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)