Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2009 APS March Meeting
Volume 54, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 16–20, 2009; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Session Q3: Physics and Culture |
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Sponsoring Units: DMP Chair: Charles Falco, University of Arizona Room: 301/302 |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
Q3.00001: Computerized Comparison and Analysis of Vincent van Gogh's Painting Brushstrokes Invited Speaker: With advanced digitization techniques, museums have routinely begun to assemble vast digital libraries of images of their collections. These images can be analyzed by computers to assist art historians for a number of tasks. In our work, we focus on three challenges: artist identification, dating of an art work, and finding distinguishing features among artists. Two complementary approaches were taken: (1) the analysis of the geometric statistics based on the extracted individual brushstroke, and (2) the modeling of overall brushstroke texture. These approaches aim at assisting art historians in comparing a painting or parts of a painting to a group of paintings based on multiple criteria. Statistical methods have been used to compare groups of paintings. Each painting image is divided into subimages. Individual brushstrokes are segmented automatically. Geometric features, including the curvature, the overall orientation, and the size, are computed for each brushstroke. We also compute the features representing the interactivity of the brushstrokes extracted. The statistics, including average and standard deviation, of those features are used to model certain aspects of the artist's brushstrokes. For capturing the local brushstroke texture, we first apply a wavelet transform to the image. A spatial model, the 2-D hidden Markov model, is used to model the texture features of each subimage. The methods have shown to be able to distinguish van Gogh paintings and non van Gogh paintings to a great extent. The techniques can provide clues for the dating of van Gogh paintings. A comparison of the van Gogh paintings, Monticelli's paintings, and paintings by contemporary artists provides insights on their similarities and differences. The analysis has provided numerical statistics for further studying these and other paintings. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
Q3.00002: Prime-Time Science: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship? Invited Speaker: The portrayal of science has often posed a challenge to Hollywood. Though it has provided some of the compelling storylines, the many complexities of science (and scientists) have confounded even the most talented writer or director, pitting creative license against scientific accuracy again and again. Likewise, the scientific community has struggled to find a conduit through which it can communicate its story to the general public on a mass scale. To bridge this gap, the National Academy of Sciences has partnered with leading Hollywood professionals to launch The Science and Entertainment Exchange; its mission is to connect entertainment industry professionals with top scientists from across the country to foster creative collaborations. The timing has never been better: there is a plethora of network TV shows currently on the air with science-based themes and plot lines, and a renewed interest -- even with science fiction films and TV -- in coming up with more plausible futuristic scenarios. Working together, the two communities can create a ``win-win'' synergy between accurate science and engaging entertainment. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
Q3.00003: Hollywood Science: Good for Hollywood, Bad for Science? Invited Speaker: Like it or not, most science depicted in feature films is in the form of science fiction. This isn't likely to change any time soon, if only because science fiction films are huge moneymakers for Hollywood. But beyond that, these films are a powerful cultural force. They reach millions as they depict scientific ideas from DNA and cloning to space science, whether correctly or incorrectly; reflect contemporary issues of science and society like climate change, nuclear power and biowarfare; inspire young people to become scientists; and provide defining images -- or stereotypes -- of scientists for the majority of people who've never met a real one. Certainly, most scientists feel that screen depictions of science and scientists are badly distorted. Many are, but not always. In this talk, based on my book \textit{Hollywood Science }[1], I'll show examples of good and bad screen treatments of science, scientists, and their impact on society. I'll also discuss efforts to improve how science is treated in film and ways to use even bad movie science to convey real science. \\[4pt] [1] Sidney Perkowitz, \textit{Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, and the End of the World} (Columbia University Press, New York, 2007). ISBN: 978-0231142809 [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
Q3.00004: The Physics of the Blues Invited Speaker: In looking at the commonalities between music and science, one sees that the musician's palette is based on the principles of physics. The pitch of a musical note is determined by the frequency of the sound wave. The scales that musicians use to create and play music can be viewed as a set of rules. What makes music interesting is how musicians develop those rules and create ambiguity with them. I will discuss the evolution of western musical scales in this context. As a particular example, ``Blue'' notes are very harmonic notes that are missing from the equal temperament scale. The techniques of piano blues and jazz represent the melding of African and Western music into something totally new and exciting. Live keyboard demonstrations will be used. Beyond any redeeming entertainment value the talk will emphasize the serious connections between science and art in music. Nevertheless tips will be accepted. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:39PM - 2:15PM |
Q3.00005: Joys and Pain in Making a Science Movie Invited Speaker: This talk will describe the joys and pains in making a multiple award winning science movie: ``When Things Get Small.'' We found that in order to reach a wide public of non experts, the best approach is to develop a collaboration between a scientist and a TV producer. In order to keep scientific accuracy and at the same time maintain public interest it is crucial to keep the message well defined and crisp and not dwell on too many details. The creative process, coming from these two different cultures, makes this a very rewarding experience. However, there are also ``pains'' associated with it which will be described. Movie available at http://ischuller.ucsd.edu/movies/movies.php or http://uctv.tv/getsmall/ movie was produced in collaboration with R. Wargo and UC-TV(http://www.ucsd.tv/getsmall/) and had the contribution from many other movie professionals. [Preview Abstract] |
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