In the Season 2 premiere of Art &, host Ellen Oh sits down with artist Camille Utterback and cosmologist Risa Wechsler—Director of Stanford’s new Center for Decoding the Universe—to explore what happens when cutting-edge scientific research meets large-scale interactive art.
Their collaboration began with Fathom, Camille’s five-story installation in Stanford’s Computing and Data Science (CoDa) building, which weaves together ancient star charts, dark-matter simulations, and dynamically generated projections. Now, they’re expanding that work through a Humanities Seed Grant to develop tools that help artists and students engage directly with astronomical big data.
In this episode, they discuss:
- • How the “astronomy panel” of Fathom came together
- • The role of the Rubin Observatory’s upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)
- • What it means to visualize data that is too vast for human senses
- • How art and science together can reshape how we understand information
- • New possibilities for public engagement through interdisciplinary research From dark-matter simulations to human-centered design, this conversation reveals how creativity and scientific discovery can inform one another—and why interdisciplinary collaboration is essential as we enter a new era of data and AI.
Featuring:
- Camille Utterback — Associate Professor of Art & Art History (and by courtesy of Computer Science)
- Risa Wechsler — Professor of Physics; Director, Center for Decoding the Universe; Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Physics and Cosmology
Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates. Read more about Fathom in the Stanford Report: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/202…
Credits Host: Ellen Oh Creator/Producer/Editor: Taylor Jones Production Support: Edi Dai Sound Designer and Mix Engineer: Chase Everett Theme song and Music: Juana Izuzquiza Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock Artwork: Connie Ko
