increase the of the understanding of dance.  I wanted a production that helped audiences understand my creative process of making dances, as one example of the many ways choreographers construct performances for the stage.  It might help audiences understand, for example, where the inspiration for a particular movement comes from, why the movements were ordered in a particular way, or be able to recognize how repetitive movements might create themes, as in music.  And if none of that, at least an appreciation of the amount and type of work that goes into choreography and performance. Preserving the role of dance as I envisioned it as part of this production proved to be more challenging then I thought, though I’m happy with the way we have solved this problem, and the way we’ve shaped the production.  Another challenge -  fitting 4 dancers and 1 scientist on a tiny stage!!

Itai Cohen: Well, I’ve had to learn to dance. I’ve had to adapt to the way that performances evolve. In a physics lecture everything is planned out before hand. Here there was a lot more improvisation. It’s challenging enough when I have to create something with a physicist. But at least there we have the same language and more or less the same way of going about things. Here I have had to let go of things a lot more and trust in Maren, Max and Megan.

Megan Halpern: I’m working as a creative partner, a producer, and a researcher on this project, and I find that while it is rewarding to engage in this experience in all three ways, sometimes they conflict with one another.  I’ve sometimes been torn between jumping in with new ideas and sitting back and watching what happens between Maren, Itai, and Max.  This is also tricky logistically sometimes, and during rehearsals or meetings I’m torn between observation and what I would call ’stage management’.  My notes from rehearsals and meetings are an odd combination of field notes, to do lists, and meeting minutes, so I have to spend some time sorting out which hat I was wearing when I wrote everything.

LIW: Have you experienced any surprises during the course of the collaboration?

Maren Waldman: I was surprised at how easy it was to apply some colloquial physics language and physics terms to dance concepts.  For example, to describe the way Brownian particles move, Itai said they move in “random walks.”  This phrase immediately conjured up a picture of people walking randomly in all directions – a common improvisation exercise that we use in dance to help people learn how to navigate through space, building their spatial awareness; spatial awareness being an important skill for dancers. (And really, for all people – think how many less times you’d bump into someone as you navigate the grocery store, or how less often you’d stub your toe on the wall if you had better spatial awareness.  If you had better spatial awareness, you’d be able to better assess the distance between yourself and other objects or people, then quickly adjust your body to avoid bumping.  It makes you feel and look much more graceful).

Itai Cohen: I was definitely surprised at how much time and effort this all took. But I think it was well worth it. I really am having a blast. I was also surprised at how much is left to the very end of these things. There is a lot of last minute fixing up that takes place. Finally I am surprised that  it is actually all coming together into a performance that I myself would be interested in watching.

Megan Halpern: Though it has been challenging to be a researcher and collaborator, it has been a very rewarding experience both intellectually and artistically. I think the latter was a surprise to me.  Also, Maren, Itai, Max, and I created the first section of the dance together, and then Maren brought in several new dancers.  Because my research so far has been about one-to-one collaborations, I didn’t anticipate what this new dynamic would add to the process.

LIW: What kind of effect, if any, do you think this collaboration will have on your future endeavors?

Maren Waldman: This collaboration has opened my mind to many new ideas of future collaborations, especially with non-artists.  It has been so much fun (and hard work!) to figure out a common language in which to speak, and to create a performance totally from scratch.  In the face of interacting with a scientist who had little exposure to modern dance, the collaboration challenged me to articulate concepts specific to dance.  It required me to be extremely articulate about my ideas of dance, the reasons why dance is important as an art form, what it contributes to the world, and how dance differs from other arts.  Why do we need dance?  What role does it fill in the world of the arts, and in the world in general? Where does it overlap with science and where does it stand on its own?  What does it contribute?  Asking myself these questions will serve my future in dance – the ideas I’ve had for a long time necessarily needed to be articulated, and to be translated into words that non-dancers could understand. This is infinitely helpful for continuing my work inside the field of dance, communicating with the outside world, and in any future collaborations I have.

Itai Cohen: Well, I definitely will be doing more of these in my future. I think the performance aspect of all this is also helping me become a better lecturer. I will also have a much greater appreciation for dance and choreography. The work Maren does is really inspiring.

Megan Halpern: As a researcher, I have opened new questions about collaboration, imagination and creativity,  about the differences between art and science, and how those play out in these kinds of projects.  Artistically, I think I’m dealing with the same questions, but I’m less sure what the future holds.

