Aesthetics and Politics Lecture Series

Here's the flyer for the Aesthetics and Politics Lecture Series. The first and second talks on the program are also listed on our events page.

Integratron

Idea for a field trip:

http://www.integratron.com/

New event

Miranda Wright and Ian Garrett from the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts will come speak for us on Thursday, October 14th about the CSPA project:

http://www.sustainablepractice.org/

For more info, see our events page.

Fallen Fruit at LACMA

This just in from Matias Viegener:

Please join David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young for drinks and an informal talk-- with a mysterious live apparition by Charlotte Cotton – to celebrate Fallen Fruit Presents the Fruit of LACMA

A collaboration between three artists founded in 2004, all of Fallen Fruit's work uses fruit as a lens. Fruit interests them in the way it spans history and different classes, ages, and ethnic groups; it’s everywhere, sometimes invisible but ubiquitous. Through it they find surprising and innovative ways to talk about land use, art history, social relations and neighborliness. Fallen Fruit's work includes photographs, videos, installations and participatory public events that express these ideas in dynamic ways.

EATLACMA is Fallen Fruit’s year-long project at LACMA that investigates food, art, culture and politics. It unfolds in three "acts," with artist gardens currently on view around the campus and an exhibition, The Fruit of LACMA, in which the artists curate pieces from the museum’s permanent collection in several media (painting, photography, and decorative arts) to examine the haunting persistence of fruit in art. It examines the symbolic and sociological aspects of fruit in art, from religious symbolism to embedded social messages. Included is a LACMA-commissioned piece from Fallen Fruit, a wall paper print of public fruit harvested on one day in Silver Lake, rendered in a traditional decorative pattern. For more information see fallenfruit.org and eatlacma.org

Thursday, August 12th, 5 to 7pm
Talk begins promptly at 5:30

GFP pigs

On GFP pigs:

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2006/01/2477.ars

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4605202.stm

Marc Zimmer's site on GFP is helpful:

http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/GFP-1.htm

Thanks to molecular biologist Jan Van Doorsselaere for the info about the pigs.

Butterflies

Butterflies with modified wing patterns:

http://www.martademenezes.com/

This is old news, but still relevant:

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/May99/Butterflies.bpf.html

"An increasingly popular commercial corn, genetically engineered to produce a bacterial toxin to protect against corn pests, has an unwanted side effect: Its pollen kills monarch butterfly larvae in laboratory tests, according to a report by Cornell University researchers."

The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project

Check this out:

http://www.koenvanmechelen.be/content/view/114/88889030/lang,en/

From the website:

"The Cosmopolitan Chicken project includes the worldwide experimental project with which Koen Vanmechelen hopes to develop a super-hybrid chicken. Crossbreeds clearly plays an essential role in Vanmechelen's work, not only in chickens but also in materials and disciplines. Topical themes such as genetic manipulation, cloning, globalisation and multiculturalness are found throughout his work. An important lateral project is the search for the Red Jungle Fowl, the primal chicken which is still found in Asia. Vanmechelen likes to describe his work in Hegelian terms: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The chicken and the egg are a metaphor for the human race and art."