The LASERs (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) are an international program of evening gatherings that bring artists andscientists together for informal presentations and conversation with an audience. This evening, chaired by cultural historian Piero Scaruffi,will feature three talks:

- Christina Agapakis (UCLA) on "AI as feminist technology: biology, computation, and new paradigms for engineering"

- Tina Rivers Ryan (Artforum Magazine) on "Media Art and/as Contemporary Art"

- Jason Eshraghian (UC Santa Cruz) on "Larger Language Models on Smaller Budgets"

Christina Agapakis is an extremely interdisciplinary synthetic biologist working to build more creative and human futures for biotechnology.During her time in academia and a decade at Ginkgo Bioworks, she hasbuilt organisms, products, and cultures across the bioeconomy andbiosecurity, started two  magazines,  launched a Biodesign store, resurrected the smell of extinct flowers, put a T-Rex on the NY stock exchange, and made cheese with the bacteria from human skin.

Tina Rivers Ryan is Editor in Chief of Artforum magazine. She holds five degrees in art history. Her particular expertise is in the field ofmedia and internet art.  Prior to joining Artforum, she worked at theBuffalo AKG Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum. She has curated "Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art",  winner of a 2022 Award for Excellence, "Delirious: Art at the Limits ofReason, 1950-1980" at The Metropolitan, and many other shows and has written extensively about the history of art and technology for scores of magazines and museums.

Jason Eshraghian, originally from Australia is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC SantaCruz. His research interests include neuromorphic computing, spiking neural networks, and memory circuits.  He was awarded the 2023 IEEETransactions on Circuits and Systems Darlington Best Paper Award, the Best Paper Award at the 2019 IEEE Artificial Intelligence Circuits and Systems Conference, and other awards for his work in neuromorphic computing.

Detailed bios at: www.lasertalks.com

Register here:

https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4BLR7CPjTdWsmUdtxu-ktA

The Stanford LASERs are co-sponsored by the deans of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and by Chemical Engineering.