NUS Arts/Science Residency Kicks Off
By cnmwc • March 29, 2012 News
Singapore, 2 March 2012 – The National University of Singapore (NUS) Interactive & Digital Media Institute (IDMI) is pleased to announce the Art/Science Residency Programme, featuring five artists from around the world who will be coming to its campus to help promote the arts.
Each artist will reside at NUS for a month, while embarking on a project that fuses interdisciplinary aspects of arts and science.
Associate Professor Lonce Wyse, Director of the Arts & Creativity Laboratory at IDMI and Head of the residency programme, said he hopes the programme will help spur greater interest in the arts and interdisciplinary dialogue.
"Engaging with the arts is a vital component of education for this generation, who need to constantly draw on creativity and innovation to survive in today's world," said Assoc Prof Wyse.
The artists for the four projects — Ms Grit Ruhland, Ms Cathrine Kramer together with Mr Zackery Denfeld, Mr Shintaro Miyazaki, and Mr Marc Böhlen— will offer art exhibits or performances with scientific themes, specifically quantum technology, biology, acoustic ecology and water, respectively.
They were selected by a jury chaired by Assoc Prof Wyse, consisting of researchers, media artists and curators from the NUS Museum and the Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum, as well as internationally recognised media artists. Their selections were based on artistic merit and synergies with the host NUS research institutes.
Three NUS research institutes – Centre for Quantum Technologies, Asian Biopoleis and Singapore-Delft Water Alliance – and the NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music – will provide support and a space for the artists to develop their works.
The objective of the residencies is to engage students in Singapore, the local arts community and the public with the arts through workshops, seminars, performances and installations. The artists will also hold public conversations about their work at the Marina Bay ArtScience Museum.
Ms Ruhland, who will be exploring quantum technology, will be the first of the selected artists and will begin her residency on 25 March 2012. She will be working with the Centre for Quantum Technologies to build a "Cabinet of Curiosities" displaying artefacts that reflect the culture of research related to quantum technology.
In September, Ms Kramer and Mr Denfeld will both explore the economic and biotechnological forces that are and will be shaping Singapore's multicultural food system in their project, "Anthropocene, Food Futures" with the Asian Biopoleis. In the same month, Mr Miyazaki will work with the NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music to invite participants to help build sensors that will be used to explore patterns of electromagnetic activity through sound in "Listening to Singaporean Infospheres". Following in November, Mr Böhlen's project, "Water Bar", will work on technologies and cultural issues involved in producing drinking water with the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance.
The residency programme is supported by a grant from the Singapore National Arts Council with additional support from the NUS University Scholars Programme, the Tembusu Residential Colleges and participating NUS research institutes.
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About National University of Singapore (NUS)
A leading global university centred in Asia, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is Singapore's flagship university which offers a global approach to education and research, with a focus on Asian perspectives and expertise.
NUS has 16 faculties and schools across three campuses. Its transformative education includes a broad-based curriculum underscored by multi-disciplinary courses and cross-faculty enrichment. Over 36,000 students from 100 countries enrich the community with their diverse social and cultural perspectives.
NUS has three Research Centres of Excellence (RCE) and 21 university-level research institutes and centres. It is also a partner in Singapore's 5th RCE. NUS shares a close affiliation with 16 national-level research institutes and centres. Research activities are strategic and robust, and NUS is well-known for its research strengths in engineering, life sciences and biomedicine, social sciences and natural sciences. It also strives to create a supportive and innovative environment to promote creative enterprise within its community.
For more information, please visit www.nus.edu.sg
About NUS Interactive & Digital Media Institute
The Interactive & Digital Media Institute was established in 2007 by NUS with the support of the Interactive and Digital Media Program Office as the first interdisciplinary research institute in interactive and digital media in Singapore. It aims to spur leading-edge research and development in emerging fields of interactive digital media that are relevant to the future needs of Singapore. The institute's mission is to facilitate interdisciplinary research between natural science and social science and to unite academia and industry.
The Arts and Creativity Lab is part of the Interactive & Digital Media Institute. It will be hosting the Art/Science Residency Programme and is directed by Associate Professor Lonce Wyse.
For more information, please visit www.anclab.org/Art.Science.2012
Guest Lecture by A/P Melissa Fitch, University of Arizona
By cnmlthl • March 13, 2012 News
A/P Melissa Fitch, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Arizona, will deliver a guest lecture at CNM this week. The talk will be for 40 minutes followed by a 30-minute Q & A session. Here are the details:
Date & time: 16 March, 4:00 PM
Venue: CNM Conference Room
Topic: Living the Border: Life, Death and the American Dream
This presentation examines the tensions surrounding Mexican illegal immigration to the Southwestern border state of Arizona in the United States. We will consider the period immediately following the passage of anti-immigrant legislation by the state in April, 2010 and view the mass media depictions of Mexican immigrants found in editorial cartoons of major U.S. publications. The online responses to these cartoons will also be addressed. We will explore the semiotic coding of race, gender and social class found in these depictions and, following a Performance Studies model, we will evaluate how each cultural narrative "interacts with those who view it, thus evoking different reactions and meanings; and how it changes meaning over time and in different contexts"(Schechner, 2002). Additional topics to be addressed include the "American dream," human rights, racial and ethnic identity, nationalism and transnationalism, and the multiple meanings of the borderlands.
Please note that A/P Melissa Fitch will be available for discussion on 19 and 20 March (Monday & Tuesday respectively). All graduate students and faculty members are welcome.
Congratulations to A/P Lonce Wyse on his tenure!
By cnmwc • March 7, 2012 News
A/P Lonce Wyse had a rosy celebration today with the CNM family for his tenure.
And do we mean rosy! Thanks to Prof. Mohan Dutta who visited from the U.S. and hand-carried our surprise gift, we had a pink Hello Kitty-themed convocation gown and mortarboard.
After a department lunch, we called on A/P Wyse and sprung our little surprise. But he recovered quickly from his initial shock to join in the fun and pose for our cameras.
A/P Wyse holds up his tenure scroll, while balancing that Hello Kitty on his mortarboard.
To honour him, we all joined in the Hello Kitty fun too. Congrats A/P Lonce Wyse!
Hello CNM!
Tagged Staff
A/P Lonce Wyse addressed the "Creativity in Singapore" symposium
By cnmwc • March 1, 2012 News, Research
A/P Lonce Wyse was invited to present at an interdisciplinary panel as part of the "Creativity in Singapore" symposium organised by the Singapore Research Nexus (SRN) on February 17th, 2012.
A/P Wyse making his presentation
A research repository undertaken just last year by NUS's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the SRN showcases research on Singapore in the fields of arts, humanities and social sciences.
The panel was timely, given increasing opportunities for and debate on creativity in Singapore. A/P Wyse's talk was entitled "Creativity, Interdisciplinarity, and the New Relevance of the Arts" and he discussed the trend of collaborations between the arts and the sciences, with both cultures mutually informing and engaging the other. In so doing, he painted the new relevance of the arts, especially in the context of Singapore.
An enthralled audience