Classic book in the art/sci genre

A Cultural History of Physics, by Karoly Simonyi.

"While the physical sciences are a continuously evolving source of technology and of understanding about our world, they have become so specialized and rely on so much prerequisite knowledge that for many people today the divide between the sciences and the humanities seems even greater than it was when C. P. Snow delivered his famous 1959 lecture, "The Two Cultures."

In A Cultural History of Physics, Hungarian scientist and educator Karoly Simonyi succeeds in bridging this chasm by describing the experimental methods and theoretical interpretations that created scientific knowledge, from ancient times to the present day, within the cultural environment in which it was formed. Unlike any other work of its kind, Simonyi's seminal opus explores the interplay of science and the humanities to convey the wonder and excitement of scientific development throughout the ages.

These pages contain an abundance of excerpts from original resources, a wide array of clear and straightforward explanations, and an astonishing wealth of insight, revealing the historical progress of science and inviting readers into a dialogue with the great scientific minds that shaped our current understanding of physics.

Beautifully illustrated, accurate in its scientific content and broad in its historical and cultural perspective, this book will be a valuable reference for scholars and an inspiration to aspiring scientists and humanists who believe that science is an integral part of our culture."

Download an excerpt here. If you happen to have a real copy, consider scanning it for us--it's impossible to find (except for hundreds of dollars--or more--from scalpers on Amazon). It's even expensive on Kindle!

Read another review.

“What would power look like if it were art?”

Jim Mason is a Burning Man and San Francisco Bay area artist. Asking that question led Mason down a path that led to All Power Labs (APL), a $5M a year energy start up sustained entirely by sales.

APL creates biomass gasifiers that produce heat, electricity and biochar from organic debris, creating negative carbon balance in the equation. The company actually aims to reverse the planetary damage done by burning fossil fuels over the past 150 years, moving atmospheric carbon into the soil in a stable form that enhances soil productivity over millennia. The technology is small scale for distributed production at the source of the feedstock, rather than requiring trucking of material to a large megawatt generator, as is our current cultural model...which is only better because some company can make billions that way.

Though APL's aims seem grandiose to the point of delusion, the artists are onto what may be the only solution out there, and the company is growing rapidly both domestically and world-wide.

APL's gasifiers are small, arriving on a pallet, and relatively affordable (if you have $50K and a handy source of biomass to feed it). But now, anyone can get in on the action, and improve their garden (or someone else's) at the same time: the company has borrowed the Community Supported Agriculture model and is offering biochar subscriptions through their new Local Carbon Network. You (or your designees) get periodic bags of this special charcoal shipped to your home (or farm), where you mix it with compost and till it into your soil. Your effort improves the soil productivity, reduces water needs, and banks carbon. It's worth the $25 Indie-Go-Go subscription just to support these visionaries!

Read article.



APL is not the only visionary, artist-led, Burning Man-inspired energy initiative underway.

"Black Rock Solar began its sun-capturing mission at Burning Man 2007, installing a 30-kilowatt solar power array on the playa in keeping with that year’s Green Man theme. After the event, the team donated and moved the installation to Gerlach’s Ernest Johnson Elementary School. The original array was later expanded to 90 kilowatts, providing the school with a third of its power and saving more than $15,000 per year, money that goes toward enrichment programs for the kids.  

Black Rock Solar’s financial model was innovative: use donations and grants to fund solar installations, receive significant solar rebates from Nevada’s electric utility, and use that money to fund more installations. Today, through Black Rock Solar’s efforts, more than 100 schools, non-profits and tribal community buildings, including the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribes schools and facilities along the Route 447 stretch between Fernley and Gerlach are now powered by the sun’s rays."

In 9 years, BRS installed 7.6 megawatts worth of solar systems to generate clean, cheap power in Washoe County, Nevada, and points beyond. So much power, in fact, that the State of Nevada proclaimed Hwy 447 as America's Solar Highway, with more watts of distributed solar per mile than anywhere in the USA (451kW along 75 miles of highway, 17 watts per mile).

With the drop in solar hardware costs and the end of Nevada's incentive programs, Black Rock Solar's financing model was no longer effective; the company recently transitioned into Black Rock Labs, an accelerator for "best-in-class clean-tech innovations particularly suited to the Burning Man culture and in alignment with Burning Man principles. It will select projects that may start by bettering life in Black Rock City, but which can be scaled to serve the whole world."

One of their first efforts is the hexayurt: a simplified disaster relief shelter designed by artists and tested thoroughly on the harsh playa at Burning Man. The structures are simple, cheap, portable, and robust for use in disaster areas and other temporary communities.

More info.

River Restoration Courses

Artists like Daniel McCormick and Mary O'Brien (Watershed Sculpture), and Patricia Johanson construct land art projects engineered to engage with hydrological forces in degraded environments in order to restore ecological function and connect the community with their waterways.

You, too, can learn technical river restoration skills required to effect this kind of land art:

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Dear Friends,

A reminder about a conference and shortcourses in integrated science for river management and restoration, as well as more specialized training in sediment transport as applied to river restoration. The ‘early-bird’ rate has been extended until 22 April for the June shortcourse in Beaumont du Ventoux, France, and is available until 31 May for the July-August courses in Logan, Utah, and near Lake Tahoe, California.

