Programs, Past Meetings
XIII, Washington 2008: Science/Technology and Art
All sessions are in the McEvoy Auditorium
Reynolds Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum & National Portrait Gallery (Old Patent Office Building)
SUNDAY, October 5
16:00 Meet in courtyard of Reynolds Center for tour
18:30 Reception/Dinner for registrants, at home of Margaret Vining & Bart Hacker
MONDAY, October 6
8:30-8:50 Coffee
8:50-9:00 Introduction: Welcome, Announcements
9:00-10:20 Session 1: Science/technology influence art
Chair: Paul Ceruzzi (Smithsonian, NASM)
Frode Weium (Norsk Teknisk Museum)
“A synthetic surrogate” – on the reception and use of the first Hammond Organs in Norway
Cassandra Good (U Penn)
Shedding Light on Daybreak: Maxfield Parrish’s Painting as a Modern Art Commodity
Margaret Weitekamp (Smithsonian, NASM)
Technology and Aesthetics in the Space Shuttle Orbiter as Represented in Children’s Toys
10:20-10:40 Coffee Break
10:40-12:20 Session 2: Artists use art to describe science/technology
Chair: Jennifer Landry (Chemical Heritage Foundation)
David Bjelajac (George Washington U.)
Mercurial Pigments and the Chymistry of John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark
Bart Hacker, Margaret Vining (Smithsonian, NMAH)
Illustrating War Machinery: Technology Depicted in the Smithsonian Collection of First World War Official Art
Jennifer Raab (Yale U)
Seeing Darwin Through Opera Glasses: Frederic Church’s The Heart of the Andes and Scientific Vision in 1859
Tom Crouch (Smithsonian, NASM)
Charles A.A. Dellschau: An Outsider Artist at the Dawn of the Air Age
12:20-13:10 LUNCH for registrants; food service is available for others in courtyard
13:10-14:50 Session 3: Art influences science/technology
Chair: Carlene Stephens (Smithsonian, NMAH)
Kathleen Franz (American U)
Reverse Engineering: David Macaulay’s Sketchbooks and the Power of Drawing to Re-Imagine Technology
Meghan Doherty (U Wisconsin)
The Engraver’s Burin as Scientific Instrument
Erin McLeary (Chemical Heritage Foundation)
Munsell Color System and some aspect of its development and use as a scientific tool
Ellen Roney Hughes (Smithsonian, NMAH)
The Art of Exercise: How style influenced the form and function of exercise machines from 1830 to 1950.
15:10-16:50 Session 4: Scientists and engineers use art
Chair: Dirk van Delft (Museum Boerhaave)
Ellery Foutch (U Penn)
The Glass Flowers in Harvard’s Natural History Museum
Katherine Ott (Smithsonian, NMAH)
Using Science to Parse the Body: Some Artful Methods for Learning Medicine
Michael Goodman (King’s College, London), Maxwell Boykoff (Oxford University)
The Object Spectaculaire: Reflections on Celebrities and the Changing Materialities of the Environmental Politics of Climate Change
Barney Mergen (George Washington U)
The Kilmer Complex: Artificial Tree Cellular Towers and Landscape Aesthetics
16:50-17:30 Session 5: Recent developments in Artefacts
Chair: Robert Anderson (Cambridge U)
Panelists: Robert Bud, Martin Collins, Barney Finn
19:00 Reception and Dinner for registrants at home of Jane and Barney Finn
TUESDAY, October 7
8:30-8:50 Coffee
8:50-10:10 Session 6: Artists influenced by science/technology to create art
Chair: Peter Jakab (Smithsonian, NASM)
Elizabeth Kessler (Ursinus College)
Retaking the Universe: Contemporary Artists and the Appropriation of Astronomical Images
Christine Mullen Kreamer (Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art)
African Cultural Astronomy and the Arts: a preliminary enquiry
Peggy Kidwell (Smithsonian, NMAH)
The Mathematical Paintings of David Crockett Johnson
10:10-10:30 Coffee Break
10:30-12:10 Session 7: Implications seen in exhibits and collections
Chair:
Klaus Staubermann (National Museums Scotland)
Technology as Art: Collecting Scotland’s Industrial Past
Andrew Nahum (Science Museum)
Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain
Silke Berdux (Deutsches Museum)
Oskar Sala's collection of electronic music as handled in the Deutdsches Museum
Bryan Dewalt Canadian Museum of Science & Technology)
Karsh the Storyteller: Crossing the Art/Technology Divide
12:10-13:10 Session 8: Commentary
Chair: Martin Collins (Smithsonian, NASM)
Commentators:
Anne Goodyear (Smithsonian, SAAM)
Robert Bud (Science Museum)
13:10-13:40 Lunch, for registrants; food service is available for others in courtyard
13:40-15:00 Session 9: State of the museums
Chair: Barney Finn (Smithsonian, NMAH)