The video from our panel discussion at the Philoctetes Center last October 4th has been posted on YouTube. Participants in this discussion included George Bisacca – conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Laney Salisbury – author of Provenance, and yours truly.
Pay special attention to the section between minutes 50 and 55, and find out when a ruler is not a ruler…
[If you have trouble viewing this video, click here]
I am in Rome for a few days this week, to attend the opening of the Calder exhibition at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (coinciding with ‘Alexander Calder - Monumental Sculpture’ at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome), and to participate in a panel discussion tonight with Sandy Rower (Calder’s grandson and the President of the Calder Foundation) and art historian Elizabeth Hutton Turner on ‘Calder and the Art of Perception‘.
Last night I performed at an after-party hosted by Larry Gagosian at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, a spectacular Roman palace.
This past Sunday I visited the Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island with a group of artist friends and a journalist from New York Magazine. My friend Peter Steinberg is a nuclear physicist at the lab, and he was kind enough to give us a tour of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Here are some photos from our visit, taken by Evan Morris:
And here’s Peter explaining about the RHIC:
Thanks for a fascinating tour!
Last night, Susanna and I, together with Nils Norén - Vice President of Culinary Arts at the French Culinary Institute - put on a benefit to raise money for our friends at the Philoctetes Center. It was a fantastic event! We started off with a tour behind the scenes at the institute, allowing guests to see what goes on in the kitchens and the classrooms. Then Nils and Dave Arnold - the Director of Culinary Technology - demonstrated some high-tech cooking techniques, with hilarious commentary from olfactory neuroscientist Stuart Firestein. Guests were then served a delicious dinner cooked and served by students, and then we sat down for a panel discussion about taste and art with chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli of Butter, artist Philip Pearlstein, and nightlife impresario Serge Becker. Not only was it a fun and tasty evening, it was also a very successful fundraiser, and we were delighted to have raised a significant sum for the Philoctetes Center.
This past week I hosted a small conference on Magic and Neuroscience. Participants included my friend Eric Edelman, and artist based in New York; his brother David Edelman, a neuroscientist from the Neurosciences Institute in la Jolla, CA; and magician Thomas Fraps from Munich. We talked about perception, consciousness, and what science can learn from magic, and had meetings with neuroscientist/olfactory expert Stuart Firestein from Columbia University, animal behavior expert Diana Reiss from Hunter College, Pulitzer-prize winning science writer Jonathan Weiner, and biologist Bonnie Bassler and mathematician John Conway from Princeton University, actor Todd Reichart, and magic consultants Charles and Regina Reynolds. We also attended a talk by Christof Koch and Apollo Robbins at the New York Academy of Sciences.
It was a very stimulating week and my mind is still spinning from all the insights. Thank you to David and Thomas – who traveled so far to be here – and to all the people who so generously spent time with us!
Here we are doing magic tricks for Bonnie Bassler’s grad students, and listening attentively to John Conway (click to enlarge):
[Photos by Thomas Fraps]
This is Susanna with a beagle at the Ronald McDonald House Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at the New York Athletic Club last night. Mind you, this is not just any Beagle… it is Uno, the 2008 “Best in Show” winner at the Westminster Kennel Club! It’s the first time a beagle has ever won. Uno visited the White House, where Laura Bush presented him with his star-spangled leash. On Thanksgiving Day, he will be walking in the Macy’s Parade with David Frei, the legendary ‘Voice of Westminster’. David volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House by bringing in dogs for the kids to play with. He brings tremendous joy to these children, and does wonderful work with them.
Uno was in a playful mood…
Rainer Hosch, the talented Austrian photographer who works in New York, Los Angeles, and Europe, and took pictures of me last year, was kind enough to send me another portrait. You can find two other shots on his website here and here.
