Presentation given by Roger Malina on July 26 2014 at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge UK at White Heat: art, science and social responsibility in 1960s Britain talk title is The Leonardo Journal at 50_ networking the arts,sciences and technology now. The talk takes the person of Frank Malina, founder of Leonardo Journal as the springboard for a historical perspective

1. Leonardo Journal at 50:
Networking the growing
communities
of practice that bridge the arts and
sciences
Roger F Malina

2. Frank Malina, Astronautics Pioneer, Kinetic Artist,
Founder of Leonardo Journal

3. October 11 1945
White Sands Missile Range
• The WAC Corporal
• reached an altitude
• of 235,000 feet
• 25 pounds payload
•
R.F.Nitric Acid- Aniline
• A student project- Frank Malina,
Jack Parsons, H S Tsien, Ed Forman,
A.M. Smith

4. A comment on the birth of ‘Rocket Science”
• The bridging of mathematics and engineering
not self evident
• Difficult inter-disciplinary problems
• Theodore Von Karman
• Mathematics of Turbulence, Fluid Flow
• Experimental Validation of hypotheses and
modelling: wind tunnels
• My father was one of the first ‘rocket
scientists”
• Demonstrated that rocketry could be
developed using mathematics and
experimental method

5. Innovation through a collaborative team: the founding
of the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab
•

6. BUMPER WAC: 24 Feb 1949
•
On 24 July 1950 a BUMPER WAC was
first launched from Cape Canaveral
•
Reached 244 miles
•First human made object
to reach outer space

7. UNESCO
• 1946-53
• Deputy then Director for Science
• Hylean Amazon
• Negev Desert
• UNESCO congresses Algeria, India,
• Prague...
• Julian Huxley
• Joseph Needham
• …C.P.Snow, Jacob Bronowski, Lancelot
Law Whyte,….

8. Kinetic Artist:
•KINETIC ARTIST
• First art and technology
show 1955
• Lumidyne System
• Interactive art= sound
triggering images
• ELI Company
Pioneer of Kinetic Art
movement

9. My Father’s Four Obsessions ( at least )
•Art and Science
• He declared after a painting lesson
in Paris :
• “I am tired of painting dead fish – I
want to capture the new landscapes
that are uncovered through science”
• Making the inperceptible
perceptible
• Gyorgy Kepes: New Landscape in Art
and Science
• Art and Technology
• After his first art and technology
show in Paris in1955:
• “ There is more technology in my
kitchen than in all the galleries of
Paris, why do they want artists to
work with one hand tied behind
their back”
• Thomas Wilfred; Lumia
1920s..Theremin…Moholy Nagy..
• Nicolas Schoffer..Liliane Lijn…

10. Two More Obsessions
• International context and
collaboration
• The UNESCO experience
• Why are artists defined by the
city they work in ?
• Developed a growing
international network;
• Mathias Goeritz in Mexico, Jorge
Glusberg in Argentina, Jonas
Salk,
• Informing the creative process
with experimental psychology
and cognitive sciences
• “Why don’t artists use art
theory” ?
• “Why are art critics irrelevant to
art making”
• Cf mathematics and
engineering, basic science and
applied science
• Gombrich, Arnheim, JJ Gibson

11. Founding of Journal LEONARDO
• Conceived in 1965 through
discussions with Robert Maxwell
• Founded 1967
• Art-Science and Art-Technology
• Writing by artists about their own
work
• Premier international peer
reviewed journal
• Organisation for artists, scientists,
engineers
• MIT Press with Leonardo Book
Series

12. Artists as Researchers
• Leonardo Journal
• Kinetic Art Movement
• Op Art Movement
• Cybernetics Serendipity 1968
• Experiments in Art and Technology
(E.A.T.) in NY
• Software Art: Jack Burnham
• Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT
• Steve Wilson: Information Arts
• Today; the PhD in Art and Design as a
research degree

13. Artists Working With Scientists and Engineers
Individuals with Hybrid Careers
• Frank Malina
• C.P.Snow
• Joseph Needham
• Jacob Bronowski
• Gyorgy Kepes
• Buckminster Fuller
• Richard Gregory
• Yona Friedman
• A.L Copley
• Claude Berge
• Photo: Nicolas Schoffer 56

14. A context then and now
• A generation of survivors of World War II
• Creation of new international organisations..air travel..telecom
• The new post WWII ‘social contract” between science and
government
• ( Vannevar Bush: Science the endless frontier”
• Connecting the arts and sciences foregrounding cultural
appropriation of science and technologies:
• White Heat: art, science and social responsibility in 1960s Britain

