On Monday July 29th see amazing art from the golden age of Bay Area rock posters, learn how the novel chemistries of fungi are digesting plastics and building houses, and discover the ancient astronomical computer recovered from the bottom of the ocean!
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Club 21 Doors and Drinks at 7PM, Talks Begin at 7:30PM. 21+ Please.
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Beyond Psychedelic: Reassessing the Golden Age of Bay Area Rock Posters
The Golden Age of the Rock Poster in the Bay Area is often remembered as “psychedelic art”, but these legendary posters smashed artistic barriers and created new styles way beyond psychedelia. See how famous Bay Area rock poster artists played with Pop Art, Art Nouveau, vintage advertising and surrealism from 1965-1972 to make the amazing non-psychedelic rock posters of the psychedelic era. Also learn how Jimi Hendrix ended up on Bird’s Eye frozen food packaging, and why posters co-opting copyrights could create canonical concert announcements, and why corporations were cool with it.
Ben Marks is on the board of directors of The Rock Poster Society, which produces The Festival of Rock Posters every October at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park (facebook.com/events/2339837322952990). He writes frequently about rock posters at Collectors Weekly, where he is the site’s general manager. Ben is currently working on a biography of David Singer, the designer of more posters for Bill Graham during the Fillmore’s heyday than any other artist.
Mushrooms Making Marvelous Materials: Advances in Mycelium Technologies
Fungi help trees communicate, turn ants into zombies, soak up heavy metals, use nuclear radiation to grow, and make Mario Super. Learn how the novel abilities of three million different fungi to digest wood, eat humans or degrade plastic are being used to create sustainable materials that will recycle our waste, grow hats, bags and boots, and build houses (yes, houses) in the coming age of mycelium manufacturing.
Sonia Travaglini founded mycelium materials research at UC Berkeley, and completed her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering on mushroom materials by smashing, smooshing and burning them (for science). Sonia currently works with Bay Area universities to grow participation & access to engineering studies, especially for under-represented communities. When not teaching, writing papers, or working with start-ups, Dr. Sonia is improving her British Sign Language and American Sign Language.
The Antikythera Mechanism: The Ancient Computer that the Greeks Learned and Lost
Recovered by sponge divers from an ancient shipwreck in 1901, the Antikythera Mechanism demonstrated math and calculating gears which would not be seen again in the historical record for several hundred years. See how the bronze epicyclic gears elegantly computed future planetary positions, lunar phases, and eclipses by tracking subtle changes in the moon’s velocity. Then learn how scientists finally unraveled the functions of the Antikythera after a century of trying, and how the astronomical principles contained in the device dates back to the ancient Babylonians and forward to the later work of Ptolemy, allowing humanity to predict the behavior of the universe for the first time.
Jeff Herzbach is a dilettante historian with a passion for learning. His interests include history, physics, and things that shouldn’t exist, but somehow do.
With music from Dj Pili drinks from Club 21, eats available for purchase from Miss Arepita-Arepa Mobile, and info from the great Oakland Public Library.