Joe is a guest faculty member in the Fine Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He offers 3 courses throughout the year on the weekends and is also a lecturer in the SVA BioArt Summer Residency Program and the Art Practice MFA Program. All three of Joe’s courses focus on the use of microscopes to capture images of life. The three courses are: “Biological Imaging”, which concentrates on photographing marine life that Joe collects in the waters surrounding his hometown of Woods Hole, MA; “Botanica” a course that aims to capture images of plants and the photosynthetic world; and “The Wonderful World of Cells” a course that uses the highest magnifications of the compound microscope to obtain images of individual cells and subcellular structures. The courses are 6 weeks long (5 weeks in the Summer) with 1 class per week and are three hours in duration. No equipment is needed, only a memory card or external hard drive to store and maintain your photographs. The course descriptions are below and signup is available online at the links below or by called SVA Continuing education at 212.592.2000. For more information contact Joe at 508.292.4605 or at joe@joedegiorgis.com.
Biological Imaging: The Use of Microscopy to Observe and Photograph Life
Course Description ($220)
Capturing images of nature and biological phenomena is an essential component of the scientific process; it is also an intricate aspect of art. In this course we will utilize macro lenses and dissecting stereo-microscopes, as well as compound and fluorescent microscopes to obtain images of the microscopic world. Students will photograph marine invertebrates, including sea urchins, starfish, tunicates, comb jellies, anemones and sponges. Under the high-mag objective, we will image zooplankton and phytoplankton from marine and freshwater samples, and tissues prepared with our hands for microscopic observations. Students will develop a portfolio of images through projects that can include still life, video, time-lapse imaging, stereo pairs of 3D images, focal stacking and high-dynamic range photography. See what you can discover under magnification.
Botanica: Imaging the Green Planet
Course Description ($220)
Plants are among the most diverse organisms on the planet growing in arid deserts, tropical rain forests, on mountaintops, or in the savannas, in marshes, lakes, rivers, and in the seas. They can take on beautiful forms with vivid colors and highly evolved features. While they are often thought of as static, almost inert objects, they are anything but as they exhibit elaborate behaviors opening their blossoms at dawn, tracking the sun as the earth rotates, or baiting and trapping insects as a source of food. In this course, we will capture photographic representations of these lush life forms taking advantage of the beautiful and bizarre world of plants not only to capture the esthetics of flowers, but also to look in depth at the intricate makeup of their sexual structures, roots, vascular tissues, and the photosynthetic machinery that creates these primary producers. In particular, we will use time-lapse imaging to capture their movements, macro lenses to obtain images of their details, and microscopes to image tissues and cells. The fun begins as we explore and take focus on these unrelenting worshipers of the sun.
Bio Art in the Mysterious World of the Microbes
Microbes represent the most diverse group of organisms on Earth and have been found throughout the world to the far reaches of the planet. They are capable of living in places we once thought were uninhabitable from the deep sea hydrothermal vents to the ice masses of the Arctic tundra. These microorganisms are capable of eating petroleum, metals, acids, plastics and toxic wastes, and are thus valuable in the process of removing pollutants and contaminants from our environment. Here, we take a bio art approach to discovering new species within the microbial world. We will visualize and image the wonderful beauty of these fascinating creatures by studying their many shapes and morphologies that often take the form of rods, spheres, coils and helixes. We will use a variety of collecting techniques to obtain these microbes from the waterways throughout and surrounding Manhattan. We will use sophisticated culturing techniques in the SVA Bio Art Lab and state-of-the-art techniques, including the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing to identify the microbes we collect. Through this process we will study bioluminescent diatoms, cyanobacteria, protozoans like amoebas and paramecium, zooxanthellae the symbiotic algae that live inside coral polyps, and many others. Come collaborate on an adventure of art and science and dive into the mysterious world of microbes.