LEONARDO ART SCIENCE EVENING RENDEZVOUS (LASER)

Vera Wittkowsky
Vera Wittkowsky holds a Master in Scandinavian Studies, Philosophy and Gender Studies and a Diploma in Multimedia Arts and Animation from the Arts and Design Department, HTL Spengergasse, Vienna, Austria. Vera is currently working on her master’s thesis for the Interface Cultures Program at University of Arts and Design in Linz, Austria and her dissertation at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. Her main focus is the technological replica of the human, led by the fragmentary idea of humankind. She asks how much these artifacts – in being built in the current image of the human and mirroring as well as influencing it – are constrained by technological possibilities (“because we can”), science policies (“who’s first?”) and corporate and military interests (“who pays for what?“). The research questions are, how artificial copies of the human could be created for the collective good of humankind and how we first would maybe have to change our self-conception of the human from a fragmented to a holistic view. During Vera’s research residency at UCLA Art Sci Center she is developing her artistic master’s project that is inspired by and a consequence of her theoretical research.

Jiayi Young
Jiayi Young is an Assistant Professor of Design at the University of California, Davis. Her inquiries lie within the emergent and experimental field of digital media with an emphasis on the cross-disciplinary areas of design that integrates the arts, the sciences with cutting-edge technology. Her current research and creative work are focused on constructing data-driven sensor-enabled interfaces, installations, real-time projection graphics, participatory performances, and immersive environments in cultural and public places with a goal of creating generative energy to engage the public in social dialogue. Using multidisciplinary approaches, her work examines contemporary society including the culture of consumption, the programming and exploitation of the feminine, cultural assimilation, and personal identity. Leveraging social media, crowd-sourced media, and user-created content, she sets up scenarios and creates conditions to make visible empathetic relationship between people in the presence of contemporary culture. Her work invites the public to participate to come in close contact with an experience that engages the rethinking of the human condition. Young has published and exhibited nationally and internationally, including Ars Electronica, the International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA); the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA); Hall of Science, New York; the United Nation’s Fourth Conference on Women, Beijing, China; the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; and Moltkerei Werkstatt, Cologne, Germany.

Samuel A. LoCascio
Samuel A. LoCascio obtained his PhD in Neuroscience from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying mechanisms of brain regeneration in flatworms. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. S. Lawrence Zipursky at UCLA, where he studies genetic programs of neuronal wiring using the fruit fly as a model organism. His interests include songwriting, animation, and communicating the practical and aesthetic value of basic scientific research to the public.