Anna Bliss

We're always on the lookout for great locals who combine art and science. Those two disciplines inspire the art of local art matriarch Anna Campbell Bliss. Anna's first solo show in five years, showing at the Art Barn until Sept. 11, combines digital printing with traditional painting, all building on themes of science and mathematics.

Octogenarian Bliss recently overcame a year-long period of blindness, following with cataract surgery, an experience that she compared to "coming out of solitary confinement." Her career in the state stretches back decades, though, and includes several public art pieces at major buildings around town, such as the University of Utah's Cowles Building on Presidents Circle and the State Capitol Building.

A detail from "Extended Vision" in the Cowles Building

Good news for local art fans, too: Black Opal Productions is putting together a documentary about this woman's fascinating life and storied career: "ARC of LIGHT: A Portrait of Anna Campbell Bliss." (We can't embed this particular link, but do watch -- Anna is brilliant.)

A couple of us at The Leonardo had the pleasure of chatting with Anna recently and she reassured us that she has at least a good 10 years left in her -- she has a lot she wants to accomplish and intends to continue her role as a self-proclaimed "misfit locally" in the art scene. We're also looking forward to forging a partnership with her for The Leo building down the road.

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Shrinking a quarter

It needs to be said: this entry is most certainly, certifiably in the "do not try this at home" category. Please don't.

But please do drool over electromagnetic forming with me. There are folks out there with the gear, the time and the wherewithal to shrink coins. As for motive, what's better than "because I can"?

Hackerbot Labs in south Seattle (sample mottos: "Like prom night, for your warranty" and "Trespassers will be used for scientific experimentation") and Intellectual Venture Labs posted a couple of video gems on the coin shrinking process.

Coin Shrinking from Jeremy Ruhland on Vimeo.

A massive electrical current creates a magnetic current in the coil, which creates an opposing magnetic field in the coin. The two fields cause the coin's material to contract and compact -- no volume or weight is lost, but the coin is smaller in diameter and thicker.

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The Artys

The Leonardo is thrilled to be up for two Artys from the City Weekly this year -- the first is to vote for BODY WORLDS 3 as the best traveling exhibit of 2008, and the second is to vote for The Leonardo-sponsored play, "di Esperienza," as best original play.

So vote!

In case you need a recap, here's our BODY WORLDS site, complete with a run-down of the exhibit, the programs and events we ran concurrent with the exhibit, and all your favorite imagery from the world-class exhibit.

"di Esperienza" was commissioned by The Leonardo and produced by Plan B Theatre Company this spring. In the play, three of Leonardo da Vinci's famous artworks confront him at the end of his life. Matthew Ivan Bennett wrote the piece, and here's a little more information about his work from Salt Lake Magazine:

Plan-B Theatre's Prolific Playwright from Salt Lake Magazine Online on Vimeo.

Vote before August 24, and we'll share the good news of our awards (fingers crossed!) with you!

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Bonneville Speed Week

Bonneville Speed Week -- a collection of the craziest, fastest, most surreal races in the state -- starts this weekend. You've seen the Salt Flats in movies and photo shoots, but this lunar world takes on an entirely different milieu when covered with hundreds of DIY dragsters, a bevy of multi-colored umbrellas and the friendly faces of Speed Week's followers.

The Salt Flats are home to several land speed records, made possible by Utah's high desert altitude, and the extremely flat surface that is inhospitable to plant life and other barriers to a racer's ultimate goal. The Salt Flats are no secret (memorialized by an article in The New York Times here, a star turn in "The World's Fastest Indian," and regular features and photos in regional news media), but that makes them no less fascinating.

One of the best things about Speed Week is the DIY culture among racers. The majority of enthusiasts work solo or in small groups to perfect their home-grown cars, dragsters, motorcycles and other vehicles. Trial and error, a dauntless enthusiasm for the Flats, and near-obsessive tendencies combine for one amazing weekend of race after race.

This video from the 2007 races gets really good around the 2:00 mark (it's not ours, so please pardon anything strange -- like, say, the intro song lyrics). It gives a true sense of the DIY culture and life-long ambitions of racers to participate in Speed Week.

But this is the one that held me captivated at my desk -- a handlebars-eye-view of a motorcycle hitting 229 mph on a five-mile course. Once it gets going, you can watch the miles fly by and see the spectators distantly to the left of the course. And be sure to listen to the accompanying audio for the whine of the gears as the drive accelerates through the course.

So if you head out this weekend, be sure to strike up a conversation or five with the racers -- it's been my experience that they'll gladly geek out with you about their projects. You might even pick up a few tricks for the drive back to civilization. Just don't forget your sunblock.

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Round up

To combat our heat fatigue (and yours!), here are a couple of cool links to great stuff we've seen around the internet lately.

First off is the SEED Magazine Mathematicians slideshow. I always imagined mathematicians toiling in relative obscurity in dusty corners of a campus' oldest building. But in this SEED slide show, the practitioners of the field get the high art treatment with intriguing portraits and audio narration describing the allure of the field. One person's inspiration was a dramatic pause in a conversation from her childhood, and another compares his work to a secret garden in which he grows beautiful theories. Creative minds find inspiration in and draw connections to everything. Please click through the link to the show, especially because I can't repost the entire show here.

The next highlight is this post from the Brooklyn Museum about sun bleaching an Arshile Gorky print from the museum's collection. The post shows the process step by step, including before photos, process photos and the "after" result. The museum has taken a routine conservator's task, brought it into the sun (literally and online, of course) and made it a fascinating glimpse into the behind-the-scenes work of a large institution.

(Image from the Brooklyn Museum, found here.)

The final entry in today's round up is the Indianapolis Museum of Art blog. The blog has a wide variety of voices from within the museum, some snarky, some hip, some straight-laced, but all entertaining and informative. They plug their local institutions and build links in their community and online. It's a great model and something to which The Leo aspires. Particular recent favorites include Look at all those Jiggawatts!, Echinacea Nation and Bicycles, Art and Robots (which served as inspiration for our recent Chalkbot post).

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The Exquisite Corpse of Science

A British scientist and student in science communication came up with an intriguing project to get people talking and thinking about the impact of science in their lives. Dr. Tim Jones' simple concept was to ask people to draw what they think is important about science. He stitched the drawings together (with a nod to the "exquisite corpse" methods of the surrealists, hence his title) and created a video with the participants talking about their drawings.

The Exquisite Corpse of Science from Tim Jones on Vimeo.

There are many things that I like about this project -- the thought of getting the public involved in the conversation about science, the art, and the variety AND similarity in response. My favorite part, though, is the 14-year-old's drawing. His free-form links between the various parts of science that affect his life end up being more profound and real to me than, say, the scientist's representation of the scientific method.

I like the basic way that he's gotten folks to consider the impact and importance of science in their lives. I'd love to hear how they prepped their "artists" before drawing and interviewing. The project reaffirms my belief that the simplest things are often the most effective, and frequently the most intriguing.

Jones (@physicus) is taking his project wide and calling for submissions for the next version of The Exquisite Corpse of Science. Join his efforts, and comment or tweet back at us (@the_leonardo) if you do. We'd love to see what you come up with.