Science Lush

The Lush List 8/19/15: Raw Science TV and Netflix's Project Mc2

Project Mc2 Dolls + A Netflix Show = A Winning Formula

So sorry about the pun...couldn't help myself!

But that's just because I'm excited and intrigued by the new Project Mc2 dolls, described on their Toys R Us listing as "a team of four super-smart and seriously cool girls who use their love of science and their spy skills as they go on missions for secret organization, NOV8™ (that's "innovate"!)."

For once, I'm hoping that the copy lives up to its promise. The dolls also come with experiment kits, such as the DIY volcano that comes with the Adrienne Attoms doll.  

The toy launch is accompanied by an original, live-action Netflix series of the same name, starring Ysa Panerojo ("Camryn Coyle"), Victoria Vida ("Adrienne Attoms"), Mika Abdalla ("McKeyla McAlister") and Genneya Walton ("Bryden Bandweth"). Writing credits so far include Katiedid Langrock and Jordana Arkin (Melissa & Joey, Significant Others), and the show's Executive Producers include AwesomenessTV's Brian Robbins and Shauna Phelan, both of whom have tons of experience creating content for young audiences. According to an article on Fortune.com, additional Project Mc2 content will be featured on AwesomenessTV, DreamworksTV and YouTube. 

 
Official trailer for Project Mc2 Netflix series

It's hard to believe that this STEM-oriented brand comes from MGA Entertainment, the same company that brought us the Bratz dolls. But Isaac Larian, CEO of MGA, has a personal connection to the Project Mc2 brand. He studied civil engineering at California Polytechnic State University, and according to the Fortune.com piece, was surprised to find that even now, women make up only about 15% of the class. Additionally, he was inspired by his daughter, an entrepreneur. He hopes the show and the product line will encourage other young girls to follow in her footsteps and become innovators. From Fortune.com:   

Larian thinks that by targeting girls in elementary school and early middle school, Project Mc² will impart a pro-STEM message to girls, as well as boys and families, that much sooner. The dolls are targeted to girls ages 6 through 10, while the series demo is targeted to ages 6 through 13.

“Hopefully, this is just the beginning. We’d like to expand the project even further. Because if you’re [studying STEM] and your girlfriend is doing it, and your sister is doing it, how long before everyone is doing it, and then STEM becomes cool?” Larian says.

If you're looking for an alternative to Barbie dolls or the next show for those kids who have grown out of Odd Squad or Miles From Tomorrowland, Project Mc2 is definitely worth checking out.  

h/t: Fellow Sciren Taryn O'Neill 

Raw Science Film Festival is Now Open for Entries

The 2nd Annual Raw Science Film Festival, which features films on science and technology, is now taking entries for the December 5th, 2015 event. This year's theme is "Virtual Reality." 

You can find all the entry details here, but here's an overview of the main things to know: 

• The festival accepts both fiction and non-fiction films
• Both students and professionals can submit and will compete in different categories based on a combo of length and format. 
• The festival has some very cool judges from the worlds of science and entertainment, including Bill Nix (AMPAS, “The Prophet"), Paul Hynek (Giant Studios - LOTR, Avatar), Joel Hynek (Visual Effects - The Matrix), Liz Keim (The Exploratorium), Hussain Currimbhoy (Sundance Institute), Iram Parveen Bilal (Josh, The PhD Movie) and Rick Loverd (The Science & Entertainment Exchange). Kip Thorne will judge the“Kip Thorne Gravity Award." 
• The submission deadline is November 6, 2015. 

The festival is presented by Raw Science TV, an online network that produces and distributes on-demand videos, news and original programming about science and technology. Entrants should note that according to the festival rules, all finalists and winners grant Raw Science the right to air their “Winning Entries” on Raw Science NETWORKS for 12 months. If you have exclusivity agreements with other entities, I suggest contacting the festival before entering to find out more details and find out if it's an issue. 

For more information on the festival, click here. Need some inspiration? Read about last year's winners, or watch this video of 3D Systems designing and creating the first ever Raw Science Film Festival Awards for the 2014 event and imagine it taking up some room on your shelf. 

3D Systems Creates the Raw Science Film Fest Trophy

 

 

 

Science Fact and Science Fiction in 'Jurassic World'

If there’s anything Jack Horner wants you to know, it’s that “Birds ARE dinosaurs.”

Earlier this week, my fellow Sciren Taryn O’Neill and I attended a special event at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles where the enthusiastic paleontologist, who has served as a science consultant on all the Jurassic Park films, talked about the real science behind the science fiction in the upcoming Jurassic World. Horner is a professor at Montana State University and curator of paleontology at The Museum of the Rockies. He has personally named twelve dinosaurs and is reknowned for his work with the the Maiasaura and his study of their nesting behaviors.

Paleontologist Jack Horner participates in a "Jurassic World" Q&A
at the Natural History Museumin Los Angeles, CA (Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Jurassic World, the latest installment of the movie series, takes place twenty-two years after the disastrous events of Jurassic Park. Founder John Hammond’s dream has been realized and a full-fledged dino-theme park now flourishes on Isla Nublar, an island off the coast of Costa Rica. Attendees at the luxury resort can experience everything from Sea World-like aquatic performances by a shark-eating Mosasaurus to a petting zoo where kids can ride on mini-Triceratops to (supposedly) safe viewings of dinosaurs roaming the park in a contained manner.

You’d think this would be enough to keep people coming back again and again to the Jurassic World theme park, but after several years in operation, the novelty of seeing real dinosaurs has begun to wear off. To foster return visits and keep the dollars flowing, geneticist Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong) has been charged with engineering new, genetically modified dinosaurs. And just like a movie sequel, he’s been given the directive to go Bigger and Better. Enter Indominus rex, a massive, mysterious new breed whose capacities are still unknown.

Nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?  

We’ll leave the official reviews of Jurassic World to the movie critics. We Scirens were at the Natural History Museum to hear from Horner about the plausibility of the creation of a real-life Jurassic World. Because seeing a dinosaur up close would be pretty damn incredible!

And that brings us back to birds. “Things we think of as ‘birdlike,’ dinosaurs invented first," said Horner. The paleontologist believes that the ancestral relationship between birds and dinosaurs becomes clear when instead of looking at their differences, we look at their similarities, which include feathers, three-toed feet and hollow bones.

Owen (CHRIS PRATT) attempts to keep the raptors at bay in “Jurassic World”.
Notice the number of toes...

He’s currently working on developing a “Chickenosaurus” aka “Dino-chicken.” His approach is much like that of cancer researchers who study when and how certain genes are turned on and off. Ostensibly, birds carry ancestral dinosaur DNA. By looking at the living DNA in a bird embryo and attempting to figure out when certain characteristics are suppressed, the hope is that scientists will then be able to reverse that process and turn them back on, transforming wings into arms and hands, or engineering a bird with a tail.

Just a few weeks ago, the journal Evolution published the findings of a team from Yale and Harvard who created a chicken embryo with a dinosaur-like snout and palate. Said Horner, “That’s a proof of concept. We know we can do it.”

Sciren Tamara Krinsky contemplates reverse-engineering birds to give them a dino-tail
at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.

