The Principal Theater in Vilanova i la Geltrú hosted a free and experimental preview of Casparo on December 9, 2009.
Casparo is an art project that aims to investigate the expressive and emotional power of music and new ways of transmitting it to the general public with the contribution of artificial intelligence systems. It is a pilot sample of a chamber opera in the process of creation/production and, for the first time in this type of artistic events, it involves a robot. The project also had the collaboration of performing arts professionals, musicians and students of the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña (ESMUC).
The preview of Casparo allowed the public to experience the interaction between opera and artificial intelligence. The organizers behind this experimental project are Luc Steels from the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, the neuroscientist and director of the “Social Brain” Chair at the UAB, and Joseph Hilferty, a linguist and lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).
Exhibition: “More to Love: the Art of Living Together” 1/12/2009 – 1/03/2010 Casa Asia Palau Baró de Quadras Avda. Diagonal 373, 08008 Barcelona Free entrance
Today is World AIDS Day. Observed every December 1, it is an international day held every year since 1988 dedicated to raising awareness of the global AIDS epidemic caused by the spread of HIV. December 1 was chosen because the first case of AIDS was diagnosed on this day in 1981.
To celebrate this day, Casa Asia opens today at 18:30h. the exhibition More to Love: the Art of Living Together, together with the ArtAids foundation, where several Thai and Western artists present their projects to document reflections on AIDS from the field of visual arts in order to stimulate intercultural dialogue and to promote the integration of Thailand in the international contemporary art circuit.
ArtAids employs art in the fight against Aids by inviting leading artists to produce work dealing with Aids and related issues. These works of art are used to raise public consciousness and to encourage involvement. ArtAids furthermore initiates and supports projects aimed at preventing and fighting Aids.
The ArtAids foundation was set up by the Dutch writer and art collector Han Nefkens, based in Barcelona. Nefkens’ discovery in 1987 that he was HIV positive brought about a radical change in his life. Han Nefkens sees the intensity of that experience reflected in the world of art, and has decided to use art to increase awareness of the Aids problem and to improve the lives of those living with HIV. Nefkens has established separate ArtAids organisations in the Netherlands, Thailand and Spain.
My small tribute to World AIDS Day: Elton John composed “The Last Song”, which was used during the closing montage of the TV film “And the Band Played on” (Roger Spottiswode, 1993), film produced and broadcasted by HBO which premiered at the Montreal Film Festival. From my point of view, one of the most outstanding movies showing the discovery and spread of HIV and AIDS.
UNESCO has declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009). Its aim is to be a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture and marks the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) has been considered the “father of modern astronomy”. His support to the Copernican heliocentric theory questioned church doctrine that proclaimed that the Earth was the center of creation. This contradicted the principles which had hitherto supported knowledge and introduced the foundations of the scientific method which was thereafter consolidated.
His work Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (1633) was the result of fierce controversy in his time, and ended in a formal charge before the Inquisition of “severe suspicions of heresy” for Galileo, who was later convicted. The book was then included in the Index of prohibited publications, from which it was not to be removed until 1822.
In the twentieth century, a weak rehabilitation of Galileo began under the Second Council. Pope John Paul II established a commission to review the case concluding that the Church had made a mistake. On 15 February 2009, the Catholic Church paid tribute to Galileo for the first time with a mass in his honor at the Vatican marking the 445 anniversary of his birth. The celebration was sponsored by the World Federation of Scientists.
Within the framework of the IYA2009, the Holy See organized an international academic conference on Galileo Galilei in May. Among other commemorative activities, Galileo has also been the subject this year of countless courses, simposia and exhibitions in his native country.
Not infrequently, the cinema has been one of the best ways to recreate, with varying degrees of fidelity, and disseminate the history of science and scientists. Galileo has not been an exception and has been brought to the big and small screen many times. The two most memorable and controversial movies on him are the following:
The film was shown in competition at the 1969 Venice Film Festival (Mostra). Produced by RAI, it was never broadcasted by the Italian public television and censorship at that time imposed the ban for those under 18 years for its anti-clericalism, as the film represented a strong criticism against the intransigence, arrogance and ignorance of clerical power.
