Artscisalon with Subtle Technologies Festival
Culture + Genes

Geneticist Rabia Khan and interdisciplinary artist Omar Estrada will explore the intersections between Culture and Genetics: how do we (or can we) tell apart nature and nurture? How and where does the languages of culture and social interaction intersect with the code we use to decipher DNA?
What happen when we remove information from its natural framework of interpretation? Have the displacement of information - its multiple translations - the capacity of producing meaning as a renovated construction of understanding?

Rabia Khan is a geneticist from McGill with a business background . She has recently moved to Toronto and loves the ArtSci events and wants to work on merging genetics with art.

Galileo's Falling Bodies a conversation with Dan Falk, Nina Leo and Lee Henderson
Nina Leo - digital media artist, OCADU
Amanda White - environmental artist, Queen'

Abstract:Rec ent discoveries in science have caused a renewed enthusiasm in physics and mathematics. But while we focus on contemporary science, why not revisit those early pioneers who helped make science what it is today? This month, ArtSci Salon will revisit the pioneering work of Galileo Galilei. We have invited Science journalist Dan Falk to engage with the extensive body of work of Galileo and artists Nina Leo and Lee Henderson to introduce us to their latest installation "Galileo's Falling Bodies" currently on display at the RedHead Gallery.
Bios
Dan Falk has written for Smithsonian, New Scientist, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, and many other publications. His latest book, to be released next month, is called The Science of Shakespeare, which looks at the Scientific Revolution through the lens of Shakespeare’s writing. He’s also written two previous popular science books, In Search of Time and Universe on a T-Shirt. Dan has been a regular contributor to “Ideas” on CBC Radio, and has won several international awards for his radio documentaries. Falk was a 2011-12 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He lives in Toronto.

Nina Leo is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist working primarily in drawing, installation, performance and public practice. Her work examines how the contemporary terrain of fragmented, often virtual experience may affect us phenomenologically as experiences and interactions become ever more accessible, yet divested of direct multi-sensorial richness. Leo holds an MFA in Emerging Practices from the University of Buffalo, SUNY. Her work has been shown in galleries and public institutions/spaces in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Currently, she teaches in the Sculpture/Installation department at OCAD University and is an exhibiting member of the Red Head Gallery. http://ninaleo.com

Lee Henderson is a media-based artist from Saskatchewan. He has studied art in Canada and Germany, with talented professionals including Maria Vedder, Brian Eno, and Ellen Bromberg. Since completing his MFA in 2005, he has been furthering his time- and lens- based artistic practice while teaching photography and media art at the postsecondary level (currently at OCADU and Ryerson University). Recent and upcoming exhibitions and screenings include the Zero Film Festival (Los Angeles), The Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina), The Rooms (St. John’s), Trinity Square Video, gallerywest, Artscape Youngplace, and YYZ (Toronto). His photographs, installations, videos and performances revolve around philosophies of impermanence and mortality, focusing on the persistence of collective histories and the brevity of individual lives. http:// www.noattainment.com

The Best Festival Ever: systems science goes to the theatre
with
David Finnigan - theatre artist, Camberra, Australia
and
Dr. Joseph Geraci - Neuropsychiatry at UHN and Molecular Medicine at Queen’s

Dr. Joseph Geraci is a mathematical physicist working in medicine and drug discovery. He uses mathematical structures to strip away the cacophony of noise that is inherent in medical data sets where the goal is the ability to predict the most effective treatment for individual patients. He utilizes graph theory, topology, geometry, statistics, dynamical systems theory and beyond.

iRon Artist + iJoe Scientist = OncoMap
A Real Art / Science Collaboration - mathematics - statistics
-smART maps

Ron Wild, Digital Art / Science Collaborator, smART Map

Ron Wild creates intense, multi-dimensional "smART Map" collages. He is an emerging explorer at the art and science frontier, who bridges the divide between the two. With a foot firmly planted in each camp, Ron Wild is a western-Canadian Digital Art / Science Collaborator, currently working in downtown Toronto.

Joseph Geraci, Toronto General Hospital @ Psychiatry

Dr. Joseph Geraci is a mathematical physicist working in medicine and drug discovery. He uses mathematical structures to strip away the cacophony of noise that is inherent in medical data sets where the goal is the ability to predict the most effective treatment for individual patients. He utilizes graph theory, topology, geometry, statistics, dynamical systems theory and beyond.

