Art &

In this episode of Art &, we catch up with designer Char McCurdy and biochemist Aaron Straight about The Giving Tree, an upcoming Stanford IntroSem being taught this fall that will start with a single tree from campus and asks students to explore what can be made from as much of it as possible.

Developed through Stanford Arts Institute's Arts Catalyst Fellowship, the course incorporates design, organic materials, sustainability, and hands-on making. Char and Aaron discuss how their collaboration started from a chance conversation about furniture into an adventurous class about materials, climate change, biodiversity, risk-taking, and problem-solving. Along the way, they reflect on what happens when students and faculty learn directly from the natural world, embrace uncertainty, and develop the agency that comes from making from the abundant source of wonder standing all around us: trees!

Featured Guests: Char McCurdy & Aaron Straight

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Credits

Host: Ellen Oh
Creator / Producer / Editor: Taylor Jones
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Chase Everett
Theme Song & Music: Juana Izuzquiza
Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock
Artwork: Connie Ko

In Episode 5 of Art &, we meet Erika Chong Shuch, a performance maker, director, choreographer, and 25-26 VPA Visiting Artist, and Tiffany Steinwert, Dean for Religious and Spiritual Life at Stanford. Their conversation centers on 1,000 Ways to Hold, Erika’s ceramics-based social practice project that brings people together to shape clay bowls while reflecting on what they have held, and what has held them.

Rooted in Erika’s inquiry of intimate encounters and bringing strangers together, 1,000 Ways to Hold originated from a question about isolation and the small moments that foster meaningful connection. Across campus, the project moved through classrooms, dining halls, community centers, spiritual life spaces, Stanford Hospital, and staff communities, inviting students, faculty, staff, patients, families, and neighbors to enter a shared creative process.

Erika, Tiffany, and Ellen explore how art can act as a way to usher people into deeper presence, listening, and exchange. They discuss the relationship between ritual, spirituality, and community-building, divinity as an extension of making, and how a ball of clay can create space for grief, tenderness, and profound relation.

"1,000 Ways to Hold" is on view at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University from April 2 through August 17.

Featured Guests: Erika Chong Shuch & Tiffany Steinwert

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

Credits

Host: Ellen Oh
Creator / Producer / Editor: Taylor Jones
Production Support: Edi Dai
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Chase Everett
Theme Song & Music: Juana Izuzquiza
Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock
Artwork: Connie Ko

In Episode 4 of Art &, we meet Manu Prakash—a Stanford bioengineer whose lab invents frugal, open-source tools that make global science accessible—and artist/designer Jiabao Li, whose work spans technology, biology, ecology, and planetary futures. Their collaboration centers on The Long Fall, an expansive performance and installation that transforms microscopic plankton into a planetary-scale story about climate change and connection.

What started as Jiabao’s sabbatical project in Manu’s lab grew out of a shared inquiry: How can art and science work together to reveal the invisible systems shaping life on Earth? Drawing from Manu’s career of ocean expeditions, the two collaborated on a piece that moves across scales, charting the descent of plankton through the deep ocean, to the global forces of oceanic warming and shifting ecosystems. Together, they shaped a narrative that is part planetary meditation, part scientific revelation, and part emotional encounter with the unseen.

Manu, Jiabao, and Ellen explore how interdisciplinary collaboration can reshape how we perceive the planet—how art can resist despair, open space for hope, and invite everyday people to feel the urgency of climate change not through raw research, but through wonder and beauty.

Featured Guests: Manu Prakash & Jiabao Li

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

Credits

Host: Ellen Oh
Creator / Producer / Editor: Taylor Jones
Production Support: Edi Dai
Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Chase Everett
Theme Song & Music: Juana Izuzquiza
Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock
Artwork: Connie Ko

In Episode 3 of Art &, we meet Anita Mohan — a clinical assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford Medicine — and Lauren Toomer, an artist and lecturer in Stanford’s Department of Art & Art History.

The two reflect on their personal paths to letting art inform their professional perspectives, and how a chance meeting during a medical humanities fellowship sparked a collaboration that integrates art and medicine. 

During the episode, Mohan touches on how plastic surgery’s focus on form, beauty, and what makes the anatomy aesthetically pleasing made for an organic connection to similar topics in art. Toomer shares how taking an undergraduate course on art, medicine and disability opened up her mind to thinking about the world in a more holistic way.

Together, they’re designing workshops that encourage medical students to slow down, observe, and see the body through an artist’s eye.

Hosted by Ellen Oh, Director of Interdisciplinary Arts Programs at Stanford Arts, the Art & Podcast explores arts-driven collaborations across Stanford University’s dynamic research ecosystem through lively conversations about how creative perspectives can spark new pathways, insights, and solutions for the most pressing issues of our time.

Featured Guests: Anita Mohan and Lauren Toomer

Follow Stanford Arts onInstagram andYouTube for more stories and updates.

