Artists, scientists discover new perspectives through collaboration

UChicago News

When UChicago’s Arts, Science & Culture Initiative began in 2010, program director and curator Julie Marie Lemon had a vision of artists and scientists working together, sharing approaches and deep knowledge of individual disciplines to unearth new findings. The results have ranged from using birds to track the history of industrial pollution to visualizing the structure of the universe through textiles.“The thinking was to provide a platform of exchange between students who don’t usually have contact with each other,” Lemon said. “There is a wide variety of results, but there are real discoveries that happen.”

This year’s collection of projects is no less ambitious, with students researching topics from neurobiology to the supernatural. They will present their findings at a public display on May 10 at 5 p.m. in the Logan Center’s Performance Penthouse.

The projects include “Dissecting Enchantment: Between Gods and Ghosts” by anthropology PhD students Hilary Leathem and Agnes Mondragón Celis-Ochoa and visual arts MFA candidate Adrienne Elyse Meyers. Their research focuses on the boundaries between the sacred and the haunted.

The team visited sites throughout Chicago, including Graceland Cemetery and spiritual shops in the Pilsen neighborhood, in an effort to understand how certain locations take on the characteristics of the sacred, the supernatural or elements of both.













Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral provided a particularly unique blend. It is one of the most important Catholic spaces in the city, serving as the seat of the archdiocese. But a criminal history gives the cathedral’s exterior an entirely different feel.

“It’s considered haunted because a rival of Al Capone’s was shot in front of it,” Meyers said. “The bullet mark is still there. Inside it is an incredibly holy space. It just depends on how you look, but the term haunted and sacred describes the same place.”

The team compiled footage from the various ...

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