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Capricon Science Fiction Convention – Artificial Intelligence

Friday, February 1st, 2013

The Capricon Science Fiction Convention: Artificial Intelligence

I am quite looking forward to next week’s Capricon Science Fiction Convention. The theme for this year’s convention is artificial intelligence, which is an area of computer science that I find fascinating. One aspect of artificial intelligence that interests me is the thought of AIs as the creators of art and music. This would represent a significant advance over today’s generative art approach.

Before getting into a discussion of the panels I hope to attend, I’d like to call attention to the panels I will be on.

Riverworlds: The Latest on Mars and Titan: A panel that I’ll be moderating on the finding of features on Mars and Titan that appear to have been produced by fluvial processes. My copanelists will be a pair of friend of mine: Bill Higgins and Jeffrey Liss.
I Shouldn’t Have Blogged That: Sometimes we speak without thinking – which is bad enough but then your only audience is those folks who are within earshot. But with blogging and social media – we all have the opportunity to look like fools to a huge number of family, friends, and strangers alike. Along with Tracy Lunquist, the panel’s moderator, Kathryn Sullivan and I will talk about how to minimize your risks and how to do damage control.

In addition to participating on two panels, the folks at Capricon graciously offered me the opportunity to do a presentation on my digital art.
The title they picked for my presentation is The Art of Jim Plaxco and has the following description:

Explore the visual possibilities of digital art which uses a variety of techniques using computer graphics software, hardware, and both film and digital photography.

I do like that description because my intent is to focus on what it means to work digitally. I’ll cover hardware, software, work flow, and methodologies and will use some of my own art as examples.

As to the panels I hope to attend, those would be:

AI and the CDC: How the Center for Disease Control is using artificial intelligence.
AI Vision: Early AI vs. Current Technology: A historical overview of human imaginings about AI.
AI’s Impact on Religion and Religion’s Impact on AI: The impact of artificial intelligence on religion and the impact of religion on artificial intelligence.
Boundaries Between Science and Pseudoscience: As a skeptic and proponent of fact-based decision making, this could be quite interesting.
Curiosity on Mars Slideshow: A presentation by my friend and fellow JPL Solar System Ambassador Bill Higgins on the Curiosity rover and what it has uncovered on Mars. Note that Curiosity won the 2012 Crunchie For Best Technology Achievement.
Cylons, Cyberman, and Borg, OH MY! AI Destroys!: Ah yes, the dark side of hi tech.
Do AIs Have Rights?: Perhaps a more interesting question is should all AIs be treated equally?
Dystopias and Why We Love Them: I’ve been on a couple of dystopia panels before and wish I had gotten on this one. It’s a topic that has always fascinated me.
Is Google Making Us Stupid? To the Internet! [Is Google Making Us Stupid?]: I guess I better Google this before providing an answer.
It’s All in the Presentation: A panel for artists that discusses various aspects of the art biz.
NASA/JPL Saturn Mission Lecture: A very cool presentation (I’ve seen earlier versions of it) by friend and fellow JPL Solar System Ambassador John Vittallo about the Cassini mission to Saturn.
Non-Traditional Publishing Options: A look at publishing Ebooks, self-publishing, Amazon, etc.
When Does a Computer Become a Robot?: I would think the answer to this is obvious: when it sprouts arms and legs and is able to fetch.
Writing Nonfiction: A panel for folks who are interested in writing nonfiction.

I’ve listed a lot of panels here but have not checked the program schedule for time conflicts and given my luck I’ll probably actually make less than half of them. I also hope to attend at least some of the convention’s art auction on Saturday night. I still have to decide on whether or not I am going to participate in the convention’s art show.

Reference Links

If you’re attending Capricon, I hope that you are able to find the time to catch my presentation The Art of Jim Plaxco.

Tags: artificial intelligence, Capricon, convention, Digital Art, Mars, science fiction
Posted in Presentations, SF Cons | 1 Comment »

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Zombies and I at Windycon Science Fiction Convention

Monday, October 29th, 2012

Zombie Apocalypse at Windycon Science Fiction Convention

I received my programming schedule for the Windycon Science Fiction Convention some days ago and it is worth noting that I am not on any panels that involve zombies. Frankly I try to keep my distance from zombies but they’ll be impossible to avoid the weekend of Nov 9-11 so I had better study up on how to best avoid their clutches.