When asked if chickens had any special properties that made them the best candidates for this kind of research, Horner laughed, responding, “It doesn't really matter what bird you use, once we have the technology. Chickens are the most available.”

Dino-engineering techniques are one of several ways that the Jurassic movies take liberties with science fact in order to serve the storytelling. In the original film, the dinosaurs were created transgenically - pieces of dinosaur DNA recovered from preserved mosquitos were combined with frog DNA to make the prehistoric creatures. According to Horner, this is actually not possible in real life because dinosaur DNA just doesn’t last that long – it basically starts coming apart as soon as a cell dies. That’s why he’s using the reverse-engineering technique for his Chickenosaurus project instead.

Fact and fiction also parted ways on the first Jurassic Park movie when Horner and director Steven Speilberg had some arguments about what the dinosaurs should look like. Horner wanted them to be more true to life - colorful and feathered - “But Steven had a good point that Technicolor dinosaurs just aren't as scary.”

Even though the public might now be willing to accept (and be terrified by) more brightly hued, feathered creatures, the dinosaurs that appear in Jurassic World retain the coloration and textures of those in the previous films. Explained Horner, “Jurassic World and Jurassic Park are all one story. We cloned them in '93, so they need to look the same. We need consistency across the one story. We can always make the excuse that we didn’t have complete DNA. They used frog DNA [in Jurassic Park] and frogs don't have feathers.”

There were no arguments on set about what the dinosaurs should sound like. After all, what would a scary movie about prehistoric creatures on the loose be without their terrifying roars echoing through the jungle? Even though all were on board regarding the dino-vocalizations, Horner admitted that the sound effects were a product of filmmaking imagination, as scientists don’t actually know what dinosaurs really sounded like. “We have them growling and making all kinds of noises [in the film], but I have no idea if they made any of those kinds of sounds.”

One thing that Horner is fairly certain about is the effect that the Jurassic Park movies have had on the real life study of dinosaurs. He said, “Before Jurassic Park came out, I had a few students and they were all guys. After the first two movies, I had a flood of students and it was [an equal gender split] 50/50.”

We Scirens met this statement with a roar of approval, for it supports our hypothesis that science-infused entertainment can be a gateway drug to a deeper dive into STEM topics in real life.

Jurassic World opens in theaters in the United States on June 12^th, 2015.

Marvel's Ant-Man Micro-Tech Challenge

I love it when creative, imaginary life supports STEM action in real life! Last week I talked about the new scholarship named for The Big Bang Theory established to support low-income students at UCLA pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This week, I'm excited to spread the word about another entertainment entity encouraging STEM education: Marvel's Ant Man Micro-Tech Challenge.  

The contest is designed to inspire and encourage scientifically-minded young women, and the winners will receive a trip to the Hollywood premiere of Marvel's Ant-Man, meetings with innovators from Walt Disney Imagineers, and a tour of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA, as well as a leadership role in a local workshop focused on building their creation.

Want in on the action? Here's more information from the contest site: 

MARVEL, DOLBY LABORATORIES, VISA, and RASPBERRY PI are looking nationwide for girls – just like you – ages 14-18 in grades 9-12 to create and share micro-technology based DIY projects they have built using readily accessible and found materials. Upon completion of the contest, build instructions for the winning projects will be provided to a STEM based girls program in the winners’ home community. Each winner will have the opportunity to lead a workshop in building her project for the selected program in her community.

Each MARVEL’S ANT-MAN: MICRO-TECH CHALLENGE applicant will design and build a DIY project using at least one inexpensive and readily available micro-technology component of her choosing. Projects can be utilitarian, artistic, or just plain fun.

After completing their projects, applicants will be asked to submit a short video demonstrating the projects and explaining how their projects will inspire other girls to pursue interests in science, technology, engineering, or math.

While the trip to LA is super-cool, one of the things I really love about the way this contest is structured is the hometown community element, where each winner's project will be featured in a local girls' workshop. There is a lot of talk about the "leaky pipeline" when it comes to girls and their interest in STEM, as they gravitate away from STEM education and careers at different stages of their lives. In "Fixing the 'Leaky Pipeline' of Women in Science and Math," Suzanne Bouffard looks at Nilanjana Dasgupta and Jane Stout's research on the topic. She writes: 

During childhood and adolescence, girls internalize stereotypes from parents, peers, and the overall culture that STEM courses and careers are for boys. It is telling that boys are more interested in STEM activities than girls by age 10, well before performance differences emerge, because the pattern suggests that interests drive the performance differences, not the other way around. Studies show that girls tend to value communal goals like collaboration, altruism, and social problems, and they often don’t see the many ways that STEM careers can target these goals.

Dasgupta and Stout recommend that schools, community institutions, and parents:

• Make STEM activities more personally meaningful to girls’ lives
• Show links between STEM careers and communal goals
• Expose girls to more female role models through museums, after school programs, and summer camps.

Kudos to Marvel's Ant-Man Micro-Tech Challenge for attempting to patch up the pipeline in several ways, including engaging high school girls in a project about which they are personally passionate, creating a community of winners with the group trip to LA, and turning the girls themselves into role models for other young women when they return home and lead their project workshops.

Applications will be accepted until 9:00pm PDT, June 11th, 2015. For contest rules and requirements, head over to www.ant-manchallenge.com. 

H/T: Superherohype.com

 

 

 

The Lush List 5/28/15: Sci-Fest LA, Big Bang Theory STEM Scholarships and Boldly Go!

It's  busy week here in LA for science-infused entertainment! Or is that entertainment-infused science? You decide...

2nd Annual Sci-Fest LA

We're all used to seeing science fiction on screen, where futures both utopian and apocalyptic are often realized with the help of extensive special effects. It's much harder to bring the future to life when dealing with the limitations of live theater. But that's just what Sci-Fest LA is all about! This annual theater festival is comprised of new, one-act plays developed exclusively for the stage, challenging its writers, directors and cast members to find creative solutions in sharing these sci-fi stories.

The festival features two full programs of one-acts, including ACCESS, in which I'll be performing. The shows range from dramatic pieces to comedy to one of the very first plays to ever feature a cyborg. As a special treat, there's even a Sci-Fi Radio Theater, featuring performers from beloved genre TV shows, including Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13), David H. Lawrence, XVII (Heroes), Armin Shimerman (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Tim Russ (Star Trek: Voyager) and Patricia Tallman (Babylon 5).

Sci-Fest LA plays at the ACME Theater in Hollywood on La Brea Blvd, and closes on May 31st, 2015. For tickets and more information: Sci-Fest LA.

 

Making a Big Bang for Education

The Big Bang Theory isn't just a show about scientists - it's now a show that is aiming to help create them. As reported in Variety, the CBS series co-creator and executive producer Chuck Lorre's family foundation has announced the establishment of "The Big Bang Theory" Scholarship Endowment at UCLA. 

The fund — the first-ever UCLA scholarship created by, and named for, a television series — will support undergraduate students in need of financial aid who are pursuing their higher education in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at UCLA.