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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

In Episode 2 of Art &, we meet Ramón Perisé—chef and Head of R&D at the internationally acclaimed Basque restaurant Mugaritz, and a Doerr Visiting Artist at Stanford—alongside Vayu Hill-Maini, a Stanford bioengineering professor whose lab explores fermentation, microbial systems, and the creative edges of biology. Their collaboration marks a rare and exciting model for campus: a chef-in-residence program that merges avant-garde gastronomy with scientific research, sustainability, and design.

In this conversation, Ramón and Vayu trace the roots of their partnership, which began more than a decade ago when Vayu was a student searching for ways to merge science and cooking. That early exchange shaped his path as a researcher—and now returns in the form of a residency that brings Mugaritz’s playful, provocative approach to Stanford. Together, they walk us through their newest line of inquiry: the study of Neurospora, a vivid orange fungus whose biological and culinary potential opens the door to what they call “genetic gastronomy”—designing flavor, nutrition, and sensory experience directly through microbial life.

For both of them, fermentation becomes a framework for thinking: a process that connects the microscopic to the planetary, linking questions of transformation, ecology, and sustainability. They describe the cross-disciplinary ecosystem they’re building on campus—hands-on workshops at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, part of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, collaborative experiments in the lab, plans for a communal meal, and a forthcoming Neurospora zine—all aimed at creating new forms of exchange between chefs, scientists, farmers, students, and the public.

Together, Ramón, Vayu, and Ellen explore what becomes possible when culinary practice and scientific inquiry move in tandem—how food can function as a form of cultural research, how microbes can reshape the boundaries of creativity, and how cross-disciplinary collaboration can spark new ways of thinking about sustainability.

Featured Guest: Vayu Hill-Maini & Ramón Perisé

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

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

In the Season 2 premiere of Art &, we meet Camille Utterback—an artist whose large-scale interactive installations probe how data, bodies, and perception intertwine—and Risa Wechsler, a cosmologist mapping the unseen structure of the universe and Director of Stanford’s new Center for Decoding the Universe. Their collaboration began inside Stanford’s new Computing and Data Science building, CoDa, where Camille’s artwork Fathom arcs across five stories of glass and light, and now extends into a multi-year project supported by a Humanities Seed Grant.

In this conversation, Camille and Risa trace the origins of Fathom’s “astronomy panel,” which blends ancient star charts with cutting-edge dark-matter simulations from Risa’s lab. They walk us through their newest effort: building tools that help artists and students work with astronomical datasets—especially the massive nightly stream of images soon to arrive from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time. For both of them, the project is a question of scale: how do we make data that is vast, abstract, or machine-parsed feel tangible again?

Together, Camille, Risa, and Ellen explore what becomes possible when art and science move in tandem—how visualizing the rhythms of the cosmos can deepen our sense of inquiry, expand how we understand information, and create new pathways for public engagement. As we look toward a future where enormous datasets shape how we see the world, their work offers a powerful model: interdisciplinary collaboration as a way to restore wonder, sharpen understanding, and invite more people into the act of discovery.

Featured Guest: Camille Utterback & Risa Wechsler

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Read more about Fathom in the Stanford Report: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/04/art-installation-computing-data-science-building-camille-utterback

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

In the season finale of Art &, we meet Hideo Mabuchi—a quantum physicist, ceramicist, and faculty director of the Stanford Arts Institute—whose creative and scholarly life models what it looks like to teach and research from a place of integration. For Hideo, art and science are not opposites, but complementary ways of thinking, making, and discovering.

In this conversation with host Ellen Oh, Hideo shares how an encounter with Japanese ceramics led to a years-long journey of incorporating material practice into his research and teaching. From firing clay in a wood-burning kiln to running interdisciplinary courses on indigo dye, his work invites students—and fellow faculty—to explore the world through many lenses at once.

Together, Hideo and Ellen reflect on the growing appetite for interdisciplinarity among students, and how faculty can help create space for that complexity. As we imagine new ways of structuring research and teaching, Hideo’s story points to a hopeful future—where art plays a foundational role in helping us ask better questions, expand our methods, and deepen the meaning of our work.

Featured Guest: Hideo Mabuchi

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

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

Special thanks to Deborah Cullinan, Stanford Vice President for the Arts

In this episode of Art &, we go on a field trip—literally and metaphorically—with synthetic biologist Drew Endy and artist-mycologist Phil Ross, founder of the Open Fung initiative. What starts as a visit to a mushroom farm turns into a deeper conversation about how fungi could transform the way we think about materials, sustainability, and the role of interdisciplinary collaboration.

From building leather-like textiles from mycelium to reimagining how bioengineering can be more democratic, Drew and Phil explore how fungi offer more than just a biological solution—they offer a cultural shift. Together, they show how artists and scientists can work side-by-side to prototype more ethical, regenerative, and connected futures.