My program schedule is as follows:

Title:	Has Science Fiction Offered an Improved Political Model?
Time:	Saturday, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Room:	Lilac C
Description:	Having just gone through an election cycle that lasted most of two years, have there been any political systems offered up by science fiction which offer an improvement on our current way of governance? Or are they all as flawed as what we have?
Panelists:	J. Helfers, J. Plaxco, J. Liss, R. Martinek, M. Williamson (M)
Comment	I look forward to arguing with Jeffrey (Liss). In fact we have a very long history of arguing. This will be fun.

Title:	Living in the Post Scientific Era
Time:	Saturday, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Room:	Lilac D
Description:	Polls show that increasing numbers of Americans are scientifically illiterate. What does this mean for the future? For science fiction?
Panelists:	J. Helfers, P. Kaldon, J. Plaxco, D. Burkhard, K. Strait
Comment	As science grows in complexity, I’m not surprised that the general public is increasingly scientifically illiterate. Given that science plays an increasingly important role in our daily lives, I’m concerned about the public’s ability to make smart policy decisions via our politicians (who aren’t much better informed). I’m very curious to discover how my co-panelists feel about this.

Title:	The Open Source Playground
Time:	Saturday, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Room:	Lilac C
Description:	When is Open Source Software better? When it is merely different? And what do I do with it?
Panelists:	J. Plaxco, R. Martinek, E. Raymond (M)
Comment	The presence of this panel in the programming line up came as something of a surprise to me. We probably won’t have too many zombies in the audience but considering the high correlation between geekiness and the attendees of a science fiction convention, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that this panel survived the survival of the fittest process.

Title:	Gender Parity on Panels: DNA or Something Else?
Time:	Sunday, 12:00 noon – 1:00 p.m.
Room:	Lilac C
Description:	Gender parity, that is, having exactly the same number of males and females on each panel has become a hot topic lately. One panelist even suggested that he’d give up his place on a panel to any woman in the audience if the panel was "unbalanced." Is that all it takes to make "balanced" panels — the same number of XX- and XY-chromosomed individuals? What about sexual orientation representation? Minority representation? Political representation? Something we haven’t even thought of yet? Join our panelists for a spirited discussion on gender parity and what it does or does not accomplish.
Panelists:	J. Plaxco, H. Montgomery, L. Zeldes, M. Mohanraj (M)
Comment	Now this is one that leaves me licking my chops. For me, the principal question must be "is this person qualified to be on this panel?"

Surprisingly I am not on any space exploration or art panels this year – although there were very few options in those areas (I blame it on the zombies). When not sitting behind a table, I’m likely to be sitting in the audience for the following panels, scheduling permitting:

Ragz! Dress Like a Zombie – principally for inspiration for my art work.
Backbreaking Cover Art – the description of which "a critique of the poses used to sell us our escapism" is irresistible.
Subcutaneous Musculature – a great title for the topic of artistically correct anatomical representations of the human form.
Curiosity’s Journey: NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Rover – a presentation by my friend Bill Higgins whom I suspect is part Martian.
Dystopian fiction, Enough Already – simply because I’m a fan of dystopian visions and have been on similar panels in the past.

I am also planning on participating in the Windycon Art Show although I am not sure how many pieces I will bring – probably somewhere between 4 and 8.

If you’d like more information about Windycon, visit the Windycon Science Fiction Convention web site. And watch out for the zombies.

Tags: convention, science fiction, windycon, zombies
Posted in SF Cons | 1 Comment »

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From Capricon to Floral Photography

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

The Flyers of Fomalhaut b Digital Painting

Part 1: The Capricon Science Fiction Convention

This year Capricon was a short affair for me. While the con ran Thursday thru Sunday, I only attended Friday and Saturday and then only until 6:30pm as I had made plans to attend the opening of a photo exhibition at the Prairie Arts Center in Schaumburg. And because I was not returning on Sunday I did not participate in the art show. On Saturday I did make sure to go through the art show and was happy to see work exhibited by a couple of my friends. What I found disturbing though was the fairly large number of empty display bays in the show. In my experience the Capricon Art Show generally has little, if any, unused space. Unfortunately I had to leave before the start of the art auction so have no idea how well that went.