“The Big Bang Theory” Scholarships will be awarded based on financial need to low-income students who have earned admission to UCLA based on academic merit but need additional support to bridge the gap between typical levels of financial aid and the cost of attendance. 

The fund has raised over $4 million to date through a combo of the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation and donations from the cast and others involved with the show. 

The "I'm not a real scientist, I just play one on TV" joke has been played out to death over the years. I love the idea that a fictional world will now foster scientific learning in the real one. Perhaps we'll have to change the dialogue to, "I'm not a real scientist, I just FUND one on TV." 

Boldly Go!

On the other side of town, a group of folks from the California Institute of Technology are showing their dramatic sides in Boldly Go!, a parody based on Star Trek. The two-act original musical was written by brothers Grant Remmen [PhD Candidate, Hertz/NSF Fellow, Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, Caltech] and Cole Remmen, a theater major at the University of Minnesota. It's being directed by Brian Brophy. 

Here's the official synopsis of the show, per the Theater Arts Caltech website:

The United Federation of Planets encounters a grave threat from an unknown source. The Starship Enterprise, with its intrepid crew – Captain Kirk, Spock, Doctor McCoy, Nurse Chapel, Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, and Sulu – is dispatched to investigate, going to the very edge of the Neutral Zone. Along the way, they encounter a mysterious alien scientist named Takya, for whom Spock finds himself emotionally susceptible.

We also meet a nerdy and surprisingly human-like Klingon named Kharthak, who believes the sinister Klingon Empire could aspire to something greater. In the ensuing tale, the Enterprise faces its greatest challenge yet.

Assumptions will be confronted, paradigms challenged, alliances tested, and new contacts made – whether for good or ill as yet to be seen. And it’s all set to a side-splitting tour de force of musical mayhem!

While you'll have to wait until 2016 to see a full production of the show, you can catch a "sneak peek" public staged reading on May 28, 2015. The cast will do a reading of the script, plus perform selected songs from the show. Click here for performance details. 

 

 

 

2014 Science Lovers Gift Guide (with a STEAM twist)

Christmas lights are up, menorah lights are flickering and far too many of us are scrambling for last minute gift ideas. If you've got a science lover on your hands, here are a few suggestions for STEM-related presents with an artsy, S'Lush-style twist. 

 

FOR THE KIDDO: SCIENCE & LIT

Rachel Poliquin over at Science Friday has recommended "Five Books Guaranteed to Make Kids Love Science." I'm betting these inventive picture books will be just as enticing to the parents who purchase them.  

 

• Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman (Flying Eye Books): "Both modern in its scientific spirit and with a sensibility modeled after the delightful mid-century children’s books from the Golden Age of space exploration, it tickles young readers — as well as their space-enchanted parents — into precisely that “palpable zest to make contact with the cosmos." (Brain Pickings) 
  
  
• Shackleton’s Journey, by William Grill (Flying Eye Books). One of the New York Times Best Illustrated Books of 2014. "This is a book that will appeal to adult art lovers, picture book fans and history buffs (of which, I fall into all three categories), children and adult alike. The book’s large format gives ample space for detailed colored pencil illustrations and the perfect pacing for such a fascinating journey." (The Eric Carle Museum)
  
  
• Animalium (Welcome to the Museum), by Katie Scott and Jenny Broom (Candlewick Press): "Designed to mimic the experience of visiting a natural history museum, this elegant, eye-catching volume explores the animal kingdom through gorgeously detailed pen-and-ink illustrations that resemble vintage taxonomical plates. ... It’s easy to imagine these exquisite images hanging in the gilded hallways of a museum, but unlike a museum, readers can take this experience along with them." (Publisher's Weekly review)
  
  
• Infographics: Human Body, by Peter Grundy and Simon Rogers (Candlewick Press): Complex facts about the human body are reinterpreted as stylish infographics, which astonish, amuse and inform by turn. Researched by the Guardian's Datablog expert and designed by the father of infographics, Peter Grundy. (Amazon description)
  
  
• The Worm, by Elise Gravel (Tundra Books): The second in a series of humorous books about disgusting creatures, The Worm is a look at the earthworm. It covers such topics as the worm's habitats (sometimes they live inside other animals), its anatomy (its muscle tube is slimy and gross), and its illustrious history (worms have been on earth for 120 million years). (Amazon description)
   

DECK THE WALLS: SCIENCE & ILLUSTRATION

Deck the walls with these fun illustrated prints from Rachel Ignotofsky! Her pieces feature whimsical takes on everything from the anatomy of cells to lab equipment. My favorite set is probably her "Women in Science" collection, which currently features Marie Curie, Valentina Tereshkova, Jane Goodall, Patricia Bath and Rosalind Franklin. 

On her site, Ignotofsky says of the collection, "I wanted to celebrate the accomplishments of these women and hope to inspire curiosity in young women to ask questions about the world we live in and be the one who finds out the answers." 

You can find the Women in Science prints here, and browse the rest of her collection through her Etsy shop. 

 

RING IT IN WITH BLING: SCIENCE & DESIGN

Although it hasn't been scientifically proven that jewelry is the way to a woman's heart, a li'l shiny shiny for the holidays is almost guaranteed to bring a sparkle to the eyes of the recipient. 

Love this handmade copper bracelet with etched periodic table from Hardware Designs! Additional design options include circuit boards, as well as an aluminum cuff featuring binary numbers (via PopSugar). 

 
Anatomology's science-inspired jewelry includes earrings and necklaces inspired by DNA, synapsing neurons and the molecular structure of caffeine (seen above).  

 

DRAMATIC GIFTING: SCIENCE & THEATER

Give a friend or family member something to look forward to in 2015 with tickets to a technology or science-infused theater production. 

Constellations
Playwright: Nick Payne
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
New York, NY
January 13 - March 15, 2015

"A change in font equals a change in universes." 

If you're a sucker for love and physics (and the latter as a metaphor for the former), this is a show you'll appreciate. Playwright Nick Payne's play premiered at London's Royal Court and is now in New York City playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. Oh, and it's starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson (THE AFFAIR), which means if you're interested, try to get tixx asap.  

From The New Yorker's review of the London run: 

Here, under a canopy of white variegated helium balloons that look like a galaxy of stars, Payne conjures the notion of a “multiverse” where “several outcomes can coexist simultaneously,” as Marianne (the petite, piquant Sally Hawkins) says. She happens to be a theoretical physicist who is in the process of being seduced by Roland (the charming Rafe Spall). She goes on: “In the quantum multiverse, every choice, every decision you’ve ever made and never made exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes.” “This is genuinely turning me on,” Roland says. 

 

Mr. Wolf (World Premiere)
Playwright: Rajiv Joseph
South Coast Repertory
Costa Mesa, CA
April 18-May 3, 2015

Mr. Wolf (Image: South Coast Repertory)

Theresa is 17 years old, and she can map out the solar system. She understands the universe—how and why it came to be. She owes all that to a man named Mr. Wolf. Now the only life she has ever known is coming to an end. She’s being taken away—turned over to people who are strangers to her. How can they possibly understand her needs, when they seem to be lost, too?

