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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Engineering the Imagination

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Date and time
Thursday, November 13, 2025
In-person:
Participate in the community conversation!

Explore the intersection and future of the arts and STEM.

How do art and science work together to move us – to awaken curiosity, empathy, and awe? What happens when engineering, light, sound, and structure become pathways to self-discovery?

Inspired by a constellation of projects across ArtsEmerson’s recent seasons: Noli Timere, with its monumental woven architecture designed by Janet Echelman; Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch, with its interplay of light, shadow, and storytelling; and Theater Mitu’s Utopian Hotline, which transformed the Charles Hayden Planetarium into a theater of possibility – this conversation invites us to reflect on how imagination can be engineered to create spaces for emotional connection, sensory wonder, and renewed ways of seeing ourselves and the world.

Choreographer and dramaturg Ilya Vidrin, professor of dance, Alissa Cardone, and science educator Dani LeBlanc will explore how interdisciplinary collaboration between artists, scientists, and technologists can spark deeper modes of engagement and reveal how design, movement, and innovation touch the human spirit.

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Dr. Ilya Vidrin is a choreographer, dramaturg, and director of The Partnering Lab. As an Assistant Professor of Creative Practice Research and Core Faculty at the Institute for Experimental Robotics, Ilya draws on concepts and methods in social epistemology, performance philosophy, ethics of care, dance studies, and cognitive psychology.
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Alissa Cardone joined the Conservatory in 2013 and is an associate professor of dance. She teaches the courses Modern Technique, Experiential Anatomy, Introduction to Dance, and Dance on Film & Video.
a woman with dark hair and top leans on a railing looking back at a space scene in a science museum
As the inaugural director of the Center for Space Sciences, Danielle LeBlanc brings more than 20 years of experience as a science educator and producer.
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