With respect to programming, my only job Friday was as a panelist on Pluto Is Still a Planet in Illinois with Bill Higgins (Fermilab physicist) moderating and copanelists Brother Guy Consolmagno (Vatican Observatory) and Steven Silver (Capricon Fan Guest of Honor). This was a really good panel given that Brother Guy was a part of the IAU meeting at which the Pluto vote was made and Steven was a friend of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto. If you were at Capricon and missed this panel – it was definitely your loss.

I arrived back at the con Saturday morning shortly before I was scheduled to give my presentation The Art of the Exploration of Space. I especially liked that I had 75 minutes to speak as this allowed me to go at a leisurely pace and engage in conversation with the audience as I went along. This was immediately followed by my moderating a panel at the opposite end of the convention on Goodbye, Space Shuttle. My copanelists were Henry Spencer, Chris Gerrib, and Kent Nebergall. Kent had the misfortune of being in the audience of my space art presentation whereupon I drafted him for the Space Shuttle panel as I knew that he would have valuable insights to contribute.

I next attended The Coming War on General Purpose Computation presentation by Cory Doctorow, the author guest of honor. It was a fascinating presentation. While I agreed with Doctorow on SOPA and other aspects of attempts to stamp out the theft of intellectual property, I came away dissatisfied that he offered no remedy for the authors, artists, and musicians who are having their work stolen. I was also somewhat surprised by his stance towards Facebook in that he seemed to believe that people should not be given the choice of sharing their information on social networks. I viewed this as being inconsistent with what I would characterize as a free and open internet perspective.

The last panel I attended was the most boring panel I have ever attended at any science fiction convention. Now with a title like Civil Disobedience: Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Movement you would expect there to be an invigorating debate between the panelists and between the panelists and the audience. However, this panel was run by the brown shirts. No audience participation was allowed. There was a short period at the end where 5 people were identified and allowed to ask one question each with no follow up or commentary by the questioners permitted. In short, this panel was a total waste of time for the audience.

In summary, I’d say that the best things about Capricon were:

The accidental meetings
The conversations in the halls
The food in the green room
Prowling the Dealers Room
Checking out the art show
How well my The Art of the Exploration of Space presentation went and the ensuing conversations
Being on the Pluto panel with Brother Guy Consolmagno, Bill, and Steven
Friday lunch in the Green Room with Brother Guy, Bill Higgins, and Henry Spencer
Drafting Kent Nebergall to serve on the Space Shuttle panel.

Only one more year until Capricon 33!

Part 2: The Photography Exhibition at the Prairie Art Center, Schaumburg IL

Departing Capricon, I swung by home to grab a bite to eat and then headed over to the Prairie Art Center to take in a photography exhibition that was opening that night in the Herb Aigner Gallery. Titled Flowers in Our Soul, the show is devoted to artistic photographs of flowers and consists of 27 separate works. The photographers that I identified as having work on display in the show are Maria Aiello, Mary Angelini, Debbie Beller, Cindy Brumm, Susan Couch, Randee Lawrence, and Karie Strangeway. I had the opportunity to speak with several of them about their work. I was also curious to learn whether they printed their own work or used an outside service. If you would like to see the show, it runs through the end of February. See Prairie Center for the Arts, Schaumburg IL.

The Illustration

To illustrate this post I decided to use a piece of science fiction art that I just added to my web site. Titled The Flyers of Fomalhaut b, it is an imagining of what the life of exoplanet Fomalhaut b is like (note: not only is there no evidence of life on this planet, there is some question as to whether or not the planet even exists). Fomalhaut b appears to be a Jupiter-like planet that is about three times more massive than Jupiter and which orbits the star Fomalhaut once every 872 years. By comparison Pluto takes 248 years to complete an orbit of the Sun.

For more about this digital painting, see The Flyers of Fomalhaut b.

Until next time, Ad Astra, Jim

Tags: Capricon, Digital Art, Fomalhaut, photography, pluto, Space Art, space shuttle
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Capricon 32 Science Fiction Convention

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Beyond the Mountains exoplanet landscape painting

This weekend I’ll be attending the 32nd Capricon Science Fiction Convention being held at the Westin Chicago North Shore in Wheeling, IL. The theme this year is Amazing Adventures. I’ve attended quite a few Capricon’s over the years and they’ve always been fun. In addition to participating in the con’s programming, I’ve participated in their art show for the last several years.

With respect to programming, this year I am giving one presentation – The Art of the Exploration of Space. In this talk, I give an overview of the development of space art and how that art evolved over time to reflect the realities of aerospace engineering. I pay particular attention to the means by which art is used to portray space exploration, from exploratory to educational to inspirational. I also talk about the NASA Art Program and NASA’s recognition of the emotional impact of art vs photography. I even sneak some of my own space art into the talk.

