About
Hi! 👋 I’m Cere Davis.
I am a multidisciplinary artist, engineer and researcher based in Berkeley, CA. I work in Software Systems Engineering, Science-art and education. I offer workshops and develop educational curriculum adjacent to the scientific principles underlying my kinetic sculpture and scientific artworks. I research a broad array of topics with an aim to understand underlying principles and themes. I live for the “aha” moment in solving engineering problems and discovering new scientific connections, and I love to share that “ah-hah” with others. I have extensive experience providing software and hardware engineering and architectural services to educational and corporate institutions. I have worked in a wide range of domains, including designing complex computational clusters, redundant/distributed web architectures, debugging distributed WAN network anomalies, writing test/automation code, and modifying and debugging kernel-level code.
My art exhibits and workshops are motivated by a central curiosity about complex systems and a desire to inspire scientific curiosity in others. I believe science can be playful and epistemology can be fun, even for adults.
When I am not doing research, programming or making exhibits, I enjoy vocal improv or playing abstract compositions on the piano.
If you would like to reach out to me, I can be found at:
Education
- BS Physics, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 1993
- MA Philosophy of Science, Leibniz Universität, Hannover
Awards
- 2018 — Berkeley Civic Arts Grant
- 2018 — Awesome Award for Liquid Loom, Awesome Foundation SF Chapter
- 2015 — Voted Best Wind Sculpture at Thingamajigs Aeolian Day, Oakland, CA
- 1992 — McNair Scholars Program, University of Maine, Orono
Selected Exhibitions
Liquid Loom (2018)
- US Mutek Festival, Midway Gallery, SF, CA, 2019
- San Francisco Awesome Foundation, SF, 2018
- Leonardo/ISAST Convening & 50th Anniversary, San Francisco Art Institute, 2018
- Forms — Stanford University 200th-year commemoration of Mary Shelley, 2018
Water Organ (2017)
- Liquid Assets Water Organ featured with Thingamajigs Performance Group, San Jose Art Museum, CA, 2017
- Last Festival, San Jose, CA, 2017
- Dorkbot SF, SF, CA, 2017
- Manylabs, SF, CA, 2017
- Paseo Prototyping Festival, San Jose, CA, 2016
God’s Eye (2016)
- Giant Steps Art Exhibition, Seattle, WA, 2016
- Leonardo Art Science and Technology Festival, Stanford, CA, 2016
- CCL Science-Art Presentation at California Academy of the Arts Nightlife, 2015
Piana Obscura / Chatty Spring Ballz (2013–2014)
- Megapolis Festival, SF, 2015
- Bay Area Maker Faire, San Mateo, CA, 2014
- Aeolian Day, Oakland, CA, 2014
Residencies
- Chabot Space & Science Center AiR, December/January 2017/18
- Featured Artist/Resident with Thingamajigs Performance Group, Bay Area, CA, June 2017
- Science-Art Fellow and Curator at Manylabs, SF, CA, June 2016–Present
- “Make-It-Move” Moving Sculpture Residency, Minneapolis, MN, September 2016
- Artistic Director and Curator at Counter Culture Labs, Oakland, CA
- Animotion, the art of motion — Leonardo Art and Science LASER Lecture Series, May 2016
Lectures
- On Creating ‘Second Ecologies’, Berkeley Public Library, 2019
- San Jose State University Laser Art-Science Lecture Series, 2019
- Reframing Human Affordances, Binary Salon 03 — Midway Gallery, SF, 2018
- Development of the Liquid Loom project — Awesome Foundation convening, SF, CA, 2018
- Science of Sound, Manylabs, SF, CA, 2017
- Kinetic Design Patterns Produced Through Motion — LASER Talks, UCSF, 2016
- The Art of Motion — LASER Talks, Berkeley, CA, April 2016
- Speaking panelist in SFMOMA Open Space discussion on Open Spaces and Ownership, 2015
- Panel speaker at LAST Festival’s Homo Digitalis lecture series, Stanford, CA, 2015
Publications
- Instructables: Creating “Fire Ants”, Moving Sculpture
- Editor of “Captaincy, a naval miniatures game for the age of sail” by John Carnahan
- Instructables: Creating Long Acousto-Kinetic “Reverb” Springs
- C M Davis and S. McNutt, Lightning Associated with the 1992 Eruptions of Mt. Spurr Volcano, Alaska. EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, vol. 74, no. 43, supplement, p. 649, 1993.
- C M Davis and S. McNutt, Volcanic Lightning at Mt. Spurr, 1992. Colima Volcano: Fourth International Meeting, Colima, Mexico. January 24 to 28, 1994, p. 112, Abstracts Volume
- C Davis, G Seshaajyar, JP McClymer, A Comparison of Micro-Viscosity to Shear Viscosity in Lyotropic Nematic Liquid Crystals. Bulletin of APS, v. 38, issue. 768 (1993)
- S R McNutt and C M Davis, Lightning Associated with the 1992 Eruptions of Crater Peak, Mount Spurr Volcano, Alaska. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, vol. 102, no. 1–2, pp. 45–65, 2000.