On Thursday evening, April 3, "MIND Design + Science" at the Museum of Modern Art, presented by MoMA and Seed, in collaboration with Parsons The New School for Design. This panel discussion & symposia is in conjunction with the exhibition "Design and the Elastic Mind" currently on view there. I have a limited number of tickets and I'd like to take a few of you, so if you're interested, let me know asap. Below is the description of both.

"Collaboration between science and design is yielding a radical new way of visualizing, understanding, and manipulating the natural world. MIND is a two-day conference, inspired by MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition, which aims to catalyze this convergence. Bringing together an eclectic group of speakers and participants, including leading scientists, designers, and architects, the conference explores topics such as the personal genome, brain visualization, generative architecture, and collective design. MIND is an opportunity to interact with the ideas and thinkers transforming our visual and intellectual landscape. A list of conference participants is forthcoming."

Design and the Elastic Mind
February 24–May 12, 2008

In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale. Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such abundance. One of design's most fundamental tasks is to stand between revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change. Designers have coped with these displacements by contributing thoughtful concepts that can provide guidance and ease as science and technology evolve. Several of them—the Mosaic graphic user's interface for the Internet, for instance—have truly changed the world. Design and the Elastic Mind is a survey of the latest developments in the field. It focuses on designers' ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores, changes that will demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior, and convert them into objects and systems that people understand and use.

The exhibition will highlight examples of successful translation of disruptive innovation, examples based on ongoing research, as well as reflections on the future responsibilities of design. Of particular interest will be the exploration of the relationship between design and science and the approach to scale. The exhibition will include objects, projects, and concepts offered by teams of designers, scientists, and engineers from all over the world, ranging from the nanoscale to the cosmological scale. The objects range from nanodevices to vehicles, from appliances to interfaces, and from pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

6:30 p.m.
Panel Discussions & Symposia
MIND Design + Science

For more information please contact:

Julie Harrison
Artist-in Residence, Art & Technology
Morton
Room 208
Phone: 201.216.8583
Fax: 201.216.8245
jharriso@stevens.edu