Olaf Breuning brings SciArt to the public realm in his ecologically conscious projects. As a conceptual artist he uses photography, installation, sculpture, film, and drawing to playfully interrupt everyday practices within the natural terrain. His interventions into the public spaces are playful, showcasing that humor is a remarkable tactic to bring awareness to the landscape. His installation, The Gardeners (2008), transformed everyday garden tools into lively characters with the placement of large eyes. Most recently, Breuning painted ski slopes in the village of Gstaad, Switzerland with food coloring, changing the vast expanse of white snow into a vivid watercolor. And what did he use for a brush? Sleds, of course!

By Megan Guerber

Aspen Mays is an American artist who explores the relationship between scientific investigation and the photographic medium to question the expectation of photography for observational purposes. Mays received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was a 2009-2010 Fulbright Fellow in Santiago, Chile. 

By Julia Cuddy

It is my pleasure to announce the release of our April issue full of amazing artists who through incorporating scientific techniques, concepts, and theory have truly raised the bar of what SciArt can do, and be.

This issue our three "Straight Talks" include the sculptural interpretations of infectious diseases by Lorrie Fredette, the philosophy of mind and neuroscience-based performance art of Zoe McCloskey, and the MRI inspired portraits of Elizabeth Jameson. We move from the stage of the artist Baba Brinkman who raps evolutionary principles, to the floor of the experimental dance/theater group who explore the four chambers of the human heart in concept and space. There are also a  few guest contributions, coming from MIT and the Science Museum in London. And we've added a new section, "From the Library," which includes our first book review of interdisciplinary artist Olga Ast's book Infinite Instances: Studies and Images of Time.

Enjoy!

~ Julia Buntaine
Founder, Editor-in-Chief

Our April issue comes out tomorrow! These images are only a handful of the amazing art and artists we're featuring this time around. From the Holocenter in LIC, MRI brain portraits, a Rap Guide to Evolution, sculptures inspired by epidemics, the science side of science-art collaborations, Olafur Eliasson's Little Sun, and more, don't forget to subscribe (for free!) to our mailing list to receive this issue directly to your inbox!

The highs and lows of attempting a sweeping recap of the latest in Contemporary art? It’s all in the attempt. And hopefully the Whitney Museum of Art will keep it up. 2013 feels so last year. If the Whitney Biennial is a snapshot of the art world, then the three-floor review may be an interesting way to reflect on the past twelve months. With a sweeping survey of contemporary art, what is most interesting is seeing the international attention to science and art collaborations.

By Larissa Zimberoff

For artist Bland Hoke, manipulating the connections between places, design, and art is necessary to create functional, aesthetic works for communities. His design firm, Bland Design LLC, is built on the premise that these connections—between the visual and the serviceable, the community and the individual—engender curiosity.

By Pamela Segura

Central Booking is not your average Lower East Side gallery; home to book arts and science-art exhibits, this spot on Ludlow is a haven for art which finds itself on the fringe of the mainstream art world.

Currently on view in the main gallery room is Time and Again, a show dedicated to art exploring time and space, curated by the gallery owner Maddy Rosenberg. Exploring the concepts of the physics of perception, relativity and subjective time, this show includes the work of 18 artists from around the globe.

But Central Booking is not the kind of gallery that would just exhibit time and space inspired art – they want to talk about it too. Two panels events followed the opening of the show, the most recent took place on March 20th. “How Technology, Science, & Art Are Changing Our Perception of Time” brought together five panelists spanning the arts and sciences, all of whom were connected by the theme of time in different ways.

By Julia Buntaine

Science Festival Includes Abundant Art Lineup

Edinburgh, a city in the United Kingdom, is well known for its abundance of festivals. During the month of August, the city’s population swells with spectators coming to see the Art Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and International Festival, amongst other events. This coming April, the city will host a slightly smaller festival, but an event that is nonetheless significant in the international scene. The Edinburgh International Science Festival, running from April 5th-20th, will inhabit the city with myriad exhibitions and events. An emerging thread in the festival is the inclusion of artists in the festival program. 

By Allison Palenske

Red Hook can seem so far away, even if it’s only 4.5 miles from downtown Manhattan. After spending the day walking the gritty streets with artist and Pioneer Works founder Dustin Yellin, it now feels much closer.

By Larissa Zimberoff

A recent study by cognitive psychologist Linda Henkel examines how viewing art through the lens of a cellphone hinders our ability to remember it.  In addition, we have all become much more concerned with digitally capturing what is in front of us than with actually seeing it. Even for those who want to visually ponder the art at museums, it is often difficult to make your way past the crowd of cellphone photographers. So how does this affect our ability to remember the artwork?

By Megan Guerber