MARFA – While Marfa was packed with visitors last weekend – from big weddings and the Marfa100 bike ride – another big group headed into town last night for what organizers are calling an “intimate gathering of the world’s most intriguing people of science”.
This invitation-only gathering, called the Penrose Far West, is in its inaugural year. The website penro.se lists many of the discussion’s speakers and moderators – a diverse group that wouldn’t be familiar names to many, but includes physicists, tech entrepreneurs, doctors, data professionals, climate specialists, biologists evolutionists, journalists, astronomers and authors. to name a few. Visitors will arrive on Tuesday and attend discussions and events on Wednesday and Thursday before departing on Friday. Attendees will participate in a series of discussions at the St.
The collection takes its name from Sir Roger Penrose, a British mathematician, philosopher and Nobel laureate in physics, who placed great importance on collaboration in his fields, especially those that might seem out of place like artists and musicians.
Penrose is the brainchild of Josh Jones-Dilworth, an Austinite who does a lot of research, but whose two main passions are co-owning Nautilus magazine—what he calls “a new kind Yorker for science” – and his firm, JDI, which uses storytelling to “bring emerging technology and science-driven companies to market”. Through 25 years of engagement with some of the world’s best scientific minds, Jones-Dilworth began to birth an idea—assembling a continuous group of individuals who are committed to addressing the challenges and promises of our world.
“Unfortunately, if you’re a pediatric oncologist, you go to the annual pediatric oncology meeting,” Jones Dilworth said. “Or you’re a geothermal scientist and you go to this very interesting geothermal conference. But the sciences are pretty siled. They don’t mix.”
Jones-Dilworth said professional specialties will always have their own organizations and meetings, but he wants to push those specialties to explore collaboration in a higher form. “Most problems these days are interdisciplinary in nature, and most advances come from interdisciplinary collaboration,” he said. “So cancer is for better or worse mostly an AI problem now, or geothermal is mostly a materials problem and a political problem. The theory behind Penrose has always been that if we bring a heterogeneous group together, some magic can happen.
Jones-Dilworth then began collaborating with more and more people and formed a steering committee that eventually helped put together this year’s gathering, which he expects will draw just over 100 people.
Many of the logistics in creating a successful program are the result, he said, of Risa Fielder, his chief of staff at JDI, and Autumn Rich with Panacea Collective, who has managed many complex events like Austin City Limits.
Jones-Dilworth said he knows the Marfa area well after visiting over the years and in his role on the Board of Visitors for the McDonald Observatory — which played a key role in his decision to start the Penrose Gathering in Marfa. “Being in the center of the largest dark sky reserve in the world and having the opportunity to climb the mountain on a Thursday night, we thought it would be an opportunity to get people to make the trip here,” he said. “I’ve always thought of this region as a home of science, and I’m very aware of the geothermal innovation that’s happening. I think of it as a place that has been very friendly to nerds and scientists, and everyone has been really cool about it.”
An intersection with art also played a role. Penrose commissioned a UT theater chair professor and award-winning playwright named Kirk Lind to perform a play about the Wright brothers figuring out how to fly. “It’s a mix of science and entrepreneurship and just, really, reckless hacking and a lot of trial and error,” Jones-Dilworth said. “And people think of science as being accurate, but science is really a process of being constantly wrong.” Those who attend will also receive a signed print by local artist Julie Speed and a one-year membership to the Chinati Foundation.
Jones-Dilworth said his final consideration for Marfa was that he “wanted to have it somewhere completely unique and extraordinary where attendees would have some kind of spiritual, inspiring experience. If you have it in Austin, it’s not the same. It’s easier to get people there, but once you’re here, you’re here. It’s a real commitment to come here. If you’re trying to build a community, then you have a very different context, letting your guard down and making friends.”
Penrose Far West is not a secret, as many Marfans have heard rumors about it, but Jones-Dilworth said they deliberately did not seek any publicity and will operate their discussions along the lines of the Chatham House Rules, which aim to create an environment reliable and means that attendees can share information without revealing where it came from. No video or audio recording will be made.
“It’s like, get real, get off your talking points, let your guard down,” he said. “This is a safe space. And there are some things we need to talk about that will benefit from honesty and saying spicy things if necessary. There is a lot of behavior in science, and people are really cautious for understandable reasons. And science is becoming increasingly politicized, and funding is becoming politicized… Let’s talk about energy solutions. Let’s talk about solutions in education. Let’s talk about solutions in storytelling and media.”
Penrose’s own materials acknowledge that the $4,995 participation fee ($1,195 for nonprofits) is expensive. It includes all meals but not travel or hotel expenses, but Penrose goes to great lengths on its website to encourage people who can’t afford registration to contact the organization to see how they can participate. Jones-Dilworth said several Marfa ISD science teachers and professors from Sul Ross State University were invited to attend for free.
He said he hopes the rally will give at least a small boost to the Marfa economy, and his team called the stores and restaurants listed in their materials and encouraged them to be open Wednesday and Thursday.
Jones-Dilworth said his future vision for the gatherings would be to form a group of people who continue to collaborate. “If Penrose is lucky enough to be successful, it will be a consultancy, a magazine and a conference, which I think makes a really nice combination and puts us in the right place to manage that community,” he said.