so, uh, robots, eh?

Actually, I’m not gonna talk about robots at all other than a brief comment about my friend who made robots for this competition in Los Angeles called FIRST Robotics Competition which is a competition for highschool and middle school students to create and compete with their robots.  (plus if you google FIRST Robotics… you can find some videos of the competitions) And on a side note, there’s another competition similar to Iron Chef, if anyone of you are into food, for artists.  It’s called the Iron Artist Competition in which artists create with a set amount of time (45 minutes) from a theme given to them on the spot.  An audio and more information can be found here. So, that out of the way, the really cool thing I did this weekend was attend a Bioneers conference in Northern California.  This is where I was lucky enough to hear a ton of amazing and diverse speakers talk about the environment and how it affects us socially, artistically, and technologically.  We had a green chemist, Paul Anastas, talk to us about the concept of designing “green;” alongside artists like Judy Baca, a UCLA profesor, Eve Ensler, playwright of The Vagina Monologues,  a psychologist talking about the war and post-traumatic stress disorder and how it’s affecting us, as well as Majora Carter whose focus has been on improving an area of South Bronx, previously a depository of NYC for truck routes, chemical plants, and dumpsites, into a thriving and beautiful water-side community; all speakers focusing on developing community through the healing of some of today’s tougher problems by working together as artists and scientists and social workers and psychologists to solve a common problem.  (Now that I’m writing this, I suppose this would be more a response to our first 2 cultures post…)  It… was… great.  I recommend it, but it is terribly expensive if you intend on paying the full price of the conference.  Good photoshop skills and a nearby Kinko’s would help with this problem.

ps. if lots of hippies and vegan food make you uncomfortable you might want to skip out; but in all honesty the intellect of the speakers and the diversity of the topics far outweigh the stereotypical hippie you may meet at a Bioneers conference.

Advertisements