ETOPiA Presents Film and Concert Series

This year’s ETOPiA event will celebrate science and engineering through music and film.

Two documentary films — Chasing Ice and For All Mankind — and a live concert will mark the tenth season of ETOPiA: Engineering Transdisciplinary Project in the Arts, an outreach initiative that seeks to inspire cross-disciplinary dialogue about the roles of science and technology in society.

All events are free and open to the public. The films will be screened in the Technological Institute’s Lecture Room 2 (LR2); the concert will take place in Pick-Staiger Hall. A faculty discussion will immediately follow each event. Advanced reservations are strongly recommended.

Ermin Wei, assistant professor of electrical engineering, is producing this year’s ETOPiA event with help from executive producer Matthew Grayson, associate professor of electrical engineering. Grayson founded ETOPiA in 2008. Pedram Khalili, associate professor of electrical engineering, is this year’s co-organizer.

Chasing Ice documents one photographer’s mission to tell the story of Earth’s changing climate. It will be screened at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4. Following the show, guests can join Wei and Khalili for a discussion with Kimberly Gray, chair and Kay Davis Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Thrasos Pappas, professor of electrical engineering and computer science; Mark Werwath, director of Master of Engineering Management Program and co-director of Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and graduate student Jacob May.

For All Mankind documents NASA’s nine Apollo space missions that occurred between 1968 and 1972. It will be screened at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11. After the show, Donna Jurdy, professor of earth and planetary sciences; Seth Jacobson, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences; Kevin Lynch, chair and professor of mechanical engineering; and Josiah Hester, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will participate in a discussion.

Cosmos in Concert will feature the musical works Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland, Song to the Moon by Antonin Dvorak, and Celestial Suite by James Stephenson. Visual art, created by musician and graduate student Kyle Kremer, will accompany Celestial Suite. The multimedia event will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 18. Following the show, Stephenson and Kremer will join Shane Larson, professor of physics and astronomy, for a discussion.

This fall’s ETOPiA event is sponsored by the Barry and Mary Ann McLean Fund for Art and Engineering and the James F. and Mary L. Gibbons Art and Technology Fund. Cosmos in Concert is sponsored by Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics, ASG Wild Ideas, and The Graduate School.