Join us for a conversation with Amy M. Youngs and Russ Corbett-Detig to discuss their approaches to interpreting data, moderated by Isabel Bjork, Executive Director of the Genomics Institute. 

This happened on Wed, Apr 14, 2021, but since it was an online event, a recording is available.

Amy M. Youngs creates ecological and digital artworks that explore interdependencies between technology, plants and animals. Her practice involves entanglements with the non-human, constructing ecosystems, and seeing through the eyes of machines. She exhibits nationally and internationally at venues such as the Te Papa Museum in New Zealand, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, and the public parks in New York City. She is an Associate Professor at the Ohio State University where she coordinates the Art & Technology area in the Department of Art, leads interdisciplinary grant projects, and teaches courses in digital art, eco art, and art – science.

Russ Corbett-Detig is an assistant professor in the Biomolecular Engineering Department and an affiliate of the Genomics Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His team conducts research on a wide range of questions in computational and evolutionary genomics. Russ received his PhD from Harvard University where he worked with Dan Hartl and he did his postdoctoral studies in Rasmus Nielsen’s group at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Sesnon Speak Up Series aims to provide a safe space for students and the UC Santa Cruz community to engage with critical ideas generated from our programmed exhibitions. This event is scheduled in conjunction with the virtual exhibition, What Makes Us Human: An Art + Genomics Convergence.

The Society of Fellows Digital Dialogues series brings together artists, scholars and activists working in a range of disciplines aligning with our current theme of Human Rights: Pasts and Futures. Areas of expertise include studies in art, performance and activism; critical human rights; disability; incarceration; Indigeneity; environmental justice; intersectional rhetorics; migrant and refugee rights; race and citizenship; and sexuality, among others.

Dialogue four considers the challenges that the Anthropocene epoch poses to human and non-human life and the potential of cultural practices and newly imagined ethical concepts for addressing these challenges. Panelists discuss how aesthetic and cultural practices generate attachments to the places we inhabit, and how posthuman renderings, such as augmented reality applications, encourage embodied experiences that connect humans empathetically with the biodiversity of seen and unseen worlds. Additionally, the panel will address questions of cultural inheritance, environmental justice, and the dangers of living under carceral rule. 

Presenters

• Tommy Davis (Associate Professor, Department of English, Ohio State)
• Tristam McPherson (Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Ohio State)
• Elissa Washuta (Assistant Professor, Department of English, Ohio State)
• Amy Youngs (Associate Professor, Department of Art, Ohio State)

Moderator

• Michael Mercil (Professor, Department of Art, Ohio State)

This is in Madrid, Spain, but actually happening online, since we can’t all go to Madrid now. One of the pandemic positives is that the organizers have made it FREE – no conference fees. Just sign up here.

I’m thrilled to be included among such a great line up of speakers of artists and scientists; many I know and others I’m looking forward to knowing. JENNIFER PARKER, JORGE FERNÁNDEZ, GAIA BINDI, SAM DUPONT, NADJEJDA ESPINEL-VELASCO, GENE FELICE II, DAVID HARRIS, JUNIPER HARROWER, TRINIDAD IRISARRI, and CLAUDIO JOSÉ MAGALHAES. Check out the conference program. Thank you to JOSE CARLOS ESPINEL VELASCO for inviting me and for co-organizing this inaugural event.

I’ll be presenting a talk called: Softening Boundaries – Practicing Humility. It is on Tuesday, December 15 at 12:15pm EST. 18:15 Madrid time. Wish me luck!