Special Topics: Visualizing Science Arts 490
Hanes Art Center #222, spring, 2014 – door code: 35-2-4
Mon + Weds, 2-4:30, Office Hours: by appointment, HAC #312
Professor elin o’Hara slavick
eoslavic@gmail.com
TA Anna Delgado – annaldelgado@gmail.com
GRC Gongting Wu - gwu@physics.unc.edu
Digital Lab 112C: please contact Joy Drury Cox at jdcox@mail.unc.edu
Behavioral research, an indispensable tool for social scientists, can be used to understand and comment on
our lives. Controlled experiments allow us to measure and reflect on issues ranging from inequality to
advertising, the taste of beer to medical conflicts of interest, and social networks. It is a fantastic way to
test whether our intuitions about the world are true and figure out when, how, and why we are wrong. And
although there are many differences between the worlds of Science and Art, both can provide useful social
commentary. Interestingly, it is these very differences that invite a discussion between the two. We hope
that, through this project, the scientific and artistic approaches can fertilize one another and open the lines
of communication among two fields that have so much in common, but speak to one another so rarely.
- Dan Ariely / Artistically Irrational website: http://artisticallyirrational.ssri.duke.edu/
This class is an experiment. Inspired by Behavioral Economist and Duke Professor Dan Ariely, students
will work collaboratively – with scientists and each other – to visually manifest scientific ideas, theories,
data and discoveries. The course is designed for serious students who wish to engage in a close analysis and
exploration of the intersections of art and science, formally and conceptually. The class is designed to help
you simultaneously think scientifically and visually and to make art through a conceptual model or
framework. The use of all technically possible and theoretically appropriate media is encouraged. We will
have several group critiques, video/film presentations, guest speakers – both artists and scientists, and
reading discussions about historical and contemporary intersections of art and science. We will aim to have
a group exhibition in the Undergraduate Art Gallery (or elsewhere). Feel free to email me to discuss any
problems, ideas for projects, or to set up a meeting outside of class. PLEASE BE SURE TO USE:
eoslavic@gmail.com (even though my emails will come from my UNC account via Sakai). Generally,
Mondays will be for reading discussions and looking at art and Wednesdays will be open lab/research time
for you/students to meet/work with your scientists/collaborators.
Course Requirements There are 5 sets of required readings on Sakai
READING 1 - DUE MONDAY, JANUARY 27:
From I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History, 2003, I Have Landed, No science without
fancy, no art without facts: the lepidoptery of Vladimir Nabokov, Stephen Jay Gould
From Cornelia Hesse-Honegger / After Chernobyl: Introduction pp. 16-17; Thoughts p. 21; After
Chernobyl p. 27; My Path p. 59 + plates and from Heteroptera, The Beautiful and the Other or Images of a
Mutating World, Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, Preface, On learning to see by painting pictures, pp. 7-12; IV
Chernobyl: Four years after the disaster, pp. 179-190; VII There is no reference habit, pp. 223-232
Beyond Classic Field Biology: Batrachian Deformities: Artist Brandon Ballengée's work bridges the gap
between biology and art, Tim Chamberlain
http://antennae.org.uk/ANTENNAE%20ISSUE%2010.doc.pdf
READING 2 - DUE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3: From The Making of the Modern Body: Sexuality and
Society in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Catherine Gallagher and Thomas Laqueur, Orgasm,
Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology, Thomas Laqueur; and Scenes of an Indelicate
Character: The medical Treatment of Victorian Women, Mary Poovey;
READING 2 - DUE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3:
From Techniques of the Observer, Jonathan Crary, Chapter 1 Modernity and the Problem of the Observer
Donna Haraway Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth
Century
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/donna-haraway/articles/donna-haraway-a-cyborg-manifesto/
READING 3 - DUE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10: From Visual Strategies: A practical guide to graphics
for scientists and engineers, Felice C. Frankel and Angela H. DePace, Your First Step: Ask Yourself Before
You Begin, pp. 12-13; Your Tools, pp. 14-25; and Case Studies, pp. 75 – 107
Edward R. Tufte, Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for making Decisions, John Snow
and the Cholera Epidemic and The Decision to Launch the Space Shuttle Challenger
READING 4 -DUE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24: From After Hiroshima, elin o'Hara slavick, On an
Image of a Bottle, James Elkins and After Hiroshima, elin o'Hara slavick
Trevor Paglen
http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=5824
READING 5 - DUE MONDAY, MARCH 3: The New Yorker, December 16, 2013, Annals of Extinction,
Part One - The Lost World: The matadon's molars, and December 23 & 30, Part Two – The Lost World:
Fossils of the future, Elizabeth Kolbert
Excerpts from Sue Coe, Dead Meat
From Killing Animals, 2006, Steve Baker, You Kill Things to Look at The; Animal Death in Contemporary
Art
Additional Reading if interested in topic:
From Animal Liberation, 2005, Peter Singer, Chapter 2, Tools for Research: your taxes at work
From In Defense of America, Peter Singer, 1985, The Case for Animal Rights, Tom Regan
http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/regan03.htm
You are also required to keep a notebook (paper or digital) for this class. It will be checked several times
throughout the semester. You should be taking notes; sketching out ideas; writing; making lists of materials,
contacts, references; posing questions, theories and hypotheses.