In the film, Liliana Cavani abandons the classical schemes of biopics that usually focus on the individual to focus on dialogue and the serious social and political conflicts that science may generate, and the debate between freedom of scientific research and the dictates imposed by the Church.
Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo, Joseph Losey (United Kingdom, 1975)
Leben des Galilei(or Galileo) is a play by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. The first version of the play was written between 1937 and 1939, and the second (known as the “American” version) was written between 1945-1947, in collaboration with actor and director Charles Laughton, who also played Galileo on stage in Los Angeles in 1947.
Closely based on the text by Brecht, the film adaptation of the play was produced and distributed by the American Film Theater. Joseph Losey, the director of the film, also directed the first US theatrical production of Galileo in 1947. In his cinematic adaptation, he maintained several concepts that appeared in the theatrical version, including the use of a chorus of young boys who advance parts of the plot or the theatricality of the opening shot.
Galileo was shown out of the main competition at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. At the time of the release, most critics reacted negatively to the performance by Israeli actor Topol (Fiddler on the Roof) as Galileo, stating that he missed the role’s strength and acted in a fundamentally different tone from the other cast members, who were great British actors like Sir John Gieguld o Edward Fox.
Five centuries after its creation, Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous painting, Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda), is still raising unanswered questions and fascinating art lovers, researchers and onlookers alike. The identity of the model and the misterious smile she wears have become the most controversial enigmas.
When Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, he managed to create an effect where the smile disappears when one looks at the painting directly and it only reappears when one focuses on other parts of the painting. The set of shadows added to the sense of bewilderment caused by the smile.
Many have attributed this sense of vagueness or confusion to the sfumato painting technique, invented by Leonardo himself. inventada por el mismo Leonardo. The sfumato is a fine shading that produces soft and imperceptible transitions between colours and tones, creating a smoky effect of light and shade in which the contours of the figures seem to dissolve into the background, and the light seems to flow gently over a surface.
Neurobiology to solve the “enigma”
In recent years, neuroscientific research has been conducted in order to provide an answer to the alleged “enigma” hidden behind that smile.
In 2002, Dr. Margaret S. Livingstone, Professor of Nerobiology at Harvard Medical School and an expert in Visual Neurology, explained that the smile of Mona Lisa “is an illusion that comes and goes due to the way the human eye processes images.” Linking art and visual perception, she further stated that “artists (like Da Vinci or Rembrandt in the XVI and XVII centuries) have been studying visual processes longer than us, neurobiologists.”
When you look at Mona Lisa’s eyes or at the background, you see a smile suggested by the shadows from her cheekbones (left/middle), and you think she’s smiling. But when you look directly at her mouth (right), her smile seems to vanish. Therefore, Mona Lisa’s smile is the outcome of one’s peripheral vision based on the facial contours.
Her theory is based on the fact that the human eye has a very central vision, very good to recognize details and another peripheral vision, less precise but adequate to recognize shadows. Livingstone states “Da Vinci painted Mona Lisa’s smile using the shadows that we see best with our peripheral vision. This is the reason why we have to look her in the eyes or somewhere else in the painting to see her smile, so her lips are in the peripheral field of vision.“
Last October, Luis M. Martínez Otero and Diego Alonso Pablos, scientists from the Visual Neuroscience group at the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante presented their research at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting held in Chicago, October 17-21.
Otero & Pablos concluded that different cells in the retina transmit different categories of information or “channels” to the brain. These channels encode data about an object’s size, clarity, brightness and location in the visual field. “Sometimes one channel wins over the other, and you see the smile, sometimes others take over and you don’t see the smile“, says Martínez Otero.
The research also showed that Leonardo Da Vinci intentionally tried to capture both views. “He wrote in one of his notebooks that he was trying to paint dynamic expressions because that’s what he saw in the street“, Martínez Otero contends.
Barcelona BioMed Forum event aims to explore themes of nature and creativity within a scientific and artistic framework. A distinguished international panel of scientists and artists will gather to discuss questions ranging from such as what is science? What is nature? What is art? What do science and art have in common and how do they differ? What role does creativity play in both areas?
Designed to be informative, entertaining and highly interactive, the Forum will involve sessions that range from lectures and debates to exhibitions and creative sessions.
