We don’t believe what we see; we see what we believe. Seeing the unfamiliar is extremely difficult and the artists and scientists who help us open windows to new worlds deserve our deepest gratitude. Our special October 9th Categorically Not! features presenters who are each masters at the art and science of seeing the unseen.

Science is all about seeing things differently. Shelley Claridge, a chemist at the California NanoSystems Institute a UCLA, will talk about how you see the world around you, why you can't see something as small as an atom, and how her microscope can do just that, by 'seeing' like blind people do. Learning about the world at this tiny scale helps create and operate machines as small as a single molecule, observe quantum mechanical interactions, and may ultimately change the way we understand biology and design drugs to cure disease.

In 1898, Marie Curie began to see a world that had been until then invisible. She not only discovered two new elements but, in the process, discovered a revolutionary way to find new elements. Her work has helped us see into the past, tracking our origins by dating the decay of radioactive materials. In writing a play about her, says the writer, actor and science communicator Alan Alda, the trick was to see her as she was: not simply a heroic icon, but a three dimensional woman who was as passionate about the two men she loved as she was about science. Radiance opens at the Geffen Playhouse Nov. 1.

Come at 6 for refreshments and wander the studios. Program begins at 6:30. We ask a for an $8 donation to cover expenses.

RSVP: 310/397-7449 or: sabine@santamonicaartstudios.com

Believing that the mission of art is to disturb the peace, Nancy Linehan Charles (award-winning actress and a director), is taking the Bard to the streets, erupting a flash-mob MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM on the Venice Boardwalk. Guerrilla Shakespeare is dropping scenes all across L.A.: Hamlet and Horatio discussing the Ghost on the ramparts in an office elevator at rush-hour; Romeo and Juliet calling each other from a mezzanine in a public mall. Nearly arrested twice, this brave Guerrilla troupe flashes on, turning Shakespeare on his ear for the “my-iPhone-is-fused-to-my-palm” generation.

Alan

Shelley

Nancy