I will also be moderating the panel Goodbye, Space Shuttle where we’ll be discussing human access to space in the post-Space Shuttle era. Joining me will be Henry Spencer, all the way from Canada and a co-panelist on a number of past space panels, and Chris Gerrib, whom I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting.

Lastly, I will be a panelist on the Pluto Is Still a Planet in Illinois panel. Moderating will be friend and scientist Bill Higgins. My fellow panelists will be Brother Guy Consolmagno (who was actually at the 2006 IAU conference at which Pluto was relegated to dwarf planet status) and Steven Silver. One of the questions the panel is asked to answer is Why are we still so invested in the classification of this distant object? In the case of Illinois politicians, I’m betting it’s because the chuckle heads, eer elected representatives, in Springfield would prefer to deal with weighty issues like Pluto’s planetary status rather than the financial and ethical holes they’ve dug the state into.

Uncharacteristically, I have not yet decided whether or not I am going to participate in the Capricon art show. Sunday has limited programming and I am not on any panels that day. Not participating in the art show frees up my Sunday which works out exceedingly well for me as I have other commitments that day.

Looking over the programming line up, you may find me in the audience of the following panels:

Whither Goes the Art Show?
Chicon 7: The 2012 Worldcon Open Meeting
Civil Disobedience: Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Movement
Dystopia Now
Fan Artists You Should Know
SF/F Music that Isn’t Filk
The Coming War on General Purpose Computation
There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow! The Disney Imagineering Panel
We Do It in Groups: Fandom and Social Media

You can get all your Capricon questions answered at the Capricon web site.

The Illustration

To illustrate this post I decided to use a relatively recent digital painting I created and only added to my web site today. Beyond the Mountains is a minimalist representation of an exoplanet landscape.

Bon Voyage, Jim

Tags: Capricon, science fiction
Posted in Art Shows, Astronomical Art, Presentations, SF Cons | 2 Comments »

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The 2011 Windycon Science Fiction Convention

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Madame Machine digital painting

November means that it’s time for the Windycon Science Fiction Convention. In addition to participating in the con’s programming, I will also have some art in the convention’s art show. Even though the art show set up is tomorrow, I have yet to decide which pieces I will show. Off the table is my astronaut art, which is available for purchase locally only through Paper Crown Art Gallery.

Friday night (11/11/11) at 9:00pm I’ll be attending the Art Show Wine and Cheese Reception. This is a great opportunity for convention goers to nibble on various cheeses, drink some wine, and talk with the artists whose art is in the show. Note that this is the only time that food and drink are allowed in the art show.

On Saturday at 11:00am I’ll be moderating the panel Online Portfolios. The panel is described in the program book as follows:

Should you use a photo hosting site like Flickr? Or would an artistic community like Deviant Art be better? Are there benefits for using a paid service over a free service? Join us while we discuss the pros and cons of the different options.

Joining me will be co-panelists Lucy Ayyat and Deb Kosiba. Anyone interested in exhibiting their art or photography online should attend this panel.

At 3:00 I’ll be doing a space exploration panel. My co-panelists for the Not Dead Yet: NASA’s Upcoming Missions, Despite Public Belief There Will Be No More will be friend Christian Ready, friend and fellow National Space Society director Jeffrey Liss, friend and fellow member of the Chicago Society for Space Studies Bill Higgins. This promises to be a very interesting panel and one that I am really looking forward to. There is sure to be lively debate on the future of NASA given the budget deficit and national debt crisis.

At 5:00pm on Saturday I’ll be doing a combination presentation and tutorial. Titled Processing for Artists and Photographers, I’ll be explaining what Processing is (an open source digital creativity platform designed to be a programming platform friendly to non-programmers) and demonstrating a number of different programs that I’ve written.

The Illustration

The artwork that I am using to illustrate this post is a tightly cropped version of Madame Machine (the original is 11 by 14 inches). If you’re familiar with the classic science fiction film Metropolis, you will know that in the movie the Man-Machine assumes the guise of the fair Maria. Thus, outwardly, the Man-Machine becomes a She-Machine. This is one of the works of art that I will be bringing to the Windycon Art Show, most appropriate for a science fiction convention. Unfortunately I have not added this art to my web site yet.

