Do you feel crippled by your relationship to truth? Do you suffer from the agony of repeatable results, the disconnect between facts and persuasion? Do you feel the vectors of capital squeezing your interest into commerce that lies outside the public interest? Do you feel powerless despite having a greater than average understanding of the natural world? Do you feel a disconnect between what you know and how it affects policy? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be a scientist, and we may be able to help. This lecture and discussion will explore science, arts, and activism, with an eye towards solving our mutual problems.

"...the Jonathan Swift of the Jackass Generation.”

Igor Vamos aka Mike Bonanno of The Yes Men

Igor Vamos is an artist whose media spectacles get attention for social and environmental causes. He is a founding member of The Yes Men, a comic duo who infiltrate the world of big business to pull off jaw-dropping pranks that target the world's biggest corporate criminals. The antics of The Yes Men have been seen worldwide in three award-winning feature films that prompted author Naomi Klein to call them "the Jonathan Swift of the Jackass Generation.” He is also a professor of Art and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and has received many awards over the years including a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Alpert Award, and The Annenberg Award for Art and Social Change.

The Yes Men films