Victoria Vesna’s work has long focused on immersing her audiences in installation spaces that are meant to slow down time and take us into other dimensions. This led her to work in close collaborations with musicians, sound artists, nanoscientists, biologists, neuro-scientists and buddhist monks among others. Some examples of work in the past two decades are the NanoMandala, Water Bowls, Blue Morph, Octopus Brain Storming, Bird Song Diamond and most recently the Noise Aquarium. In this new work, together with her collaborators from the UCLA Art Sci collective and Harvestworks, she takes us on a meditative journey to outer space.
Premiering with the support of Harvestworks, this work is meant to be experienced as a guided meditation bringing to life the sensations of meteorites and micro-meteorites falling on all continents and mixing with the anthropogenic dust falling on our planet from many dimensions. Layers of sounds from inner and outer space with animations of dust and data driven by corona deaths are presented with the intent of honoring those who left their bodies without preparation and all who are suffering.
This online version was created as a meditation that is guided by the artist following the extra-terrestrial, terrestrial, and human-made dusts traveling far and wide and creating complexity that is part of an invisible reality. Most go about their daily life without being aware of ever thinking about the extraterrestrial dusts that could be on their kitchen floor, right here on earth. The alien signal is lost in the human noise and the group meditation reclaims our vision of planetary citizenship.
We are created from stardust by nuclear fusion, like our myriad siblings – animals, plants, insects, plankton, bacteria, and viruses, and we all function together in vibratory fields – bottom up just as nature and nanotechnology works. [Alien] Star Dust rains on us every day and this piece brings these particles to our attention and reminds us of our interconnected heritage in the larger cosmos. Dust knows no borders.
Title: “Science at the Timescale of the Electron: Coherent X-rays Beams from Tabletop Lasers and Applications in Materials and Molecular Science ”
Abstract: Bright coherent high harmonic beams can now be generated from tabletop lasers, at photon energies that span from the ultraviolet to >1.6 keV (<7.8 Å). This corresponds to efficiently combining together > 5000 laser photons. In the future, it may even be possible to realize a coherent ultrafast version of the Roentgen X-ray tube in a tabletop-scale apparatus. Applications of high harmonic beams in materials and molecular science will also be discussed, including uncovering how magnetic materials behave on timescales less than the characteristic exchange interaction time, nanoscale imaging, capturing the coupled motions of electrons and atoms in molecules, and following energy flow in nanostructures.
Brad Hansen is an Associate Professor in Physics & Astronomy at UCLA since 2001, with prior positions at the University of Toronto and Princeton University PHD from California Institute of Technology in 1996. Hansen is a native of South Africa. Has, on separate occasions, been charged by both a moose and a rhinoceros, and consequently is convinced that the animal kingdom has a secret vendetta against him.
"I am interested in the death of stars and the birth of planets. In this talk, I will describe why we think black holes exist, what they are, and how they affect their environment."
The Art | Sci center is hosting an open salon series for students, faculty, alumni, and all members of the academic community across disciplines every other Friday. This brown-bag lunch series is part of the center's mission to promote cross-pollination between the arts and sciences and to engage as diverse an audience as possible. Previous experience between art and science is not required. LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED! Please email water@arts.ucla.edu to sign up.