Reference Links

See you at the con. Jim

Tags: art show, Processing, science fiction, windycon
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2011 DucKon Science Fiction Convention

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

DucKon 2011 Opening Ceremonies Guests of Honor

Yesterday morning I arrived at the DucKon Science Fiction Convention in Schaumburg to set up for the art show. Because of everything else that is going on just now, I did not decide until the last minute to participate in the convention’s art show. I had committed months ago to participating in the con’s programming but held off on deciding about the art show.

I did not bring very many pieces to hang in the art show. The pieces that I did bring for the show are:

Astronaut Glory II space art original giclee print
Lift Off space art original giclee print
Quantum Moon astronomical art original giclee canvas
Titan Landscape astronomical art original giclee print
Glacial Mars astronomical art print (not shown on my web site)

Looking over the list I’m pleased to say that 4 out of the 5 are actually on my web site. Typically fewer than half are.

This morning (Saturday) I’ll be heading back to the convention. This will be my busy day as my presentation and all my panels are scheduled for today. My line up is:

It Started With The Hubble: A 20 Year Retrospective Of The Manned Space Program

A panel discussion overview of the past twenty years of the shuttle program, from the Hubble Space Telescope to the International Space Station.
For my part, I do hope to actually talk a little about the Hubble Space Telescope, which presents us with two very different categories of impacts. The first is the impact Hubble observations have had on our understanding of the universe. These impacts include a much more accurate measure of the Hubble Constant – which tells us about the age of the universe; the presence of super-massive black holes at the centers of galaxies; and the strange matter of dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the universe. The second area is the area of astronomical art aesthetics and the impact that Hubble’s observations have had on how astronomical art is portrayed.

Space 2031

In twenty years will there be a Chinese base on the moon? Will American astronauts be buzzing near-earth asteroids? Just where, in space, will we be in twenty years. This panel discussion will explore what our future in space may be.

Audio Interactive Art: Science as Art

My talk’s title is actually Live Art and combines a presentation about the tools of new media art with a dash of computer art history followed by audience participation in the creation of several works of digital art through the use of sound. More about this and some of my other presentations can be found on my Art Lectures page.

Privateers In Space!

With NASA’s attempts switch to private companies to provide launch services, Virgin Galactic’s sub-orbital flights, and Google’s Lunar “X Prize”, start-up companies are jumping at the chance to get into space. Where will this lead us over the next 20 years?

So today promises to be a busy day at DucKon. FYI, DucKon’s Guests of Honor this year are:

Literary:Tamora PierceWebsite
Artist:Ursula VernonWebsite
Filk:Gary HanakWebsite
Filk Fund Guests:Nate and Louie Bucklin
Fan:William and Trudi Puda
Writer:Shirley DamsgaardWebsite
Science:”The Last Shuttle Team”Website

If you’re attending the con, don’t forget to check out the art show.

Tags: art show, DucKon
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Capricon Science Fiction Convention 2011 Debriefing

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Capricon Live Art Sound Art Landscape
Capricon Live Art Program – Sound Art Landscape

The Capricon Science Fiction Convention was held at the Wheeling Westin Feb. 10 thru Feb 13. I arrived Thursday evening for my first panel – Requiem for the Space Shuttle. Along with fellow panelists Bill Higgins, Tracy Lunquist, and Henry Spencer, we discussed the history of the space shuttle program and its impact on space exploration. We also spent some time talking about the future of human access to space and the commercial revolution that will make it possible for private citizens to buy tickets for trips to space, i.e. space tourism. Our discussion lasted for over 90 minutes with lots of input from an enthusiastic audience.

Live Art

For me, the highlight of my participation in Capricon was my Friday morning Live Art presentation. My presentation opened with a demonstration of one of my programs for taking sound input from a microphone and processing that sound in order to create visual imagery. This was followed by my presentation which explored the subjects of algorithmic art, conceptual art, the question of is computer art art, and an explanation of my methodologies and the programming tools that I used to create the various programs. In fact a reasonable part of my presentation could be considered as a sales pitch for the field of computer art. My presentation was followed by the "show" – which involved running a number of different programs I had written to convert sound into art and letting the audience have their way with the microphone. Several of the artworks we created can be seen at A Gallery of Live Art Created at the Capricon Science Fiction Convention. The point that I sought to drive home was that while the sounds being generated by the audience were largely the same, the way in which they were interpreted visually varied tremendously based on the algorithm being used to translate the sound waves into visual imagery. For information about Live Art and my other presentations, see my Art Lectures page.

