Sheldon Brown
Director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, UCSD
Wondering and Becoming: Imaging and Imagination as Guides to Discovery

Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Building 3 Auditorium - 3:30 PM
(Reception to follow)

The rate of cultural transformation is continuing to increase as our forms of discovery, communication and expression become more distributed, more participatory and more facile. This results in an explosion of data which we are in the midst of devising insightful methods of engagement. Will the culmination of these conditions result in a new era of enlightenment? or thrust us into a time of confusion and distraction? Making sense of this is what our means of cultural expression are meant to provide. The talk argues that the most insightful types of culture that are needed, are based upon the above mentioned characteristics as their operative form, and will transition from being reflective of the present to anticipatory of the future. This is a necessary perspective to help our civilization understand existential conundrums in areas such as climate change and bio-ethics and the creation of a global commons.

Sheldon Brown is a Professor of Visual Arts at UCSD. As Director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, he was one of the Co-PI's in the creation of the California Institute of Information Technologies and Telecommunications (Calit2) - a 200,000 sq. ft. research facility to invent the future of information technologies and telecommunications. Professor Brown's work is in the areas of new forms of digital media, including virtual reality, computer games and digital cinema. He is the UCSD site director of the Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research, a NSF supported research center which explores new methods of parallel computing for digital media development, and is launching a new research initiative to explore human imagination, combining digital media and literature with computer science, neuroscience and cognitive science. His digital media creations are exhibited at contemporary art museums and festivals around the world - including Ars Electronica in Austria, the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Maison d'Ailleurs in Switzerland, the National Academy of Sciences in DC, etc. His work is supported by grants from scientific, technological and cultural research organizations such as the NSF, the NEA, the MacArthur Foundation, AT&T Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, IBM, Intel, Sony, Sun Microsystems,Sega Corporation, and more.

IS&T Colloquium Committee Host: Milton Halem

Sign language interpreter upon request: 301-286-7040