News from Mark Mitton

A few years ago I proposed an art and science conference to the Calder Foundation, a sort of meeting of the minds centered around the work of sculptor Alexander Calder. Last week, this idea came to fruition at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, thanks to the efforts of Vice Provost for the Arts Beth Turner and her team at the art museum, Vice President for Research Tom Skalak, the Calder Foundation, and our fantastic participants.

In addition to helping select the speakers for the conference, I moderated two panels - one on Art, Science and Innovation at Work, and one on Action and Perception. We brought down two art pieces from New York - O2 by Zilvinas Kempinas, and Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere by Alexander Calder.

Physicist Peter Steinberg from the Brookhaven Lab tweeted: “What a blur. Morning panel (me, Kempinas, mitton, Bart-smith) went, um, swimmingly once we noticed common interest in hydrodynamics.” A great time was had by all!

Crowd gathering to see Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere by Alexander Calder
(set in motion by Sandy Rower).

Just got back from the Gathering for Gardner in Atlanta, a recreational math conference that is held every other year in honor of the now 95-year old Martin Gardner. Gardner was the writer of the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American for over 25 years, and he’s the author of over 70 books on math and puzzles. Although Gardner himself no longer travels to the gathering, it is no exaggeration to say that G4G continues to attract the word’s foremost mathematicians, puzzlers, scientists, origami folders, artists and philosophers. Here is a small sampling of the people who attended this year – Stephen Wolfram, puzzle master Will Shortz, John Horton Conway and many others:

During the day there were presentations by the attendees, and at night there were magic and variety shows. My toy inventor friend Mark Setteducati is one of the main organizers, together with Tom Rodgers and Elwyn Berlekamp. For many years now, they have had me host the parlor magic show and the main stage show. This year we had two lovely Chinese magicians on the bill: Ruxian and Wang Lu. We traded magic secrets at a party at Tom Rodgers’ beautiful Japanese-style home outside of Atlanta.

Here are some pictures from G4G9 (click to enlarge):

 
L to R: Logo by Scott Kim; Ruxian does the Chinese Linking Rings; magic with silk scarves; card manipulations; post-show with Ruxian and Wang Lu, mathematician John Horton Conway and his son Gareth, Swedish magician Lennart Green, and G4G organizer Mark Setteducati.
[Photos by Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen]

It should be noted, by the way, that 8-year old Gareth Conway (pictured above) can recite the first 130 digits of pi in 40 seconds.

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.

Just got back from a small magic convention in Toronto called 31 Faces North. I flew up there with my friend Charles Reynolds, who was Doug Henning’s magic consultant for many years. We all had a lot of fun.

If you’ve ever wondered what magicians do when they get together, check out these photos:

I just returned from the 13th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness in Berlin. I presented in a group tutorial called ‘Manipulating Perception: Misdirection, Magic and Consciousness’ with David Edelman from the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, Gustav Kuhn from Durham University, Amory Faber from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, and fellow-magician Thomas Fraps. During the day we had a great time meeting all the neuroscientists, philosophers and psychologists at the conference, and at night we danced in wild German nightclubs. By the end of the 5-day conference, our minds were spinning!

Here we are at Humboldt University: David, Thomas, Amory, Gustav, me

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]

Greg Calbi, who was a panelist on my round-table discussion ‘Masters of the Senses‘ at the Philoctetes Center last year, just hosted his own panel there this past weekend. The subject was ‘Deep Listening’. Greg is an amazing mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New York, and he has worked on albums for the greatest legends in music, such as John Lennon, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, U2, John Mayer, Norah Jones, etc.

He assembled a panel of top experts on music, recording and sound (Steve Berkowitz, Evan Cornog, Michael Fremer, Kevin Killen, Craig Street), and it was a fascinating afternoon.

Check out the video on the Philoctetes website or on YouTube. It’s 2 1/2 hours long, and well worth it!

My friend Sandy Rower, Director of the Calder Foundation, invited me to spend a couple of days with him at Art Basel Miami. It was quite an education! Not only did we see lots of art, but we also attended many parties. Sandy was able to get us into a Marilyn Manson party at the Gansevoort Hotel by using some sort of secret password that I still don’t know. At another party, Faye Dunaway came over to me and introduced herself. She has the strongest handshake and an amazing presence! Rosa de la Cruz, one of Miami’s most prominent art collectors, opened up her beautiful home museum on Key Biscayne. I bumped into my old friend Alan Katz, who is now the group publisher of the Brant Publications (Art in America, Antiques and Interview), and we ended up having a very late-night supper together. I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go back next year!