Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) :: September 8, 2008; 6:00 - 11:00 pm :: SFSU Downtown Center, 835 Market Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA :: Space is limited. To RSVP, send email to: p [at] scaruffi.net.

6:45-7:15pm: Thomas Zimmerman, IBM Almaden Research Center, on Music as the Mother of Invention: Many of my inventions started as input devices for musical instruments. The DataGlove was a means to play air guitar. The Personal Area Network was a means to play air drums. I shall discuss the development of input devices for electronic musical instruments and how they contributed to inventions.

7:15-7:45pm: William Hsu and Matt Heckert of the Multimedia & Visualization Lab at SFSU on Sound Machines and Computer Control: An overview of several mechanical sound installations and performances they have collaborated on over a 5 year period: the Rotifiers/Centripetal Sound, the Fencers, and the Chainboxes.

7:45-8:00pm: Break

8:00-8:20pm: Sharon Siskin, of WEAD: Over the past 20 years my studio art has had clear and sometimes subtle overlaps with science. Some recent projects make visual the detritus our family produces in the process of raising twin daughters. I will be showing documentation of a variety of recent and past gallery projects; from work that resulted in the creation of a garden at an AIDS hospice, to installations that combined reused, altered X-rays and scientific paraphernalia to address issues related to food and my ethnic identity, loss, memory and healing.

8:20-8:40pm: Deborah Munk, of the San Francisco Dump: An overview of the Artist in Residence Program at SF Recycling & Disposal and will focus on a few of the 70 artists who have had residencies. I will also discuss recycling, the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch and sustainability.

8:40pm: Piero Scaruffi on the next Leonardo Art/Science evening

8:45-9:45pm: Discussions, more socializing.

LASER is a bimonthly series of lectures and presentations organized by Piero Scaruffi on behalf of Leonardo / The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST).