SyndicateMizzou Video Podcast

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Alex Barker - Romanian Surrealist Artist, Victor Brauner

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:16:06 GMT

One of the paintings Barker was pleasantly surprised to find in the museum’s collection is a self-portrait by the Romanian surrealist Victor Brauner. Dating from 1923, the painting reflects the period immediately before the artist moved fully into surrealism as a means of representation. “It is a remarkable portrait,” explains Barker, “because it is the last time he paints himself with both eyes.” In his subsequent work, that is, the artist always paints himself with one eye missing—whether there is a gaping wound, an automaton of some kind, or his eyes placed on his hands. In 1938, Brauner was in a bar fight, during which his eye was poked out—the very eye he had been painting himself without for a decade and a half. Barker says, “Surrealism holds it up as an example of sort of a premonitory knowledge that this was going to happen, proof that time is not linear to the unconscious mind.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Randall Prather - Genetic Modification

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:24:19 GMT

Prather talks about his work with genetic modification. The modified swine are marked by a green florescent glow on their snouts. Such modifications on the pigs could positively impact agriculture and medicine.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Kristina Narfström - Complexities of the Human Eye

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:16:15 GMT

The human eye is a very complex organ. Narfström describes its structure and explains why the retina is the most important part of the eye.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Kristina Narfström - Preventing Blindness

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:15:10 GMT

Narfström discusses various treatment measures for blindness. The prevention of photoreceptor death, she says, can be treated with different proteins and vitamins, or new cells may be inserted in the retina to replace the dying cells.