 

stop. reset.
Playwright/Director: Regina Taylor
Goodman Theatre
Chicago, IL
May 23 - June 21, 2015

As e-books and digital technologies transform the literary world, Chicago businessman Alex Ames must confront the likely demise of his long-standing African-American book publishing company. While his employees fret over losing their jobs, Alex finds unlikely inspiration from a mysterious teenager, whose inventive, forward-thinking ideas may provide the solution to preserving Alex's legacy. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lush List 9/8/14: AxS Festival, Marjorie Prime at the Taper and Planets at the Hollywood Bowl

While technically the summer isn't over for a few weeks, there's that back-to-school feeling in the air. Perhaps that's the reason there are all sorts of exciting science-infused cultural happenings popping up!

Marjorie Prime

This year the Mark Taper Forum kicks its season off with the play MARJORIE PRIME by playwright Jordan Harrison. Directed by Les Waters, the play will run from September 10th – October 19th. I’m intrigued by the Taper’s description: In the age of artificial intelligence, how do you compute the reality of loss and keep your loved ones from becoming a distant memory?

Jeff Ward, Lois Smith, Lisa Emery and Frank Wood on the first day of rehearsal for MARJORIE PRIME. 
Photo by Craig Schwartz, courtesy of Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. 

In addition to the compelling subject matter, I'm also excited to see this play because the cast features one of my favorite actresses, Lois Smith. I’ve been lucky enough to see her do some amazing theater, and she's been in a ton of classic films (her first part onscreen was in EAST OF EDEN!), but she may be more recognizable to newer audiences from her roles in TRUE BLOOD and MINORITY REPORT. In an interview in the Playbill for the show, she was asked what about Harrison’s play resonated with her the most:

“The way he deals with memory and with family and in a way, eternity. There is a certain delicacy about it. [The characters] are, like a piece of music or a book, in terms of human endeavors, they are human inventions, trying to encapsulate meaning. Just the delicacy with which he tackles something. I’d never seen that before."

The Planets: An HD Odyssey

If you didn't get enough of the heavenly bodies on International Observe the Moon night this past Saturday, the Hollywood Bowl is giving you a grand second opportunity on Tuesday, September 9th. Images from NASA and JPL rovers and satellites, as well as computer-generated graphics of the Mars landing, will accompany a performance of Holst's PLANETS. The suite has seven movements, each named after a planet and its corresponding astrological character:

1. Mars, the Bringer of War (00:00 - 07:21)
2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace (07:22 - 15:59);
3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger (16:00 - 19:51);
4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (19:52 - 27:49);
5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age (27:50 - 36:31);
6. Uranus, the Magician (36:32 - 42:14)
7. Neptune, the Mystic (42:15 - 49:01).

And if for some reason you're not awed by what you see onscreen, all you have to do is tilt your head back and look up at the sky. I can't wait for this evening of beautiful music under the stars! Now I just need to figure out what kind of picnic to pack...

Conductor: Andrè Previn & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

AxS Festival 2014: Curiosity

So, so excited about this two-week festival taking place in Pasadena, CA, from September 19th - October 5th. AxS [ak-sis], produced by the Pasadena Arts Council, "explores the nexus of artistic and scientific inquiry, promoting experimentation and cross-fertilization between these disciplines."

So what does that mean exactly? A whole bunch of really cool events that merge science with architecture, new media, visual art, music and theater, along with some super-smart, creative people having conversations about it all. You can check out the full schedule; below are a few of the events I'm particularly looking forward to.* For specific date, time and ticket info for each of them, see the individual event pages. 

• EVELINA DOMNITCH & DMITRY GELFAND/ LUCKY DRAGONS: Amsterdam-based art-science artists Domnitch and Gelfand will join experimental music group Lucky Dragons for performance, science and art, live music,video projections and collaborative sound art. Domnitch and Gelfand’s 10,000 PEACOCK FEATHERS IN FOAMING ACID uses laser light to scan the surfaces of soap bubble clusters. Unlike ordinary light, the laser’s focused beam is capable of crawling through the micro and nano structures within a bubble’s skin. When aimed at specific angles, this penetrating light generates a large-scale projection of molecular interactions as well as mind-boggling phenomena of non-linear optics. Bubble behaviors viewed in such proximity evoke the dynamics of living cells (the lipid membranes of which are direct chemical descendants of soap film). And then for a deeper dive into Domnitch and Gelfand's process, head to QUANTUM SENSITIVITY:A Talk with Domnitch & Gelfand, at which the artists discuss their immersive works which merge physics, chemistry and computer science with uncanny philosophical practices. Addressing the very thresholds of scientific insight, these endeavors explore the slippery frontier where quantum behavior arises on a human scale. 
  
  
• MARKO PELJHAN: Arctic Lab: A trip to see the glaciers is on my bucket list, so this project caught my eye. Artist/scientist Peljhan will discuss the Arctic Perspective Initiative, an art/science/tactical media project focused on the global significance of the Arctic geopolitical, natural and cultural spheres. And did I mention that Peljhan has also been the flight director of ten parabolic experimental flights in collaboration with the Microgravity Interdisciplinary Research initiative and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, creating conditions for artists to work in alternating gravity conditions? Fascinating stuff I'd like to hear more about.
   
• SOL PATH: Having been on site as part of the NASA Social program for the Curiosity landing, I still feel an affinity for all things rover-related. Sol Path was inspired by the exploratory path that the Mars Rover takes over the course of a Martian day and developed in residency at JPL. It explores the intricate interactions between an Earth-bound team of explorers and a robotic space lab as it searches for signs of life. By composer/cognitive scientist Bruno Louchouarn, with live performance by viola soloist Brett Deubner and immersive multimedia platform by Adam Larsen.
  
  
• Pasadena Arts Council has commissioned arts collective Machine Project to re-imagine the Pasadena landmark Gamble House through a variety of interactive events. I think my favorite on the list is POETS IN CLOSETS, where poets read a single poem to one audience member at a time in the Gamble House’s walk-in closet. It’s like a literary twist on 7 Minutes in Heaven. Or what I like to imagine might be a lost scene from Downton Abbey.
  
  
• COPENHAGEN: I was lucky enough to see the original Broadway production of Michael Frayn’s Tony-award-winning play in which German physicist Werner Heisenberg and Danish physicist Niels Bohr (and Bohr’s wife Margrethe) meet in 1941 to debate physics, politics, love and betrayal, while cautiously dancing toward the detonation of the fission bomb. In this special presentation from theater company A Noise Within, the always engaging Caltech physicist and author Sean Carroll offers an engaging, pre-show mini-lecture on the origins of the universe, and the cast will do a post-show discussion on the themes of the play.
  
  
• ALICE THROUGH THE WORMHOLE OR WHAT’S THIS WONDERLAND UP TO? You all know I’m a sucker for good theater, so not surprising that I’ve chosen to highlight not just one, but two theatrical endeavors from the festival. This is described as a work-in-progress of a wild, original musical take on Alice through the Caltech Universe.
  
