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Vrienden van de Wetenschap

Vrienden van wetenschap wil een nieuwe strategie ontwikkelen om wetenschap hoog op de maatschappelijke en politieke agenda te zetten. De resultaten van andere acties, zoals de online discussies en de dialoogsessie, komen samen op het event vrienden van wetenschap. Daar maken we gezamelijk de nieuwe strategie. Programma.

De voorzitter van het Innovatieplatform, premier Balkenende, opent de dag. Daarnaast spreken oa Robbert Dijkgraaf, René Smit, minister Van der Hoeven en Jeroen van der Veer. Voor dit event worden mensen van verschillende achtergronden uitgenodigd: ondernemers, economen, toonaangevende wetenschappers, jong aanstormend wetenschappelijk talent, politiek adviseurs.

Coördinaten

Event woensdag 2 december 2009
Fokker Terminal Den Haag

Wolfram Research

Founded by Stephen Wolfram in 1987 Wolfram Research is one of the world’s most respected software companies—as well as a powerhouse of scientific and technical innovation. As pioneers in computational science and the computational paradigm, we have pursued a long-term vision to develop the science, technology, and tools to make computation an ever-more-potent force in today’s and tomorrow’s world.

At the center is Mathematica: our ever-advancing core product that launched modern technical computing and has now become the world’s most powerful global computation system. With millions of dedicated users throughout the technical and educational communities, Mathematica represents a unique blend of major research breakthroughs, outstanding user-oriented design, and world-class software engineering.

See also: Wolfram demonstration project
See also: Wolfram Alpha
See also: Wolfram Tones

Sabine E. Wildevuur: Invisible Vision

Sabine E. Wildevuur asks: Could Science learn from the Arts. My answer as a historian is that science since the Renaissance has constantly exploited techniques of visual representation forged in the arts. It continues to do so even when its practitioners are blithely unaware of the legacy. Every image that portrays something in space as a three-dimensional object illuminated from a specific light source ultimately depends of the visual revolution wrought by Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Leonardo and other pioneers of Renaissance naturalism. The systematic rendering of something in plan and elevation depends upon techniques devised by Renaissance architects. It also seems likely that the first methodical use of sections, particularly solid sections, first occurred in the work of architects and designers in the circle of Leonardo.

Sabine E. Wildevuur: Invisible Vision
Uitgever: Bohn, Stafleu Van Loghum

Source: Waag

Aaron Koblin: Bicycle Built for Two Thousand

Aaron Koblin laat door middel van de videoclip Bicycle Built for Two Thousand een visuele interpretatie van de data zien. Hij gebruikte daarvoor de song Daisy Bell uit 1892. Eerder maakte hij de videoclip bij Radiohead’s House of Cards en projecten als Ten Thousand Cents, een 100 dollar biljet getekend door duizenden deelnemers, en het eveneens via Mechanical Turrk gemaakte Sheep Market met duizenden naar links kijkende schapen. Crowdsourcing op zijn best.

Source: Bright

Utopian Practices: Art, Science and Design REunited

Waag Society, The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Virtual Knowledge Studio and The Arts & Genomics Centre of Leiden University have organised the conference Utopian Practices: Science, Art & Design REunited. The Conference takes place in De Balie Amsterdam on March 20th from 09.00-16.30 hrs.

Art, science and design were once closely tied to one another, but in the modern age technological specialisation and other divisions brought about a fragmentation of these fields. Increasingly, however, we have begun noticing a number of cross-pollinations between fine arts, applied arts and the sciences. During the conference Utopian Practices: Science, Art & Design REunited, a number of pioneers in this issue will present some surprising connections between the various disciplines like Susan Kennard, Executive Director of the new media institute BANFF in Canada will talk about the unique way that BANFF brings together researchers, artists and designers. Professor Emeritus Martin Kemp from Oxford University will discuss the similarities between artists and scientists based on what he calls ‘structural intuition’. And artist Beatriz da Costa will tell us how difficult it is to break down the barriers between art and science based on the question ‘when does Art become Science?’

Utopian Practices is the official opening for a programme dealing with the daily practice of art, science and design organised by Waag Society, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Virtual Knowledge Studio and The Arts & Genomics Centre at Leiden University.

Source and Program: De Balie

Radiohead: Video for House of Cards

Radiohead released a new video for its song House of Cards from the album In Rainbows. No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

Also Watch the making-of video to learn about how the video was made and the various technologies that were used to capture and render 3D data. And see Google Code for more issues and downloads. The video was made by the Director of Technology Aaron Koblin.

Source: Google Code
Source: Blogspot

Resurrecting Leonardo’s Great Lady: A Collaboration

Sculptor Marilène Oliver and cardiothoracic surgeon Francis Wells collaborated to deconstruct Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing The Great Lady in order to reconstruct it as a three-dimensional sculpture. Employing lessons learned from contemporary radiology, they simulated cross sections of The Great Lady that were drawn in pen and ink onto a stack of acrylic sheets.

Here Oliver and Wells give independent accounts of the project, not only sharing how their relationship with Leonardo’s drawing evolved over the course of the project but also exposing the differences in approach by the scientist and the artist to a science-art project.

• Download article (pdf)
• See also article BBC
• See also Wikipedia Leonardo da Vinci

Marilène Oliver: Exhausted Figure (Engraved acrylic and fishing wire. 170 x 55 x 35cm)

Source: Leonardo Magazine