BPN 1444 The close of Scienar (3)

The seminar was held in the monumental building of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science in Amsterdam. It was a small group of consortium partners and invited people from Italy, France, Slovakia, UK and The Netherlands. The seminar delegates received in their documentation The Scienar DVD, produced by Nicholas Mee of Virtual Image Publishing Ltd, with all the documentation and presentations of the two year Scienar project.

The presentations went according to schedule. It was a varied program ranging from an survey of science and art to a presentation about the essence of the Romanian sculptor Brancusi, a presentation of digital photography and two scientific presentations on mathematics and arts. A surprise presentation was one on the Baptisterium of Pisa. The seminar was closed with a digital music performance.

The historical overview of Dr Mauro Francaviglia can be reduced to three scenarios:
- Scenario 1: The Birth of Geometry at the time of Greeks: the role of proportions, the music of Kosmos, Platonic Solids, the Golden Mean.
- Scenario 2: The Role of Symmetry and Prospective in Renaissance: the birth of Perspective and Projective Geometry, Simmetry in Art, the beauty canons in Painting, Architecture and Music.
- Scenario 3: The New Mathematics and Art of XX Century: Curvature, Impressionism, Cubism, Fractalism, Motion and Fourth Dimension, Digital Art.

The presentation on digital photography was by Marcella Lorenzi. Her digital photography had started with a mistake she made making a photograph. These days she exhibits het photographs in Paris at a UNESCO exhibit and at Toronto. She consciously paint with her camera. Her statement about “Photography, and Digital Photography in particular, is uniquely capable of recording a space/time image. Yet to photograph a space/time image is quite complex. For example, the correct shutter speed to depict motion varies considerably depending on the motion of the subject and the artistic intentions of the photographer. In addition there are many other variables to movement. And to record this kind of imagery successfully, the photographer must have a tool that allows instant display of the imagery just taken so that adjustments can be made based on that feedback - which is the very powerful capability provided by Digital Photography.”

The digital music performance shook the Academy offices for half an hour as their floors are wooden floors. However it was an interesting performance. Leonello Tarabella had brought his own installation and connected this to an movie theatre amplifier. But standing between a type of beamer and a screen, on which for example a piano was projected. Then Mr Tarabella started to play the piano without touching a physical piano.

The whole seminar has been taped and filmed for a DVD production. Eventually the presentations in powerpoint and pdf as well as the filmed presentations will go online. One of the participants, Peter Heijens made his movie summary of the day and put it on YouTube.


Also Carek Kuitenbrouwer produced a movie on the Amsterdam SCIENAR seminar and specifically on the music performance by Leonello Tarabella.



BPN 1444

BPN 1443 The close of Scienar (2)

For the public meeting on Friday we had set up a program for the day.

9:30h Registration

9:45h Welcome by Dr Mauro Francaviglia, chairman
10:00h Dr Mauro Francaviglia, Universities of Calabria and Torino (Italy): Overview project SCIENAR
10.45h Gheorghe Samoila, ITC (Romania): Brancusi-A life quest for the essence

11:15h – 11:45h Coffee

11:45h – 12:30h Dr Marcella Lorenzi, University of Calabria: Mathematics, arts and photography

12:30h Lunch

14:00h – 14:30h Monika Kovacova, Slovak Technical University (Slovakia): webMathematica - on the border between Science and Art
14:30h – 15:00h Daniela Richtarikova Slovak Technical University (Slovakia): Captivating Symmetry
15:00h- 15:30h Leonello Tarabella, computerART Lab of Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dell'Informazione Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy): The Baptisterium of Pisa

15:30 -15:45h Tea

15:45h – 16:15h Jak Boumans, Electronic Media Reporting (The Netherlands): Will the computer become the artist of the future
16:15h – 16:45h Leonello Tarabella, IST/CNR (Italy): Informatics and Music
16:45 – 17:00h formal closing of the project by Dr Mauro Francaviglia, chairman

17:00h Drinks

BPN 1443

BPN 1442 The close of Scienar (1)

The EU project Scienar is about to end. By the November 2, 2010 the two-year project will come to a legal and administrative stop. For the occasion Amsterdam has been chosen to have the final consortium meeting. And as the consortium members will be there, it looked a good idea to tell the world about the results of the project.

Scienar was started up as an EU project in 2008. The project has been divised by dr Mauro Francaviglia for the scientific side and dr. Marcella Lorenzi for the artistic side. The project takes into account the links existing between Science and Art; it has used the innovative possibilities that new media and ICT offer for a better Visualization and Communication. Visualizing and Communicating theoretical achievements of present Culture is by no means simple; moreover, presenting them in an innovative way is a fascinating challenge dictated by new trends of Society. ICT allow us to explore and represent these fruitful relationships in a way unthinkable before.

All the consortium members were present. There were two representatives of the University of Calabria in Italy, two representatives of the Slovak Technical University in Slovakia, a representative of ITC in Romenia and a representative of the UK company Virtual Image and myself on behalf Electronic Media Reporting from the Netherlands. Today we have a closed meeting to talk through the last details of project administration, a look back at the project achievements and the future of the project. Project administration is dull, but it has to be done, filling out forms and excel sheets and account for the costs.

Looking back at the results is more interesting. The project started during November 2008. Since that time happenings have passed: the conference for mathematician, Aplimat 2009 and 2010 in Bratislava, where every year a special session was held on science and art. An exhibition was held in Bucharest (Romenia). And also an exhibition and conference was held in Cambridge (UK). Next week an exhibition will be held at the university of Calabria in Consenza/Rende (Italy). But in Amsterdam seminar, consortium members will report on their contribution in the project.

With this Amsterdam meeting the project is closed. But in principle the project Scienar is dead, long live Science and Art. So we discussed about the future and how the consortium would continue their co-operation. Easy points of reference are of course the Aplimat conferences in Bratislava (Slovakia). But on the other hand the consortium should be seen as a movement which promotes the study of science and art. So participation should not be limited to a few people, but open to other interested people, as we believe the study of science and art is interesting for teachers and students, artists and interested people. So the consortium will continue after the project to co-operate. An open site is foreseen.

BPN 1442