  
• KPCC will be hosting several events in conjunctinon with AxS at the Crawford Family Forum, including MAKERS: WOMEN IN SPACE. This segment of the six-part PBS documentary series from Executive Producers Dyllan McGee & Peter Kunhardt profiles the impact women have had over the past 50 years. Following the film, Joanne Griffith will interview Rev. Dr. Bear Ride on the life and legacy of her sister, the late Dr. Sally Ride — the first U.S. woman in space.   

*Event descriptions that accompany my comment provided by AxS.

 

 

 

The Lush List: National DNA Day, Warhol and the Commodore Amiga, Net Neutrality

NATIONAL DNA DAY

Friday, April 25th is National DNA Day, which commemorates the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003, and the discovery of DNA's double helix. The National Human Genome Institute (NHGI) has all kinds of ways to celebrate and participate on their website.

One of the highlights is the American Society of Human Genetics Essay Contest. The 2014 winner is Rachel Gleyzer, a 10th grader from Hackensack, NJ, who wrote about the role genetics and the environment play in absolute pitch, "a person's ability to accurately and instantly identify a musical tone's pitch." As a recovering musical theater major who struggled through music theory classes, I'd love to finally have something besides my bad ear to blame for my difficulty with sightreading.

I love that her biology teacher, Carol Zepatos, emphasized the fact that "It's very important that good scientists are good communicators." Along with my fellow Scirens, I'm participating in the LIVE CosmoQuest Hangoutathon this Saturday at 12pm PDT to raise money for the virtual research center whose goal is to provide anyone with an interest in space the opportunity to partner with scientists using NASA data to explore the Solar System. One of the things we'll be talking about are communication skills and ways that scientists can better use the media for both education and outreach to the general public.

Of course, my favorite hero of DNA Day is Rosalind Franklin, whose research was crucial to the discovery of the helical structure of DNA. Sadly, she did not win the Nobel Prize in 1962  along with James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, as she passed away at the young age of 37 in 1958. The Nobel Prize can only be awarded to the living; had she been alive at the time, one can only hope her work would have been recognized. For more on Franklin, check out the following books and plays:

-Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
-Rosalind Franklin and DNA by Anne Sayre
-Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler

 
COMMODORE AMIGA'S 15 MINUTES OF FAME
Back in the mid-1980s, Andy Warhol created a series of images, doodles and photos on the Commodore Amiga home computer. Until now, the only record of these were was an image of Blondie's Debby Harry that's part of a collection at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

But then YouTube came to the rescue!

New media artist Cory Arcangel saw a clip of Warhol from 1985. In the video, Warhol is at the Commodore Amiga's promotional launch event where he's working on the image of Harry.

As described in the press release from the Andy Warhol Museum:  

During Arcangel’s November 2011 visit to Pittsburgh for his exhibition Masters, at Carnegie Museum of Art, he followed up on this topic with curator Tina Kukielski.  Kukielski, who was also a co-curator of the 2013 Carnegie International, subsequently joined the Hillman Photography Initiative at CMOA.  Kukielski and Arcangel reached out to CMU’s Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, run by Golan Levin, who connected them both to the CMU Computer Club, which is a student organization known for their comprehensive collection of obsolete computer hardware, as well as their prize-winning retro-
computing software development.

In 2011, Matt Wrbican, chief archivist at The Warhol, was approached by Arcangel and Kukielski to discuss the possibility of searching for files on the disks which he first saw in Warhol’s former New York City studio in 1991.  Having himself been an Amiga user, he shared their enthusiasm for the hunt for images.

Andy Warhol. Venus. 1985. Courtesy of the Andy Warhol Museum.

In a statement, the Warhol’s Director Eric Shiner said, “Warhol saw no limits to his art practice. These computer generated images underscore his spirit of experimentation and his willingness to embrace new media – qualities which, in many ways, defined his practice from the early 1960s onwards.”

[Initial Source: The Verge]

NET NEUTRALITY UPDATE

I hope you like reading my posts. Wouldn't it suck if it took forever for my page to load in your browser, or if the videos that I shared with you took too long to play? Well, that could be the new harsh reality because of this week's decision by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to allow companies to essentially purchase a pass to the fast lane on the Internet.

Basically, it means that if a company has the money, they can pay for their content to get to consumers faster. Which pretty much puts an end to a free, open and democratic internet. Because we're all busy and impatient, which means that if something takes too long to load, we click away from it. There's no way the little guys can compete against huge corporations that have the dough to purchase their fast pass. It also means that the costs for those fast passes may make their way to the consumer. 

Or, as explained in this piece in The Guardian:

Consider: an ISP like, say, Time Warner Cable, tells, say, Google that its YouTube videos won't reach us at the, say, "gold package" speed we've already paid for ... unless Google, too, pays a gold-standard fee. That is nothing short of a protection racket, run by a company that has little or no competition. In an actually competitive market, an ISP couldn't conceivably get away with such a thing.

Not everything about the proposed rules, as leaked, is awful. Forcing ISPs to be much more transparent about the level of service they actually provide, for example, is highly useful. Getting them to comply honestly, given their record, is another story.

As an independent content creator, this is an issue that is extremely important to me. I'll continue posting thoughts and information about it. And if you need some background or want to take action, a good place to start is the article quoted above, which breaks down the situation and recommends several things to do in response.

Video: An Interview with Sci-Fest Founder David Dean Bottrell

Hi folks! 

Going to try something new...bringing video to the blog! I've always loved writing about cool events and projects that bring art and science together, but I thought it would be fun to actually talk to some of the people who are making those projects happen. 

For my very first Science Lush vlog, I interview David Dean Bottrell, one of the founders of Sci-Fest, the first annual Los Angeles science fiction one-act play festival. The festival will launch in May 2014. An actor and screenwriter, David has appeared on BOSTON LEGAL, MAD MEN, TRUE BLOOD and iCARLY, among others. We talk about everything from his childhood comic book obsession to the challenges of bringing science fiction to an audience without the benefits of CGI. 

A word about the vlog:
Science Lush (the show) is definitely a work in progress, so thanks for going on the ride with me as I figure this all out! We'll be trying bunch of different things - sometimes I'll shoot on location, sometimes I'll be broadcasting from my super-fancy dining room studio (like in this episode). I'll also be playing around with technical stuff like sound & lighting, and maybe I'll even get a logo! I know, I know, that's just crazy talk. But the one thing that will stay the same - I'll be letting you know about cool STEAM* happenings. 
{*STEAM = Science Technology Engineering Arts Math}

One last comment...don't judge this video by the thumbnail! If you think this one is bad, you should've see the other two choices YouTube gave me!!

 

 

Has Sci-Fest piqued your interest? Here's their fundraising video: 

 

 

More info on some of the things David and I talk about: 

• Sci-Fest website: http://www.sci-fest.com
• Sci-Fest's Kickstarter campaign ends on February 28th, 2014, but you can still donate after the deadline if you are interested in supporting it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
• More on David here: http://daviddeanbottrell.blogspot.com/
• Movies we love: Children of Men, Code 46, Moon
• Authors we love: Ursula LeGuin, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler

The full version of the cool Ray Bradbury quote David mentions: 

"Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it's the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself...Science fiction is central to everything we've ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don't know what they're talking about."

