Science Fair on NY1 – June 11, 2010
06/11/2010 11:25 AM
Artists Draw Inspiration From Science In New Exhibit
By: Stephanie Simon
A group of artists are showing they, too, have an inner scientist with an unusual art event in Long Island City this weekend. NY1’s Stephanie Simon filed the following report.
Beakers, Bunson burners, and dioramas may bring back bad memories of high school science class. But a new type of Science Fair is showcasing works by artists inspired by science.
Samwell Freeman considers technology is a life line.
“So this is a project called ‘Line Life’ and the idea is sort of to build a population of physical and virtual drawings,” he explains. “The drawings are built using accelerometer-based soft controller, and you gesture in the air and that is translated into a drawing, a physical drawing, that the robot makes.”
Science Fair takes place this weekend in LIC and is presented by two artist collectives, Flux Factory and The Metric System.
“So Science Fair is kind of based on the typical ‘middle school science fair,’ where we structured it to offer artists to submit their proposals based in some theoretical science project but in a visual form,” says Ambre Kelly of The Metric System.
Some of the science may be a bit tongue in cheek, but all of the projects do recall science class – like plant slides inspired by a real school science project, a glue gun used to prevent detection by satellite imaging, and artist Flint Weisser’s Kelvin water drop generator, which generates static electricity through water drops.
“I think physics is beautiful,” he says. “I mean, to me, that’s like the most beautiful system that I can collaborate with.”
There’s also a custom quantum teleportation experience, requiring the viewer to first share some information.
“It will basically send you to another point in space and time while you are simultaneously in Queens,” says artist Chad Stayrook. “It’s based on a questionnaire that each person fills out and we then tailor it to those answers.”
Artist Scott Kildall’s ‘science project’ calculates your stress levels, but instead of straight readings, he translates the stress and relaxation levels into other images.
“This one is giving me a relaxation response, and I can tell that because I’m getting a lot of imagery of things moving through the ocean really quietly and softly,” Kildall says.