Ars Scientia’s Annual Symposium, encou(n)ters, took place on May 15 at UBC Botanical Garden. Hosted by the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (Blusson QMI), the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery (the Belkin) and UBC’s Department of Physics & Astronomy, the event was an opportunity to learn more about Ars Scientia’s residency experiences and engage in interdisciplinary discussions with participating artists and physicists.

“This year’s event featured exciting discussions that brought together new and ongoing work by artists and scientists as part of Ars Scientia, expanding on their interdisciplinary projects, their processes, and places the journey has taken them that they didn’t anticipate,” said Shelly Rosenblum, Ars Scientia research lead and curator of academic programs at the Belkin.

“What started off as a leap of faith has borne fruit, results, and a lot of promise. What I see now is that this lends itself to a much larger project that brings together the fields of art and science with vast possibility,” Rosenblum said.

Ars Scientia is a tripartite partnership between UBC’s Blusson QMI, the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Belkin that seeks to foster knowledge exchange across the arts, sciences and their pedagogies by pairing artists and scientists in a six-month residency to explore the potential for academic art-science collaborations.

Event program

Building Momentum, 2-3pm

Opening remarks by Ars Scientia research leads Shelly Rosenblum, Jeremy Heyl and Andrea Damascelli;

Artist Talks by jg mair with Alannah Hallas, and Timothy Taylor.

Experiments in Real Space, 3:15-4:30pm

Introduction and audience participation experience by James Day; Artist Talks by Josephine Lee, Kelly

Lycan + Justine Chambers, and Scott Billings.

Keynote Address: Kavita Philip, 5–6pm