--Ray Bradbury

The Lush List: Sundance 2014 Edition - Science & Technology Films

The slopes are empty and the theaters are full in Park City, Utah, which can only mean one thing - it's time for Sundance. The 30th anniversary of the festival kicked off on January XX with 121 feature films, plus a plethora of shorts, panels and events. Nestled mong the gritty relationship dramas, star-studded character pieces and international gems are always at least several films that riff on or are inspired by science and technology. Here's a look at this year's crop, which includes stories across a wide variety of genres ranging from romantic drama to a Western to documentary film.

**Descriptions for the films and events have been taken from the Sundance Film Festival Guide.

 
I ORIGINS
Screening in Premieres
Dir: Mike Cahill


Ian Gray, a PhD student studying molecular biology with a specialty in eye evolution, leaves his lab to go to a party and has an intense, but fleeting, encounter with a mysterious, masked model who escapes into the night. With only a picture of her stunning and iconic eyes, he tracks her down, and they fall in love. Their fundamentally different beliefs about life only serve to intensify their connection, and they vow to spend forever together. Years later, Ian and his lab partner, Karen, make a stunning discovery with profound existential implications. He must risk his life's work and his family to travel across the world to find the truth behind what he has found and what it may mean.

Writer/director Mike Cahill returns to Sundance (Another Earth screened at the Festival in 2011) with a new, enthralling exploration of the connective tissue between love and science. He casts Brit Marling again, as well as Michael Pitt and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, and utilizes their onscreen chemistry to vigorous effect. As emotionally moving as it is intellectually stimulating, I Origins solidifies Cahill’s position as a distinctive cinematic voice.

 
YOUNG ONES
Screening in Premieres
Dir: Jake Paltrow

Water is running out. Land has withered into something wretched. The dust has settled on a lonely, barren planet. Not long from now, the hardened survivors of the loss of Earth’s precious resources scrape and struggle. Ernest Holm, played by Michael Shannon, lives on this harsh frontier with his children, Jerome and Mary. He defends his farm from bandits, works the supply routes, and hopes to rejuvenate the soil. But Mary's boyfriend, Flem Lever, played by Nicholas Hoult, has grander designs. He wants Ernest's land for himself, and he means to get it.

Grounded by pitch-perfect performances, writer/director Jake Paltrow's sophomore effort reverently strips down genre tropes, inventively layering Greek tragedy over an ethereal narrative that’s steeped in the values of the American West. With a visceral application of cinematic and theatrical shorthand, and a passionate storytelling sense, Young Ones quickly establishes a distinct, fully realized universe and never lets go.

ALIVE INSIDE: A STORY OF MUSIC & MEMORY
Screening in U.S. Documentary Competition
Dir: Michael Rossato-Bennett

Video from the director from the film's Kickstarter campaign

As dementia continues to affect millions of elderly Americans, Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory reveals a remarkable, music-based breakthrough that has already transformed lives. Spearheaded by social worker Dan Cohen and captured on camera over the course of three years by filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett, we learn that songs from a patient’s past can awaken memories and emotions that have been asleep for years, sometimes decades. Within a moment of hearing “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys, Alzheimer’s patient Marylou jolts back to life, dancing around the living room and expressing a euphoria her husband hasn’t witnessed since her illness took effect. Countless instances in Alive Inside provide proof that music stimulates activity in dementia-affected parts of the brain and transforms the quality of life of those often left to languish in silence.

Through revealing conversations with renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks and musician Bobby McFerrin, as well as powerful firsthand experiments conducted by Cohen in nursing homes, this groundbreaking documentary demonstrates how connecting the elderly to the music they love not only combats memory loss but also supplements a broken health-care system often indifferent to interpersonal connections.

DINOSAUR 13
Screening in U.S. Documentary Competition
Dir: Todd Miller

On August 12, 1990, in the badlands of South Dakota, paleontologist Peter Larson and his team from the Black Hills Institute unearthed the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. It was the find of a lifetime—the world’s greatest dinosaur discovery. They named their dinosaur Sue.

Two years later, when the FBI and the National Guard showed up, battle lines were drawn over ownership of Sue. The U.S. government, world-class museums, Native American tribes, and competing paleontologists became the Goliath to Larson’s David as he and his team fought to keep their dinosaur and wrestled with intimidation tactics that threatened their freedom as well.

Dinosaur 13 chronicles an unprecedented saga in American history and details the fierce battle to possess a 65-million-year-old treasure. With consummate skill, filmmaker Todd Miller excavates layer after layer, exposing human emotion in a dramatic tale that is as complex as it is fascinating.

The film has been acquired by Lionsgate and CNN Films.

THE INTERNET'S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ
Screening in U.S. Documentary Competition
Dir: Brian Knappenberger

As a teenager, Aaron Swartz was a computer-programming prodigy with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. After emerging as a pioneer of Internet activism, education, and politics, he was indicted on multiple federal charges in 2011 and 2012, setting off a complex chain of events that left the Internet community reeling. Shortly thereafter, at the age of 26, Swartz was found dead of an apparent suicide in his Brooklyn apartment. His family, friends, and supporters immediately blamed the prosecutors of the case, who aimed to put him in jail for 35 years and brand him a convicted felon for life. Swartz was persecuted for the very rights and freedoms for which he stood, and that ultimately broke him.

Weaving together home video footage and anecdotal interviews from his closest confidants, Brian Knappenberger creates a dynamic portrait of a precocious boy who grew up to lead the Internet community into a new age of data sharing and free speech.

 
COOTIES
Screening in Park City at Midnight
Dirs: Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion

Elementary schools have given birth to great thinkers, innovative scientists, and inspiring leaders. They are also malignant cesspools, teeming with grime and disease.

Directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion’s first film, Cooties, focuses on the virulent underbelly of grade school. Except this time, the bug that’s going around is transforming the student body from spazzes, tattletales, and brats into deranged, cannibalistic mutants. After an uncharacteristically blood-soaked recess, the surviving teachers and students band together in a desperate attempt to leave the building without being permanently dismissed.

This appealingly preposterous scenario comes together in a hilarious script by cowriters Leigh Whannel (the creator of Saw) and Ian Brennan (the creator of Glee). The strong ensemble cast includes Elijah Wood as a failed writer-turned-underwhelming substitute teacher, Alison Pill as his childhood crush, Rainn Wilson as a mustachioed gym teacher, and Jorge Garcia as a drug-addled crossing guard. Nasim Pedrad and Jack McBrayer are welcome additions to the roster.


THE SIGNAL
Screening in Park City at Midnight
Dir: William Eubank

Nick and Jonah are MIT freshmen with a passion for hacking. While driving cross-country through Nevada with Nick’s girlfriend, Hailey, they follow rival hacker Nomad’s clues to a location 180 miles away. After a terrifying confrontation with Nomad in the middle of the desert, the trio regain consciousness in captivity. Struggling to comprehend the true nature of their confinement, they discover they are part of a plot much larger than themselves.

With his second sci-fi feature, William Eubank continues to prove that grand scale can be achieved on any budget. Starring up-and-comer Brenton Thwaites as Nick and Laurence Fishburne as his stoic captor, The Signal is a contemporary genre film with heart and imagination to spare. Beautifully shot and energetically directed, it lets the circumstances behind the trio’s imprisonment slowly unravel, leading to an epic and mind-blowing conclusion.