ISRivers: Integrative Sciences and Sustainable Development of Rivers
4-8 June, Lyon FR

Held every three years, IS Rivers brings together researchers and practitioners from across Europe and around the world, encouraging conversations across disciplinary and national boundaries. This year conference includes special sessions on river-city interactions, floodplain restoration, dams and sediments, extreme events, and water governance. (in French and English, with simultaneous translation)

River Restoration: Fluvial-Geomorphic and Ecological Tools
11-15 June 2018, Beaumont du Ventoux, Provence FR

This shortcourse/workshop emphasizes understanding geomorphic process as a sound basis for planning and designing river restoration projects and programs, with specific applications and field visits to Mediterranean and mountain environments. The course draws on innovative process-based river restoration and management experiences in France and elsewhere in the EU, complemented by experiences in North America. Instruction includes lectures, field exercises, and workshops on approaches to planning and implementing process-based restoration. Instructors are drawn from multiple disciplines, and from academia and practice, on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s a great opportunity to make connections with others working on similar issues in different geographic and institutional settings. Held the week after ISRivers, it offers a great opportunity to combine two professional and education experiences in a compelling setting. (in English)

Sediment Transport in Stream Assessment and Design
30 July - 03 Aug 2018, Logan, Utah USA

This course is intended for those who wish to understand and apply the principles of sediment transport to alluvial channel assessment and design. Principles of open channel flow and sediment transport are combined with watershed-scale, hydrologic and sediment source analysis to place channel assessment and design in context. The course balances advance reading, lecture, field work, and hands-on exercises for estimating sediment supply, calculating sediment transport rates, forecasting channel response to water and sediment supply, and channel design. Intended for participants familiar with basic principles of river geomorphology (such as from the Beaumont or Sagehen courses). Instructors are drawn from both research and practice. Continuing Education Units for the course offered by Utah State University.

Geomorphic and Ecological Fundamentals for River and Stream Restoration
6-10 August 2018, Truckee, California USA

This five-day introductory course emphasizes understanding geomorphic and ecological process as a sound basis for planning and designing river restoration, covering general principles and case studies from a wide range of environments, and includes field measurements, mapping, interpretation, field trips to the Truckee River and streams in the Lake Tahoe Basin, and workshops on stream restoration problems faced by participants. Now in its 24th successful year, the course is held at Sagehen Creek Field Station, combining a beautiful natural setting with excellent research and facilities, such as an outdoor classroom, stream table to demonstrate channel adjustments, on-site laboratory, and Sagehen Creek itself, with its rich history of research in fluvial geomorphology and ecology. Instructors are drawn from multiple disciplines, and from both research and practice.

If you have questions, please contact us at river.restoration.sagehen@gmail.com

What's really wrong with Facebook?

Apologies for diverging toward politics, but recent events illuminate how desperately we need to re-engage the arts with science, and how few of the people running things are clued into this need. So get out there and explain it to them, people!



Mark Zuckerberg's performance before Congress this week makes me want to punch him right in the forehead. Again and again, he crashes through our culture like a bull in a china shop, offering nothing but tepid apologies and weak, floral pronouncements about how all he really wants to do is Buy The World A Coke (TM). He has literally nothing else to offer every time his company finds itself at the center of yet another unprecedented cultural calamity. He has proven himself utterly incompetent to deal with the forces he is messing with, but won't get out of the way, either.

Unfortunately, Congress isn't much better and doesn't seem to know what to think about the whole mess, either. They weakly wring their hands and tell Zuckerberg he needs to do better, hoping the willful infant somehow figures out a way to control himself and his company, in spite of zero incentive to stop the wrecking ball swinging.

You know what I desperately wanted to hear someone ask during these hearings?

"Mr. Zuckerberg, how many humanists and philosophers does your company employ? Is there anyone on your staff even remotely qualified to explore the moral issues surrounding the technology you continue to fling out into the world without apparent thought or consideration? 

And, aside from that benefit, wouldn't hiring some people from the arts and humanities go a long way toward addressing the Silicon Valley diversity crisis you acknowledge, but refuse to actually address?"

/soapbox 

Ohio River water quality/art project

As an artist I entered the project with the hopes of being inspired by something that would lead to a visual expression. I wanted my "research" to be creative and I allowed it to unfold as a series of related but diverse information gathering excursions.

Electrofishing with Chris [Lorentz, Professor of Biology, Thomas More College] gave me an understanding of the amazing ecosystem of the river itself. Next I met with the Ohio River foundation and talked about the main causes of pollution in the river. In 2015 there was a 500 mile long algae bloom on the river, and this phenomena captured my creative imagination as a subject to focus my goals. I did research about the documented history of industrial pollution on the river, and at the public library found an especially amazing photograph of the Cincinnati river bank from the 19th century.

In the photo you can clearly see the sewage run off exiting buildings at the rivers edge. In this small section of the photo you can see the open sewer ditch. The photo was taken in 1848 and the next year a cholera epidemic swept the city.

In my design courses, I try to get students to become more sensitive to color and shape as tools to shape an environment. For the algal bloom project, I met with a select group of talented students and we talked about the algal bloom as an experience, something immersive and expressive, so that we might find a way to personify it visually.

First we decided on a shape quality and the beginning of a color system. These decisions were based on principles of good design married to the specific attributes of the algal bloom. Here is a first small hand painted design. In this painting, we stuck to the literal blue green color scheme and used a botanical motif. The rectangle itself is a golden rectangle and the shapes are interacting with further golden ratio divisions within the larger rectangle.

Although this initial design is very interesting to look at, it does not embody the voracious life cycle and disruptive quality of the bloom. We took the initial painting and spent a long time working with it on the computer, mirroring and multiplying the design across a larger expanse. We changed the color to be more perceptually intense, and further intensified the relationship between the botanical shapes and the internal geometry of the design. The final design is here:

We hosted the NCBDS conference on the beginning design student here at UC a couple weeks ago, and I presented the project and printed the poster at a large scale.

I would love to display it more, either virtually or physically, Do you know of any opportunities? I have a file that can be printed at various scales, and it is a really exciting/immersive visual experience.

Cheers!

Emil Robinson
emil.robinson@gmail.com

ps I can send better quality files if needed