The Art of Space Exploration

Saturday morning I gave my The Art of Space Exploration presentation which provides an overview of the history of space art – beginning with early astronomical art and concluding with a discussion of space art from an artist’s business perspective. I included a couple of my own works in the presentation, including Shattered Dreams, a piece that I created as political commentary on the cancellation of NASA’s planned return of humans to the Moon and which was the cover art for the 2010 International Space Development Conference Program Book.

Capricon Odds and Ends

The rest of the weekend was spent either in conversation in the halls or over food, or attending panels on a variety of subjects. Unfortunately for me, the three programs I most wanted to see at the convention were scheduled in the same time slots as when I was speaking. My surprise meet-up of the convention was with fellow space artist John Kaufmann. This was the first time I had met John face to face – our previous meetings were of the virtual variety. John had some great astronomical art in the convention’s art show. We had a wonderful time talking shop and otherwise. Dinner Saturday consisted of an outing to a local mexican restaurant with Tullio Proni, maker of ray guns and other fine energy weapons; Bill Higgins, a beam jockey at Fermi Lab; and Nora. The other convention highlight was attending the Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog which indeed lived up to its name. In short, I had a fine, fun time at the con.

The Illustration

To illustrate this blog post, I combined two of the artworks created during the Live Art program in Photoshop and performed some additional image manipulation on them to create an abstract landscape. I also use this piece to illustrate A Gallery of Live Art Created at the Capricon Science Fiction Convention.

Referenced Links

Tags: Capricon, computer art, live art, science fiction convention, Space Art
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Astronomical Art, Algorithmic Art, and Science Fiction

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Sands of Mars

The Capricon Science Fiction Convention opens today and runs through Sunday. I have a fairly busy schedule at the con this year. First I will be participating in the convention’s art show. I will have seven works of art in the show:

Sands of Mars
Titan Landscape astronomical art
Astronaut Glory II space art
Lift Off space art
Quantum Moon moon art
Moon From A Dream astronomical art not on my web site
Glacial Mars astronomical art not on my web site

In addition to the art show, I will also be providing two presentations for the convention: Algorithmic Art: Where Art Meets Math and The Art of Astronomy.

Algorithmic Art: Where Art Meets Math gives a history of algorithmic art, discusses some of the concepts and takes a look at some of the software tools available today to those interested in algorithmic art.

The Art of Astronomy is a straight forward history of astronomical art which also includes a discussion of how I have created some of my astronomical art as well as providing an overview of how anyone can use freely available graphics software to work with the raw image data available online from the various NASA robotic missions.

In addition to my two presentations, I will also be participating on the following panels.

Panel: Do You Still Believe in the Future?
Description: They say the “Golden Age of Science Fiction” is thirteen and when you’re thirteen all sorts of things are possible in the future. Now that you’ve grown up, chronologically, if nothing else, do you still view the possibilities of the future the way you did when you hit that golden age? Is it possible to retain that hope and optimism or are humans naturally cynical? With co-panelists Michael D’Ambrosio, Butch Honeck and Dermot Dobson as moderator.

Panel: Nuclear Fission or Fusion or ???: What Will Power our Future?
Description: Wind…Water…Coal…Steam…Oil. Over the centuries our fuel choices have changed as we’ve found more effective alternatives. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the most effective alternative, nuclear fission, carries a strong negative, and fusion isn’t ready for prime time. What advances will fuel sources see in the next 50 years? 100 years? Will we ever run out of fuel? With co-panelists Jim Landis, Pat Nuccio, Isabel Schechter, and myself as moderator.

Panel: ISDC: The International Space Development Conference
Description: The International Space Development Conferences is coming to Chicago on Memorial Day weekend this year. Come learn what this professional conference has to offer and learn how you can attend at a discount. With co-panelists Raymond Cyrus and Tom Veal and myself as moderator.

Panel: Manned visit to Mars: Round Table Discussion
Description: Is it worth sending a man to Mars as opposed to unmanned probes? With co-panelists Brother Guy Consolmagno and Bill Thomasson as moderator.

See you at the con.

Tags: algorithmic art, art show, Astronomical Art, Capricon, convention, science fiction
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It’s All A Conspiracy

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Conspiracy Crowd
Are You In On It?