 

TO BE TAKEI
Screening in Documentary Premieres
Dir: Jennifer M. Kroot




TK Note: While technically this isn't a film about science or technology, I couldn't leave a film about Takei off of this list. Between his iconic role in Star Trek and his use of social media, he occupies a unique place at the intersection of art and science.

George Takei doesn’t shy away from digging into his remarkable career and personal life in Jennifer Kroot’s delightful and incisive film To Be Takei. As a child forced into Japanese-American internment camps, the actor-turned-activist reveals the ways that racism affected him well into his early acting career, where he played stereotypical Asian stock characters in film and television shows. Even after landing the iconic role of Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek, Takei’s sharp eye, coupled with his wicked sense of humor, continued to challenge the status quo well into the twenty-first century.

Now at 76, nine years after formally coming out of the closet, Takei and his husband, Brad, have become the poster couple for marriage equality, highlighting homophobia through television interviews and hilarious skits, many of which have gone viral and garnered widespread attention. Whether dishing on William Shatner or parodying the now-infamous comments made by Tim Hardaway, Takei proves time and again why his presence in popular culture remains as fresh and necessary as ever. - H.V.

 

LOVE CHILD
Screening in World Documentary
Dir: Valerie Veatch

In 2010, a South Korean baby named Sarang died of malnutrition. The death of a child is always horrific, but the circumstances leading up to this one were even more shocking: Sarang died because her parents were playing games online. Ordinarily, this would be a clear case of negligence, but Love Child takes a different approach by looking at what led to the parents’ gaming addiction and how their child became a secondary concern. The film then expands from this tragedy to examine the way that South Korea’s place as the world leader of Internet infrastructure has adversely affected its communal society.

Director Valerie Veatch skillfully weaves a story of personal tragedy together with social commentary. Instead of merely condemning the parents, she shows how embracing technology can have unforeseen negative consequences. By interjecting footage from the game the parents loved to play into the film, Veatch vividly conveys how intoxicating these games can be and shows how easily the lines between real life and virtual reality can blur.

WEB JUNKIE
Screening in World Documentary
Dirs: Shosh Shlam, Hilla Medalia

China is one of the first countries in the world to label overuse of the Internet a clinical condition. To combat what authorities deem the greatest social crisis for youth today, the Chinese government has created treatment facilities to detox and cure teenagers of their addictions to online life.

But what starts out as an already-fascinating look at ways that technology may be destroying the lives of Chinese youth quickly becomes something more. As the unorthodox psychological sessions continue and the teenage boys begin to share with their parents the reasons why they feel more connected to disassociated voices in cyberspace than to their families, Web Junkie chronicles the results of a nation going through one of most drastic transformations in human history. In honest and wrenching ways that transcend national borders, this film is a thoughtful examination of a society in flux and a technology-addled generation on the precipice of an unknown future.

 

PANELS

EXPLORATORY DETOURS
Part of the Free Fail program

One of the enduring human enigmas is that so many iconic endeavors—from Nobel Prize–winning achievements to entrepreneurial inventions and works in the arts—are not discoveries but conversions, corrections after failed attempts.

Moderated by author, scholar, and curator Sarah Lewis, whose upcoming book The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery explores this theme across myriad disciplines from science to athletics to music and art. Exploratory Detours takes a look at this intriguing issue.

By pulling together science, scholarship, and philosophy, we can better understand the fascinating relationship linking creativity, failure, and mastery that extends far beyond the familiar platitudes. What does it mean to have grit? How does validation work? What can we learn from the way jazz musicians improvise? Our diverse group of panelists look at the ways irreplaceable gifts spring from failure in creative endeavors.

Panelists include: Sarah Lewis (author, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery), Charles J. Limb, MD (Dr. Limb studies the neural mechanisms behind deep creativity, especially in relation to music and other art forms), Jill Soloway (director, writer, and producer for the film Afternoon Delight, and TV series such as Six Feet Under and United States of Tara), Chris Stone (President, Open Society Foundations), and Sundance Institute President and Founder Robert Redford.

THE COSMIC CROSSROADS

Whether it’s searching for life in the universe or searching for results in a lab, scientists often have a number of theories but are not quite sure what they will find. It’s an enigma that compels filmmakers regularly, but it also brings up an interesting question about process that unites science and storytelling. How do you see what’s not there? How do you form narratives? How do imagination, logic, creativity, and empiricism ally in film’s creative mix? Moderated by Flora Lichtman (multimedia editor, Science Friday, NPR), this year’s group of scientists, Kevin Hand (deputy chief scientist, Solar System Exploration, NASA) and Jill Tarter (SETI Institute), and writers, Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, The Darkest Hour) and Max Mayer (Adam), discuss their work as well as good and bad science-in-film. Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

AFTER SUNDANCE: EMBRACING CHANGE
New Frontier panel

Learn from former Sundance filmmakers who have paved their own path in this changing media landscape and embraced new models of business, technology, and content creation at this very special “show-and-tell” panel. Moderator Chris Horton (director, #ArtistServices, Sundance Institute) along with Jill Soloway (director, Afternoon Delight), Tiffany Shlain (filmmaker and founder, The Webby Awards), Jared Geller (producer, hitRECord), and Dennis Dortch (CEO/founder, BLACK&SEXY.TV) share their tales of creation and innovation. You can also get a sneak peak at Soloway’s television pilot Transparent.

THE BEAUTY OF FAILURE
Part of the Free Fail program

How does embracing risk and failure drive the creative process? Creating something new goes hand in hand with the risk of failure, which the New Frontier artists confront with every project. These artists continue to push boundaries and embrace the new in both their work and their lives. Join Aaron Koblin (creative director, Google Creative Lab), Sam Green (filmmaker, Weather Underground), Jillian Mayer (artist/filmmaker, director #PostModem), Nate Mitchell (Oculus Rift), and Mike Stubbs (FACT) as they share what it takes to be on the vanguard of art, film, and technology, and how overcoming failure can lead to some of their best work. Moderated by Ruby Lerner (executive director, Creative Capital).

 

THE STORYWORLD: CREATING INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES THAT WORK
New Frontier Panel

Actively incorporating your audience members gives them permission to become part of the story rather than mere observers. But letting go of authorship can be tricky. How do you create effective, yet compelling, interactive experiences that audiences want to be part of? Join us for a creative, mind-opening, and inspiring conversation as we break free of the linear narrative and discuss the innovative and rich world of interactive storytelling with artist/director Chris Milk (Sound and Vision, Arcade Fire’s Wilderness Downtown), artist and computer scientist Jonathan Harris (I Love Your Work, I Want You to Want Me, Cowbird), game maker Nick Fortugno (cofounder and CCO, Playmatics), Sep Kamvar (professor, MIT), Nate Mitchell(VP Product, Oculus Rift), and transmedia leader Susan Bonds (CEO, 42 Entertainment). Moderated by Charles Melcher (founder, The Future of Storytelling [FoST] Summit and Melcher Media).