Bioremediation

Guests:
Tagny Duff, Fluxmedia, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
Viral BioreMEDIAtion

This talk will focus on the term "bioremediation" as it applies to the research-creation project Viral BioreMEDIAtion (Funded by the FRQSC). Expanding from media theorists Jay Bolter and Richards Grusin's notion of remediation, I will situate current media art, biological art and scientific methods and practices used in the laboratory environment with issues of ecology presented via the scientific term and practice of bioremediation. How might the materiality of processes and materials used in research laboratories be reconfigured and reimagined via the notion of bioreMEDIAtion? http://www.fluxnetwork.net/viral-bioremediation/

Bio
Tagny Duff is an interdisciplinary artist working across bioart, video, performance, net art and installation works. Duff currently directs Fluxmedia Research-Creation Network, a laboratory exploring the cross over between art and life sciences. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. Works includes Wetnet (2012) developed at Ectopia in collaboration with Cultivamos Cultura and the URIA-Centro Patogenese Molecular, Faculdade Farmacia at the University of Lisbon. This was exhibited in Emergencies2012, Portugal. The Cryobook Archives (2010) and the Living Viral Tattoos (2008) exhibited in Montreal (2011), Dublin (2011), Moscow (2009) and Keliningrad (2008).

Elizabeth Edwards, Biozone, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto
New Frontiers in Bioremediation

Groundwater contamination is a serious threat to global health and prosperity. Chemicals that are widely used in industry or dry-cleaning are common groundwater contaminants. Because they are very toxic, even small spills render groundwater unsuitable for use. Cleanup is typically a costly and very slow undertaking.
Recently, a fascinating group of soil microorganisms has been discovered that can naturally degrade some of these chemicals to a benign product. Dr. Edwards has harnessed this innate ability to create a remediation technology using microorganisms that is now in use at several hundred contaminated sites around the world. The hunt is on to further explore nature’s diversity to discover other unusual bugs capable of detoxifying a broader range of contaminants. New molecular biology and metagenomic tools are helping us understand how these microorganisms make a living, and how we can take advantage of their abilities to clean up the environment.

Bio
Elizabeth Edwards is affiliated with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto and is the director of the Biozone. Dr. Elizabeth Edwards holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, and a PhD degree (1993) in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She is internationally known for her work on anaerobic bioremediation, the application of molecular biology and metagenomics to uncover novel microbial processes, and the transition of laboratory research into commercial practice to develop bioremediation and bioaugmentation strategies for groundwater pollutants.

ECO-Nuit Blanche
Guests: Jennifer Willet - U of Windsor
Ana Klasnja, Ontario Science Centre

INCUBATOR Lab at the Ontario Science Centre: 4 years of student projects on display.
A presentation by Dr. Jennifer Willet and guests

INCUBATOR Hybrid Laboratory at the Intersection of Art, Science and Ecology is an art/science laboratory in the School for Arts and Creative Innovation at the University of Windsor. The INCUBATOR Lab functions as both a studio and a laboratory intended to support the proliferation of life and new ideas towards the production of bioart projects. The INCUBATOR Lab is facilitates ongoing faculty and graduate level research and hosts the interdisciplinary undergraduate class BioART: Contemporary Art and the Life Sciences.

On October 05, 2013 an exhibition of 13 student bioart projects from the INCUBATOR Lab will go on exhibition at the !dea Gallery at the Ontario Science Centre. “BioART: Contemporary Art and the life Sciences” is co-curated by Jennifer Willet and Ana Klasnja. Additionally, INCUBATOR and the Ontario Science Centre are teaming up to co-produce an art/science performance event called the ECO NUIT PARADE as part of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche the night of October 05 on Queen street West, Toronto.

With this talk, Willet (and participating students) will speak about INCUBATOR activities since 2009, and present some of the artworks included in the Ontario Science Centre exhibition and the ECO NUIT PARADE.

New Approaches to Science Visualization

Bonnie J. Scott
Bridging entertainment and education: The art of designing video games to teach science

Bonnie will be discussing how she became a biomedical communicator and her work in the exciting new area of educational science video games. She is passionate about designing meaningful user experiences that educate people about healthcare and scientific issues while leveraging interactive and multimedia technologies. Her area of specialization is in molecular visualization and exploring how games can be used to teach science in schools, public spaces, and corporate environments.

BIO: Bonnie Scott is currently an Associate of Biomedical Communication at Bridgeable (www.bridgeable.com), a boutique research and design firm in Toronto. She is a recent graduate of the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications from the University of Toronto and has a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from The University of Chicago. Some of her work can be seen at www.snaremedia.ca.

Justin Pahara
Immersive 3D Molecular Worlds

We will explore the atomic and molecular worlds of biology and solid-state electronics in 3-dimensions! So come and immerse yourself in the world of the small.

BIO: Justin Pahara is a recent PhD graduate of the University of Cambridge and co-founder of Synbiota, an IT/Biotech startup focusing on making bioengineering more accessible through collaboration, education and the internet.