UCSD’s Sixth College is hosting a public event at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) to showcase how researchers, artists, activists and entrepreneurs make “something from nothing” – transforming AUDACIOUS SPECULATIONS into reality. The event grew out of a new curriculum for Sixth College’s Culture, Art & Technology program – four interdisciplinary courses to be taught for the first time in Spring 2013 by professors from the departments of music, visual arts, anthropology and political science.
The evening event will consist of a series of short, performative presentations on research that is so ambitious people often roll their eyes in disbelief, including activist projects that transform the socio-political landscape, or scientific research and experiments that are particularly poetic or speculative, and more. Documenting both existing and speculative work, the presenters include engineers who think like artists; scientists who think like poets; physicists who think like dancers; and artists who think like scientists, hypnotists – even like foxes. The evening will include presentations on movies for monkeys; a gestural language of physics; tracking trash in Tijuana; hypnosis; butterflies without borders; beautiful brains; biomimicry; smart underwear; finding your bliss; new silhouettes; and a fashionable approach to science education. Click on PRESENTATIONS for program details.
AUDACIOUS SPECULATIONS will be co-emcee’d by Visual Arts Prof. Ricardo Dominguez and History Prof. Cathy Gere. Presenters include Brain Observatory director Jacopo Annese, Physics Prof. Adam Burgasser, environmental advocate Oscar Romo, Calit2 UCSD director Ramesh Rao, Harvey Mudd Prof. Rachel Mayeri, Visual Arts MFA candidates Hermione Spriggs, and Heidi Kayser, and others. AUDACIOUS SPECULATIONS was originally conceived by Cathy Gere and Eliza Slavet ((Director of Art & Technology for Sixth College’s Academic Programs); the event and exhibit were curated by Emily Sevier and Eliza Slavet. Click on PEOPLE for detailed biographical information.
For those in San Diego or around the world who could not attend the event in person, we now offer an on-demand, archived webcast of the proceedings. To watch the video, click here to reach the AGENDA + WEBCAST page. The page includes a window with the streaming video, the program agenda, as well as an archive of the conversation (including more than 130 comments) among visitors to the page's discussion forum on the day of the event.
Images and ephemera from the AUDACIOUS SPECULATIONS event will be exhibited in the Sixth College ARTifact Gallery, which is located on the Second Floor of Pepper Canyon Hall. The gallery is part of the Culture, Art & Technology Program of Sixth College.