Saturday, July 19

11:00 AM-3:00 PM

Monsters invade Los Altos!

We’re  collaborating with BAASICS to bring a day packed with art, science and monsters!

11:00-12:00 p.m.

Daniel Cohen, PhD will introduce us to some modern methods for making monsters and break out the microscope to take a closer look at the waterbear.  This extremophile, also known as the tardigrade, is water-dwelling- but has been taken to space and back.

11:00-3:00 p.m.

What is a “zombie”?  What does it look like?  Where do they hang out?  Make zombie drawings with artist George Pfau and explore the answers to these questions.

11:00-3:00 p.m.

Explore the monsters in your mouth.  Kiss a petri dish and come back later for an intimate look at the bacteria in your mouth.  [while supplies last]

Play the classic Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse and add to our monster collection!

1:00-3:00 p.m.

See another side of yourself as caricaturist Jon Casey hand draws your picture, but with a monstrous twist.

2:00-3:00 p.m.

Take a closer look at a monster from the sea as Georgeann Sack, PhD dissects a dogfish shark.

 

BAASICS, is a San Francisco based nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring contemporary topics through the lenses of art and science.

 

Who are the presenters?

Daniel Cohen recently escaped graduate school at UC Berkeley/UCSF (Bioengineering) with most of his fingers intact and a Ph.D. This still surprises him, especially as his doctoral work spanned inkjet printers, nanotube sensors, dinosaurs, Frankenstein, and swarming. He is now a post-doc at Stanford where he is applying his questionable skills to building cell-scale sheepdogs and electric bandages, and to making waterbears the new cupcake.

George Pfau grew up in San Francisco, received a Bachelor’s Degree from New York University, and in 2010, an MFA from CCA. Pfau has worked as Instructor of Art at San Francisco University High School, and Mentor at CCA, and tutor at 826 Valencia. At CCA, he wrote a thesis entitled “Zombies, identified,”which was later developed into the essay “Feverish, Homeless, Cannibal”and published in the book Zombies in the Academy. Pfau’s artwork deals with the notion of the human body as a permeable screen, in-flux with its surroundings. Stemming from his writing, drawing, and graduate thesis work at the California College of Arts, he locates these idea within the historical and pop-cultural framework of “zombies.”He approaches “zombie”as an entry point into conversations about legibility, inbetweenness, contradiction, binaries, identity, and death. Much of the art stemming from these ideas is an investigation of how human beings recognize one another, and what assumptions occur when a person or group comes into focus.

Jon Casey attended Virginia Commonwealth University, graduating with a BFA in Fine Art in 2005. In 2008 he began working as a professional caricaturist and illustrator for clients in the Bay Area, California. Since then his company Bay Area Caricatures has served clients all over the US, from Google to Facebook to the US Post Office. He continues to travel and work for clients in the Bay Area and beyond.

Dr. Georgeann Sack is a neuroscientist by day and science communicator by night. She is a postdoc at UC Berkeley, Associate Content Producer for BAASICS, and Outreach Director for the Berkeley Science Review.