The LAB

July/August 2002

The Gateway Project
London to San Francisco: Phase 4

The LAB presents another phase of The Gateway Project, designed to facilitate international dialogue and collaboration between artists, cultural and scientific researchers, and new audiences in view of a rapidly changing global consciousness. The project facilitates open-ended and process-based exchange and presentation of collaborative work by artists residing in San Francisco and London and working at the conceptual frontier of the new millennial culture. London and San Francisco are "gateway cities' with an extensive history of cultural interactivity. Both cities are located at crucial crossroads between continents, and as such they share a complex and extraordinarily diverse cultural make-up and artistic heritage. Featured artists have explored issues pertaining to current DNA research, wireless culture, and the quintessential nature of human experience within the context of cyberspace, as well as incorporating concepts and practical research techniques stemming from quantum mechanics, medical science and cultural anthropology. Addressing matters of universal interest, the artists utilize new technologies in producing their work, while retaining an artistic method of inquiry that is ultimately organic.
Laura Brun, Curator

The Gateway Project: London to San Francisco, Phase 4 features visiting London artists Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson, who will present an installation at The LAB while undertaking an artist residency at Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito) and conducting research with collaborating scientists at The Exploratorium (San Francisco).
The National Endowment for the Arts and The Arts Council of England generously support this phase of The Gateway Project.

NAKED LIGHT: the eye is not the thing that sees.
an installation by
Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson
www.londonfieldworks.com
July 19-August 10

Naked Light: the eye is not the thing that sees is a meditation on the human relationship with natural light. This new installation work commissioned by The LAB is based on the artists’ recent large-scale project Polaria, which premiered in London, UK January 2002.

A white cube is suspended in space. Four projected video images show different perspectives of the interior of a specially constructed virtual daylight chamber. A user inhabits and interacts with the space producing artificial renditions of arctic light.
During August 2001 artists Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson spent one month in North East Greenland recording the 24-hour daylight regime and its impact on the human body. The database of light and physiological data was used to create the Polaria installation, seen here in operation.

Looking at Primitives
Bruce Gilchrist
Wednesday August 7, 1-6 PM
CALL for participation

During daytime gallery hours LAB patrons are invited to meet and work with artist Bruce Gilchrist on his Looking at Primitives project. Volunteer participants will have their brainwaves recorded while perceiving the depth imagery in a series of autostereograms (a.k.a. magic eye pictures). This recorded information will eventually be used by the artist in a performance project, one of a series of outputs for the UK-based Arts and Humanities Research Board.

More information about this project can be found at:
http://www.artemergent.org.uk/performances/lap/index.html

Please call The LAB at (415) 864-8855 to book an appointment. The installation by Gilchrist and Joelson, NAKED LIGHT: the eye is not the thing that sees, will also be on view during gallery hours.



LIGHT IN WAITING: Navigating the Connection between Art and Science Public Discussion with visiting artists Jo Joelson and Bruce Gilchrist, and local artists Dr. Aaron Wolf Baum AKA Dr. Friendly and Rudy Lemcke; moderated by Allegra Fortunati Wednesday, July 24, 8 PM $3-$7 sliding scale admission Visiting artists Jo Joelson and Bruce Gilchrist and local artists including Dr. Aaron Wolf Baum AKA Dr. Friendly and Rudy Lemcke will present samples of their current work and discuss the scientific concepts and aesthetic processes that inform their work. Joelson and Gilchrist will talk about the evolution of Polaria, their current exhibit at The LAB, as well as past work; Wolf Baum, who holds a Ph.D in Physics, will discuss his process as an artist bridging scientific and artistic inquiry; and Rudy Lemcke will discuss his recent work, The Origin of Light, a CD-ROM piece about an investigation into the nature of light as a metaphor for human consciousness. Additional artist panelists will be announced. Allegra Fortunati, an art historian who currently serves on the Board of IN/SITE, an auxiliary at SFMOMA, will moderate the panel.		LITTLE EARTH: Creating an Interface Between Art, Physiology and Astronomy Public Discussion Wednesday, August 7, 8 PM $1-$10 sliding scale admission Gilchrist and Joelson will present current research conducted during their residency at Headlands Center for the Arts regarding their new elemental work LITTLE EARTH. During their residency, the artists will conduct the first phase of this research. LITTLE EARTH is inspired by two historical mountaintop observatories--Haldde mountain, Northern Norway and Ben Nevis, Scotland, UK. These observatories are the sites in which two ground breaking scientific discoveries were made by two visionary scientists in early 1900. Their work significantly contributed to current advances in the understanding of space weather. The artists’ plan to twin the observatories and study the machines made by the Norwegian and British scientists, which led to their discoveries. Referencing Kristian Birkeland’s ‘terella’ and C.T. Wilson’s ‘cloud chamber’, the artists are developing a hybrid, interactive sculpture and a physiological interface for members of the public to interact with. This salon at The LAB will be a discussion and informal presentation of some of their research to date, and will include dialogue and presentations from researchers/scientists from the Space Sciences Center at UC Berkeley and the Exploratorium in San Francisco, with whom they will be working during their residency.

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