Each student will choose 1-2 artists who engage with science in their visual work (from the list at the
end of this syllabus or find your own) and give a 10-15 ppt / powerpoint presentation on them to the class.
Grades
I average ALL of the grades you receive throughout the semester for your final grade. You will receive
grades for:
Projects There will be 4 required visual projects, including the FINAL PROJECT that counts as 2 grades. I
grade each project based on concept, formal resolution, effort, installation/presentation and use of
ideas/theories from the readings and discussions. (You may re-work a project if you are not satisfied with
your grade, but you must talk with me about it first and schedule an office visit to critique and grade the
reworked project. I only change the grade for the better if you improve the project considerably.)
1) Present a visual representation in any form of a scientific theory or fact. Due Wednesday,
January 29
2) Present a visual response, investigation, project in any form in response to the readings, a
scientific theory/fact. Feel free to work in groups, collaboratively. Due February 26
3) Present your research thus far for your final project. Due Monday, March 31
4) Final Project with scientist – Due April 21 + 23
Participation includes: the reading of required texts; coming to class with the required readings and
being prepared to discuss the readings with questions, comments, arguments; involvement in and
contribution to the critiques - your ability to listen and respond to constructive criticism and suggestions
during the critiques of your work, as well as your ability to offer your own perceptions and suggestions
during the critique of others’ work, seriously, politely, and with respect; timely attendance; and overall
interest, effort, and energy expended in the class. I give these grades throughout the semester. If you want
to know your grades, please ask me. If you are concerned about your grade, it is your responsibility to
contact me about it.
If you must miss a class due to an emergency, please notify me before class. More than two
unexplained absences will result in the lowering of your final grade by half a grade. 2 tardies = 1 absence. I
take attendance promptly at the start of class, at 2pm.
THERE WILL BE NO EATING IN THE CLASSROOM. Drinks can only be consumed in the classroom
area.
Please turn off your cell phones during class. Please keep your laptops off and closed during class
(unless this is where you take notes).
1 WEEK: Weds. January 8: Check class list. Teacher/TA/class introduction. Syllabus.
Assign dates to students for presentations.
Watch Ted Talk by Dan Ariely
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html
ART 21 video on Mel Chin / Ann Hamilton
2 WEEK: Mon. January 13: Catherine Howard for Dan Ariely; Visiting artists – Chris Musina, Heather
Gordon; Professor Russ Taylor "How to talk to scientists."
January 14: Sarah Walker (alum) lecture, 6pm, Hanes Art Center auditorium followed by reception
(info:http://www.sarahwalker.org/)
REQUIRED - JANUARY 14. TUESDAY NIGHT: Pairing Event, students meet
Scientists, Dan Ariely, Catherine Howard, 7pm, Hanes #222
Weds. January 15: I will be in Los Angeles for Photo LA – class to be run by TA/GRC Watch select videos on artists working with science; David Ramito to discuss 3D printing
3 WEEK: Mon. January 20: NO CLASS – HOLIDAY / Martin Luther King Day
Weds. January 22: I will be at Gettysburg College / Civil War Institute, delivering a lecture. Class to be
run by TA/GRC – open lab research day or watch videos on artists engaged with science
4 WEEK: Mon. January 27: Discuss Stephen Jay Gould, Cornelia Hesse Honegger and Brandon
Ballengee. 3 Students present on artists.