Artists-in-residence
The Forum will be preceded on November 10 by a one-day artists-in-residence programme where local artists will be selected to join an IRB Barcelona laboratory and work with scientists to get a first-hand look at some of the techniques and methodologies used in biomedical research. The goal is to provide the artist with insight into today’s science and inspiration for future projects. Artists chosen to take part in the activities will attend a special reception, open to the public, hosted at the Arts Santa Mònica in the evening of November 11.
They’re not the first -and I very much doubt they’re the last!- movies to be made and released ’bout Charles Darwin but one thing is certain: 2009 is his movie year.
Taking advantage, once more, of the enormous media gold mine that is Darwin’s bicentenary, not a single movie but TWO are expected to be released this year (one of them has already been released in some countries).
The life of this famous naturalist was never so popular as it is today. Throughout film history, Darwin’s figure has been portrayed in many ways but none of these, in most cases low-budget, movie portrayals made a big hit. Most of them didn’t even reach movies theatres or were shot for TV.
The few ones that have passed on to posterity didn’t deal about Darwin himself but about the creation-evolution controversy. One of this movies is Inherit the Wind (1960), film adaptation of the play of the same name, based on the real-life Scopes “Monkey” trial (1925) that forbade the teaching of any aspect of evolution.
Out of curiosity, another movie to depict the struggle between evolutionism and creationism is Evolution: The Musical!(2008), a surrealistic short musical comedy defined as an “awkward marriage of West Side Story and South Park”.
Creation: the struggle between faith and reason
What happens when a world-renowned scientist, crushed by the loss of his eldest daughter, formulates a theory in conflict with religious dogma? This is the story of Charles Darwin and his master-work “The Origin of Species”. It tells of a global revolution played out the confines of a small English village; a passionate marriage torn apart by the most dangerous idea in history; and a theory saved from extinction by the logic of a child.
Creation (2009) is directed by Jon Amiel and starred by Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his wife (in real life and in fiction).
The film, already released in most countries, was chosen to open the Toronto Film festival and so far it has become as controversial as the eternal debate between evolutionism and creationism: apparently, the British film is failing to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer. Believe it or not, it has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as “a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying”. So… the eternal debate’s hot and still on…
Behind every great man…
Mrs. Darwin (2009) is Darwin’s second biopic starring Joseph Fiennes (an expert at playing historical characters like Shakespeare or Luther) and Rosamund Pike (Die another day, Pride & Prejudice). Directed by Johnny Campbell and produced by Mike Newell, Mrs. Darwin tells the story from the point of view of his wife Emma and it’s currently in production.
Hypatia of Alexandria (btw 350 and 370 – 415 or 416 A.D.) was considered the first notable woman in mathematics, who also taught philosophy and astronomy. Her contributions to science are reputed to include the charting of celestial bodies and the invention of the hidrometer. Some also claim her to be the inventor of the astrolabe.
Based on real facts never seen before on screen, Alejandro Amenábar presented Agora at Cannes Film Festival in May 2009. The movie was released in Spain on October 9, and will be released more widely in December.
Alexandria, 391 A.D.
As the rise of Christianity threatens to overthrow the Roman empire in Egypt, a series of turmoils shake Alexandria and its Library. The astronomer and philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) struggles to preserve scientific knowledge with the help of two of her disciples, Orestes an the young slave Davus, who must choose between his love for Hypatia and the possibility of freedom by joining the rising Christian cause.
Having researched about Hypatia’s biography and the historical period she lived in, Aménabar was struck at the fact that there was a widespread ignorance about her but, as he studied her figure in depth he realised Hypatia’s history is still current today as she represents the embodiment of the modern woman. For Amenábar, that period of antiquity “had much in common with today’s world. Then (…) we understood that we were able to film a movie about the past, when in fact we were filming a movie made for the present”.
Amenábar affirms that “we all need to live to gather in this Agora,” as the city’s public gathering place was known in antiquity. “Every time someone defends his ideas by using violence” -says Amenábar- “that is what the movie is denouncing”.
Trivia
Shot in Malta, the set was built on the exact same spot where the Coliseum was built for Gladiator (2000).
Carl Sagan, in Chapter 13 of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980), discussed Hypatia and gave a detailed speculative description of her death, linking it with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, and declaring her, without corroboration, its last librarian.
