News from Mark Mitton

[photo by Hallie Cohen]

Just did a benefit last night for the Philoctetes Center on the Upper East Side, a wonderful organization which organizes round-table discussions and film screenings year-round about all sorts of fascinating subjects. I’ve moderated several panels for them in the past, and I’ve also enjoyed attending many amazing discussions there. This coming weekend Deepak Chopra is moderating a panel on ‘The Nature of Reality‘.

Stuart Firestein, Professor of Neurobiology, and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, kicked off the evening with a very interesting and funny presentation about perception. Stuart’s laboratory investigates the sense of smell, attempting to understand the mechanisms that make the vertebrate nose the best chemical detector on the planet, and providing a model of how to study perception in general. You can see his ideas presented here.

After Stuart’s opening, I did my perception show, including both magic and the science behind magic, with lots of audience interaction.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support the center. It was great to have you at the show!

I first met Robin Hirsch, the proprietor of Cornelia Street Café, through Entertaining Science – a wonderful series hosted by Roald Hoffmann. At that time, I was asked to perform Darwin-inspired magic by Jonathan Weiner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer (and, more importantly… the brother of my old roommate Eric Weiner). Ever since then, I have been a big fan of Roald, Robin, the Café and its programs.

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of presenting an evening titled ‘Show & Tell’ at the Café, featuring famed Princeton mathematician John Horton Conway, his son Gareth, and artist Katrin Sigurdardottir. John explained how to make magic squares and taught the audience how to solve the day/date problem, 9-year old Gareth recited the first 193 digits of Pi (amazing!), and Katrin showed us her art, and spoke about her two beautiful pieces currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We had a standing-room only crowd, with some people having to watch the event upstairs over a live video feed. Thank you all for coming out on such a cold night!

John Conway’s office; Katrin Sigurdardottir at the Met;
Katrin in Iceland; John and Gareth Conway with yours truly
[click to enlarge]

Ponytail Magazine is a unique bi-annual publication featuring fashion, beauty, contemporary art, illustration, music, design and the creative mavericks that shape the world we live in. Danish photographer Jesper Carlsen shot me with these lovely ladies last September, and the magazine just came out in Europe. Look for it here in the States soon.

Click to enlarge:

Click here for some behind-the-scenes shots

With photographer Jesper Carlsen and
art director Dimitri Schleblanov.