March 2 2006: Beckman Joins With Krannert for CALCULART Exhibit

URBANA, Ill. – CALCULART, a month-long celebration of art and mathematics, will help launch the new 21st Century Gallery at the Krannert Art Museum during opening night festivities on Thursday, March 9.

Opening night begins at 7 p. m. and will feature guided walkabouts in virtual mathematics environments, a classical piano recital from a software designer, and mathematically inspired poetry and 3-D immersive text. CALCULART is the first curated exhibit of the CANVAS project, a joint effort between Krannert and the Integrated Systems Laboratory at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology that explores the relationships between science and art. CANVAS and the 21st Century Gallery are housed on the lower level of Krannert, located at 500 E. Peabody in Urbana.

The CALCULART exhibition features an array of media exploring the boundaries between mathematics and art. One new work is a an electronic Internet-driven art piece conceived and written by novelist Richard Powers and CANVAS coordinator Rose Marshack and developed with collaborators from the departments of Mathematics and Art and Design. Art created using holographic images by Ellen Sandor, a pioneer in the use of digital media, and Donna Cox of the NCSA will also be featured, as will a variety of sculptures, created using everything from mathematics to computer-generated 3-D imaging to old-fashioned wood. Mathematically inspired art pieces from the Beckman Institute will also be part of the exhibit.

CANVAS, which stands for Collaborative Advanced Navigation Virtual Art Studio, is a virtual-reality open laboratory for research, teaching, and creating and presenting computer-assisted multi-dimensional projects. CANVAS uses three-screen, back-projection 3-D immersive reality environment technology from the Integrated Systems Laboratory (ISL).
CALCULART is curated by Hank Kaczmarski, George Francis, and Marshack. Kaczmarski, director of the ISL at Beckman, said CALCULART would feature both older and newer works and is an excellent example of what they hope to accomplish with the CANVAS project.

“It’s bringing together a lot of the art that has been done since the late 80’s in these virtual environments but it’s also introducing some new things that we’ve designed just for the CANVAS,” Kaczmarski said. “It’s exciting not just that it’s the first exhibition but it’s probably the very beginning of a road show that will take the CANVAS to other places, probably all around the world.”
Kaczmarski said the type of art-science interface provided by CANVAS is unique to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“No other campus is doing it at the level that we’re doing it, bringing scientists and artists together,” he said.

For more information, contact:
Sue Johnson, External Relations Manager
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Ph.: 217-244-7114; e-mail: johnso16@uiuc.edu