Category: Archive

Please join us Friday May 3rd in the ArtSciLab (ATEC 3.209) from 4-6pm for the final Watering Hole of the semester. Our speakers this week are Phillip Martin, Isaac Arrington, and Tray Thompson.
Our first speaker, Phillip Martin, will be presenting on his work and career with Art Conservation. In 2004, he completed a BFA from UNT in Drawing and Painting and immediately stumbled into an intensive two year apprenticeship as an Objects Conservator under the mentorship of Maria Valentina Sheets. Afterwards he worked as a staff conservator with a small private shop in Dallas until 2008, where he transitioned to independent contract work. During this he operated independently in the industry as Itinerant Creative while simultaneously producing and showing his own work as well. He received a scholarship to attend the Graduate Art program at Washington University in St. Louis in 2009. In 2019 he assumed the position of ATEC Building Services Coordinator. In Fall of 2019 Mr. Martin will resume Graduate studies in Creative Practice within ATEC. “I was raised by inspired problem solvers who gave me pencils, paper and Lego as far back as I can remember.” – Phillip Martin
Our second group of speakers is Isaac Arrington and Tray Thompson. They will be presenting as liaisons of the Dallas Mavericks Esport division, Mavs Gaming. They will be discussing their work, as well as, their views on the past, present, and future of Esports. At Mavs Gaming, Mr. Arrington and Mr. Thompson work as an Event Manager and Corporate Account Executive respectively. Mr. Arrington’s past experience includes working in Campus Services at the Imperial College of London, an Account Executive at Houston Dynamo, as well as a Grassroots Marketing Manager at FC Dallas. Mr. Arrington strives to host the best events possible in order to increase the guest’s network, best practices, and resources. Mr. Thompson, currently working as a Corporate Account Executive for the Dallas Mavericks/Mavs Gaming. His previous experience includes working as a Special Events Account Executive for the Dallas Cowboys, a Sales Consultant with Legends Hospitality, working on Stadium Experiences for the San Francisco 49ers, and an Account Executive for the Dallas Mavericks Basketball team.
All are welcome, regardless of creed, school, background, or discipline!
Details:
Watering Hole: ArtSciLab, ATC 3.209, 4-6PM
If you would like to volunteer to organise an ATEC Watering Hole or be a guest contact us. If you run into problems or have suggestions on how to improve it please send an email to rxm116130@utdallas.edu

We are pleased to inform you – as collaborators and cloud curriculum members – of the progress of our CDASH website! On the Home page, our “SPOTLIGHT: What’s New!” section introduces The University of Texas at Dallas’ umbrella project, ToTTS: Tale of Two Thinking Systems. The umbrella consists of six promising initiatives within the ArtSciLab that will be presented in Washington, D.C. at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Convention in April 2019.
In the Spring of 2018, Dr. Kathryn Evans conducted a study, Moving the Needle, measuring the change in her Music, Science and Technology students’ attitudes on science-music integration. This investigation and its findings will also be presented by Dr. Evans at the NASEM Convention. The demo session will be recorded and will be included in the NASEM online toolkit as a resource for practitioners interested in implementing integrative approaches in their teaching.
We welcome our newest Research Assistant in UTD’s ArtSciLab, Lauren Bernal. Lauren is a senior Psychology major who brings a background of research and behavioral and brain sciences perspective to our interest in transdisciplinary curriculum.
Our Brazilian collaborator, Joao Silveira at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, recently completed his ArtSci for Education: Activity Report, February 2019. Soon, the original Portuguese report along with the English translated version will be posted on the CDASH site. We are delighted to share his findings over transdisciplinary.
Much more to come! We are excited about the response and look forward to many more courses, syllabi and resources for you. Help us spread the word by sending the link https://cdash.atec.io to your friends in the art-science community.
Kathryn Evans and the CDASH team
cdash@utdallas.edu

Three weeks before the Leonardo Journal’s 50th anniversary, Roger Malina commissioned Twin Boards to create custom skateboards to give away as awards. The recipients included three significant contributors to the Leonardo journal: Linda Henderson, Lynn Herschmann, and Mihai Nadin. For each of the award-boards, Twin Boards co-founder and Artscilab member Jacob Hunwick and his twin brother Cason Hunwick created personalized skateboards based on each artists body of work.
For ease of presentation and transport a 22-inch deck size decided on. The decks were designed and hand built by Twin Boards. Previous to this commission, the brothers have designed and painted 40 custom skateboards.
The top of each board features a custom grip tape design incorporating the Leonardo brain logo, an inscription, and the name of the recipient. To avoid having to hand paint the inscriptions, each body of text was printed out and adhered to the back of clear grip tape. This process unified the printed text with the rest of the board.

