The OpenLab Network Facilitates Innovative, Creative and Collaborative Research with Art, Community, Design, Technology, and Science at the University of California Santa Cruz
“The great leaps forward in both science and art have been made by those who think across the boundaries defined by one discipline and embrace a wide variety of methodologies.”
Introduction
Obstacle 1: When Jennifer Parker, an art professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was trying to help Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, an astrophysics professor, assist a student on an interdisciplinary project, she was reminded (again) that neither professor had permission to share the other department’s studios, labs, or facilities.
Obstacle 2: Amy Boewer, a visual art and art history undergraduate, and Jack O’Neill, a business undergraduate, each with interests in sustainability, had an idea for a convertible sleeping pad for artists, scientists in the field, low-income residents of developing countries, and even for survivors of natural disasters. But neither had a place to make their prototype or equipment to test their design.
The solution to these obstacles was the creation of the OpenLab Network, which Parker and Ramirez-Ruiz co-founded in 2010. OpenLab supports project-based initiatives combining art and science research. To inaugurate the project, Parker turned her own research lab, in the Digital Arts Research Center, into the interim OpenLab facility for project groups to meet, ideate and prototype. She advocated for participants to be given access to Art Division resources, including the metal shop, woodshop, prototyping lab, print media facilities and digital media equipment and resources. To comply with campus health and safety regulations OpenLab members were given formal training in each facility by department staff.
To read the full White Paper please visit: The Openlab Network Facilitates Innovative, Creative And Collaborative Research With Art, Community, Design, Technology, And Science At The University Of California Santa Cruz
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Showcase
Prepared By Gabrielle Carels on behalf of SEAD
Acknowledgements & Credits
Authors: Jennifer Parker, Sudhu Tewari, James Guillochon, Laura Cassidy Rogers
Coordinator: Jennifer Parker
SEAD (Science, Engineering, Art and Design) Network Initiative
(under National Science Foundation Grant No.1142510)
White Papers Steering Committee
SEAD White Paper Curatorial Committee Chair: Roger Malina
Committee; Carol LaFayette, Carol Strohecker, Lucinda Presley
Photo Credit: Jack O'Neill
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This paper is part of a 2012-2013 SEAD network initiative to identify opportunities and challenges for research and creative work integrating disciplines of sciences, engineering, arts and design. White Papers were first posted at http://seadnetwork.wordpress.com. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1142510, Collaborative Research: EAGER: Network for Science, Engineering, Arts and Design (NSEAD) IIS, Human Centered Computing. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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