January 28: Dana Schutz lecture, 6pm, Hanes Art Center auditorium
(info:http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/dana_schutz.htm)
Weds. January 29: Critique #1
5 WEEK: Mon. February 3: Discuss Crary, Laqueur, Poovey and Haraway. 3 students present on
artists.
Weds. February 5: Anne Balsamo colloquium 3pm in Pleasants (Wilson Library). Anne Balsamo is the
author of Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work. Communications Studies at
Carolina and HASTAC and the PhD Lab at Duke are bringing Anne here Feb 5-8. Among other things, she
is the principal designer of the AIDS Digital Quilt, a massive technology and art project. (Graduate Salon
at 10am in Bingham Hall, 3rd floor graduate suite, same day – you all are welcome to go to that too.)
6 WEEK: Mon. February 10: Discuss Frankel and DePace and Ed Tufte Booklet. Check notebooks.
Weds. February 12: I will be in Chicago for the College Art Association Conference, as a member of the
Painting Search Committee. TA/GRC will run class – open lab research day
7 WEEK: Mon. February 17: Cathy McLaurin
Weds. February 19: Open Lab research day
8 WEEK: Mon. February 24: (no TA – Anna with Beth) Discuss Elkins, slavick, and Paglen. 3 students
present on artists.
February 25: Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley lecture, 6pm, Hanes Art Center auditorium
(info: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mary-reid-kelley)
Weds. February 26: Critique 2
9 WEEK: Mon. March 3: Discuss Kolbert, Coe, and Baker (Regan and Singer). 3 students present on
artists.
Spring Break begins Friday, March 7 at 5pm + ends Monday, March 17 at 8am
10 WEEK: Mon. March 17: 5 students present on artists. Check notebooks.
March 18: Mark Tribe lecture, 6pm, Hanes Art Center auditorium
(info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Tribe)
Weds. March 19: open lab research day
11 WEEK: Mon. March 24: (no TA – Anna with Beth) I go to NYC / class run by GRC
Weds. March 26: I am in NYC – class to be run by TA/GRC open lab research day
12 WEEK: Mon. March 31: Critique 3
Weds. April 1: Open lab research day
13 WEEK: Mon. April 7: open / TBA
Weds. April 9: Open lab research day
14 WEEK: Mon. April 14: open / TBA
Weds. April 16: Open lab research day
15 Week: Mon. April 21: FINAL CRITIQUE / DISCUSSION
Weds. April 23: FINAL CRITIQUE / DISCUSSION
Possible artists to research for your presentation:
Jane Marsching
Inigo Maglano-Ovalie
Helen and Newton Harrison
Mel Chin
James Turrell
Adrian Hatfield
Isabella Kirkland
Eduardo Kac
Marina Zurkow
Aleksandra Mir
Suzanne Anker
Giovanni Frazzetto
Leonardo DiVinci
Courtney Fitzpatrick
Chris Musina
Maria DeGuzman
Mark Dion
Alexis Rockman
Amy Caron
Critical Art Ensemble
Beatriz DeCosta
Ursula Damm
Wim Delvoye
Olafur Eliasson
Ingo Gunther
Mark Quinn
Natalie Jeremijenko
Shimpei Takeda
Paul Vanouse
Phil Ross
Amasha Gadani
Jai Rhim Lee
Ian Ingram
Walton Ford
Gregory Witt
Hupert Duprat
Helen Chadwick
A. Laurie Palmer
Patricia Olynyk
Laura Splan
Stefan Petranek
The Institute for Figuring
Roger Hiorns
Steve Kurtz
Gail Wight
Jean Shin
Gary Schneider
Justine Cooper
Michael Whittle
Katie Paterson
Joseph Scheer
Alphabetical List of Artists Websites from ART SCIENCE NOW book, Stephen Wilson
http://www.thamesandhudson.com/artscienceartists.html
Art / Science References / Additional Books of Interest:
Arts and Science Collaborations
http://www.asci.org/
Tissue Culture and Art Project with Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/08/this-is-what-happens-when-a-squid-listens-to-cypress-hill/
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/11/artists-join-scientists-on-an-expedition-to-collectmarine-debris/
What is the common ground between art and science? And how is Beethoven like Darwin, The Guardian,