Award-Board Design 1

a longboard proclaiming its worth to its owner. Leader of a computation research lab at ATEC at UT Dallas, Professor Mihai Nadin works to understand how computers might be able to anticipate. In an interview with Ubiquity [1] Nadin explains anticipation in terms of an automobile “a car is much more than a large metal object, it is an instrument of my purpose from getting from point A to point B”. Similar to a car, a longboard can assist in movement between locations. To encapsulate this similarity and turn the proposition on its head, Nadin’s skateboard proclaims “I am more than just a wooden plank, I am an instrument of your purpose” proclaiming its worth by Nadin’s own terms.
Nadins board features a painted depiction of a famous Henri-Cartier Bresson photograph depicting motion [2]. The photograph represents anticipation, a key concept in Nadin’s work.

Award-Board Design 2

Adding to the art-history of the fourth dimension. Professor and author Linda Henderson studies the art history of the 4th dimension. In her studies, she uncovers a wide range of attempts to visualize extra dimensions. Naturally humans have no faculty for understanding another special direction. Nevertheless, artists and scientists alike have attempted to conceptualize this physical reality since it was referred to as ‘the Ether’ [3]. Rather than document previous works, Henderson’s board is itself another artists attempt to grasp at the concept.

Beneath the unassuming depiction of a cube are lines of magnetic paint that connect to form a tesseract. Wielding a magnet, the beholder closes their eyes and probes the board and feels the magnetic paint guiding them along each line. Fully explored and plotted, the invisible lines connect with the visible cube to create a 4 dimensional cube, known as a tesseract.

Award-Board design 3

An extra ear in the room. Renowned multi-media artist Lynn Herschman Leeson explores topics in surveillance and artificial intelligence. Her board synthesizes these topics pairing a recording device with Hershman’s AI chatbot Agent Ruby [4]. Just as it appears on the interactive website, Ruby’s red lips and eyes stand out against a white background and light up when the red recording light comes on. The recording device references Hershman’s installment Vertighost in which two galleries are linked via video feed captured through cameras in the eyes of a figure in a painting [5].


For the presentation ceremony, Jacob Hunwick along with five other students rode longboards onto the stage and handed out the boards.
Each recipient was delighted with the conceptual ideas behind the boards and their final appearance. Linda Henderson described her board “as an original contribution to the discourse of art history” while Lynn Herschman and Mihai Nadin were both intrigued by the audio elements.
Image credits: Jacob Hunwick
Thanks to: Cason Hunwick (carpenter & designer)
Resources:
[1] https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1046683
[2] https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN
[3] Linda Henderson The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry.
[4] http://agentruby.sfmoma.org/
[5] https://www.vertighost.net/

The Leonardo Slam idea was launched during Ars Electronica ( http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/leonardo-slam/ )…it was picked up by Pablo Reyes during the UTDallas Leo50 Birthday party as a collaboration between the ATEC 3D Studio directed by Prof Andrew Scott and the ATEC ArtSciLab co directed by Cassini Nazir and Roger Malina. At the Leo50 Birthday Party an ATEC awarded to the first ATEC director Tom Linehan.

Tron World

by Kuo-Wei Lee

Concept:

We are in this 21st century, and we take advantage of advanced technology to make daily lives more and more convenient. I consider 21st century as the “Digital Century”. Everything is binary in the digital world with 0 & 1 combinations which is extremely simple but ordered. The shapes are based on circles, triangles and squares.

by Kuo-Wei Lee

Before I dive deeper, this project is called Tape Mapping.
Therefore, it’s important to do the first step: Tapping!

by Kuo-Wei Lee

This is part 1 of a 3 part blog post that discusses the process of projection mapping.

by Siying Duan

edited by JoAnn Nguyen

Since the culture reform in the early 20th century, western culture, including western art forms, has exerted a great impact on Chinese culture and art. But at the same time, many traditional Chinese aesthetic concepts, with related philosophical ideas, have also inspired many 20th century western philosophers and artists. What Duan has been interested in particular, is the resonance between the embodied, dynamic, relational and non-dualistic features of Chinese art and characteristics of contemporary media art practices.

*This post is in English as well as Korean. We hope to reach a larger international population by creating new and exciting content in different languages.

