When I’m not teaching classes, writing papers or grant proposals, working with graduate students, attending meetings, reviewing papers, eating or sleeping, I like to get involved in projects that blend science with art and/or music, generally for educational purposes (though really for fun).
The Art and Science of Snow Microbiology
![Painting of a snowy landscape with eerie green and blue light](https://sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/kilpisjarvi-seriestransitional-datasm.jpg)
Art and Science of Snow Microbiology
Musical Greenhouse
![JCS students help move soil into new greenhouse](https://sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/WorkCrew-300x169.jpg)
Pi Day
![JCS Middle School students playing with homemade instruments on Pi Day](https://sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/JCS_PiDay1-300x150.jpg)
Root Rhapsody
![Root painting and sculptures for Root Rhapsody project](https://sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/RootRhapGreen-300x149.jpg)
Microbial Knot
![Microbial Knot sculpture](https://sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/MicrobialKnot-300x222.jpg)
Soil Blind
![Soil Blind sculpture](https://sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/SoilBlindWeek22-300x200.jpg)
Climate Jam: Transforming environmental data into inaccessible, audience-hostile, algorithmically-generated Art Musik!
Seriously, though – this is a great idea, even though NSF and NASA didn’t fund it. The reviewers thought it was a fun idea, but too risky. “There’s no proof that music improves learning.” Of course, that was our research question, but whatever.
Van Gogh’s Ear and Rainbow Room
My earliest collaboration with the great Rogalski. These were sound-light-art installations exhibited at the Shasta County Arts Council in Redding, California.