Joe Davis (artist)

Dr. Dana Boyd (molecular geneticist)

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"Giant Paramecium"
Click here to see the Keynote introduction by ASCI Director
Cynthia Pannucci

     
                   

 See Keynote by Joe Davis and Dana Boyd 

         segment 1
messages into outer space

         segment 2

         segment 3

         segment 4

         segment 5

        segment 6
fishing for paramecia

FRIDAY NIGHT TALK -
Nov. 2nd, from 7 - 8pm
Proshansky Auditorium
The CUNY Graduate Center
(Fifth Ave. btw 34/35th streets)
Tickets: $20

Structures of Creativity and Collaboration in Art and Science

Fasten your seatbelts as ArtSci2001 opens with a keynote address by a duo including an artist profiled on ABC-TV's Nightline on July 6, 2001 and in Nature Magazine, October 12, 2000.  For over 20 years, Joe Davis has been a notorious artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He has had a proposal accepted by NASA for launch on the space shuttle and he has made a microscope that can "hear" bacteria by translating light information into sound.  Among his many current projects is "microfishing", pursuing paramecium with a surf-casting rod and reel.

Davis will be joined by Dr. Dana Boyd.  Dr. Boyd is a Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School.  In 1987, Boyd and Davis created a synthetic DNA molecule (Microvenus) that is now widely regarded as the seminal work in art and the new "life sciences."

Microvenus was created as a logical continuation of classical mimetic approaches to nature and the "search for self" to which both science and art trace their origins. This and other early projects were designed to help introduce Davis to the practical tools of molecular biology. While Davis moved from an artist studio into the laboratory, Boyd applied an artistic impulse to his conduct of scientific research.  The speakers will discuss how their collaboration originated and the economic realities and ethical considerations that ensued.
TICKETS: $20 via credit card at Ticketweb.com OR Paypal.com OR sold at the door (cash only) from 5-7pm prior to talk on November 2nd. Call 718 816-9796 with any questions.
ABBREVIATED BIOGRAPHIES:

Joe Davis-

"I stopped worrying a long time ago about whether what I do is art or science; otherwise, I'd rip my brain apart."

Joe Davis, quoted in Scientific American, April 2001          

Joe Davis was a sculptor and bike mechanic in Mississippi before he walked into M.I.T. uninvited in 1982 and walked out (the same day) as a research fellow in visual studies. However, intent on also realizing the scientific side of his nature, Davis was invited in 1992 to become a research associate in the laboratory of famed biophysicist Alexander Rich, who discovered "left-handed" DNA. When he is not creating conceptual art in synthetic DNA or envisioning wild projects for NASA, Davis is on somewhat of a personal crusade to bring more artists into the fold of modern biology. Davis is also an accomplished artist in the traditional sense. He designed and executed pedestrian lights and a sculpture that form the center of a public art/fountain complex at Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA (artists Joan Brigham and Otto Piene also contributed to that project).  Articles on Davis' work are found at:

http://www.omnimag.com/archives/features/norton_rings/index.html http://www.sciam.com/2001/0401issue/0401profile.html
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N26/bioartists.26f.html

Dana Boyd-
received his A. B. from Harvard College in 1965 and finished his Ph.D. at Brandeis in 1973. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich in 1972-73. He was at The Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine from 1973 to 1985 as a Research Assistant Professor. From 1979 to 1982 he was Visiting Professor at the Microbiological Institute, University of Copenhagen. From 1984 to 1987 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School. From 1988 to 1990 he was a Visiting Assistant Research Molecular Biologist, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley and from 1987 to the present time has been a Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

last updated 10/18/01