The First Step

Everything starts with making the first step. This first step may seem small and unimportant like an apple seed, but it has a potential to bear a lot of beautiful fruits. When Dr. Kathryn Evans started the CDASH (Curriculum Development in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities) website in 2012, “as a both a resource for faculty who engaged in or were interested in engaging in art-science-humanities curriculum; and as a data collection point where these types of curriculum could be surveyed for innovation and sustainability¹,” it was a small, individual class project. CDASH collects information and syllabi of courses which aim to teach integrated content across arts, sciences, and humanities. CDASH relies on collaboration because all the courses are submitted by instructors who teach those courses. Dr. Evans once mentioned that even she doubted about this type of collaboration, worrying about how many courses would be actually submitted when she opened the website and asked for courses. Then she was pleasantly surprised because around 100 courses were submitted from all over the nation and even outside the United States. Apparently, there were many people who were interested in cross-disciplinary teaching across arts, science, and humanities and they were eager to share their ideas with other people. So it began. The CDASH project made the first step.

The Journey

As we all know, the road is not always a straight highway when we travel. There are ups and downs, crossings, and many bends in which we cannot see what to come next. After the initial success, the CDASH website was slowly getting cold. These ups and downs happen to many sites and blogs. Some of them are abandoned and forgotten, but some of them are rebooted and revived. What makes a difference depends on the right choice made at the right point. When we travel, we need to make a choice at the crossing. If we make a wrong turn, we will probably waste our time and effort. CDASH stood at such a crossing in 2017 and, luckily, made a right choice. Dr. Evans rebooted the CDASH project with colleagues including Dr. Roger Malina and myself, established a new website with more advanced functional supports, and launched a new CDASH site in March 2018. At present, there are over 200 courses at the CDASH site submitted from instructors in many countries including U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K. Germany, Brazil, Turkey, and Korea. CDASH also has a weekly updated resource page that contains information of research articles, news, multimedia, and social media. There are also 14 collaborators who work with the CDASH project team to nourish CDASH.

At the Bend

When we approach the bend in the road, we become alert and cautious because we cannot see beyond the bend. Sometimes, we encounter unexpected wonderful scenery beyond the bend and cannot help but say “Wow.” There are a few “Wow at the bend” moments during the CDASH project when an unexpected contributor submits a course. CDASH aims to be a global website and promotes geographical diversity as well as diversity in language. Every time a course from a faraway place or a course from non-English speaking area is submitted, the “Wow at the bend” moment occurs. One of the memorable occasions is a contribution from KOFAC, an educational institution in South Korea. This is the first course submission from Asia at the new CDASH website. Moreover, KOFAC has a similar interest in cross-disciplinary curriculum development in arts, science, and humanities, as CDASH does. KOFAC has its own archive of primary and secondary course materials and willing to share them with the world. It is a thrilling discovery for the CDASH team that CDASH is not alone on this road. There may be many KOFAC-like institutions, groups, and individuals in the world, waiting to make a connection. It may take forever to achieve our goal and there may be many other bumps and crossings in this road. It doesn’t matter. With the possibility of discovering hidden travel companions, however, our journey becomes more and more exciting. After all, “roads are made for journeys not destinations².”

1. https://cdash.atec.io/about/
2. Quote by Confucius

첫 걸음을 떼다

“천리 길도 한 걸음부터”라는 속담이 있다. 어떤 일이건 시작이 중요하다는 뜻으로 시작은 작고 보잘것없게 보일지라도 그 끝은 장대할 수 있다는 의미이다. 2012년 텍사스 주립대학교의 캐서린 에반스 박사가 시작한 일도 그런 작은 첫 걸음이었다. 에반스 박사는 CDASH (Curriculum Development in Arts, Sciences, and Humanities)¹라는 융합교육자료 웹사이트를 만들었는데, 과학과 인문학, 예술을 넘나드는 융합적 수업자료를 수업개발자나 강의를 진행한 교수 또는 교사들이 직접 올릴 수 있게 한 사이트였다.  CDASH 사이트는 융합교육 자료실 및 융합교육 현황의 데이터 베이스 역할을 하도록 구성되었으며,  당연히 이 사이트의 성패는 얼마나 많은 사람들이 관심을 가지고 참여하는가에 달려있었다. 에반스 박사 본인조차 융합 교육에 관심을 가진 사람들이 있을지, 그런 사람들 중 이 사이트에 참여해 줄 사람이 있을지 자신이 없었다고 할 만큼 시작은 불투명했다. 그러나 그런 불안함은 미국 전역에서100 여개에 이르는 수업자료가 사이트에 올라옴으로써 눈 녹은 듯 사라질 수 있었다.  과학, 인문학, 예술을 아우르는 융합 교육에 생각보다 많은 사람들이 관심을 가지고 여러 가지 시도를 하고 있었고, 다행스럽게도 많은 사람들이 아이디어와 자료를 공유하기를 원하고 있었다. CDASH프로젝트는 그렇게 작은 첫 걸음을 떼었다.