Yes they are all in it together. In this case they is that unknown force which has worked to arrange it so that everything that I am even remotely interested in doing is happening on the same weekend in February.

It all started with the Capricon Science Fiction Convention. I will be participating in their art show, deliver two presentations on art, and be a panelist on a number of panels. Capricon is Feb 11-14.

Along comes the Northwest Cultural Council and offers a seminar on State Of The Art Giclee Reproductions. I would love to attend but can’t because it is that same Saturday.

I was then asked if I could do a presentation for the Northern Illinois Rocketry Association at their mini-conference scheduled for the same Saturday. Would have loved to both present and attend but alas no can do.

I was also asked to speak to a school group on that Friday about careers in the aerospace, astronomical, and planetary science fields. Can’t make that one either.

Most of all I would have loved to attend the College Art Association Annual Conference being held in Chicago this year! If it wasn’t for my obligations to Capricon, I would be at this conference.

There was something else as well – I forget what it was but it was the same weekend so that was dismissed.

And oh, I forgot to mention that my older son’s birthday is, yep you guessed it, that Friday!

On the bright side – nothing else has showed up on my radar screen for the other 24 days of the month.

Sadly this seems to be all to typical for me. I distinctly remember after returning from my honeymoon with my wife – we were discussing vacation plans for the next year. Out of 52 weekends I had only one weekend blocked out – that to attend the International Space Development Conference. My wife wanted us to go to California to celebrate her father’s 60th birthday. You guessed it – out of 52 possible weekends her father’s birthday was the same weekend as the conference I was obligated to attend. So for our first vacation post-honeymoon, we spent it a few thousand miles apart.

Being powerless to stop this evil conspiracy, I’ll just shrug it off and do my best to enjoy all those other free weekends.

Jim

Tags: art, conspiracy, weekend
Posted in Odds and Ends, Presentations, SF Cons | 1 Comment »

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Windycon – Dystopia, Space, and Art

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Windycon Art Show web page

I’ll be spending this weekend at the Windycon 36 Science Fiction Convention. If you haven’t heard of Windycon it is one of the Midwest’s largest regional science-fiction conventions with an average attendance of over 1300.

I will of course be participating in the art show. Kerry Kuhn (aka Trouble) will be running the art show again this year which means that everything will go smoothly. I always enjoy touring the art show and seeing what the other artists are up to. I especially enjoy the Friday night wine and cheese reception which allows the artists and potential buyers to mix, mingle, and make merry. Another feature of the art show is the art auction held Saturday night and run by Bob Passovoy. It’s probably one of the most entertaining art auctions you’ll ever attend.

I think that I’ve attended most of the Windycons over the last 20 years and this one certainly has the lightest personal workload. I typically give one, maybe two, presentations and participate in a few panel discussions. This year I offered no talks and was assigned to a single panel. But that panel is a good one. Titled Dystopia Begone, the panel’s description is:

Does the future have to be so grim? Is our future really overcrowded, polluted and unequal? What books are interesting, good to read, and have a positive view of the near future? Or is there a positive view? Our panelists discuss the world of the next 100 years.

The panelists will be myself, E.E. Knight, Michael Williamson, and Gene Wolfe.

When it comes to science fiction and dystopian views of the future, I must say that I find the subject appealing. Looking over this Wikipedia list of dystopian literature, I find that I have read and enjoyed quite a few of the novels listed.

Based on memory I would have to say that of the ones I have read, my five top favorites are:

For my money, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress and 1984 are far out in front of the other three on my list.

And in getting back to the future, I will also be participating in a planning meeting for the 2010 International Space Development Conference (ISDC) – being held Saturday morning at the hotel. The International Space Development Conference is an annual conference sponsored by the National Space Society for which I am a director. I tried to avoid becoming deeply involved in the ISDC for fear of being stretched to thin. However I failed miserably. In addition to now being the official photographer for the 2010 ISDC, I am also managing the Call for Papers and find myself to be the Web Site Coordinator. You’ll be reading more about this in the future.

But for now, for more information about the Windycon Science Fiction Convention, go to http://www.windycon.org/windy36/. For the Windycon art show, visit Windycon Art Show page.

If you’re attending Windycon, keep an eye out for me and don’t forget to visit the art show.

Ad Astra, Jim

Tags: art show, dystopian, space, windycon
Posted in Art Shows, National Space Society, SF Cons | Comments Off

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