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL ON YOUTUBE
New Frontier Panel

YouTube's top creators, learn the key strategies filmmakers can use for creating successful content on YouTube that keeps audiences engaged and coming back for more. The session explores questions you should ask yourself when developing new online content and provides examples of the way YouTube offers filmmakers the opportunity to have creative freedom and reach a wide audience.

Baba Brinkman: Darwin and the Life of a Rap Troubadour

When it comes to topics for hip hop, science isn't usually first on the list. But this year when I attended the Science Online conference, one of the morning Converge sessions featured a performance by Baba Brinkman, creator of The Rap Guide to Evolution. Brinkman's electric energy immediately woke up the sleepy (slightly hungover) room, and catapulted us into the day as he got the audience to joyfully consider how the process of "Performance, Feedback, Revision" applies both to science and art.  

Brinkman calls himself a "rap troubadour," and finds inspiration in everything from The Canterbury Tales to evolutionary psychology. I was curious about how the writer/performer has managed to meld the worlds of hip hop and science, so I tracked him down and convinced him to answer a few questions for me about how an English Lit guy ended up writing songs about natural selection, who he might like to work with in the future and what it's like to try to find rhymes for "Darwin." 

His show Evolutionary Tales: A Hip-Hop Theatre Cycle, presented by Soho Playhouse Inc., opened Off-Broadway at the Player's Theater on  May 31st, 2013, and runs through June 23rd, 2013. The cycle is comprised of three different shows - The Rap Guide to Evolution, Ingenious Nature and Canterbury Tales Remixed. If you're lucky enough to be in the NYC area during the run, visit www.evolutionarytales.com for tickets and information. 

 

Photo Credit: Tavakoli Photography

You have a Masters in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature, and your thesis drew parallels between the worlds of hip-hop music and literary poetry. How did you get the idea to correlate these two seemingly very different forms of communication? 

I was reading the Canterbury Tales for a class, and I recognized it as a masterpiece of rhymed storytelling, a lyrical chronicle of the lives and power struggles of diverse characters, young lovers, bitter rivals, villains, heroes, murderers, adulterers, kings and beggars; the tales are rich with metaphor and symbolism but also a gaudy circus of sex and violence. At the same time I was listening to albums by Nas, the Notorious BIG, Jay-Z, Big Pun, and Slick Rick, and I recognized their songs as... exactly the same thing.

Given your lit background, doing a hip-hop version of Canterbury Tales seems to make sense. The idea for The Rap Guide to Evolution had its seed in a suggestion from Dr. Mark Pallen, author of The Rough Guide to Evolution. What was your initial reaction when he presented you with the challenge to "do for Darwin" what you had done for Chaucer? 

My initial reaction was excitement and enthusiasm, with an undercurrent of anxiety. In literature there's a wider range of acceptable poetic license when re-telling a story, but with evolution there are serious pitfalls. If the story is misconstrued it can easily shade into pseudo-science, but at the same time I needed room to be playful and entertaining. Dr. Pallen is an experienced exponent of evolution so he helped me toe that line.

Tell me a bit about your process once you decided to take on the project. How much did you know about Darwin? What kind of research did you do? 

When I started the project I had read a few books by Jared Diamond and Richard Dawkins and E O Wilson, so I was familiar with the broad sketch, but the challenge was to create a story with a human face, so it was like a treasure hunt. I was looking for areas of overlap between evolutionary science and human experience, and I found them in the writing of David Sloan Wilson, Steven Pinker, Geoffrey Miller, Sarah Hrdy, and by re-reading the big three I started with to draw out the jewels. Mostly it came down to applications of evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution or "memes". Between those two concepts, you can connect evolution with virtually everything humans do and care about.

You are first and foremost an entertainer, not a scientist or science journalist. When writing, how do you balance scientific accuracy with what may be necessary for theatricality?  

I have an easy benchmark. I imagine myself being "peer-reviewed" by an expert scientific audience after the show, questioned as to what my exact meaning and intention was, and I give myself as much poetic or creative license as I feel I could reasonably defend in response to that audience. In reality, the show has been performed in front of many such audiences, and I have made significant changes in the spirit of "Performance, Feedback, Revision".

"Performance, Feedback, Revision."

Lyrics and performance: Baba Brinkman.Dir Felix Harrison. Music: Nokz from Tehdit. Animation: Dave Anderson. 

 

What scientific term has been the most challenging to find a rhyme for? 

"Darwin" is actually a very difficult word to rhyme on its own. That's why I usually combine it with other words, for instance by rhyming "Storage Container" and "War of Nature" and "Darwin Hater" and "Fornicator".

Tell me about the inspiration to make the show not just about evolution via a hip-hop delivery, but also about the evolution of hip-hop.

I suppose the evolution of hip-hop would be the elephant in the room if I didn't talk about it. There's also something theatrically potent about being in front of an audience and telling them, in real time: "Your response to everything I say determines my fate, if not causally then at least probabilistically. How likely am I to thrive or to go extinct as a performer? That depends on what happens in this moment." It makes people realize that the power of cultural evolution, which is very similar to artificial selection or domestication, is in your hands at all times, as a consumer, as a citizen, and as an audience member. 
 

  

"Natural Selection" - The Rap Guide to Evolution Music Videos.

Lyrics and performance: Baba Brinkman. Music: Tom Caruana. Dir: Felix Harrison. Animation: Tommy Nagle.
Supported by The Wellcome Trust. 

I believe that scientists and artists have a lot in common when it comes to the creative and scientific processes. What - if any - similarities have you noticed as you've traveled down this road of creating science-oriented theater? 

Both artists and scientists are driven by the search to capture the non-obvious. There is serious creativity in the design of incisive experiments, and there is definitely a science to the orientation of attention that drives the performing arts.

Who are your biggest musical influences? Who's on your dream list of future collaborators? 

Nas, Black Thought, Talib Kweli, Tim Minchin, Homeboy Sandman, Slick Rick.

You call yourself a "rap troubadour." What does that mean? How is it different than a traditional rapper? 

I suppose the only difference between a rap troubadour and a traditional rapper is that the former is fully aware of and oriented towards the rich global history of storytelling as a universal characteristic of the human species, a function of the irrepressible instinct that we have to make and consume narrative. The latter is also a practitioner of the craft, but is more oriented towards the present historical moment. I'm certainly not the only one to view rap this way, however; K'Naan also seems to get it. 

K'Naan performing 'Wavin' Flag'. 
A remixed version was Coke's promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World cup. 

 

What's been the most surprising or meaningful reaction you've gotten to the show? 
  

This was posted as a response on my blog:

Dear Mr. Brinkman,
 

I am a US Soldier deployed to the Kandahar region of Afghanistan in support of the war the we are currently fighting in Southwest Asia. My wife recently sent me a care package that contained the Rap Guide to Evolution Revised. It is amazing! I listened to to it straight through 3 times! My favorite track is “Worst Comes To Worst”. I have been speaking out against organized religion for years. I can’t wait to share this conversation starting album with my Soldiers. Thank you for this great work of art. I look forward to sharing your gift with everyone around me.