길 위에서 하는 선택

천리 길까지는 아니더라도 여행을 하다 보면 항상 곧게 뻗은 고속도로만을 달리게 되지는 않는다. 오르막도 있고 내리막도 있으며, 교차로도 있고, 길이 굽어지는 곳도 있기 마련이다. CDASH프로젝트가 성공적인 첫 발을 내딛은 이후로 항상 곧게 뻗은 길을 거침없이 달려온 것은 아니다. 어느 사이트라도 피할 수 없는 침체기가 CDASH사이트에도 왔고, 참여자도 방문자도 서서히 줄어든 상태에서 사이트는 잊혀져 가고 있었다. 침체기를 맞은 웹사이트, 홈페이지, 블로그들은 그대로 버려지거나 잊혀지는 경우가 적지 않다. 반대로 침체기를 벗어나 새로운 도약을 하는 경우도 있다. 어떤 결말을 맺느냐 하는 것은 아마도  타이밍과 선택의 문제일 것이다. 적절한 타이밍에 적절한 선택을 하는 것, 그것이 침체기에서 벗어나느냐 아니면 그대로 잊혀지느냐를 결정하게 된다. 2017년 CDASH사이트는 그런 기로에 서 있었다. 잠시 다시 여행을 생각해보면, 길을 가다가 교차로를 만났을 때, 어느 쪽으로 가느냐에 따라 쉽게 목적지에 이르기도 하고 반대로 잘못된 길로 들어서면 시간과 노력을 그야말로 ‘아낌없이’ 낭비하기도 한다. 실제 길찾기에서는 스마트폰 앱이나 네비게이션이 도와주지만, 인생의 길찾기에서는 아쉽게도 그런 것들을 기대할 수 없다.  에반스 박사는 기로에 선 CDASH 사이트를 되살리기 위해 동료들과 학교에 지원을 청했고, 때맞추어 필요한 기술적, 재정적 도움을 받을 수 있었다. CDASH사이트를 위한 적절한 타이밍에 적절한 선택이 이루어진 셈이다. 새롭게 결성된 CDASH 프로젝트 팀은 2018년 3월 한층 업그레이드된 새로운 CDASH 사이트를 선보였다. 현재 CDASH 사이트에는 미국, 캐나다, 호주, 영국, 독일, 터키, 브라질, 한국을 포함한 여러 나라의 교육자들이 제공한 200여개의 수업 자료가 구축되어 있고, 매 주 업데이트되는 참고 자료 페이지에는 관련 논문을 비롯한 멀티미디어, 뉴스, 소셜 미디어 자료들이 제공되고 있다.

먼 길을 함께 가며

CDASH 프로젝트 팀은 갈 길이 아주 멀다는 것을 잘 알고 있다. CDASH 사이트의 목표는 과학, 인문학, 예술을 아우르는 융합교육의 글로벌 자료실인 동시에 수업개발을 위한 플랫폼의 역할을 하는 것이다. 아직은 영어권 자료가 중심이 되고 있으나, 차차 다른 언어권으로도 영역을 넓혀갈 계획이다. 따라서 새로운 지역이나 다른 언어권에서 CDASH 사이트에 참여할 때 마다 기대감이 상승하는 것은 당연한 일이다. 마치 낯선 곳을 가다가 이 길 모퉁이를 돌면 무엇이 있을까 기대하게 되는 것과 비슷하다. 그런 의미에서 CDASH프로젝트 팀에게 잊을 수 없는 순간을 꼽으라면, 한국과학창의재단(KOFAC)에서 수업자료를 업로드한 때를 꼽을 수 있다. 한국과학창의재단은 다년간의 융합교육 경험과 자료를 보유하고 있는 기관으로, 수많은 초등 및 중등 교육자료를 개발해오고 있는 것으로 알려졌다. 지구의 다른 한 편에서 누군가가 우리와 비슷한 생각과 목표를 가지고 활동하고 있다는 것은 혼자라고 여겼던 여행지에서 생각지도 못한 길동무를 만나게 된 것과 같았고 CDASH 프로젝트 팀에게 혼자가 아니라는 든든함과 우리가 아직 만나지 못한 다른 동료들이 여기 저기 많이 숨어있을 거라는 기대감을 심어주었다. 아마도 현재 CDASH는 천리 길의 여행에서 겨우 열 걸음쯤 왔는지도 모른다. 그럼에도 불구하고 융합교육에 관심있는 잠재적 길동무들이 존재한다는 사실은 이 긴 여행을 보다 즐겁게 만들어 줄 것이 틀림없다. “멈추지 않는 이상 얼마나 천천히 가는지는 문제되지 않는다².”

1. http://cdash.atec.io
2. 공자의 명언 중에서