15. And Now ?
• « Ask Not What the Sciences can do for the Arts…Ask what the
Arts can do for the Sciences¨….Roy Ascott
• The « Strong Case » for art-science-technology interaction
• The « Hard Humanities »: art –techno science collaboration as part
of the tool kit for building a sustainable world….burning issues…
• Innovation Theory
• The US National Science Foundation SEAD Study: Enabling New
forms of Collaboration between Science and Engineering with the
Arts and Design ( 2013)

17. •International Call for Community Contributions
•70 Abstracts Received, 54 Full Papers, 3 Meta Analyses
•35 Prior Reports
•200 participants, 320 suggested actions
•13 ‘domains’ identified for future road mapping
•Working Group Chair Roger F Malina,
• Co Chair Carol Strohecker, Carol Lafayette

18. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1142510, Collaborative Research: EAGER: Network for Science, Engineering, Arts and Design (NSEAD)
IIS, Human Centered Computing. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.
• Translating: Problem driven connections between the
academic,commercial and civil societies
– 1.Project Formation and Translational Values
• Convening: Overcoming thresholds and tipping points
– 2. Conferences, Workshops, Camps …
• Enabling: Establishing symmetrical S-E-A-D relationships
– 3.Establishing safe, productive places for hybrid individuals and
practices
.
.

19. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1142510, Collaborative Research: EAGER: Network for Science, Engineering, Arts and Design (NSEAD)
IIS, Human Centered Computing. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.
• Including: Spurring innovation through diversity
4. Global communities and local diversity
• Embedding: Public Engagement and Negotiation
5. Societal Applications, Dissemination Citizen Science
• Situating: An emerging ecology of hybrid spaces
6. “Alt Spaces”
.
.

20. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1142510, Collaborative Research: EAGER: Network for Science, Engineering, Arts and Design (NSEAD)
IIS, Human Centered Computing. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.
• Sense-Making: Embodied Cognition and Multi-Sensoriality
7. Cognitive Sciences and Neuro Biology, Life Sciences
• Recording: Documenting and Transmitting
8.Publishing, Documenting, Archiving
• Learning: Tapping into the passion and creativity of lifelong
students
9. Full SEAD Ahead
.
.

21. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1142510, Collaborative Research: EAGER: Network for Science, Engineering, Arts and Design (NSEAD)
IIS, Human Centered Computing. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.
• Collaborating: Methodologies across disciplinary and
institutional boundaries
10. Collaborations between individuals .
11. Partnering across organizational boundaries.
• Thriving: The Arts And Humanities as Essential
Contributors to Healthy Communities
12. Ethics and Values.
13. Well Being and Joyfulness
.
.

22. University of Texas at Dallas ArtSciLab
• Data Exploration, Data Representation, Data Dramatisation
• Data sets from multiple disciplines (astronomy, geosciences, brain
sciences)
• Multi-Modal (visualization, sonification, gestural)
• Multiple Outputs
• Shown in artistic venues
• Software tool development for scientists and artists
• Technology Testbed ( sound emission from nano-tube sheets)
• Multiple Timescales, Symmetrical Roles
• Diversity of Depths of Involvement

23. 1st Data Set: CSTAR robotic telescope in
Antarctica

24. Composer Scot Gresham Lancaster with Prof Carlos Aiken
Sonification of
Geosciences Data
Surface Geology
Seismic data
Lidar data

25. Interactive Sonic and Visual Representations of
Connectome Brain Data sets
Gagan Wig, Brain Science
Max Schich, Art Historian,
Scot Gresham Lancaster,
Tim Perkis Music Designers
Andrew Blanton, Sound
Designer and Artist
.

26. Experimental Publishing and
Knowledge Curation
Prof Cassini Nazir,
Emerging Media and Communications
Students:
Cathryn Ploehne, Social Media
Yvan Tina, Theater Studies
Stephen Witt, Gaming
Stephanie Brisandine,
podcast radio station, mobile apps…….
MIT PRESS
.

27. David Marlett
•Executive Director of the
US National Crowdfunding
Association
•Crowd-funding and
Crowd-sourcing of
ArtSciLab Projects
• Film project for the
Oculus Rift

28. THANK YOU- SEE YOU IN DALLAS
Artscilab.utdallas.edu