Throughout the symposium, we explored living at the intersection of engineering and the arts by showcasing and engaging the audience in the work of people who are rooted, invested and experienced in working at this intersection. We wished to cultivate opportunities for all to explore, learn, work, and collaborate without disciplinary labels and inspire continued work at the intersection of engineering and the arts.  The Symposium featured four panels, each designed to engage the audience in the multifaceted process of working at the intersection of engineering and the arts. The panel topics, moderators and panelists were as follows:

Panel I - Asking Questions
In both art and engineering, we create something new.  What we create and how we create are driven by the questions we ask. What happens to our questions when we “live" at the intersection of engineering and the arts? And what happens to our engineering and our art as a consequence? 

Moderators: Jeff Whetstone, Professor of Visual Arts, Princeton University & Aynsley Vandenbroucke,  Lecturer in Dance, Princeton University

Panelists:

  • Amy LaViers '09, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Forrest Meggers, Assistant Professor of Architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Co-Director, Program in Architecture and Engineering, Princeton University
  • Ali Momeni, Associate Professor, School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Alice Tang '18, Undergraduate Student, Computer Science, Princeton University

Panel II - Taking Risks
Within the context of living at the intersection of engineering and art, we define "risk" as having the courage to try something new that unleashes creativity, embraces failure, and seeks collaboration. 

Moderator: Maria Garlock,  Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Co-Director, Program in Architecture and Engineering, Princeton University

Panelists:

  • Alessandro Beghini, Associate Director and Sr. Structural Engineer, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
  • Taeyoon Choi,  Artist and Co-founder of School for Poetic Computation
  • Cassandre Joseph, Associate Artistic Director, STREB Extreme Action (tentative)
  • Rebecca Napolitano, Graduate Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University
  • Bill Washabaugh, Creative Director and Founder, Hypersonic

Panel III - Form Beyond Function
The purpose of the panel is to push the boundaries of “form beyond function.” We seek to engage the audience in discussions that push back against the classical notion of beauty and aesthetics, unleash our imagination from present-day constraints, and unpack the notion of skeuomorphism. 

Moderator: Jeff Snyder, Director of Electronic Music and Senior Lecturer in Music, Princeton University

Panelists:

  • Sigrid Adriaenssens,  Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University
  • D. Graham Burnett, Professor of History, Princeton University
  • Martha Friedman,  Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts in the Lewis Center for the Arts. Director, Program in Visual Arts, Princeton University
  • Douglas Repetto, Artist and Educator
  • Jingwen Zhu,  Co-founder Wearable Media. Interaction Designer, Creative Technologist, Educator
  • Doris Sung '86, Associate Professor, USC School of Architecture, Principal, DOSU studio architecture  

Panel IV - Inspiration, Collaboration and Process
This panel will end the day with one example of a team that has been living at the intersection of engineering and the arts. The panelists will engage the audience in a discussion of how they were inspired to collaborate, utilize processes within and across their disciplinary fields, advance their respective fields, and craft theoretical and physical spaces for working at the intersection of engineering and the arts. 

Moderator: Mark DeChiazza, Director, Filmmaker, Designer and Choreographer

Panelists:

  • Alessio Franci,  Associate Professor of BioMathematics, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • Cori Kresge, Dancer, Stephen Petronio Company
  • Rebecca Lazier,  Senior Lecturer in Dance in the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University
  • Naomi E. Leonard '85,  Edwin S. Wilsey Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Director, Council on Science and Technology, Princeton University
  • H. Kayhan Özcimder, Mathworks
  • Dan Trueman *99, Professor of Music, Princeton University