July 3, 2009
Category: Artists & Art • DC • Destinations • Events
Millennia, 2009
aluminum
Michael Sirvet
Michael Sirvet's aluminum shell, three feet in diameter, is a porous excuse for a bowl (heh heh), but all those edges make lovely sifted patterns of light. Millennia makes me think of a cell membrane, a hollowed-out moon, or the Death Star. I'm not sure which resemblance is cooler. See it at Sirvet's website, or at Artomatic.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 12:27 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 2, 2009
Category: Artists & Art • Biology • DC • Events
Forrest McCluer
A little more explicitly biological than most of the works at Artomatic, Forrest McCluer's six-foot viroid is part of "an ongoing project to deconstruct 30 discarded personal computers and then create sculptures from all their constituent parts."
I'm not even going to start "deconstructing" the layers of meaning in a giant model of a biological virus made out of discarded, outdated computers. . . total bioephemera!
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 12:24 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Artists & Art • Books • DC • Destinations • Medical Illustration and History
Ornament(al) Skull
Noah Scalin
Anatomophiles alert: tomorrow, Noah Scalin, proprietor of the Skull-A-Day blog and author of Skulls
, opens a new show at the Quirk Gallery in Richmond, VA.
I just typed "Richmoaned". Does that qualify as a Freudian slip? Or something else?
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 8:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 1, 2009
Category: Artists & Art • Biology • DC • Destinations • Events
mushroom paintings, oil on panel, 2008
Amy Ordoveza
This series of three paintings by Amy Ordoveza works as abstraction from a distance, but close up, they're luminous golden woodland fungi - the quintessence of bioephemera! See more at her website/blog.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 1:23 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 30, 2009
Category: Biology • Book Reviews • Books • DC • Education • History of Science • Random Acts of Altruism • Science • Science in Culture & Policy • Science journalism
Last Friday, in my post on Nature's comprehensive coverage of science journalism, I mentioned the recent Nature Biotechnology conference paper on science communications co-authored by scibling Matt Nisbet. I also said I'd come back to one of the points in it that bothers me.
As I said yesterday, most of the material in this paper (the issues of media fragmentation, framing problems, incidental exposure, etc.) has been expressed elsewhere. I agree with the majority of it, and it's nice to see it all in one place. But I have to take exception to a small piece of the paper - an example that I've heard Matt discuss twice before, and see again here: the framing of the National Academies' report, "Science, Evolution, and Creationism."
The Nature Biotechnology paper says:
Instead of relying on personal experience or anecdotal observation, it is necessary to carry out careful audience research to determine which frames work across intended audiences. Communication is both an art and a science. For example, the US National Academies (Washington DC) used focus groups and polling to inform the structure of a written report about the teaching of evolution and to frame publicity efforts. Their research indicated that an effective storyline for translating the relevance of evolutionary science for students was one emphasizing the connection to advances in modern medicine. Contrary to their expectations, the research concluded that an alternative frame emphasizing recent court decisions did not provide nearly as effective a message. (italics added)
OK: "contrary to" exactly whose expectations?!
Read on »
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 8:11 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Artists & Art • DC • Destinations • Events
Theatre
Ben Tolman
Like Hieronymus Bosch paintings, Ben Tolman's intricate, epic drawings can hold your attention for a long, long time. Although the poor lighting at Artomatic makes poring over the minute detail a little frustrating, it's impressive to see the scale of Tolman's works in person. Alternatively, view the high-res version here, or watch video of Theatre's creation (it took over a year) here, at Ben's blog. I think he may be single-handedly supporting the whole Micron pen industry, at least in the DC Metro area! Awesome work.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 12:21 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogosphere • Gender Issues • Random Acts of Altruism
Today is the last day of the Silence is the Enemy fundraising drive here at BioE - when I get my proceeds I'll send them along to Doctors Without Borders, probably along with a little extra, since I don't usually make an appreciable amount here at BioE. But I did notice a slight uptick in traffic this month, so thank you for the clicks! And don't forget about the issue of rape - these "awareness months" are supposed to raise awareness year-round, not make it seem like we've done our duty and don't need to think about it for the other 11/12 of the year (which I admit, I often do).
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 11:28 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 29, 2009
Category: Artists & Art • Photography
Mark Mawson's Aqueous series consists of amazing fluid artworks created by dropping paint into water. I wasn't going to blog about them, because everyone else is already, but I found it remarkable how similar they are to jellyfish - not the one above necessarily, but some of the others. Go to his website and click on "series" to view them all.
Via Behance, via today and tomorrow and lots of other places.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 8:50 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogosphere • Science journalism • Web 2.0, New Media, and Gadgets
John Timmer at Ars Technica discusses the results of a survey of bloggers which seems to suggest that, while most bloggers hold themselves to a reasonably high ethical standard, they don't necessarily expect other bloggers to do so.
I think it's kind of a weird idea to have a code of ethics for all bloggers, but that's because blogs are so diverse, not because I can imagine a situation in which I'd be deliberately violating such a code. My blog is a sort of mashup of art review, musings on communications and policies, and science coverage, and they're all different sorts of posts. When I blog on a peer-reviewed paper, I use different formatting than I do when blogging on an art show. But I always attribute things, make quotes and sources clear, and represent the facts as accurately as I can. I do that not because I belong to a profession with an ethical code (blogging is not my profession) but because I was trained as a scientist and scholar, and I consider it my duty to represent things truthfully here. If I didn't feel that way, I doubt a code would have much force. What do you think?
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 8:29 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
bioephemera is art + biology - anything and everything from representations of science in art and literature to the neuroscience of aesthetics. Along with lots of other stuff that's just plain interesting.
