Encountering the Unseen: Puppet-actualized Lectures on Contemporary Topics in Microbiology
Tucker Marder and I organized one evening of short lectures under the broad topic of Microbiology in the historic Botany lecture Hall at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. We asked a small group of professors, doctors, and students, from the Pittsburgh area and beyond to speak at this Colloquium. Each lecture was accompanied by a physical manifestation of the ideas and natural phenomena being discussed. Visual performances provided by us and our collaborators -- Nick Fusaro, Britt Moseley, Jonathan Armistead, Zhiwan Cheung, and Dan Allende-- replaced the standard projected powerpoint. Live theater and kinetic sculpture activated by artists and puppeteers brought microorganisms to life on a much larger scale.
Here are a few excerpts from the first talk on The Human Microbiome and The Gut-Brain Axis by Sherie Edenborn, Ph.d.
Full video documentation coming soon!