Tag Archives: Imagination

In Petri Dish We Sing

Through the lens of a stem cell clinic in the year 2135, ‘In Petri Dish We Sing’ envisions a world where embryonic stem cells (ESCs) become a raw, sustainable material that forms the very fabric of the city’s infrastructure. Inspired by MIT’s research on the Lemon Skin Chair and Yarli Allison’s exploration of the healthcare system and gender health gaps, the film envisions a society reconstructed from this regenerative substance, one that carries the traces of cellular memory.

At the heart of ‘In Petri Dish We Sing’ are three intertwined lives: the healer, inspired by Yarli’s uncle, who left his prestigious gynaecology career to return to inherited ancient healing practices that Western medicine cannot identify; a granny who, at 79 wishes to be pregnant again, made possible by stem cell echnology; and a grieving man who uses his late loved one’s stem cells to grow furniture. Their encounters unfold within the speculative infrastructure of a stem cell clinic, where care and repair could be reimagined.

Collaboratively imagining the future can bring people closer together in the present

Zoë Fowler is a graduate student at the State University of New York, Albany in the Gaesser Lab.
“I am broadly interested in the intersection of social cognition, morality, and memory and imagination. My specific interests include empathy and its influence on morality as well as the role of imagination in the formation and maintenance of social bonds. Prior to SUNY Albany, I attended Emory University where I began as an undergraduate research assistant at Yerkes National Primate Research Center.”

Brendan Bo O’Connor (Bren) is a cognitive scientist, scholar of imagination, and outsider artist. As an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University at Albany he directs the Imagination & Cognition Lab, using psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience to explore the relationship between imagination, empathy, altruism, and morality. As an artist, he is the creator and director of the Lucid Dream Minigolf project, an existential traveling minigolf course funded by the Alliance of Resident Theatres New York and New York State Council on the Arts. Before UAlbany, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Boston College. He received his B.A. from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

HumanNature

NastPlas are an international artistic duo formed by Fran R. Learte and Natalia Molinos.

“We explore the relationship between humans and the natural environment by merging advanced technology with handcrafted processes. Combining digital tools such as artificial intelligence and 3D modeling with traditional techniques like ceramics, we create hybrid pieces that bridge the digital and physical worlds.”

Beyond the “Fake”: Martyna Marciniak’s Artwork, Anatomy of Non-Fact, Explores Synthetic Images

Joël Chevrier has been a Physics Professor at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) since 1998. This article discusses artist Martyna Marciniak’s work, ‘Anatomy of Non-Fact’, which uses images moving from optical images (photography as it comes out XIX century) to non-optical images or synthetic images as generated by AI.

Where did the wonder go – and can AI help us find it?

Lucy Gill-Simmen is the Vice-Dean for Education and Student Experience and a Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the School of Business and Management at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has a passion for management education and seeks to provide the best and most equal education experience for all students. She holds both a MBA and a Ph.D. in Marketing from Imperial College Business School, London. Her pedagogic research interests lie in the development of human skills amongst students, devising inclusive feedback and assessment strategies, and values-based pedagogies for educating the ‘whole’ individual. She has published her work in pedagogy in a number of academic journals, and most recently published her case research in the world’s leading journal for case research; Case Research Journal. She is the Chair for the Academy of Marketing, Marketing Education Special Interest Group. In 2022, she was awarded the Global Women in Marketing Award for her role as a marketing educator.

The Art-Science Symbiosis

‘The Art-Science Symbiosis’ book outlines new approaches to understand current scientific practice in general and art-science in particular, showcasing how contemporary art can provide a unique perspective on the meaning and potential of collaboration. The book explores the different scopes of the art- science practice and 22 art-science works from all over the world, including interviews and descriptions by the same art-scientists.

This Land, Marginalia, and Chronicles of Fallacy.

Stephen Nowlin is Los Angeles-based artist, curator, and writer whose practice is inspired by science, the histories of science and art, and theories of knowledge. His work employs the use of digital tools, photography, and scanning technology, resulting in small and large-scale limited edition archival pigment prints. In this article he discusses his work of the last few years which has developed along three ongoing series: ‘This Land’, ‘Marginalia’, and ‘Chronicles of Fallacy’.