Hypatia’s name was applied to an Adobe typeface (Hypatia Sans Pro).
ISFF is the first science film festival in New York. The first Festival took place October 16-25, 2008, and included screenings in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The objective of the festival is to showcase films (especially fiction films), that effectively incorporate science into a compelling narrative while maintaining credible scientific groundings.
The 2009 festival will take place October 15th – 23rd in New York City.
Imagine Science Films is a non-profit organization committed to promoting a high-level dialogue between scientists and filmmakers. ISF encourages a greater collaboration between scientists who dedicate their lives to studying the world we live in and filmmakers who have the power to interpret and expose this knowledge, ultimately making science accessible and stimulating to a broader audience.
ISF also aims to promote scientific knowledge among the population not in the sciences, and to encourage those interested in becoming a part of them.
Copenhagen, a two-act play by Michael Frayn
Dramatized reading
Companyia Teatre de La Incertesa
14 September 2009
IDEC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Balmes 132-134
08008 Barcelona
Within the framework of the Master Degree course on Scientific, Medical and Environmental Communication, the Continuing Education Institute (IDEC) at Pompeu Fabra University and Companyia Teatre de la Incertesa are presenting the dramatized reading of Copenhagen, a play by Michael Frayn.
Teatre de la Incertesa is a theatrical company created in November 2002, during the 12th Science Week held at Barcelona, whose aim is to approach science to the general public.
Copenhagen, a fictional dialogue in itself based upon real historical figures and actual events: the play portrays the meeting held in Copenhagen in 1941, in the middle of the Second World War, between Danish physicist Niels Bohr and German physicist, Werner Heisenberg, whom many considered had links to the Nazi regime. The great mystery surrounding the meeting concerns whether Heisenberg simply wanted an exchange of scientific ideas or if he was in fact seeking help in the development of armaments projects:
Heisenberg – “…No one understands my trip to Copenhagen. Time and time again I’ve explained it. To Bohr himself, and Margrethe. To interrogators and intelligence officers, to journalists and historians. The more I’ve explained, the deeper the uncertainty has become. Well, I shall be happy to make one more attempt.”
The play opened in the National Theatre in London in 1998 and ran for more than 300 performances. It premiered in Broadway at the Royal Theatre on April 11, 2000, and ran for 326 performances. Even now it’s still being performed and is stilll the subject of contested academic debates at conferences throughout the world. Copenhagen has also won many awards, including the prestigious Tony Award for best play in 1999.
“Endlessly fascinating?. The most invigorating and ingenious play of ideas in many a year!. An electrifying work of art!” Ben Brantley, The New York Times
The play was adapted as a television movie in 2002, with Daniel Craig as Heisenberg, Stephen Rea as Niels Bohr, and Francesca Annis as Margrethe Bohr.
It wouldn’t be fair to create a blog about communication and dissemination of science through the arts and not to include a post on the World Science Festival.
The annual World Science Festival is a production of the Science Festival Foundation, a non-profit organization headquartered in New York City and its mission is to cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.
The World Science Festival is an unprecedented annual tribute to imagination, ingenuity and inventiveness. It takes science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City. The Festival turns the Big Apple into a grand stage with science as the headliner and presents a carefully designed spectrum of programs. Through a series of debates, performances and interactive events, the Festival showcases cutting edge ideas and discoveries, reveals science’s pivotal role in addressing critical global issues, and explores how it profoundly shapes modern life.
The Festival also brings together an all-star cast from an impressive array of disciplines: actor/actresses, science writers, musicians, philosophers, biologist, environmentalists, mathematicians, magicians, neuroscientists, dancers, anthropologists, paleontologists, engineers, astronomers, historians… and the list could go on forever. Some of this year’s participants included: Alan Alda, Joshua Bell, Glenn Close, Harrison Ford or Bobby McFerrin.
<brTo see the full list of 2009 speakers, visit this link: http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/speakers
Notes & Neurons: Is our response to music hard-wired or culturally determined? Is the reaction to rhythm and melody universal or influenced by environment? Join host John Schaefer, Jamshed Barucha, scientist Daniel Levitin, Professor Lawrence Parsons and musical artist Bobby McFerrin for live performances and cross cultural demonstrations to illustrate music’s note-worthy interaction with the brain and our emotions.
