Programs and Events
Upcoming Fall Programs and Seminar Series
How Infrastructure Works, with Deb Chachra
Thursday, April 11, Ford Engineering Design Center
11 a.m.: Interactive walking tour
2:30 p.m.: Public lecture
Deb Chachra, Professor of Engineering at Olin College of Engineering, is the author of How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World (Riverhead/Torva, 2023), which was named a Best Book of 2023 by Publishers Weekly.
Chachra writes, thinks, builds, and speaks widely on themes of technology and society. Her work and ideas have been supported by the Sloan Foundation, the Autodesk Foundation, and others, and she received an NSF CAREER Award for research on engineering education. She has written for outlets including The Atlantic and Nature and a writes regular column for the American Society for Engineering Education's Prism magazine, as well as her own long-running online newsletter, Metafoundry.
Registration is requested for both events.
Gallery talk: Actions for the Earth
Saturday, April 27, 12:30 p.m., Block Museum of Art
Join Maddie Brucker, PhD candidate in computer science/learning sciences, for a talk on art, learning, and relationality. Using select works from the exhibition as a starting point Maddie will discuss how encounters with art are sites of learning that are often deeply intertwined with endeavors of social change-making. The discussion will include opportunities for program participants to contribute their own perspectives.
More information and registration at the Block Museum of Art
Extending Care: A Conversation About Conservation and Futurity
Wednesday, May 8, 6 - 7:30 p.m., Block Museum of Art
The Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts is a collaboration between the Art Institute of Chicago and materials science-related departments at Northwestern University to pursue objects-based and objects-inspired scientific research. Materials research benefits ongoing work in conservation, archaeology, art history, and curatorial scholarship.
Learn how the Center uses materials research to care for art objects in sustainable, innovative ways with Maria Kokkori, Northwestern Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Senior Scientist in the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts. She will be in conversation with Corey Byrnes, Northwestern Associate Professor of Chinese Culture and cofounder/codirector of the Environmental Humanities Workshop in Kaplan Humanities Center.
This event is presented by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science in conjunction with the exhibition Actions for the Earth: Art, Care & Ecology.
More information and registration at the Block Museum of Art
An Architect's Creative Process: A Conversation with Greg Klosowski from Pappageorge Haymes
Thursday, May 9, 5 p.m., Ford Engineering Design Center, ITW 1.350
During an open conversation, architect Greg Klosowski will share slides, original drawings, and enlarged prints demonstrating a variety of sketching and drawing techniques used in his creative process to study conceptual architecture and urban landscapes. In contrast to today's wealth of digital imagery, his handcrafted works inherently inspire personal interpretation and are rendered with an idiosyncratic richness that rewards up-close and extended study. Light refreshments to follow.