2016–17 Arts, Science & Culture Graduate Collaboration Grantee presentations

The Arts, Science & Culture Initiative at the University of Chicago invites you to the final presentations by the 2016–17 Arts, Science & Culture Graduate Collaboration Grantees. This year’s grants were awarded to seven collaborative teams of graduate students from the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

Dissecting Enchantment: Between Gods and Ghosts
Hilary Leathem and Agnes Mondragón Celis-Ochoa (PhD students, Anthropology) and Adrienne Elyse Meyers (MFA candidate) investigate at what point a spiritual experience becomes a haunted one and the ways by which the sacred and the haunted are entangled through the convergence of approaches found in anthropology and visual art. Faculty advisors: Julie Chu (Associate Professor, Anthropology, UChicago); Catherine Sullivan (Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts, UChicago)

Imagining with Runoff
Jelani Hannah (PhD candidate, Physics, UChicago) and Zoe Greenham (MFA candidate, Sculpture, SAIC) consider urban runoff as a lively force that moves through cities tracking social and material activity and seek both artistic and scientific potential in this active urban water presence. Faculty advisors: Heinrich Jaeger (William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Professor of Physics, UChicago); Sara Black (Assistant Professor, Sculpture, SAIC)

net(work)
Dana Simmons’s (PhD candidate, Neurobiology) research on the ways neuron networks communicate with one other in the autistic cerebellum informs a new composition by Pierce Gradone (PhD candidate, Music Composition) for violin, cello, piano, and live electronics, which will interpret the shapes of electrical currents that symbolize communication between neurons. Faculty advisors: Sam Pluta (Assistant Professor of Composition, Music Department; Director, Computer Music Studio, UChicago); Christian Hansel (Professor, Neurobiology, UChicago)

Randomness and Mind Games
Kieren Murphy (PhD candidate, Physics, UChicago) and Xinyi Zhu (MFA candidate, Film, Video, New Media and Animation, SAIC) design virtual and physical reality immersive and interactive environments that question what the effect of randomness and unpredictability is on our perception and how we deal with the unknown. Faculty advisors: Heinrich Jaeger (William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Professor of Physics, UChicago); Kerry Richardson (Adjunct Associate Professor, Film, Video, New Media and Animation Contemporary Practices, SAIC)

Transformative Poetry: Applications in Alzheimer’s Disease
Nigel O’Hearn (MA student, Humanities) and Tiara Starks (MA student, Psychology), in a play written by O’Hearn, explore the change in cognitive deficit awareness that can be measured between Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers when they engage in creating poetry together. Faculty advisors: David A. Gallo (Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, UChicago); John Wilkinson (Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, UChicago)

Unfolding Dimensionality: Its Natural History, Social Life, and Sensuous Practicum
Yukun Zeng (PhD student, Anthropology, UChicago), Yu Ji (PhD student, Psychology, UChicago), and Siamack Hajimohammad (MA student, Visual and Critical Studies, SAIC) create a photographic essay that explores dimensionality by tracing cases from the historical development of classical physics and through investigations into relevant contemporary examples in modern natural and social sciences. Faculty advisors: Susan Gal (Mae & Sidney G. Metzl Distinguished Service Professor Departments of Anthropology, Linguistics, and Humanities Collegiate Division, U Chicago); Leslie Kay (Professor of Psychology, UChicago); Shawn Michelle Smith (Professor, Visual and Critical Studies, SAIC)

The View from Nowhere: Suprahuman Vision through Satellite Imagery and Deep Neural Networks
John Santerre (PhD candidate, Computer Science, UChicago) and William Wiebe (MFA candidate, Photography, SAIC) produce a series of unidentifiable images that explore the misclassification of satellite imagery and, in particular, the divergence of human and computer vision using industry-standard deep neural networks. Faculty advisors: Rick Stevens (Professor, Computer Science, UChicago; Associate Laboratory Director, Argonne National Laboratory); Judd Morrissey (Assistant Professor, Art & Technology, SAIC)

Free and open to the public

For more information, please contact:
Julie Marie Lemon, T 773 702 8029, jmlemon [​at​] uchicago.edu