Dance of Scales takes place at 2:30PM on January 23rd in the Stater Auditorium at Cornell University, and will be a unique way to experience dance and physics together.  Be sure to get your tickets today!

On Saturday January 23rd at 1PM the Light in Winter Festival will present Art Historian Martin Kemp as he explores the ways in which scientists and artists perceive the world and respond to its patterns.  In Structural Intuitions in Art, Science and Technology he shows how “structural intuitions” are reflected in visual arts, science, architecture and design from the Renaissance to today.  Light in Winter recently caught up with Professor Kemp for a short conversation about his fascinating work.

LIW: How did you become interested in visualizations of science, and their relationships to art?

MK: I was trained in biology and was always fascinated with how natural structures, particularly geometrical patterns beneath the surface of appearances, were discovered and depicted. When I became interested in art I felt an affinity with artists who engaged with order and process in nature. This sense of order extends from the optical structures of perspective to such things as the forms of bones, shells and flowers. I became particularly fascinated with artists and scientists who both began from the same starting points – looking at an aspect of nature and sensing intuitively that there is something deeply satisfying to explore.  This intuition of order is something that we have been equipped by evolution to do at a very high level and is a very potent driving force in both science and art.

LIW: What kind of responses did you receive when you first started writing about this subject matter for Nature? Has the response changed over time?  If so, how?

MK: The responses have been very rewarding, but I’ve not explored how they have changed since I begun in 1997. It would be worth thinking about that. I have found the scientists about whom I have written to be extremely helpful, and some good friendships have resulted. It helps coming from “outside” – not belonging to a recognisable faction within their science. The only serious disputes have come when I have written about an image made by a particular scientist and someone has written to say that they or someone else did it first. I’ve not been primarily concerned with priority, but scientists are hugely concerned about it, since it shapes their careers.

LIW: In your book SEEN AND UNSEEN you write “My final plea is for professionals in each ‘field’ to exercise generosity and tolerance within the scope of an agenda which decrees open communication with each other, not just in specially staged conferences but also in broader public forums.” What would some examples of be the ideal collaboration of visual artists and scientists look like?

MK: I don’t think there is an ideal model of collaboration. The only pre-requisite is to  bring people of the highest creative level together to share acts of looking and representing. Recently two colleagues kindly produced a book dedicated to me with contributions from a number of artists who have worked very productively with scientists and scientific institutions, including Tony Robbin in New York and Marta de Menezes in Portugal. There’s also a terrific contribution from Harry Kroto who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The book is called Acts of Seeing and is published by Zidane Press.

LIW: You write extensively about Leonardo Da Vinci.  Can you point to anyone else who you think could achieve or has achieved a similar ability to explore both art and science?  If so, who and why?  If not, why do you think that is the case?

MK: Leonardo is in a league of his own, but there are many examples in history of people we would call artists of scientists making contributions to the other “field”. Let me cite as examples two 18th-century women: Maria Sybille Merian, from a family of Dutch artists who created incredible illustrations of insects and plants in Surinam; and Anna Morandi, a sculptor specialising in wax images who became recongised  as an international authority on human anatomy. Earlier there was Bernard Pallisy, the French ceramic artist, who propounded innovatory views about fossils and the evolution of the earth.  Such people tend to become lost in our history because of the way we divide our fields of study according to modern classifications.

LIW: Are there any new projects in the works that you can share with us?

MK: There’s a new Leonardo portrait, which has already attracted a great deal of interest and controversy. I’m publishing the first book on it in March. I’m writing a book on Iconic Images, ranging from Christ to DNA, asking how they have transcended their original form and function. And I’m working for Bill Gates to create a website dedicated to his Leonardo Codex. We did a CD some years ago. and now the idea is to make the Codex with interpretative material, including animations, available to all on the web.

Structural Intuitions in Art, Science and Technology is a Free event and takes place in the Statler Auditorium in Statler Hall on Cornell’s Campus.  For more information about this event, or Martin Kemp, go here.

On Saturday January 23 at 4:30 in Cornell’s Statler Auditorium Ithaca-born and internationally known concert pianist and teacher Frederick Chiu will concentrateon the mind-body relationship in musical performance. He will play and talk about a set of Chopin Etudes, focusing on the physical challenges of the pieces, and demonstrating their mental and emotional challenges. He will then play the Beethoven Symphony #5 transcribed by Liszt, which pushes the pianist to extremes in the physical, mental and emotional realms. Chiu will be performing on a new Yamaha hybrid grand piano that he helped develop.