Spring 2007: The UAA Complex Systems Group welcomes Ellen Levy

New York artist lectures on art and artistic research in complex systems

Ellen Levy, a New York-based artist and teacher at Brooklyn College, will give two free lectures at UAA as part of the Complex Systems' spring lecture series.

"Redefining Life:  Artistic Research in Complex Systems"
Friday, March 30, Noon
Professional Studies Building, room 166
Artist researchers in complex systems have focused their investigations on hybrids such as the slime mold for their potential to reveal underlying cultural assumptions ranging from what constitutes life to what constitutes property. These judgments hold potential ramifications for our legal and social systems and come at a time when new kinds of life forms are being fashioned. Some of the artists explore robotics or implement computational simulations to identify basic components of life and reproduction.  Through tissue culture research other artists examine entities that straddle boundaries.  Yet others consider whether animals or body parts such as genes should count as property.  Such research provokes ethical concerns, challenging the limitations of our categories and the determination of who holds authority.

"Converging Lineages: Art and Complex Systems"
Friday, March 30, 7:30 p.m.
Social Science Building, room 118
Steven Weinberg provocatively noted that complexity theory shifts the emphasis from verbal absolutes that are implicit in the mathematical equation to the more visual world of computation.  This talk will explore the implications of this observation, examining the ways some artists visualize such processes as growth, evolution and innovation.  The artists find ways to initiate art works that can "make themselves" and assume dynamic capabilities.  Although artists may use the same tools as complexity scientists (e.g., cellular automata, genetic algorithms), the content of artistic experiments often relies on an interchange between the work and viewer that actively engage sets of expectations and artistic conventions.  As a distinct discipline, art offers its own unique approaches in the consideration of complexity.  

Levy has played a seminal role in airing issues of complex systems in her art, publications and lectures.  With Berta M. Sichel, Levy was guest editor of a special issue of the Art Journal in the spring of 1996, compiling an issue entitled "Contemporary Art and the Genetic Code," a subject then largely unexplored. She solicited contributions from scientists, such as evolutionary biologist Stephen

Jay Gould, as well as artists and art historians.  In 2002, she and Philip Galanter organized "Complexity: Art and Complex Systems," a major traveling museum exhibition devoted to artists' responses to the study of complex systems.
 
Complex systems is rooted in science and examines how relationships between parts give rise to the collective behaviors of a system.  These lectures are part of UAA's 2007 Complex Systems lecture series, a program that brings cutting-edge research in the field of complexity to the Alaska public.  Other upcoming lectures include:

Cyril Wecht, Forsensic pathologist
"Some of My Most Interesting Cases"
Thursday, April 19, 2007  
Wecht has been involved in many high profile cases, such as the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, the murders of Sharon Tate, JonBenet Ramsey, Laci Peterson and the cases of Anna Nicole Smith, Sunny von Bulow, Elvis Presley, among many others.

Hans Moravec
"Robot Evolution"
Thursday, May 3 and Friday, May 4, 2007
Moravec is known for his work on robotics and artificial intelligence.

For more information about UAA's Complex Systems Group or the Complex Systems' lecture series, visit http://complexsystems.uaa.alaska.edu.