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London LASER 07
Tuesday 17 February 2015
6.30 - 9.00pm (registration from 6pm)
D115/117, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, 1 Granary Square,
Kings Cross, London
N1C 4AA









The seventh London LASER evening of talks at the intersection of art and science hosts interdisciplinary curator and writer Bronac Ferran, scholar and artist Timothy J Senior, and kinetic light sculptor Paul Friedlander, guest chaired by Laura Plana Gracia.

The event is free but booking is essential: eventbrite link to go here

Bronac Ferran is a curator, researcher and writer who works at the interfaces between arts, science, technologies and other disciplines. She set up and led the Interdisciplinary Arts Department at Arts Council England until 2007 and established numerous national and international partnerships and initiatives including the Arts Council England/AHRC Art and Science Research Fellowships Programme and the ACE/RSA Arts and Ecology initiative. She has been on juries for Transmediale (2009) and Ars Electronica Hybrid Arts (2009 & 2010) and a Senior Tutor Research at the Royal College of Art. In 2012 she curated 'Poetry Language Code' and in 2015 is co-curating 'Graphic Constellations: Visual Poetry & the Properties of Space' at the Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge. Her presentation draws on two texts, 'Mind Over Media' commissioned by the RCA, FACT and Liverpool University Press in 2013 and 'Neuromorphobia' to be published by Archive Books Berlin (ed.Warren Neidich) later this year based on her talk at the 'Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism' conference, Goldsmiths, 2014. boundaryobject.org  @floatingstones

Dr Timothy J. Senior is a scholar and artist, currently serving as a Knowledge Exchange Researcher for the Arts and Humanities Research Council. His work asks how contemporary forms of practice in the arts, sciences and humanities might be opened up to new collaborative influences. Following his D.Phil. in Systems Neuroscience (Oxford 2008), he has explored these issues through an artist residency at Duke University (US) and visiting lectureships at Jacobs University Bremen (Germany) spanning the arts, neuroscience, digital humanities, and the social and political sciences. In 2012 he was awarded a Junior Fellowship at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study, concluding with an internationally-oriented conference and exhibition on performative methods in scientific practice. Tim will be taking up this theme in his talk, exploring how performance-based methods may revolutionize the study of complex systems and our understanding of disciplinary research.

Paul Friedlander is an independent kinetic light sculptor and scientific artist based in London. He will give a telescopic talk on his career spanning more than 40 years from his early influence by Cybernetic art, his involvement with stage lighting for avant-garde music and subsequent development of his unique artistic media. The talk will be followed by a performance with hand held kinetic sculptures and chromastrobic light, a form of light he invented. Paul studied physics and mathematics at Sussex University and fine art at Exeter Art College. His youthful ambitions to become a cosmologist have continued to influence his art, exploring mathematical and scientific ideas in light. Some of his earliest work was based on catastrophe theory and chaos. He has a continuing interest in waves, creating many kinetic works using their mathematics in custom software he writes as part of his hybrid art.

Guest chaired by researcher and curator, Laura Plana Gracia.




LASER is a program of evening gatherings, which bring together eclectic guest speakers working at the intersections of art, science and technology. Running successfully in the US for several years, London LASER is the first of the series to take place in Europe. Free of charge and open to the public, London LASER encourages lively discussion in an informal academic setting. London LASER is hosted by University of the Arts London (Central Saint Martins MA Art and Science and Lens) and University of Westminster (Broad Vision art/science research and learning and CREAM), in association with Leonardo/ISAST (the International Society for Art, Science and Technology). LASER is a project of Leonardo® /ISAST.