Press Releases

March 8, 2004

Particle Physics and Bioinformatics: Focus of McGrath Lecture at Southampton College
Artist Steve Miller Redefines Portraiture Through The Use of Medical Imaging Systems in Free Public Talk

Contact:
Patricia Conway
631-287-8313

Southampton, NY - In the last quarter century, science and technology have transformed every aspect of our culture. Genetics and particle physics are exploring questions about the origin of life and the universe. Using tools of technology as a lens to view our world and explore the language of this new science is the driving force for artist Steve Miller.

Miller will be a guest speaker at Southampton College on Thursday, March 25 at 4 p.m. in Duke Lecture Hall. His talk, "Collaborations in Particle Physics and Bioinformatics" will explore the advanced scientific research his drawings and paintings document.

Miller began making portraits in 1992 by using new medical imaging technologies; exploring the painted portrait by examining the organic interior of the human body. In his portraits, his subject's identities are no longer limited to outward appearance but viewed through medical images including x-rays, MRIs, sonograms, EKGs, CAT scans and DNA.

Miller's work involves collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL) Dr. Stephen Adler and Rockefeller University's Dr. Rod MacKinnon, leading research scientists in the fields of particle physics and proteomics. Adler writes source code for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at BNL where scientists are studying quark gluon plasma (the state of matter immediately after the Big Bang). MacKinnon, the current recipient for Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has forged an understanding of how a positively charged ion moves across a cell membrane.

Miller, who has accepted students from Southampton College to work with him as interns, received his bachelor's degree from Middlebury College and attended the Skoweghan School of Painting & Sculpture. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and his work has received critical support in many international publications. His pieces are included in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY, Chanel, JP Morgan, Chase Bank, French National Collection, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, the High Museum in Atlanta, Musée de la Mode in Paris and the Santa Barbara Museum. His works can be viewed at http://www.stevemiller.com

The lecture is sponsored by the John P. McGrath Fund of Long Island University and co-sponsored by The Southampton College Honors Program, the Arts and Media Division, and the Natural Science Division. For further information on other lectures in the series call (631)287-8404.