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The lecture space, in the Manhattan studio of artist Ellen K. Levy, was intimate and informative. Questions sprang from audience members, which fostered conversation about the complexities of nature and how artists’ profound awareness of instability helps to harness those complexities. This gathering is one of many Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) events at which artists and scientists showcase their work and engage in casual conversation. The first LASER gathering was held at San Francisco University in January 2008; the first New York City LASER followed in 2009. Nowadays, LASERs are springing up in other places like London, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Santa Cruz and Palo Alto in California, and Chicago. Each LASER event has its own personality, but the premise for each one remains the same. affiliate organizations. Levy became chair of LEAF in 2008. In late 2009, Roger F. Malina, chair emeritus of the board of directors at Leonardo/ISAST, suggested that Levy begin her own LASER gathering like the ones that were already taking place in California. The LASERs in New York are now held every month and a half, according to Olynyk. Some take place at Levy’s studio space, where Ballard, Alexander, and Damon presented their research this April. “Ellen’s studio space is ‘agnostic,’ in the sense that it is non-disciplinary specific and open to everyone,” Olynyk says. In 2011, DASER, a sister lecture series of LASER, was first hosted by the Cultural Programs at National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) under the leadership of cultural programs director J.D. Talasek.Talasek entered the art and science community about 12 years ago, when he became the assistant director of the arts program at “The primary goal is to simply create a forum NAS. “I came to be interested in how art [and] for cross-disciplinary conversations and allow science discussions form the platform [for] a the opportunity for artists, scientists, curators, network of ideas that more accurately reflects writers, and thinkers to share their research,” the complexity of our current reality more so says Patricia Olynyk, co-director of the LASER than any one constructed discipline possibly in New York City. “The atmosphere of the gath- could,” says Talasek. erings is relaxed and collegial. Conver sations are never forced and the outcomes of our meetings He became aware of the LASERs that began are open ended.” in California and decided to create a similar program in Washington, D.C. “The goals were LASER’s acronym-heavy history is a story of simple,” Talasek says. “[I wanted] to create a multiple collaborations. LASERs are hosted regular meeting place where people interested by the Leonardo Art and Education Forum in cross disciplinary work could network.” (LEAF), which is sponsored, in turn, by LeonDASERs are now held every month. ardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST), a Fitting together different pieces of culture nonprofit organization that fosters connections shapes the DASER experience, as the diversity between scholars, scientists, researchers, and of lecturers at DASER highlights. Claudia Hart, thinkers in interdisciplinary work. an artist and associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was inspired The story of the New York City LASERs beby the “mathematical and technical rigors of gins in 2003, when Levy, who now runs the sespatial 3D-imaging” that Amy Bastian, an assories with Olynyk, was president of the College ciate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Arts Association (CAA), a collective founded School of Medicine, uses to analyze movement in 1911 to promote scholarship and teaching in and brain trauma. Robin Shannon, an actor and art as well as the history of art. Levy proposed associate director of DeafVibe, interpreted the to the executive board at CAA that Leonardo/ work of multimedia artists and composer RanISAST should become an affiliate of the orgadall Packer. nization. From Levy’s initiative, the Leonardo Education Forum was formed and represented In February 2014, three years after the first Leonardo at CAA events. Eventually, LEF grew DASER lecture, Heather Barnett hosted the to include LEAF as Leonardo garnered more first international LASER event. Barnett di- 12 SciArt in America June 2014