November 12, 2013, Novelist Ian McEwan and theoretical physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed met at the
Science Museum in London to mark the opening of the Large Hadron Collider exhibition.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/17/art-science-ian-mcewan-nima-arkani-hamed
http://thefinchandpea.com/category/the-art-of-science/
http://www.postnatural.org/
http://www.katiepaterson.org/icerecords/
http://ingogunther.com/58115/shape-of-science
http://dukesteamchallenge.org/about-steam/
And here are some videos by winners of STEAM My Summer Video
Challenge: http://dukesteamchallenge.org/duke-steamy-summer-winners/
http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/aleksandra-mir-gerard-herman/
Art + Sci – Art and Science Immersive Media
http://massartsci.wordpress.com/inspiration/
The Arts Catalyst commissions art that experimentally and critically engages with science.
http://www.artscatalyst.org/
Anne Balsamo's Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work
'Invisible Vision' Could Science learn from the Arts? Sabine E. Vildevuur
Art + Science Now: How scientific research and technological innovation are becoming key to 21stcentury aesthetics Stephen Wilson
Liliane Lijn: Light and Memory
A Lifelong Interest: Conversations on Art and Science by Ernst Gombrich
Secret Knowledge, David Hockney
Post-Partum Document, Mary Kelly
Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power, and Culture, Craig Owens
The Critical Image, edited by Carol Squiers
Art after Modernism: Rethinking Representation, Brian Wallis
Effluvia and Enfleshings, Helen Chadwick
Art and Physics, Leonard Shlain
Blasted Allegories, Discourses: Conversations in Postmodern Art and Culture and Out There:
Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures, New Museum + MIT Press
Case History and Unfinished Dissertation, Boris Mikhailov
Discovering the Secrets of Steven Pippin
Techniques of the Observer, Jonathan Crary
Fish Story and Dismal Science, Alan Sekula
What Photography Is, James Elkins
Relational Aesthetics, Nicolas Bourriaud
Conversation Pieces, Community + Communication in Modern Art, Grant H. Kester
Conceptual Textiles, Material Meanings, John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Sense and Sensibility/Women Artists and Minimalism in the Nineties, MOMA
Uncontrollable Bodies, Sappington + Stallings
English is Broken Here, Coco Fusco
The New World Border, Guillermo Gomez-Pena
The Making of the Modern Body, Gallagher and Laqueur
Dora, A Case Study, Freud
The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, Michel Foucault
In Dora’s Case: Freud-Hysteria-Feminism, editors Bernheimer + Kahane
The Tears of Eros, Georges Bataille
Art and Discontent: Theory at the Millennium, Thomas McEvilley
On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Susan Stewart
Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard
Society of the Spectacle, Guy DeBord
Art and Propaganda in the Twentieth Century, Toby Clark
Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House, Bill Viola
No Logo, Naomi Klein
Avant-Garde and After: Rethinking Art Now, Brandon Taylor
Art Since 1960, Michael Archer
DEAD MEAT, Sue Coe
Art + Science Now, How scientific research and technological innovation are becoming key to 21st-century
aesthetics Stephen Wilson
Open Sky, Art + Fear, Art as Far as the Eye Can See, all by Paul Virilio
The IKEA Effect – NPR interview
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/06/171177695/why-you-love-that-ikea-table-even-if-its-crooked; Norton, M. I.,
Mochon, D., & Ariely, D. The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love. (2012)
Animals, artists, and the question of ethics: A dialogue with Steve Baker
http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2013/01/animals-artists-and-question-of-ethics.html