PLACES & SPACES
Realizing the Third Culture:
UCLA’s ArtSci Center Promotes Dialogue Between Disciplines
A Center exhibit of art by Suzanne Anker.
By Pamela Segura
Contributor
A bustling and ever-growing network weaves
its way through the UCLA campus. This
network stretches from the Broad Arts Center,
on the campus' northeastern, and snakes pass
the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI),
in the middle of campus. There is no localizedcenter; rather, there are just interconnected
pathways between students, faculty members,
disciplines, and methodologies.
And that’s the efficacy of UCLA’s ArtSci
Center. The organization, which advocates
the connections between the media arts
and biological and nano sciences, focuses on
establishing multiple cores of dialogue for
artists, scientists, and students.
SciArt in America February 2014
“This new science requires new, collaborative
methodologies and is by nature multidisciplinary,” Victoria Vesna, director of ArtSci
Center, explains. Vesna, who joined UCLA
community in 2000, was the chair of the
department of Design and Media Arts when she
proposed the center in 2005. She envisioned
ArtSci Center as “two smaller hubs” and the
web of connections between them rather than
one specific building. As her vision gained
momentum, two spaces on campus emerged as
the ideal spots for Vesna’s aims.
The Broad Arts Center building was
being renovated; the CNSI was also under
construction at the same time. These eventually
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