Campus Collisions erupts in the Taylor Family Digital Library September 18th, 2019 from 11 – 2pm. The event features talks complementing Beakerhead’s focus on art, science and engineering.
All events are free and open to the public.
Gallery Hall Program:
11-12 pm Bee-habilitation: Attention Crew Members of Spaceship Earth with Dylan McLernon. A recent MFA graduate Dylan McLernon will discuss his research, which combines art, science and community-based action toward sustaining native bee populations.
12 – 1 pm Digitizing Alberta’s Native Bees, Marjan Eggermont (Engineering, Uof C), Mindi Summers (Biological Sciences, U of C), and Rob Alexander (Digitization Specialist, LCR, UofC).
Over 330 species of native bees are found in Alberta. They are important pollinators and a cornerstone of every ecosystem. What Alberta’s wild bees do and how they do it also inspires designers and engineers. A recent partnership between the Department of Biological Sciences, Libraries and Cultural Resources, and Department of Mechanical Engineering has created an online digital collection of more than 360 native Albertan bees from the University of Calgary’s scientific collections. (https://cdm22007.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p22007coll13/search/searchterm/alberta%20native%20bees/field/subcol/mode/exact/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc).)
In this talk we will share information about Alberta’s native bees and how we created our digital collection. We will also discuss how engineers could take inspiration from bees.
1 – 2pm Computation and Clay with Bryan Cera (Assistant Professor, AUArts)
Bryan Cera, Assistant Professor in Object Making and Emergent Technologies at the Alberta University of the Arts, will present three years of research in Computation and Clay. Pairing custom-built robots driven by generative algorithms with traditional materials and methodologies for building ceramic vessels and structures, Cera has discovered a innovative, versatile, and environmentally friendly studio practice that combines cutting edge computational tools with some of the most ‘primitive’ object-making technologies known to man.