Featured Guests: Phil Ross & Drew Endy

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

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

Special thanks to Deborah Cullinan, Stanford Vice President for the Arts

What does it mean to become someone or something else online? In this episode, immersive theater-maker Scarlett Kim and human-computer interaction researcher Cyan DeVeaux explore how technology reshapes identity, embodiment, and creative expression. Hosted by Ellen Oh, the conversation traces the edges of virtual and physical reality, from avatars and motion capture to diasporic storytelling and digital folklore. Together, they show how art and engineering can meet at the frontier of imagination, with profound implications for belonging and future design.

Featured Guest: Scarlett Kim & Cyan DeVeaux

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

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

Special thanks to Deborah Cullinan

What happens when a sociologist and a musician reimagine immigration narratives together? In this episode, acclaimed vocalist and cultural strategist Meklit Hadero joins Stanford sociologist Tomás Jiménez for a powerful conversation on music, migration, and belonging. Hosted by Ellen Oh, the episode explores how artists and researchers are working across disciplines to challenge dominant narratives and build new cultural frameworks. From refugee stories to immigrant soundscapes, this episode reveals the deep role of art in shaping not just identity—but public understanding and social change.

Featured Guest: Meklit Hadero & Tomas Jimenez

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

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.

Special thanks to Deborah Cullinan.

Art & is supported by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.

In the premiere of Art &, Stanford Vice President for the Arts Deborah Cullinan joins host Ellen Oh to explore why art is not just additive—but essential. From poetry’s role in her upbringing to championing creative integration across disciplines, Cullinan makes the case for art as a catalyst for innovation, healing, and institutional transformation.

Transcript: HERE

Featured Guest: Deborah Cullinan, Stanford Vice President for the Arts

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

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.

Special thanks to Deborah Cullinan.

Art & is supported by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.

Marine ecologist Mehr Kumar and sculptor Mark Baugh-Sasaki come together in an unusual collaboration exploring the fragile ecosystem of the Southern Ocean. In this episode, they share how art and science can jointly imagine climate futures—and how a chance whale sighting deepened their creative connection.

Transcript: HERE

Featured Guest: Mehr Kumar & Mark Baugh-Sasaki

Sediment Core digital visualization: https://arts.stanford.edu/core-sample/

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

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.

Special thanks to Deborah Cullinan.

Art & is supported by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.

For our final chapter of Encounters, Janani convenes with professors Tsachy Weissman and Natalie Gosnell to discuss the future possibilities of art-science collaboration.

Transcript: HERE

For more information on Janani Balasubramanian and the 2023 Denning Visiting Artist residency, visit our site.

Featured Guest: Tsachy Weissman, Natalie Gosnell

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

Credits

Host: Janani Balasubramanian

Creator/Producer/Editor: Taylor Jones

Production support: Edi Dai

Sound Designer and Mix Engineer: Chase Everett

Theme song and Music: Juana Everett

Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock

Artwork: Connie Ko.

Special thanks to Susan Clark and Tsachy Weissman.

Encounters is supported by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.

This conversation with Assistant Professor Susan Clark explores how violent metaphors in Astrophysics can be transformed through art-science collaborations, leading to fresh perspectives on the universe and our place within it.

Transcript: HERE

For more information on Janani Balasubramanian and the 2023 Denning Visiting Artist residency, visit our site.

Featured Guest: Susan Clark

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

Credits

Host: Janani Balasubramanian

Creator/Producer/Editor: Taylor Jones

Production support: Edi Dai

Sound Designer and Mix Engineer: Chase Everett

Theme song and Music: Juana Everett

Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock

Artwork: Connie Ko.

Special thanks to Susan Clark and Tsachy Weissman.

Encounters is supported by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.

In conversation with Srinija Srinivasan, we explore practice and the role of art as a divine manifestation, capable of transforming our realities and fostering deep human connections.

Transcript: HERE

For more information on Janani Balasubramanian and the 2023 Denning Visiting Artist residency, visit our site.

Featured Guest: Srinija Srinivasan

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

Credits

Host: Janani Balasubramanian

Creator/Producer/Editor: Taylor Jones

Production support: Edi Dai

Sound Designer and Mix Engineer: Chase Everett

Theme song and Music: Juana Everett

Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock

Artwork: Connie Ko.

Special thanks to Susan Clark and Tsachy Weissman.

Encounters is supported by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.

In conversation with Ellen Oh, Director of Interdisciplinary Artist Programs at Stanford Arts, we uncover the value of connecting artists and scientists to advance fields of research and thought.

Transcript: HERE

For more information on Janani Balasubramanian and the 2023 Denning Visiting Artist residency, visit our site.

Featured Guest: Ellen Oh, Director of Interdisciplinary Artist Programs.

Follow Stanford Arts on Instagram and YouTube for more stories and updates.

Credits

Host: Janani Balasubramanian

Creator/Producer/Editor: Taylor Jones

Production support: Edi Dai

Sound designer and mix engineer: Chase Everett

Theme song and music: Juana Everett.

Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock

Artwork: Connie Ko.

Special thanks to Susan Clark and Tsachy Weissman.

Encounters is supported by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.