Around this time of year at Pratt a great variety of student sculpture work sprouts up on the grounds. I thought that this one was particularly interesting. I could not find out what its title was or who made it, but I thought that it nicely captured our relationship to grass, especially on the Pratt Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Art & Design, Eutrophication, Pollution, Science in Art & DesignI am very proud to announce that new theme on this site — which has been “in development” for the past seven months — is now officially done. I am greatly indebted to Olivia Hu, former student and WordPress designer extraordinaire, for creating this theme for me. She has had it 99.9% done for about Read More
A Major Post, Web DesignSmithsonian Magazine “Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived From the DNA in Hair and Gum Found in Public Places” I find a lot of art to be gimmicky. I know as a professor at an art and design school, that could get me into some trouble, so let me explain what I mean. “Gimmicky” art to Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Computer Science, Ethics, Genetics, Human Evolution, Risk & Uncertainty, Science in Art & Design, SociologyI just finished watching the 2013 documentary The Armstrong Lie. I do not get much time to watch movies — and my favorite genre of movie, documentaries — very much these days, but I used to be a big fan of pro cycling in the Armstrong era, so I knew that I had to check Read More
A Major Post, Altruism, Behavior, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Film & Video, Game Theory, Group Selection, Play, Punishment, Reciprocity, Reputation, Social NormsFor years now I have been guiding my students through a variety of concept mapping activities. Almost every one of my classes involves at least one concept mapping assignment, and I now require that proposals for a variety of term papers and projects be presented in concept map form. I also created this guide to Read More
A Major Post, Concept Mapping, Information Design, Lesson Ideas, Teaching ToolsAs you can probably see, this new thematic presentation of my site is nearly finished. I have a lot of cleaning up to do, but my former student and generous web designer Olivia Hu has gotten the basic platform of this theme up to an amazing level. Thanks so much to Olivia for all her Read More
A Minor Post, Web DesignUnfortunately Olivia and I have had to pause on the implementation of the new theme for this site. Some technical problems were making live development really difficult, so I am back — for now — to the old theme.
A Minor Post, Web DesignI study cooperation. I can say this honestly only with some caveats. I am very interested in what allows cooperation to evolve in biological systems, as cooperation seems to defy the Darwinian imperative to serve the needs of self-replication and yet is unexpectedly prevalent in nature. In particular I am interested in human cooperation, which Read More
A Major Post, Activism, Art & Design, Books, Collaborative Art, Communication, Cooperation, Emotion, Empathy, Environmental Justice, Play, Public Art, Social Diversity, Social NetworksIf this site seems a bit different today than it was yesterday, that is because I am working with a former student (Olivia Hu) to develop a theme that better serves the needs of this site. Put more accurately: Olivia is providing all the design understanding, know-how, and work, and I am making minor suggestions. Read More
A Minor Post, Web DesignMy good friend, artist Ben Knight, has created a nice chart that captures the difference between two different theories of macroevolution: phyletic gradualism and punctuated equilibrium.
A Minor Post, Art & Design, Divergence, Evolution, Information Design, Macroevolution, Science in Art & Design, Speciation, Web